It all started when…
Otter Brewery was established in October 1990 by myself and David. The brewery is located in the Blackdown Hills, between Honiton and Taunton, and David had previously brewed at Whitbreads for 17 years. My family had been brewers for a number of generations with Father finishing his career as the Managing Director for Whitbreads in the South West, South Wales and Pennine regions. We met at a brewery dinner/dance in 1963 and the rest as they say is history.
After relocating to Devon our original objective was to run a small, sustainable micro-brewery, supplying a few local real ale houses with a top quality, cask conditioned beer. Demand led to growth and now, 33 years later, our state-of-the-art 80 barrel brewhouse is producing some of the most popular beers in the West Country. Dodging retirement somewhat, we have both taken a sideways step into making gin and sharing our beautiful corner of Devon with like-minded and adventurous travellers.
SAVING DEVON’S TREESCAPEs
Continuing the green ethos that David and I founded the business upon, the brewery is proud to be working with Devon Wildlife Trust in a project to help restore Devon’s treescapes and combat the devastating effects of Ash Dieback which is projected to wipe out 90% of Devon’s ash trees in the coming years. For every barrel of beer we sell, we will plant a tree - the first 500 saplings were planted here at the brewery in April 2021 with ambitious plans in place to work with local schools, community groups and local businesses to help communicate this message and plant as many new trees as we can over the next 5 years.
