Hawkstone Brewery, formerly known as Cotswolds Brewing Company, is a

microbrewery Craft beer is beer manufactured by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer than larger "macro" breweries and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, ne ...

Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Aside from beer, they also produce

cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the Fermented drink, fermented Apple juice, juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and Ireland. The United Kingdom has the world's highest ...

vodka Vodka ( ; is a clear distilled beverage, distilled alcoholic beverage. Its varieties originated in Poland and Russia. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impurities and flavourings. Traditionally, it is ...

and

gin Gin () is a distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper berries and other botanical ingredients. Gin originated as a medicinal liquor made by monks and alchemists across Europe. The modern gin was modified in Flanders and the Netherlands ...

History

Cotswolds Brewing Co. was founded in 2005 by Emma and Rick Keene. The couple started the brewery to focus on

lager Lager (; ) is a Type of beer, style of beer brewed and Brewing#Conditioning, conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be Pale lager, pale, Amber lager, amber, or Dark lager, dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially availab ...

versus ale beer. The first beer they released was a German-style lager called Cotswold Premium. It has been named of the "10 of the Best Breweries in the Cotswolds" by ''The Cotswolds Gentleman''. In 2021, the brewery began to collaborate with

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English television presenter, journalist, farmer, and author who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for hosting the television programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), T ...

to produce Hawkstone Lager and later the brewery was rebranded to Hawkstone. Clarkson bought a stake in the brewery from Emma Keane. In 2024, Hawkstone Brewery was named by

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

as being one of the top 100 fastest growing British companies.

Brewery

The brewery is located on a farm in the

Bourton-on-the-Water Bourton-on-the-Water is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, that lies on a wide flat vale within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village had a population of 3,296 at the 2011 census. Much of the village ...

area in The Cotswolds. They offer two hour tours during the summer, which includes a tasting of the beers they produce. The brewery building is made of

Cotswold stone The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...

Production

Liquor

Hawkstone Brewery produces gin. For legal reasons, they distil their gin at Thames Distillers Ltd. in London. The gin is made with hawthorn berries,

verbena ''Verbena'' (), also known as vervain or verveine, is a genus in the family Verbenaceae. It contains about 150 species of annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-woody flowering plants. The majority of the species are native to the Americas ...

, and lime.

Recalls

In 2023, the Hawkstone Brewery recalled a batch of Hawkstone Cider due to overfermentation, leading to them having the potential to spontaneously explode. In 2025, cans of their Hawkstone Spa Lager and Hawkstone Black were recalled because the containers failed to mention that they contained gluten.

References

External links

*{{official, https://hawkstone.com/
"Lager is having a Renaissance thanks to a new generation of talented craft brewers"
from ''The Independent'' Cotswolds Breweries in England 2005 establishments in England Companies based in Cheltenham