T he launch of Bishop Nick is a heartening one for beer lovers as it sees the return of the Ridley family to brewing.

Ridley's brewed beer at their tower brewery in Felsted from 1842 to 2005 when the business was bought by Greene King and the family link with brewing was severed. But now Nelion Ridley has revived the family tradition by starting his own micro-brewery, Bishop Nick, which he's just launched after months of test brewing.

It's a proud moment for Nelion, 39, who worked for years in the family business and is delighted to be back in the brewing industry again.

When Greene King took over Ridley's, Nelion was the marketing manager but after a few months working for the new owners, he decided it was time to move on. He did some charity work in India, worked on vineyards in southern France and did a teacher training course, but eventually he was drawn back to the family business of brewing.

Nelion's brother Joss had taken over The Compasses pub in Littley Green near Felsted (Ridley's old brewery tap) in 2008 and asked for some advice. Nelion said it felt right to be involved in the industry again and went on a three week brewing course in Sunderland where he gained the knowledge and experience he wanted.

"It gave me some real insights into the brewing process and enabled me to get my hands dirty," says Nelion. "I really enjoyed it."

From there it was a matter of looking into setting up his own brewery and that's where another Essex brewer stepped in to help.

Franco Davanzo of Felstar Brewery in Felsted offered to mentor Nelion and let him use his equipment. Before long, Nelion was brewing.

"It was a leap of faith, going from marketing to being a brewer. I had seven or eight months of trial brewing and tweaking recipes," Nelion says.

"The three beers we've got now are a product of those months of work. It's a great feeling now the beers are out there."

The three brews in question are: Ridley's Rite, a 3.6 per cent bitter; Heresy, a four per cent golden ale; and 1555, a full bloodied, "blazing ale" weighing in at 4.3 per cent.

How would Nelion describe them?

"The Rite is a traditional session bitter in the classic IPA style. Heresy is a golden beer, very floral, hoppy and aromatic. 1555 is a much maltier, richer brew, like a best bitter.

"What I wanted to do was create three classic pub beers that will sell all year round and hopefully we've done that."

I can vouch for how good the beers are – they already taste like established classics – but what's also striking about Bishop Nick is the distinctive designs and marketing Nelion has chosen with images of various creatures enjoying a Bacchanalian feast of ales on the literature and beer mats.

"I wanted to do something that was contemporary but also rooted in the past. We went for the woodcut, craft feel to the designs because we feel it reflects the craft brewery aspect of what we're doing."

How about the name of Bishop Nick?

"It took a while to work out the name. I obviously couldn't use the Ridley's name but I did think of calling it Hartford End after the old brewery site, but I didn't want to be tied to a geographical place.

"We looked at the history of the Ridley family and we thought about Bishop Nicholas Ridley who was famous for being burnt at the stake by Queen Mary. He was actually the Ridley's symbol until the sale to Greene King.

"I thought it was important to continue the family tradition."

The beers will be available from The Compasses and Nelion is looking to distribute it to a 20-30 mile radius of his Felsted base to pubs that specialise in real ales.

"I've been very pleased with the interest we've had. We've had this great ground swell of support from people."

Among the supporters is Roger Protz, editor of The Good Beer Guide and the country's leading writer on beer and the pub industry. Roger spoke to go! at the Bishop Nick launch.

"I'm very impressed with Nelion's beers," says Roger. "They're very clean tasting and have a lot of character. They're grown up beers."

You can't get a much better accolade than that.

Darryl Webber

Find out more at www.bishopnick.com and follow on Twitter at @bishopnick