Engel fine ales is a small family run micro-brewery situated in the village of Aldeby on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. Opening the brewery was a life long ambition of owner Arnth Engel who had always enjoyed home brewing but harboured desires of brewing on a much larger scale.

OPA HAY's Brewery was the name chosen for the brewery as Arnths great grandfather Heinrich Hay from northern Germany had run a brewery and was a master brewer at the turn of the last century. Arnth prefers traditional brewing methods, he only uses malt,hops,yeast and water, ingredients he prefers to source locally.

Arnth first started experimenting with home brewing in 1982. When homebrewing was first legalized in Germany. At that time people still had to register with customs and excise even if they produced as little as 4 gallons. The beer had to be produced according to the Reinheitsgebot (purity law) which basically allowed only malt,hops,yeast and water to be used.