Moorhouses Brewery Information

Founded by William Moorhouse in 1865 as a small mineral water business, Moorhouse’s Brewery is now one of the largest dedicated cask ale brewers in the north of England, producing excellent quality cask ales. When William Moorhouse established the drinks-manufacturing site not far from the present production site at Accrington Road in Burnley, he produced mineral waters and hop bitters. The company started to produce real ale for the first time in 1978 after the last surviving member of the Moorhouse family sold the business. During the course of the next years the brewery changed hands several times, with each successive owner failing to make the venture profitable. When the business was about to close down in the eighties, for the last time, the local businessman Bill Parkinson had enjoyed a pint of Pendle Witches Brew over a business lunch. On being told by the barman of the company’s imminent closure, he bought the company within one week. Since then the company experienced a steady growth and has heavily invested in its own estate. By 2009 the brewery had reached full production capacity and an ambitious expansion programme was started. Work was recently completed on the first phase of the £4.2m new brewery complex allowing the brewery to treble production capacity to around 1.000 barrels a week.