A reluctant farewell.

This wasn't really the subject I wanted my first blog to be about but after just four short months I will be leaving Weird Beard.

My Dad was diagnosed with cancer last year and after multiple surgeries and treatment it's still on the move. At this point I'm faced with the very difficult but also very simple decision to leave London to be with my family.

Bryan and Gregg have been very supportive, including letting me use the blog to announce this news. My other request was to let you all know about my job here as lead brewer and what's been going on since I arrived.

Starting in the brewhouse we've made adjustments to yeast and fermentation to get the beers tasting cleaner. Upgrade works have taken place on the mash tun and we've installed a new CLT and HLT to help make double brew days run quicker and smoother.

Production has increased as we've found more ways to improve efficiency. Regular QC during the conditioning stage has helped us to get the beer into your hands tasting the best it possibly can.

Packaging was pretty military but we've managed to push it a bit more, we're on the cusp of automation which is very exciting. This has all led to Gregg and Natasha having to sell a lot more beer (although you guys seem to have obliged!)

Work has just been completed on our cold room for packaged beer and the automated labelling machine is running like never before (thanks to some great technical minds in our team).

Natasha is working hard to make sure we appear at as many of the best beer events at home and abroad, she also posts some nice informative stuff on social media to keep you all up to date with the length of Bryan's beard, how many cups of tea I've drank and some behind the scenes brewing shenanigans. Not to mention our more regularly occurring open days, trust me when I say she's definitely made it worth the trip out west to see us!

We've put together a production schedule to make sure we meet the demands of our customers, honing the core range and making sure we don't run out of Sorachi Ace or Citra...

I'm proud of the work we've done over the last couple of months, I'm genuinely working on some of the best beers I've ever brewed at the moment. The next batch of Little Things That Kill is my baby (we offer hop choices around the staff for each batch). I chose Simcoe, Cascade and Willamette. It's in the conditioning room under lock and key as Bryan can't seem to stop drinking it, that's a fair compliment. Our 200th brew is also close to being unleashed, a triple IPA loaded with Sorachi, Summit and Apollo hops!

What I'm trying to get at is there's a really great job just about to open up and I'm urging somebody to take it. The four months I've been here have been a transitional period for Bryan and Gregg as they see their home-brewing days slip further into the distance. The team they've got around them are helping them to cement their place on the map as one of London's most exciting breweries, producing more beer every week it seems.

I had plans for the coming months, most notably moving to force carbonation in keg and introducing wet yeast. We've also talked about doing a Berliner Weisse and Gregg's wild yeast barrels are producing some truly exciting results (watch that space).

If you're an experienced brewer with a lot of ideas and ambition you'll do well to take on this role. I'm sad to leave it but feel lucky to have been a part of it at this most exciting of times.

I'm going to get settled in with the family but I'm sure it won't be long before I'm doing something in beer. Not quite the right time to start a brewery but I do have some interesting ideas forming. If you've got the patience keep up to date with me on Twitter ;) and I'll see some of you over the coming months as I try to keep myself up to date with the beer scene.

I'll sign off by saying a big thank you to Bryan, Gregg and everyone at Weird Beard for supporting me and I'll miss you guys a lot!

Cheers,

Jonny.

July Open Day Beer Line Up

It's just over a week away until the main event. We’re onto our 4th open day now so maybe you’d think it's less exciting but think again! We've got a fantastic beer line up for the day, so much so, we’re writing a blog about it.

The beers we will most definitely have on are listed below, although if a keg kicks we have more of the same and/or a whole brewery of choice so you won’t be left thirsty or unsatisfied.

Come rain or shine, you'll want to be drinking:

Little Things that Kill - Summit, Sorachi Ace and Apollo

(Informally a.k.a. "Sorachi Facepunch")

A session pale with such immense bubblegum and sherbet flavour from the hops, it's like liquid Lemon Refreshers.

Faceless Spreadsheet Ninja

Our Citra Pilsner is a go-to beer; crisp, hoppy, quaffable and how lagers should taste.

Something Something Dark Side

An innovative beer that is a mish-mash between a double I.P.A and an imperial stout: big, bold hoppiness matched with big, bold roasted malt character.

Upside to a Down Day

Another novel beer style and one-off brew: a breakfast black I.P.A as we like to call it. This is a coffee milk stout brewed with choice hops, hence the ingenious style.

Exclusive keg of Barrel Aged Blue Habit with blueberries

We’ve aged Blue Habit, a blueberry juice saison brewed in collaboration with Northern Monk, in a Bourbon whisky barrel with blueberries and...WAIT FOR IT....sour mix yeast.

This is a seriously special batch of beer and tastes as exquisite as it sounds.

