An award-winning Somerset ale has closed its brewery after more than 45 years and entered a partnership that will see its beers brewed instead in Surrey.

Exmoor Ales will now produce its beers at Hogs Back Brewery in Tongham, a move the Somerset company says will save jobs.

Exmoor managing director Jonathan Price said: “We have done our last brew and are putting it into casks over the next couple of days.”

The company has closed its brewing operation at Wiveliscombe, near Taunton, following a restructuring after years of battling the knock-on effects of the Covid, pandemic, inflation, and tax increases.

Mr Price said a decision was taken that working with the family-run Hogs Back Brewery, based between Farnham and Guildford, would best help to preserve the Exmoor brand and protect jobs.

Mr Price said: “It is shocking to have to close a brewery, but the environment for small brewers has been one of decline since Covid.

“I do not know how many small breweries have closed down, but it is likely in the hundreds.

“The closure of a brewery is always sad, but in the current market, it is becoming all too common as global brewers close opportunities for small local brewers.

“Foreign global brewers now represent 92 per cent of the UK beer market and continue to march forward, well able to sustain the economic ups and downs.”

Mr Price said three of the company’s 18 jobs had been lost and head brewer Sanghrash Bhattachan was moving to Surrey to oversee production there, while distribution would continue to be from Wiveliscombe, with Hogs Back helping to distribute nationally.

Mr Bhattachan will use the same Exmoor Ales recipes and yeast to maintain the ‘distinctive taste and quality’ of the beers.

Mr Price said the move was genuinely a partnership and not a takeover, and the Exmoor Ales brand would continue to be independent.

He said: “This collaboration with another brewer addresses the economics of running a brewery at a high level.

“What we have here is a genuine ‘partnership’, preserving as many jobs as possible and providing a good base to grow the business for the longer-term future.

“Success might well bring some brewing back to Somerset sometime in the future.

“This might well be a model others could follow.”

Exmoor Ales was founded in 1979 amid a national wave of pioneering microbreweries and grew to be one of the largest in Somerset.

Mr Price said he and the sales and distribution teams would remain in Wiveliscombe to take advantage of ‘exciting new opportunities’ which were emerging, including launching an Exmoor Ales lager, a low-alcohol beer, and a new IPA, in the next few weeks.

He said: “We will also seek collaborations with other local businesses and introduce exclusive distribution arrangements with other drinks businesses.”

Mr Price said he had written to publicans who sold Exmoor Ales beers and was pleased with the positive feedback.

He said good stocks of beers were held so there would be no disruption to supplies during the transition period.

Hogs Back, which opened in 1992 in an historic barn, is now Surrey’s largest independent brewer.