After 28 years the Coniston Brewery is still going strong at the back of the unspoilt historic Black Bull Hotel at the centre of the village Suggest pop your head into the brewery which is run by Ian Bradley as the staff are friendly and informative. On a visit there this week the aroma of brewing was amazing I had the best pint of Coniston Bluebird ever in their traditional public bar This is the only brewery in Cumbria that produces bottle conditioned ales for sale in supermarkets. In fact, the only two BCAs on sale in Booths of Keswick are Coniston Bluebird and Coniston Old Man, surrounded by a sea of processed bottled beers with fancy labels.

For the benefit of those readers who are unfamiliar with bottle conditioned beers, they are quite simply REAL ALE IN A BOTTLE ie BOTTLE FERMENTED BEER - with no extraneous carbonation and live yeast still active in the beer.

One of the best ever bottle conditioned beers was Guinness, but owner Diageo ditched it in favour of an inferior processed version. Bottle Conditioned beers are much fuller in flavour than dead, filtered, carbonated bottled beers - but fancy labels presumably sell these thinner beers.

In July 2023 Coniston Bluebird was £4.80 a pint in the Black Bull bar. Note : CASH NOT ACCEPTED, CARD PAYMENT ONLY

Coin of the Realm not accepted despite King Charles III due to get his head on all of our new currency and at vast public expense ! But lack of a bank in Coniston is no doubt the reason for this, as they are doing a great job in this hotel/brewery

Not that many years ago in the grand scheme of things most small towns had a privately owned bank or two