Miranda Hudson is the co-founder of Duration Brewing, a progressive farmhouse brewery that makes beers that belong in Norfolk. Starting out as a nomadic brewery in 2017, the business she founded with husband Bates, has become one of the most respected breweries in the UK. Based in a beautifully renovated Norfolk barn, they continue to expand and a successful Crowdfunder was one of their biggest successes in 2022, with more than 600 supporters, which is really enabling them to truly push on the future of their brewery will set a tap room and much more besides. Last month, Miranda joined us at Springwell, the home of North Brewing, to deliver an honest and open talk on the story of Duration so far. But also, she shared some sincere insights on her own personal journey, and how she has navigated certain hurdles along the way. Duration Glossy Brochure _compressed copyDownload Photo: Nicci Peet

The winner of our 2022 Brewers Choice – Brewer of the Year has been a pillar of the UK beer scene, has invented beer styles, lighting the way for new breweries, dishing out advice, support and encouragement to new and existing brewers as well as being an excellent all-around brewer. Colin has long since written his name into the story of modern UK brewing. To mark his keynote address at our Brewers Lectures in Leeds yesterday (23rd February), it’s the perfect time to revisit our conversation with Colin from 2021.  In this podcast, we discuss how the Shipley-based Salt was overcoming the challenges of COVID, and why working with supermarkets must be seen as a viable way for breweries to sustain their business. We consider what more can be done for breweries to improve their QC processes, find out more about the Salt’s Hexagon Project family of beers and also look back of some of the seminal beers Colin has brewed, such as Yellow Belly and Deep Rainbow Valley.

At some point, we’ve all had to turn a spare room into a custom and excise warehouse at some point, haven’t we? And in doing so, ending up on a path to starting a brewery that would go on to release some 70 unique beers in 2022. Today’s guest has done just that, and in co-founding Vault City of Portobello in Edinburgh, he’s helped create one of Scotland’s most popular breweries. Co-founded by Steven Smith-Hay back in January 2018, the brewery goes from strength-to-strength and is forecasting triple-digit growth in 2023. In this episode, we speak to Steven about the early days of Vault City, its recent investments in capital equipment and the brewery’s aim to bring more people into the wonderful world of sour beers.

Opening your own brewery, at any point is time, comes with its own challenges and hurdles to overcome.  Just ask the countless outfits that had COVID to contend with, weeks and months after, slinging open their doors. And in the current economic climate, things probably aren’t much easier, to say the least. But people are thirsty, and there remains an insatiable appetite for excellent, locally-made produce. Which is convenient because that’s exactly what John, Ollie and Nick, the co-founders of Great Beyond Brewing Company, specialise in. I recently caught up with John Driebergen. In this episode, the co-founder of one of London’s newest outfits discusses his love of brewing and his desire for Great Beyond Brewing Company to become part of the fabric of East London. We also discussed the team’s experiences working in the industry and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. Photo: Great Beyond Brewing Company

Gone are the days where choosing a beer without the alcohol meant forgoing genuine choice in the process. Countless macro businesses now offer 0.5% or 0.0% iterations of well-known brands. And with January already halfway behind us, numerous independents have thrown their hats into the ring with a fascinating array of low and no pales, lager, sours and stouts. Beers that complement the burgeoning number of beverages available to consumers that want a great beer, just with less, or none, of the alcohol. For today’s guests, who started their brewing journey back in the first COVID lockdown, no-and-low is their raison d’être. And if ongoing demand is anything to go by, they’re showing that the appetite for quality beers, without the alcohol, is only growing and growing. A successful crowdfunder, brewing 36 beers, exports to the Nordics, Australia, and USA to name but a few along with 700% growth FY21-FY22 – it’s not been a bad few years for the team at Mash Gang. Of course, that’s come with a lot of hard work along the way.  But in doing so, they’ve showed that you can produce exciting beers that taste great, look the part and further broaden people’s understanding of what low and no alcohol beers can really be. In this episode, we speak to Jordan Childs, the leader and brewer at Mash Gang about challenging consumer perception of NOLO beverages, its debut supermarket beer launch, working with breweries and businesses of all kinds, and the group’s desire for continuous improvement. Image credit: Mash Gang

