Peak Ales have been brewing craft beers at Chatsworth since 2005. Their range includes 'Chatsworth Gold', which is made using estate honey, and 'Gardener's Tap' ale, which they make to our original recipe. They also produce our award-winning Chatsworth gins, which are infused with botanicals from the estate.
A family-run brewery
In 2003 Robert and Debra Evans had a carefully laid plan – sell the house, uproot their family, leave secure jobs and set up a microbrewery in the Peak District – simple, right?
After two years, and many hurdles including planning permission, renovation and resident barn owls, they brewed their first beer in Cunnery Barn on the Chatsworth Estate and the owls had new accommodation at the barn.
15 years after Rob's initial leap into brewing, Peak Ales is a ten-strong team with two breweries and a visitor centre.
Award-winning ales
Peak Ales pride themselves in brewing national award-winning cask and bottled beers using only the highest-quality ingredients with a core range of beers alongside seasonal specials and new, experimental brews.
Try the entire Peak Ales range and enjoy six bottles for the price of five at the shop.
The core range includes:
- Swift Nick, a session bitter
- Bakewell Best Bitter, an amber bitter
- IPA, an India pale ale
- And, of course, Chatsworth Gold, a golden beer using Chatsworth Estate honey
Seasonal specials include:
- Summer Sovereign a blonde beer
- Paxton, a ruby red
- Great Ridge, a pale ale
- Noggin Filler, a dark ale
Chatsworth Gin
In 2019 Peak Ales launched the first Chatsworth Gin. This small batch artisan spirit uses select botanicals sourced from the grounds and greenhouses of the Chatsworth Estate, resulting in a classic London dry gin whose ingredients include Chatsworth Estate lemon verbena, lemongrass and lemons. What makes this gin extra special is the inclusion of banana leaf from the Cavendish bananas; the herbal quality of these balance the citrus notes perfectly.
The Cavendish banana was brought to Chatsworth in 1820 by the 6th Duke of Devonshire’s head gardener, Joseph Paxton. Paxton named the banana plant “Musa Cavenishii “after his employer, William George Spencer Cavendish. Specimens of this plant were cultivated in the Canary Islands and South Seas, and they were also later introduced to South and Central America after Panama disease devastated existing plantations of the ‘Gros Michel’ banana. Today all export bananas and almost half of all bananas grown worldwide are from the dwarf Cavendish cultivar.
Chatsworth Gin is available in the estate farm shop, house gift shops, and online.
