Graeme Mitchell is a contented man. After years spent marketing other people's beer, he's now making a mark with his own. 

He says: "I love nothing more than going into a pub and standing at the bar and somebody orders a pint of my Whistling Pig, which is my pilsner, drinking it and commenting positively about it.

"It's an incredibly fulfilling feeling because I can think 'I made that, five weeks ago, and the barley touched my hands, and the hops touched my hands'. 

"You put your heart and soul into that beer and then you get a positive comment, it's great." 

The name of Whistling Pig, just one of the range of five beers the 48-year-old produces, has a local connection. 

Graeme says: "When we've finished brewing we take the spent grains, the husks and so on, to a farmer in Lorton and he gives it to his pigs.

"One of them has a problem with his snout and when he gets excited at the prospect of the mash he whistles." 

Tractor Shed brewery stands on the family farm at Calva Brow and is, indeed, the old tractor shed. 

After working for Whitbread's brewery for 10 years, and then Carlsberg, he eventually grew tired of being at the behest of clients and being managed by multi-nationals from abroad.

He decided to return to Workington with his wife and two children to set up on his own. 

He says: "I was office based and my days tended to be spent sat in front of a computer doing some sort of spreadsheet analysis for the latest marketing campaign. I realised I wanted to be out in the open, making something." 

Graeme began brewing at the family farm in 2013 although the business had been operating as Mitchell Krause since 2009.

Krause was his German mother's maiden name.

The beers under that name were brewed in other breweries until Tractor Shed was built three years ago prompting a change of name to something more quirky. It was the realisation of a long held ambition.

Graeme adds: "Workington brewery closed in 1986 just as I was starting my drinking years and I was always disappointed that the brewery had been shut down.

"So, I always wanted to open a brewery in Workington. It used to be the John Peel brewery and then it was bought by Matthew Brown and Matthew Brown was bought by Theakstons and so on until Heineken got it. 

"Somewhere along the line they decided they didn't want the brewery in Workington any more so they closed it and brewed the beers elsewhere. 

"We used to brew Slalom lager in the town and if you were brave you'd order a pint of Slalom D which was the much stronger version of the brew. 

"People still fondly reminisce about drinking Slalom lager. They used to sponsor the rugby league team, it was part of the community.

"The Slalom brand is still owned by Heineken because of all of that purchasing that went on, all of the beers and the brands ended up being owned by Heineken. 

"You can actually still get Slalom but in only in Italy. 

"The way I decided what I was going to brew was that I knew what types of beer I liked and having worked for the big brewers I knew how the market worked.

"I wanted to brew a Czech-style lager, a proper pilsner-type lager, and at the time, in 2009, I don't think there were any small breweries making lager, it was all traditional real ale.

"So I knew I wanted to be a small lager brewery and, certainly, Workington Brewery was a lager brewery so there was a nice link there with Workington as a lager town, if you like." 

After six years it's still the physical side of the work that Graeme really enjoys. 

He adds: "When you've loaded up your half tonne of malted barley and you mix that with water and put it in a mash tun, which is basically a massive porridge bowl, and that's what you're creating, half a tonne of porridge, pretty much.

"It's the smells that come off it which are like Ovaltine, you can stir it if you want to. 

"It's a very hands on and physical part of the process and that's the bit I like most." 

It's a long way from the corporate events and marketing campaigns he was once responsible for. 

"My working day now? I might come in and fill a hopper up with barley and then brew, or it could be getting the van and going to deliver a keg or some bottles to a shop or it could be picking the kids up from school.

"It's a much more varied life now and it's immensely satisfying."