Known Open Days and Events

Tuesday, 24 December - Happy Christmas Eve  - 14:00 until 20:00

Sunday, 05 January - Plough Blessing - 12:00 until 19:00 - Plough Sunday

Sunday, 23 February - Open Day - 12:00 until 19:00 - Welcome to 2025

The Brewery

The Cat Asylum operates from Brook House, which was once a successful plough workshop, and parts of ploughs and repaired agricultural equipment lie around, pretty much undisturbed as they have been since Walter Bealby ceased trading in the 1930s.  Since then, the buildings have been used as a part-time farm and full-time cat sanctuary.

Henry, the driving force behind the brewery, is the seventh generation of Bealby that has lived and worked in the family’s buildings at the edge of the village.

If it’s not interesting, we don’t brew it. First and foremost, we have our traditional beers, which offer a unique trip into the past.

A great friend of Henry's, the world-famous beer writer, historian and cat hater Ron Patterson, has supported the brewery's development from its beginning.  His well-documented enthusiasm for forgotten beer styles first inspired the range of the historical beers we brew, many of them local to Newark.  You can find a link to his beer blog, complete with his rediscovered recipes, elsewhere on this site.

Historical beers brewed with historical yeasts are just part of what we do.  As a bunch of beer enthusiasts,  we also brew a range of modern beers that explore the full range of vibrant flavours coming out of America and New Zealand. In contrast, our saison range is infused with whole seasonal fruit, often locally foraged, which helps to produce stronger beer of a wine like complexity.