History Ossett Brewery; How it all began The story of the Ossett Brewery starts with our Chairman and founder Bob Lawson. A brewer for almost 50 years, Bob began his career working for Beverley Bros. Brewery in Wakefield, from there he moved on to Matthew Brown's in Blackburn and then in 1969 on to Joshua Tetley & Son in Leeds. Bob stayed at Joshua Tetley for the next 25 years, gaining experience in a variety of brewing roles. After leaving Joshua Tetley his next role was at Kelham Island Brewery in Sheffield, one of the first independent microbreweries that pushed the growth of real ale. After all this time spent brewing beer for other people, Bob and a partner decided to start their own real ale revolution and in 1997 built a small micro brewery at the back of the Brewers Pride public house in Ossett. The first beer aptly named Bobby Dazzler' was brewed in August 1998 and was an instant success. Brewing was carried out on a 5-barrel brew length plant (about 1,440 pints per brew) and for several months all of the beer produced was sold through the Brewers Pride pub. We never thought it would take off as quickly as it did, but very soon there was a demand to brew more and more. Many other pubs in the area wanted supplies and our range of beers began to grow as sales increased' Bob Lawson As the beers were sold further afield, Ossett Brewery began to win awards at festivals up and down the country with Silver King proving to be our flagship beer. As the reputation of the business grew so did its customer base. Within three years further expansion took place raising its brewing capacity to 40 barrels per week. The brewery was given a further boost when Excelsior was voted National Champion Beer of Britain at the prestigious Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) Beer Awards in 2003.