There are few more distinctive smells than that experienced in a brewery, as the heady aroma of fermenting hops and malt stimulates the senses. The Wychwood Brewery, tucked away on the Eagle Industrial estate in Witney, is no exception, especially as it is prospering under the stewardship of Rupert Thompson and his company, Refresh UK.

Sales are spiralling and production has risen from 150 barrels a week in 1994, to the current levels of 1,000 barrels. It has just invested £250,000 in a new cellar bar to be used for visitors and tastings.

A large part of the success is down to the efforts of Mr Thompson, a dyed-in-the-wool beer man with a sharp business brain.

He set up Refresh UK, after a seven-year stint on the board of the Morland Brewery in Abingdon, where he had helped develop the success of Old Speckled Hen.

He started with Usher's brewery beer brands before turning his attentions to Wychwood. Other brands include Mann's Brown Ale and Lowenbrau lager, which is brewed in Munich.

The business is entirely privately owned, with no venture capital backing, and turnover is now £22m.

Mr Thompson said: "We think our position as a niche brewer is a long-term opportunity."

He points to the continuing amalgamation of the major brewers and the disappearance of brands as background for this assertion.

Perception He added: "We are all about speciality beers where you have to pay more. Consumers are looking for quality, as well as other factors such as organic beers and evidence of sustainability. We think we are well placed."

Part of the problem with the beer industry is its continuing perception as being a working man's drink confined to smoky pubs and clubs.

Times are changing fast, and beer has to change as quickly, or suffer the consequences. Drinkers are no longer likely to have spent a hard day building ships or bridges, but have instead have been in offices, and beer will not necessarily be their automatic drink of choice.

If they go to a pub, then they might want to eat and beer has to fit as a drink to go with food.

A major task in hand is Mann's Brown Ale, traditionally drunk in the North West. Sales are sinking fast in the on trade' - at pubs and clubs - but there is a place for it as a speciality beer in the off trade' - on the supermarket shelf, as encouraging sales suggest.

And there are moves to market its qualities as a mixer, not just with other beers but even liqueurs, such as Tia Maria, which gives it a sweet, smooth flavour making it an ideal Christmas drink.

Refresh UK has also signed a deal with Laithwaites where beer can be delivered to the door, just like wine.

Brakspear is the best example of moving a beer traditionally drunk in pubs to become a top seller in bottles, with national distribution of the organic brand and a positive response to the recently introduced Triple, winner of a silver medal at the recent World Championships.

Demand for organic beer is spiralling, with Wychwood recently launching a bottled beer for Sainsbury's So Organic range.

Circlemaster is also organically produced, as is the beer produced for Duchy Originals, Prince Charles' company.

The only problem is that, as with organic food, demand for organic hops is outstripping the small quantities grown by British producers, and they are having to be imported from abroad.

Eventually that will be overcome and the potential for the development of beer is limitless.

Mr Thompson said: "There are lots of different beers we can play with. Diversity is the challenge."

Rising costs are a problem across the brewing industry these days - not just raw materials but utilities as well.

Mr Thompson said the gas bill at the brewery has doubled in a short space of time but, at the same time, the all-important supermarkets refuse to allow the breweries to increase the retail price of the beer.

He added: "While we can put up the prices of our beers in the pubs, the pub companies are only interested in the discounts they can get.

"There needs to be a change. Retailers have got to stop thinking about price and more about what customers want, as well as being prepared to try new things."

Sliding scale And while micro-brewers pay less duty and are flourishing as a result, smaller operations such as Wychwood are having to pay full rates. Mr Thompson wants to see a sliding scale introduced.

Meanwhile, there is a wonderful mythology surrounding the brewing process, and Wychwood is trying to preserve some of that, as well as creating legends of its own.

In 2004, having bought the rights to brew Brakspear, it restored the original mash tun and copper vessels and put them in its new brewhouse built on the site of the former Clinch's brewery.

This allowed the famous double drop' fermentation system to continue, whereby the beer drops' twice from one vessel to another and then into the cask. Even head brewer Jeremy Moss says he cannot understand why it works so well, but then, why question such an excellent product?

Now, of course, much is made of witches, goblins and scarecrows to market Wychwood's beers.

Not surprisingly, Hallowe'en has become the biggest event in the Wychwood calendar, with a major event at the brewery, while the marketing team is running a campaign promoting Hobgoblin and Wychcraft beers which runs into six figures.

More new beers are coming on stream and the future looks bright as rapid change is embraced and innovation is introduced, but not at the expense of tradition.

It is a complex brew, but one on which Wychwood is thriving.

n Contact: www.wychwood.co.uk