Eat Drink Guides Feature

We were approached by the guys at Eat Drink Guides to tell them a bit about the business and how lockdown has affected us, they’re really supportive of independent businesses and promote some of the best food and drink in the area – here’s what we had to say…

Having recently acquired the brewery early this year, we had no idea what lay in store for us. Expanding the business and developing the brand was an exciting challenge, but the pandemic presented significant obstacles which we’ve had to work hard to overcome.

The closing of pubs and restaurants placed us in a difficult situation as we weren’t able to sell much of our casked ale, and our beer would go out of date over the next few months. We had to decide rather quickly whether to hold out and see if the lockdown eased, or look to move the beer into bottles and beer in a box to then deliver to the public. The result was to speedily set up a delivery service where we could offer no contact delivery direct to people’s doors. When the lockdown was implemented it was sad for us because the brewery already had such a supportive following and we really wanted to get to know our customers on a more personal level. The support we’ve received through the delivery service has been really amazing and it’s been great to get out there and properly interact with our customers (at a 2 metre distance of course).

We’re now delighted to offer delivery to Harrogate, Knaresborough and surrounding areas with free delivery for orders over £25. We offer 12 x 500ml bottles per case, including a mixed case as well as 5 Litre and 10 Litre beer in a box. Setting it up has certainly been a learning curve but we’re proud of how quickly ourselves and other independent breweries have been able to react to the situation. We even learnt the best way to get a head on your Biab pint at home is to use a food syringe!

Lockdown has also been an opportunity for us to focus on the refurbishment of our brewery, so whilst we’ve had to adapt our work, we haven’t slowed down. After recently upgrading our brew kit to a larger capacity, we’ve continued to brew, as well as painting our new taproom, upcycling old chairs and repurposing old pallets to create a new beer garden. It’s been really exciting to see the progress made so far, right now we’re just gearing up to be ready for when everything eases.

The support received from other independent businesses and local community has been immense and we are sincerely grateful for the encouragement they have given us, whether by continuing to sell our beer or collaborating with us for charity events (Shout out to Blind Jacks ‘Pub in a box’ event to raise money for Henshaws uk charity). So whilst the delivery service keeps us connected to our customers we can’t wait for them to see the developments made at the brewery – until then it would be great if they could follow our updates on social media and let us know what they think!

Click here to see the published article and read the rest of the magazine (we’re page 75)