Established as the Matthews Brewing Co in 2005 by Stuart Matthews and Sue Appleby in a farm workshop estate in the village of Timsbury, a few miles outside Bath. Using the best ingredients such as Maris Otter malt from Warminster Maltings, this small 5 barrel brewery soon became known for its distinctive, uncompromising ales. Dawkins Taverns was founded in 2002 by Glen Dawkins with the lease of The Miner's Arms in St Werburghs, Bristol. A real ale devotee, his first task was to rip out all the smoothflow' beers and boost the range of cask handpumps. Four more pubs followed, all strongly focussed on real ales and good times! Dawkins Ales acquired Matthews in January 2010. Our pub The Hillgrove was one of Matthews first customers, so when Stuart and Sue decided to sell up it seemed a perfect fit; especially as they were already brewing exclusive beers for us. Dawkins ales are available in great freehouses in the area and all our five award-winning pubs, which continue to stock scores of guest beers from fellow microbrewers too. Our new Head Brewer Dave Williams started December 2012,. In April 2014 our Bristol Blonde won category Gold in the region's biggest beer contest, and overall Bronze out of over 250 entries! It won again the following year shortly after winning a National Bronze. Our bottled Foresters Black and bottled Ultra also picked up gongs that year.