The Drone Valley Brewery is a unique community brewery – where the profits made from selling their beers are used to support a variety of organisations and charities in and around the Dronfield area.
The Derbyshire Times was invited to visit their tap room, located at the Unstone Industrial Complex along Main Road, Unstone, to learn more about their charitable ethos and the range of events taking place.
1. Drone Valley Brewery
Elaine Dennison, tap manager at Drone Valley Brewery, is pictured here. Photo: Brian Eyre
2. Major milestone
Elaine said: “We’ve just had our 10th birthday, it was 2016 when we moved in and started brewing. We’re a community brewery, so everyone that works here is a volunteer. Our ethos is that we give our profits back to the community, to charities and mostly community groups within the S18 and adjoining areas. We also do a lot of fundraising.” Photo: Brian Eyre
3. Community spirit
Elaine said: “It was originally just set up as a brewery, and the idea was that we were going to supply beers to pubs in the local area. As Covid-19 hit, things had to change a little bit, and they set the brewery tap up. It’s had a few changes over the years, and we’re now on our third bar, because we’ve grown quite a bit. That’s really where most of our profits come from. I started volunteering here during Covid-19, and I was then made tap manager around a year later. During the lockdown, especially around Christmas, I watched people coming to the shop that we set up, and it was very much a community thing. People could have the beers delivered, but they were coming for a chat. There was that sense of community, and that’s something that I’ve fostered over the last six years.” Photo: Brian Eyre
4. Unique spot
Elaine said: “We’re always looking at what other places are doing and finding those unique things. No one else is doing a Halloween pantomime, so we did that on Saturday, along with a barrel race in September. We also have a duck race, as we’re on the back of the River Drone, so we call that the ‘ey up me duck’ race. We take part in the Dronfield Beer Festival and we’ve just had our third musical festival. We like to do off-beat things as well, things to bring the community together. People do just come for a beer, and we have music and events on. We’ve become a popular place for people to have their parties - a brewery is a great place to have a party.” Photo: Brian Eyre