Triple fff launched in 1997 by Graham Trott, a cabinet maker by trade who was a keen home brewer.

People liked his brews and when he discovered that you did not need to be a chemist to brew beer commercially, he decided to have a go. He installed a 5 barrel plant in one of the units vacated by the now closed furniture factory on Station Approach in the village of Four Marks. The station still operates on the steam heritage Watercress Line which runs ten miles between Alton and Alresford.

Graham in the old Brewhouse at Triple fff.

Graham took a musical theme for his brewery name as triple fff is the strong note; louder, louder, louder.

The beer names also came from the 60s rock icons, Van Morrison, Led Zeppelin and Cream with Moondance (4.2%ABV), Stairway (4.6%ABV) and the Pressed Rat and Warthog (3.8%ABV). The psychedelic 60s did not spawn a song called Alton Pride (3.8%ABV) but that joined the lyrical portfolio and is our number one seller following its success at 2008’s Great British Beer Festival having been voted Supreme Champion Beer of Britain.

The year 2000 saw an expansion into an 18 Barrel plant and finally in 2006 the brewery became what it is today, a 50 Barrel system brewing over 31,000 pints a week.

Graham has been passionate about beer from an early age. Here is a picture of a young Master Trott in the hop fields of Alton off Wilsom Road in the late 1950's with some members of his family....

	(Front right) Graham Trott

Alton's Brewing History

Alton was renowned for its beer. Thackeray in Vanity Fair tells of Joseph Sedley’s journey from Southampton to London. ‘At Alton he stepped out of the carriage at his servant’s request, and imbibed some of the ale for which the place is famous.’ 

The water at Alton is similar in quality to that of Burton upon Trent, and this enabled the local brewers to brew the pale ales of the Burton type which were most popular in the nineteenth century.

Alton’s brewing history started in 1763 when James Baverstock with his son, James (junior) built a brew house in Turk Street.

James (jnr) was one of the first brewers to use a thermometer and then a hydrometer in the brewing process, and had to hide them from his father because he was against such “new fangled ideas”.

In 1821 Abraham Crowley purchased the brewery from the Baverstocks and continued brewing as Crowley & Co. Their ales were very popular in London, sold with a sandwich for 4d!

Charles Dickens in his weekly published journals wrote “providing a first-rate sandwich and a sparkling glass of Crowley’s Ale”.

Then in 1877, Crowley & Co was purchased by Joseph and Henry Burrell and Percy Wormald. They continued trading as Crowley & Co acquiring several other breweries throughout Hampshire until 1902 when the company was acquired along with 248 licensed premises by Watney, Combe, Reid & Co in 1947.

Watney’s ceased brewing in September 1970 and it was used as a depot by the renamed Phoenix Brewery Company until the site was sold for redevelopment in 1990.

Fremlins of Maidstone set up a branch brewery here to take advantage of the water. Courage, the London brewer, bought the Alton Brewery Company in 1903, which was started by John Hawkins, to secure their pale ale supplies after an agreement with Fremlins expired.

Courage brewed there until 1969.

In 1979 Bass acquired the site and later demolished it.

In 2002, Coors acquired the England and Wales business of Bass Brewers and created Coors Brewers Limited and continue to brew in Alton.

Alton was the centre not only for brewing beer, but also the centre of the hop growing area.

Hops used to extend from Alton, through Surrey and into Kent. Now only a handful of experimental field trials remain around Alton.

	A young Jo Collins (Graham's future wife) hop picking in the hop fields of Wilsom Road in Alton.   Sadly, this hop garden no longer exists and is the site for the Omega Park industrial estate.