plc over 1 000 shareholders industry alcoholic beverage founded 1992 founder paul theakston headquarters masham north yorkshire england products beer production output 70 000 barrels website www.blacksheepbrewery.co.uk a group of visitors observes fermentation vats whilst on an official tour of the brewery facilities a brewery guide distributes a sample of monty python s holy grail ale the black sheep brewery is a brewery in masham in the borough of harrogate in north yorkshire england . contents 1 history 2 cask beers 3 bottled beers 4 references 5 external links history edit the black sheep brewery was established by paul theakston in 1991 . following a successful launch as a business expansion scheme it became a public limited company plc in 1992 . paul theakston had been managing director of theakstons brewery also in masham since 1968 . he began at the age of 23 taking over from his father frank theakston . theakstons brewery was bought by matthew brown following disagreements between members of the family and other shareholders and in 1987 matthew brown was in turn taken over by scottish and newcastle . paul theakston left in 1988 and after a hiatus of more than a year purchased the north yorkshire malt roasting company originally part of the former lightfoot s brewery site from an animal feed company in order to start a new brewery in masham . theakston wanted to use the lightfoot name to bring back an old brewing tradition ; however it was discovered that this name had already been trademarked by scottish and newcastle . the associations of masham with sheep led theakston to come up with the name sheep brewery which rapidly became black sheep at his wife s suggestion.the first and original black sheep best bitter was sold at the bruce arms by its landlord david young . the brewery produces a range of well hopped bitters to distinguish itself from theakston s range of fruity and yeasty beers . the brewery quickly became successful after formation and now produces over 75 000 barrels a year . the brewery has capitalised on its popularity by converting unused parts of the original maltings into a visitors centre to promote visits to the brewery itself . the brewery re launched their emmerdale ale as a lower alcohol beer formerly 5 % on 27 january 2006 at the crown in manfield for the campaign for real ale camra . the launch party saw chris chittell eric pollard from the emmerdale tv series pull the first pint of the new brew . emmerdale ale is no longer brewed . the night also marked the rebranding of black sheep s special ale in cask form as black sheep ale the name that it has been sold as in bottles since 1992 bringing both into line . 1 in 2008 the brewery launched draught golden sheep a blonde cask beer with a refreshing citrus hop flavour . it remains a seasonal brew . this like all black sheep beers and indeed the brewing plant itself was created by paul ambler head brewer since 1992 and later operations director . paul ambler has now retired . comments paul theakston over the years paul ambler has been a fierce champion of the quality of our beer which is the keystone of our success . all bottled beers brewed by the black sheep brewery are suitable for both vegetarians and vegans . 2 cask beers edit black sheep ale formerly special ale 4.4 % best bitter 3.8 % . the brewery s best known product available at a large number of pubs in the uk . 3 riggwelter 5.9 % golden sheep 3.9 % according to the website ... riggwelter takes its name from the local yorkshire dales dialect when a sheep is on its back and can t get up without help local dialect says it is riggwelted . 4 this dialect word comes from the old viking words rigg rygg meaning back and velte to overturn the words and their meaning are still largely the same in the modern north germanic languages . 5 riggwelter is also popular in sweden being in the top 20 of bottled ales sold in that country . 6 bottled beers edit black sheep ale formerly special ale in cask form 4.4 % monty python s holy grail ale 4.7 % the official ale of the monty python franchise riggwelter 5.7 % golden sheep 4.7 % originally produced specially for tesco as part of their finest range yorkshire square ale 5.0 % named after a particular fermentation system originated over 200 years ago using double decked vessels called squares made of slate or stone . the brewery stopped using the slate squares 10 years ago and replaced them with modern stainless steel round equivalents . the label s distinctive square sheep icon and sunset background was designed by middlesbrough born artist mackenzie thorpe . imperial russian 8.5 % special brew porter . all creatures bright and beautiful 4.0 % brewed in celebration of the famous veterinary character james herriot . references edit re launch story morning advertiser retrieved on 2007 07 23 http www.blacksheepbrewery.com news newsdetail.aspx referrer newspage & id 139 . www.blacksheepbrewery.co.uk riggwelter eurobrews.com retrieved on 2007 07 23 riggwelter black sheep breweries retrieved on 2007 07 23 riggwelter exports to sweden the northern echo 2004 12 08 . retrieved on 2007 07 23 . external links edit official website of black sheep brewery paul theakston is brewing again in masham article by michael jackson retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title black sheep brewery & oldid 742042082 categories beer in englandbreweries in yorkshireyorkshire cuisinebritish brandscompanies based in north yorkshirebritish companies established in 1992food and drink companies established in 1992hidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschsvenska edit links this page was last modified on 1 october 2016 at 09 14 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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