A WARRINGTON brewer has returned to the town after three years in Runcorn.

John Wilkinson has relocated 4Ts brewery to Manor Industrial Estate in Latchford after starting the business from his garage at his Rydal Avenue home in April 2010.

The 48-year-old said: "We always wanted to come back into Warrington to brew. It was about finding the right premises and we just fell upon this.

"The important thing was the water. To have the water consistency to what we brew to, it had to be the north side of the Mersey.

"This is the same water as I used in my house when I started in 2010 and you wouldn’t notice the difference between this and the water in Runcorn."

John and head brewer Jordan Millington's transformation of the new 2,800sq ft brewery began in September.

And the first beers – APA, IPA 2 and the aptly-named The Boys Are Back – have gone out to John's pub The Tavern in Church Street as well as The Albion, Nine Gallon and The Firkin in Newton this week.

Further afield, beer has been delivered to Hops in Crewe, a former CAMRA champion pub of Cheshire, pubs in Lancaster and Birmingham and 1,800 bottles will go out nationally each month.

John, who used to be a drayman at the former Walker's brewery, added: "We’re just finding our feet again now. All this lot was in my house and bit by bit we’ve moved."

4Ts' two-man team also want to make the brewery more community-focused and so there will be a small bar for monthly events and open days starting next year.

Jordan, of Festival Crescent, Orford, said: "We'll be teaching home brewers how to go from using beer kits to what we do here.

"They can pick my brains and ask what's going on. We learn from other brewers as well. I've learnt a lot from Neil Chantrell, master brewer at Coach House."

John and Jordan, who have come up with around 600 beer recipes since launching 4Ts, have also offered a helping hand to The Lower Angel with their new base.

The Buttermarket Street pub's microbrewery, The Tipsy Angel, is being revived there.

Jordan, 23, said: "The good thing about the job is that everyone is friendly. Dunham Massey Brewery will ring us up and we’ll swap hop varieties."

John added: "We’re in the Cheshire Co-operative so all the Cheshire brewers will share information."

The pair are looking into the possibility of increasing production when things have settled with the idea of introducing craft beer and a lager.

Jordan, whose favourite of his brews is the APA, said: "It’s like a hobby in a way and I have free rein with what I can do. It’s fun. It’s not like coming into work."

DAVID MORGAN