PUBLIC house owners Jon and Millie Coward have reopened a micro-brewery in Wiveliscombe to supply their growing estate of pubs in the Wellington and West Somerset area. 

The couple, from The Bear, in Noth Street, Wiveliscombe, have employed former Exmoor Ales head brewer Tom Davis to restart their popular Black Bear Brewery in the beer garden of the pub.

They also own The Martlet Inn, Langford Budville, The Royal Oak, Hillcommon, and the White Horse Inn, in Bradford on Tone.

The beers are made using Belgian wheat malt, Marris Otter barley, and a complex mix of glucose-rich and modified coloured malts.

Hops are sourced from the UK, Germany, and the USA to give Black Bear real ale its varied and distinctive bitterness, diverse flavouring, and interesting aromas.

Mr Davis, who lives in Tiverton, said: “I have known Jon for a while and he had spoken to me about wanting to do more with Black Bear, which has not done much since Covid.

“Given the amount of work he has been doing with expanding the pub group, he wanted to bring the brewery in to mesh more with the philosophy of those pubs.

“He wanted to bring me in to consult, but we realised that it would make more sense for me to join him and Millie full-time.”

“I have never brewed professionally at such a small level, but for me I love the challenge of that.

“I would like to bring Black Bear back to peoples’ attention and bring my expertise from Exmoor over to Black Bear and bring that consistency and quality.

“There are some beers that Jon’s done in the past that, by his own admission he would like to tweak and add some polish to, and that is why I am here.

“Black Bear Bitter will be coming back, and Goldihops, and we will have a couple of new ones.

“One is going to be a stronger bitter, and we are calling that at the moment Bearzerker, and the other one is a hoppy pale ale called Nanook, the Inuit word for ‘bear’.”

After seven years with Exmoor Brewery, Mr Davis was philosophical about the micro-brewery operation.

He said: “In a year or two we might like to move to larger premises.

“The best thing is for us to grow organically, but we are lucky enough to have this, here in the beer garden of The Bear.

“It is a direct connection with the customer, if they want to come in and have a chat that is great, and I am looking forward to coming out and talking to the people drinking the beer.

“We have got a village feel. I do not know whether the term ‘village brewery’ makes sense.

“But I am very optimistic about it.

“I love what Jon is trying to do with the estate, he and Millie are working hard to do things locally with food and obviously extend that out to beer, so it makes sense to have a local pub group that has a local beer.”