​The business was founded by Peter Amor, who learned his trade at Guinness and Bulmers before starting his own brewery at the Nag’s Head in Canon Pyon in 1985, relocating to the Barrels in Hereford two years later. A family affair, his son, Vernon, would join the business in 1997, after studying in the capital at Young’s Brewery. When the business outgrew that, he moved brewing to the former Symonds Cider site at Stoke Lacey. The opening in May 2002 proved a “double celebration” for the company, which not only cut the ribbon on their new site, but received a prestigious Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) award for the Champion Winter Beers of Britain. The brewery has been the recipient of many an award for its ales over the years, including for its “little friend”, Butty Bach, which proved a “real winner for the brewery”. Speaking of the recent move in 2002, Mr Amor said that the major expansion would allow the brewery to produce even better beers in the future, and hoped to expand tourist interest at the new site. “I would like to have an independent brewery where people make a living from being there,” Mr Amor said. “I have seen so many changes in the brewery, and I just want to go back to the real old values where it was part of the community.” In 1995, beer drinkers raised a glass to “Bromyard’s Rosie”, after the brewery acquired the popular Rose and Lion in New Street. The sale had been completed in the New Year, and Mr Amor said buying at the pub at one of the busiest times of the year was a “crazy thing to do”, but he was pleased to have the freehold rights of the building. Read more: At the time, The Rosie became the third pub in the brewery’s collection, which has now over doubled, with five in Herefordshire, one in Malvern, and one in Gloucestershire. Stay updated with all the latest Herefordshire news that matters to you! Read the local news and stay informed with our advert-free app, read the paper before anyone else via: The Digital Edition, gain unlimited access to Hereford Times website, and much more. The brewery has been in charge of its flagship pub, The Barrels, since the 1980s, but only became an official part of its property portfolio in 2025, when it bought the freehold to the historic pub, which sits on part of the old city wall. Although the pub’s beer festival had been a long-standing tradition, having been started just two years after their move to The Lamb, the 2025 festival also served as an ‘Independence Day’ for the brewery. The brewery was once based out of a small stable block behind the pub, which was previously named The Lamb Inn. The building was renamed as part of a wider campaign to market the pub as Hereford’s first ‘brew pub’.