Two Cocks Brewery put up for sale

Award-winning brewer makes "difficult" decision to put business on the market

TWO Cocks Brewery – one of West Berkshire’s most popular brewers – has been put up for sale.

The award-winning microbrewery, based at Christmas Farm, Enborne, is being marketed by Strutt and Parker for a guide price of £2.45m and the sale includes its newly-built farmhouse, which featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs, and 40 acres of land.

The current owners, Michael Butcher and Phil Palmer, said that family reasons were behind the decision.

Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News this week, Mr Butcher said: “We are hoping someone will come in and continue what we started.

“The brewery is in good shape and would be ideal for someone planning for something like we were seven years ago.

“What we have achieved here is beyond our wildest dreams. We have been really happy here.

“Seven years ago we had no idea we would be running a successful brewery and winning awards.

“We have to pinch ourselves sometimes. We have been very lucky and we’ve got no regrets whatsoever. Change is never straightforward.

“We will no doubt look for another challenge and I dare say we will do something else.

“We are moving on and want to move near the coast. I do hope the brewery will keep going.

“I will be drinking Two Cocks beer wherever we end up.”

Mr Butcher and Mr Farmer swapped their fast-paced London media jobs for the idyllic West Berkshire countryside in 2009 and started the brewery in October 2011, after finding hops in the hedgerows at Christmas Farm.

The farm is on the site of a civil war roundhead encampment from the First Battle of Newbury, which took place on September 20, 1643, and this has been the inspiration behind the names of its beers.

The couple expanded their business and now have a range of livestock, including Dexter cattle, Berkshire pigs, a flock of Wiltshire horn sheep, rare west of England geese and chickens.

The brewery, which draws water from its own borehole, won nine awards in its first two years of opening and subsequently many more regional and national accolades.

In 2012, Mr Butcher and Mr Farmer chose to replace the chalet-style property in Church Lane with a farmhouse fit for the 21st century.

The progress of the project was filmed by Grand Designs and the end result was broadcast in an hour-long programme.

The farmhouse features the largest domestic sliding door ever made in Britain, consisting of a single piece of glass, weighing over a tonne.

The property was designed by East Ilsley-based architect TAATE and built by Greenham Construction.