Heritage, history and great beer all part of what makes Smethwick brewer much loved brand

In the wake of the news of the planned closure of Banks's Brewery in Wolverhampton, the Express & Star wants to support our local breweries and show that there are still many out there producing quality beers to be enjoyed in pubs from Aldridge down to Smethwick.

As part of our Backing Our Breweries campaign, we are going to look at what different breweries do, how they grew and built up their reputation, what their products are, how they continue to run in what are difficult financial times and what makes them special.

Davenports Brewery is one of the oldest in the region and has enjoyed a colourful and rich history, putting traditional flavours and beers at the heart of its business, but also with an eye to the future.

It was established in 1829 by Robert Davenport in Hockley in Birmingham, with his son Robert moving the brewery to Bath Row in 1852 and, from there, the business began to expand and build.

In 1867, John Davenport and Sons was registered at that address as "Maltsters, Hop Merchants, and makers of Pale and Brown Malt for brewing bitter ales and porter", while Baron John Davenport began the Beer at Home service in 1904 which registered to supply ‘pure bottled ale and stout at the cheapest possible price’.

It quickly reached delivery to 15,000 homes, but in 1905, Davenports was accused of ‘Beer Hawking’, selling beer by retail at a place where they were not authorised (beer at home), which was viewed as a hugely important prosecution, fought and won by the very theatrical barrister, Mr Marshall-Hall K.C, on behalf of Davenports in the Victoria Law Courts.

Davenports had paved the way for other brewers to follow a similar scheme and continued to lead the way in the industry throughout the 20th century, including using pioneering technology around recycling bottles that were returned by customers, scrupulously cleaned and chilled for reuse in two automatic bottle washing machines at the rate of 12,000 per hour.

Over the years, the brewery has changed homes, been taken over and closed and then come back to life under the stewardship of Baron Wayne Davenport and set up its existing brewery on New Street in Smethwick, as well as becoming a market leader for a very successful chain of award-winning pubs, with several ‘Best Pub’ and ‘Foodie’ awards to boast of.

Associate Sales Director Cen Hayward said the brewery had always had a great relationship with the people of the Black Country and brewed its beers to suit that relationship.

He said: "We've always used our relationship with the West Midlands to shape what we do, such as when we going to start to do some craft beers, we were going to use local names like "Yam pi" and "The Bus" which, to me being from South Wales, seems alien, but makes a lot of sense to the people around here.

"I was familiar with Davenports from where I live as it was down there and the beers had reached South Wales and the top end of the West Country, but it's very clear that it's a really popular retail brand in the West Midlands.

"As far as the brewery is concerned, what we've tried to do is use the heritage and values that the brands have got to reinforce the retail part and we realise that people like what they like in this region and when they walk into a Davenports pub, they expect to see a traditional beer on the handpulls."

In terms of the beer produced, Brewer Myles Hennelly said that while there might be minor alterations to the beer as crops changed over times, the plan has always been to keep as close to the original beers as possible.

He said: "We try to keep our recipes as traditional as humanly possible and we've got heritage brands such as mild, while is very much a stable of the Black Country, and I'm very much a fan of the mild-style beers.

"The beer which is probably our truest to form would be the original bitter because bitters have changed less that dark beers as the dark malts have had to come in different varieties these days than they would back then, but the base malt that you get in a pale ale is more similar now.

"Davenports is the sort of beer I'd want to drink and the first Davenports beers I had was the gold ale and the second was the original bitter and I absolutely loved them and I think the focus is on craftmanship and not trying to make a wide array of products."

There are current five varieties of beer on sale online in bottle form and available at Davenports pubs, which are Davenports Original, Davenports IPA, Davenports Gold and Davenports Mild.

Mr Hayward said the brewery prided itself on its heritage beers, including the labels and bottles, but also had an eye towards the future.

He said: "70 per cent of the beer market is lager, so you can't just stick to heritage beers, even if they were around a lot longer beforehand, so we've had to do things to keep up with the market.

"That's included making a recipe for a Bridge ale which didn't exist five years ago, but which we have as we need to evolve a bit in certain things to attract younger and new drinkers.

"That's what allows us to recruit people from the lager stable and turn them onto craft beer and cask beer."

Both Cen Hayward and Myles Hennelly are both very passionate about Davenports and the brand and both spoke about what the brewery meant to them.

Mr Hayward said: "It's the heritage for me as there aren't many 195-year-old breweries and family brands around, so it carries a lot of that heritage and you want to carry that name on.

"I suppose it's like a footballer who wants to leave the shirt in a better place, that's how I look at it and we need to be ready for the future and we've done things like digitising our brewery.

"It's like coming from the past and being a dinosaur, then quickly changing into a Jaguar."

Mr Hennelly said: "I'd never had any foray into brewing before Davenports and I signed up as an apprentice, but I feel like it wouldn't be too dissimilar to being a child and going to Cadbury World as this is a lovely place.

"It was really interesting to see the background and study all the brewers and there's a different type of prestige that you get from working here.

"It's a place which places quality over quantity and I think it's an absolutely phenomenal place to work which reeled me in and made me want to stay."

Davenports Most popular beers:

Top Brew DeLuxe 7.2%

A strong, light Amber, English style pale ale. full tasting, malty and warming.

Original Bitter 4.2%

Bright, Copper coloured English premium ale with a lovely balance between malt and fruity bitterness which gives this ale high drinkability.