Wild Beer Co are on a mission to change our perception of beer with exciting, complex, wild brews. Founded in October 2012 by Andrew Cooper and Brett Ellis, Wild Beer Co produce their boundary-pushing beer from their farmhouse brewery, idyllically set amongst the rolling Somerset hills, giving them a unique terroir.
With young families to look after and long days of work to conquer Felix James and James Grundy couldn’t be doing with hangovers. But they still wanted to kick back with a decent brew at the end of the day. While they appreciated their downtime, you should know that these aren’t two guys who sit around moaning. Their frustration at the lack of consistently good and widely available lower strength beers gave them an awesome vision for a whole new movement within the world of beer.
Based in St Austell, Wasted Apple make handcrafted traditional Cornish cider and award winning apple juice. You get a sweet double whammy with Wasted Apple cider: the exceptionally good end product, including their fantastic ‘Heritage’ range made from Cornish varieties of cider apples; and then there’s the environmental benefit.
Toast Ale are on a mission. Set up in 2015 by food waste campaigner Tristram Stuart they’re leading a brewing movement, eliminating bread waste and helping to fix our broken food system.
Unless you’ve been permanently drunk for the past year – hey, no judgment (just kidding, drink responsibly, kids) – you can’t have failed to notice that there’s a bit of a climate emergency going on.
A swift pint with Homebrewer Richard Boyden. “I love adding all sorts of things to my beer recipes. Things like fruit, cacao, spices, breadcrumbs and even woodchips have found their way in.
Frits Takken went from a disastrous first kit-brew to creating a successful microbrewery with no investment capital. We chat with Frits to hear all about the journey along the way.
Here’s an example of what we like to drink when the sun’s out – an elegant session beer with a new world hop twist. This is our basic Kölsch recipe – we brew it every year but change the aroma/dry hop each time to mix it up. Nelson Sauvin works really well, as does Mandarina Bavaria, but this one uses Amarillo for a zesty orange finish. Don’t be tempted to up the hops – the finish should be quite subtle and clean.
There’s loads to get excited about when it come to Barnaby’s Brewhouse. Obviously there’s the beer, which is pretty spectacular. And then there’s their passion for an ecological approach to brewing. We’re on the same page there as that’s how we roll here on the hop farm too!
South West England is positively pulsating with exciting breweries. One of our local favourites is Powder Keg Brewery who are based in their custom-designed brewhouse near Exeter in East Devon. Powder Keg are propelled by the ethos “that life is not all about working and achieving – there is beer to be drunk, pleasure to be had and dreams to follow.” We’ll raise a glass to that one, Chaps!