RogerBW's Blog

There used to be twenty breweries in High Wycombe proper. Not any more. But there are a few good ones not too far away.

All of these breweries offer some form of local delivery via their own people rather than a courier (though maybe only a few days a week), and most of them do containers of draught beer as well as bottles and cans. They're all normally available for pick-up by car, though check opening hours and so on.

I haven't found out what happened to Fisher's, who were actually in High Wycombe on a trading estate, but I assume they ran out of money and folded. Shame.

Closest to me is Rebellion. The last time I was here they were pretending to be a local farm shop (the sort that has jars of honey and pickles and so on, which can be shipped in from anywhere, rather than stuff actually made on a vaguely local farm) for the people of Marlow (many of whom are rich and silly enough to fall for it) with incidental beer sales, but the beer's still all right. Somehow I find them uninspiring, though; they've clearly decided to go for growth, and they're succeeding at it, but that means they have to have mass-market appeal at the cost of distinctiveness.

Next is the fairly new Malt the Brewery, established in 2012. Since 2020 they've been doing craft beers, but they're still making ales for now. Individual bottles aren't available for on-line ordering, just boxes of 12 with some options for mixing. They have coded lockers for non-contact pickup. (Oddly, the bar-code reader hardware needs an actual printed code; I'd have thought most people using this would have the code on their phones, as I did.)

Chiltern Valley Winery and Brewery are in the middle of nowhere (I had to use single-track roads – though they do have an airstrip, at least when they mow it) and last time I was there they had no clue about isolation. Maybe they've got better now. Old Luxters is the beer brand, and I particularly recommend their Dark Roast and Barn Ale, though they clearly regard the wine as more important.

Chiltern Brewery also make a big thing of their farm shop, but their beer is very fine. The Cream Porter is particularly interesting, a porter that's not trying to be a thick stout but still carries plenty of flavour.

Binghams Brewery are on an industrial estate near Reading, backing onto the main line; at the moment they're closed to the public and only delivering within ten miles, which I'm just outside. Bah. This is the only one I've been to that doesn't have a farm shop.

Tring Brewery are starting to get a bit further than my usual local bimblings. I particularly like their Side Pocket for a Toad.

Loddon Brewery mostly sell to pubs; I haven't tried their bottled beers. I've never been here sober; the local pub used to organise brewery tour trips (which had the options of "go on the actual brewery tour" and "start drinking now")…

I haven't tried XT Brewing near Thame yet, but they come highly recommended.

And there may be others I haven't found yet…