Earlier this month, the team at Neptune Brewery moved into their new home. It’s a step that will allow them to cater for increased demand and further cement themselves as one of the UK’s finest breweries. But this evolution didn’t happen overnight. And while the brewery started out in 2015, the story of Neptune Brewery goes back some years further. During one their first dates, enjoying pints of mild, a couple while away the evening in one of the UK’s most fashionable cities. But no, we’re not talking about 2022. Instead this is Liverpool in the late 1980s…. And although they were both working in hospitality back then, little did Julie and Les O’ Grady know that some 30 years on, they’d be running a different hospitality business of their own. For Julie and they’d meet at Dunny’s Sports & Social Club. They’d get married, and have two children, Les would run a successful aquatics company while Julie had a decorated career in the NHS. But after Les decide to call time on that venture, he’d hang up his fishing net and pick up his mash paddle, with Julie joining full time several years later.   Celebrating their seventh birthday earlier this year, Neptune Brewery goes from strength-to-strength. In this episode, initially broadcast earlier in 2022, we discovered how they’ve done it.

UK sales of low-alcohol and no-alcohol beers have almost doubled in the last five years. Alternative versions of global brands, while a raft of launches from independent businesses, have helped give drinkers an increasing number of options when it comes to the beer they drink. If we look back at research from earlier this year, research group IWSR revealed that UK drinkers bought some $454m of alcohol-free and low-alcohol brews in 2021, $200m more than they did back in 2016.  And during that period, the curious and determined duo of Bill Shufelt and John Walker brewed more than 100 test batches of non-alcoholic beer on a small home brewing system in order to perfect their proprietary process. In doing so, they went on to start the US-based Athletic Brewing. Since starting out, they’ve gone from being one of the smallest breweries in America to a top-20 craft beer producer. In this episode, co-founder Bill Shufelt talks us through the brewery’s journey, its expansion into the UK market and why losing the alcohol from your beer, shouldn’t mean you lose the variety. 

With the 2022 iteration of The Brewers Congress almost among us, it was only right we revisitedthe closing remarks from last year’s event, delivered by Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster at BrooklynBrewery. At the end of the 2021 Brewers Congress, we learned that in beer, and the wider world, whatpeople love is for you to have the respect to show them what you love. And in doing so, they havean opportunity to walk through a little door and potentially find something they really enjoy. But ifyou don’t give people the chance, then they can’t respect you. Garrett Oliver, as well all know, has hosted countless tastings. And he has seen that people cansurprise you. With their knowledge, their taste, with their enthusiasm. In London, he told us that you should never assume that you know more than the person sitting infront of you. That we all should be more inclusive, and to have the courage to put ourselves in frontof people who don’t look like us and maybe haven’t heard about our beer. And also, he said that if you want to have a really good time, get everybody in the room. Not justthe people you know, but everybody because, put simply, everybody loves beer. Photo: Nic Crilly-Hargrave

We’re all familiar with the saying time flies when you’re having fun. When we last spoke to Rich White back in April last year, he was in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign and brewery fit out. His long-held ambition to start a brewery of his own was becoming a reality. In that episode we spoke about his exciting plans for Werewolf Beer, their crowdfunding campaign, his love of brewing classic American styles and the brewery’s very own…. ghost train! At that point it was very much a case of all hands on deck. And you can probably argue that little has changed since. Except now he has a brewery to call his own. And it’s one making excellent beer that caters for the great and good from London and beyond.  Let’s see how he’s been getting on….

Diversification in, or this case away, the world of brewing can mean more than producing different styles of beer or packaging said liquid in unusual package types. An increasing number of breweries have, or at least considered, broadened their offering by entering the world of spirits. And for many, that means Gin. And if you suspect big gin has a grip on the UK hospitality trade, you are correct. But this doesn’t mean you can’t get poured as well. Receiving the right data will help you understand your market – and competitors – as this episode will explain. Data collection agency Shepper sends its ‘Sheppards’ out to pound concrete and come back with the real facts regarding products. In this case, they looked at 1,000 pubs, bars and restaurants across the UK to see what gins were being poured. It found that not all towns ‘belong’ to big gin, glasses can make a difference if you want to charge more, and if you’re thinking of entering the tonic water market, you might want to think again. In this episode from our sister publication The Distillers Journal, Toby Darbyshire of Shepper – who has been connected with the spirit industry for years – will explain all.