Peaks and troughs

The late and post covid era were a boom time for the brewing industry. Due to securing deals to make in house beers for busy pubs and the general interest in ‘local’ we did some modest expansion in the brewery by securing som additional second hand fermenters, and installing a proper vessel chilling system courtesy of a business expansion grant from the local authority.

Indeed at one point we were struggling to keep up with demand and it looked like we may have to take the next step. A bullet dodged as what goes up, generally comes down.

Various factors brought the mini boom to an end and ‘local’ became less of a mantra, but we settled in to a decent pattern of trade. However, it became clear that the breweries who were really thriving were doing so because they had their own direct route to market. Namely, pubs or taprooms.

We started searching for a taproom location back in 2023, but unless you are very well financed, well connected, or ideally both, it’s wasn’t a case of simply picking a venue and going from there. The odd pub came up for sale, but having the odd half mill plus on hand wasn’t a luxury we had..