Bottle Conditioned Beer

The vast majority of beers currently available are filtered, pasteurised, sterile liquids. The life is literally taken out of them of them before they reach you the consumer.

Robson’s Real Ale in a bottle is unpasteurised and is not artificially carbonated. It is a natural live product which contains yeast for a slow secondary fermentation in the bottle. This process provides wonderful fresh flavours and a pleasant, natural effervescence which is similar to that of champagne.

The technique that we use to produce our bottle-conditioned beers is identical to the methode champagnoise with the difference that we leave the yeast in the bottle where it settles as a sediment, unless it is a wheat or fruit beer where the yeast stays partly in suspension.

Our bottle-conditioned beers can be served either hazy or decanted off the yeast according to your preference. The beers are complex with the yeast continuing to work in the bottle, slowly adding layers of flavour over time. In fact our beers can be stored in a cellar over an extended period where their unique character and flavour will develop into a beer of intense complexity.

If you are in any doubt about whether a beer is a real ale in a bottle, just hold it up to the light and see if it contains any sediment – the life-giving yeast which makes all the difference.

Reasons to buy real ale in a bottle:

It's a living product, which means lots of stimulating, fresh flavours.

It's not artificially carbonated; the pleasant effervescence is generated wholly by the yeast in the bottle.

Most of our bottled real ales are made from just four natural ingredients: malted barley, whole hops, water and yeast, there are no additives. Our fruit and wheat beers contain just that, fruit and wheat together with the four ingredients above.

We hand-craft our product and take extra care when producing real ale in a bottle.

It makes an excellent accompaniment to food and it's fascinating to try to match their flavours with various dishes.

Most importantly… It tastes great!