Wadworth celebrates 100th anniversary of its flagship 6X beer

Published by

Peter Davison

Wadworth 6X 100th anniversary edition

Devizes brewery Wadworth is preparing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its flagship beer – 6X – next week.

The beer was first brewed on December 5, 1923. It owes its name to its original strength – 6 per cent ABV – but was reduced to 4.3 per cent during World War Two due to the rationing of raw ingredients.

Wadworth opens new brewery – over the road from its old home

To celebrate the 100th anniversary, a special 6 per cent 6X is being brewed again. The special edition - which will be available in Wadworth's managed and tenanted pubs across the South and West - uses the original 1923 brew recipe, with Fuggles and Goldings hops, and Invert no.1 sugar.

Marketing executive Alice Burnside said: "It’s been a fantastic year marking this incredible milestone in brewing history.

"There’s been the chance to win beer and merchandise through scanning a QR code on pump clips in our pubs, and we’ve had monthly competitions running on social media with prizes including a shire horse experience day, a personalised sign created by in-house sign writer Wayne, and a brewing experience helping head brewer Andy create our special edition 6 per cent 6X.”

The family-owned brewery – managing director Toby Bartholmew is the fifth generation family member to lead the company - celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2025.

In September brewing operations were moved to a new multi-million-pound brewery over the road from its original Victorian site.

Its former home will be replaced with 102 houses in a development called Brewery Wharf.

Visit Hampshire Biz News for bright, upbeat and positive business news from the county

The houses – which will be equipped with air source heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers – will be built by Chippenham-based developer Backhouse.

The redevelopment will see the retention of the Grade II listed brewery tower.

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.