"It’s been a privilege": Managing director of well-known Northampton brewery retires after 17 years

Alaric Neville has stepped down as managing director of Phipps Brewery after 17 years leading the revival of one of Northampton’s most historic brewing names.

Alaric, 64, handed over the reins earlier this summer to his cousin Johnny but has now officially retired.

“I’m 64, he’s 40, and it’s a good time for him to crack on and do something,” he said. “I’ve passed it on to him, and with the one proviso that they don’t mess with the IPA, it’s his to play with.”

Alaric helped bring Phipps back to life after it had vanished from the town for decades.

“Yeah, it was great. It was all exciting,” he said. “We didn’t really know whether we were doing it as a bit of fun to make my dad and my various uncles happy. Because they all got excited when we told them that the IPA was coming back.

“So we thought we’d just do it and it would last for a little bit, or it wouldn’t. And it was the McManus pub chain that helped us launch it and gave us the initial push to do it. All praise to Paul McManus. He kept saying, when are you going to do it? If you do it, I’ll put it in my pubs. When are you going to do it? So we did it.

“And then it just took off. We thought maybe we’d do one or two brews, but here we are, whatever it is, 17 years later. It’s a fully fledged proper brewery, employing people and brewing beer.”

At first, the beer was brewed under contract at the Grainstore in Oakham.

“That was for four or five years, we could sell every barrel of Phipps that Grainstore brewed for us,” he said. “So the expansion of the company was capped. At one point we were about half their brewing and they were at capacity. So obviously, well, I’m not a natural businessman, but obviously you kind of go, well, we pretty much ought to try and get our own brewery.”

They first looked at Towcester Mill but things changed when they spotted a sign outside a building near the town centre.

Alaric said: “The Albion Brewery came on the market and we spotted it. Literally, we saw the sign going up after we’d been delivering to the Malt Shovel. And the Albion Brewery, I knew, was the last surviving bit of the old brewery in Northampton.

“And I wandered in just out of curiosity, really. And as I walked around it, I just thought, well, this place just oozes history.

“We looked at the plans that were going on in Northampton at that time, which was the enterprise zone, the university moving in, Four Waterside, all those lovely artist sketches. And we looked at the building and we changed tack and slotted into place there.

“Because it was a much bigger project and the building was in a much worse condition than the Towcester Watermill.

“We obviously knew we were going to need to raise serious money, so we did a share flotation. The Phipps family came back in at that point and the Ratliff family put some money in and various angel investors, mainly in Northampton, bought shares. We sold half the company to raise the money to do the building up and put the kit in, which is what we did in early 2014.”

Alaric said recreating the original IPA was one of the things he was proudest of.

He said: “That’s the beer that brought everyone back together again. I remember when we put it back on the bar and you could see people from Northampton taste it and just go, ‘That’s the taste.’ It unlocked a memory for people. Suddenly all these old boys from Northampton started coming in and telling stories. People who used to work for the company came back. There was a moment where it felt like we’d re-lit the fire.”

He tracked down recipes and stories with help from CAMRA, the Watney Pensioners Association, and the Chronicle & Echo.

“Everyone and their dog got in touch with me and wanted to meet me. I spent a lot of time in pubs and working men’s clubs in Northampton, meeting people who would tell me tales that went on in Phipps, which was fabulous.”

One of the most important contacts was retired brewer Pat Heron.

He said: “When some herbert turned up going, hey, can you help us revive Phipps IPA, instead of going ‘bugger off,’ he said, ‘yeah, come in. What are you doing? What do you know?’ He’s the guy that gave us the recipe for Ratliff Stout, Red Star, Stingo, IPA and Gold Star.”

Reflecting on his time in the industry, Alaric said: “It’s hard bloody work. I realised I hadn’t really worked a day in my life until I started Phipps. I’d been an archaeologist, then I was a musician, then I was a sound engineer. And that was all rather exotic and fun. And running a brewery is actually pretty tough.

“The research was exciting and the glorious bits of tasting the beer and all of that fun and going to the beer festival. But of course it was doing your tax returns and making sure you got health and safety sorted and employing staff and getting rid of staff and hiring staff and all of that nonsense. That’s the bit I won’t miss.”

Looking back, he said: “We’ve had some lovely times there, but it hasn’t, you know... Northampton is always waiting for the future. Sadly, I won’t be managing a brewery and bar in the town when that does happen, but I wish it with all my heart to happen.

“We haven’t seen to have lift-off, but we’ve been there playing our little part. We saved one building along with the owners, the Teesdales, and we’re there brewing our beer with a lovely little building, employing people, and we’re waiting. We’re waiting for everything else to fall into place.

“So it’s been a great time. We’ve had some lovely times there. I think we’ve made something that Northampton can be proud of again. And we’ve given a future to a brewery name that could’ve just disappeared forever. It’s been a privilege to be part of that.”