660ml Bomber Brewery Exclusive: Jim Beam Barrel Aged Sadako

Our flagship imperial stout, a beautiful beer in her own right, has been barrel aged for 6 months for all those delicious whisky flavours to supplement the beer. Simply divine in 660ml bombers perfect for sharing and only sold from the brewery!

We will also have a range of our core, occasional and special beers in bottle to drink in or take-away. And that’s just the beer folks! Without a doubt, we’ve called upon Pig & Hay again for their tasty, handmade, sausage rolls and scotch eggs, including a vegetarian option. We’ve been lucky enough to encourage Craig of WeEat to provide us with his more-ish beer snacks. They’re not your run-of-the-mill nuts, the Cluster F*cks are phenomenal and our Natasha has been wishing to get her hands on since IMBC 2014. Other delights include Square Root Soda soft drinks and our cheery beery selves to serve you all day long.

July Brewery Open Day

The time has come round again for another brewery open day. Come enjoy the beers we make in the very place we brew them! Details: Sunday 5th July 12-7pm. It's a pretty straightforward equation for a super enjoyable first Sunday of the month:

Good Beer + Good People = Good Times

 

 

Each and every occasion we've been trying to make our open days better. We continue to be surprised at how many people come way out west to where we are based. Because you're making that effort, we're putting more effort into our events here at the brewery. The huge success of our last one means we are coming up with more and more to offer. Besides, it's our brewery and our rules so we can do whatever the firkin we want for us all to have a great time.





Here's a little low down of what to expect:

Drink in/take-away bottled beer
4 beers continuously on draught throughout the day
Limited edition 5th beer on tap
Special & occasional brews readily available
Brewery exclusive, Jim Beam B.A. Sadako 660ml bombers on sale
Delicious wares from Pig & Hay
Exclusive beersnacks from We Eat
The best soft drinks in town by Square Root Soda
Meet the Weird Beard brewers and team
Informal brewery tours
Merchandise including t-shirts & glassware on sale



Join the event here. Hope to see you then!

May-Time Open Day & Brewery Tap Room

There won't ever be a time when we are not excited to open up the brewery and invite people to the place where we're most at home. If anything, serving our beers, having them drunk and enjoyed amongst the vessels they are made is most satisfying. So we are extending our every-other-month Open Days into May!

Details:

Sunday 10th May 

12pm-7pm

We will have beer across 4 taps and bottles on sale for drinking-in. As with previous brewery events, we will do off-sales with take-out discount and growler fills. We've also packaged some sexy 660ml bombers of Jim Beam barrel-aged Sadako that will be exclusively sold from the brewery then. 

Current draft beers confirmed for the day include:
The latest batch of Little Thinks That Kill (no. 12)
Faceless Spreadsheet Ninja
Our collab brew with Brodie's "WEIRD BROdMANCE"

Food-wise, we will have the yummy wares from Pig&Hay including veggie options. And let's not forget Natasha's Home-made Beer Truffles!

Merchandise including our branded, stemmed glassware and t-shirts will be on sale throughout the day. Brewers Bryan, Gregg and our new lead brewer, Jonny, will be around to give tours & chat with you about all things beery. Hopefully see you there!

Watch this space for updates on the event.

Bottle Shop Pop-Up 7th February

Yes, it's that time again for us to announce our Bottle Shop Pop-Up Bar is back on the 7th February. However this is the last of our monthly popups there. Before you get too upset,  we will be returning every other month and will be back in April and so on...

On that note, make sure you come down to this event because you won't be seeing us next month and we're making sure we're bringing our A* game to make up for our absence. Not only that but we're bringing our celebrations for the 2nd anniversary of our first ever brew to the Bottle Shop! The super special beers we will be serving are to be announced shortly here. Keep your eyes peeled for other updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Bryan's back for this popup which means our awesome Weird Beard Fruit Machine will be there to play. He'll be joined by Natasha on our bar upstairs where we will have 4 of our beers on draft. Bottle Shop Ben has also requested Natasha's beer truffles and since we cant keep her out of the kitchen when she's not in the brewery, they will be there. The rest of the Bottle Shop team will be serving other beer on draft and in bottle and cans downstairs, so you won't be out of tasty choices. Trust us, there is so much good stuff to drink...always. 

We will have merchandise on sale, which includes our t-shirts at £15 and our branded, stemmed glassware at £3. Another piece of useful info, is that we now accept card payments.

See you at the party!

Bottle Shop Pop-Up 3rd January

It may be a new year but we're still promising you our first Saturday of the month pop up bar at the Bottle Shop this coming weekend. Please don't be making any resolutions that'll stop you from a) having great beer and b) having beer-baked carrot cake. Yes you heard us right, THERE WILL BE CAKE!

This time around, Gregg and Natasha will be seeing to your beery needs upstairs. As always, there's plenty of beer by yours truly on our bar as well as the Bottle Shop team's downstairs. We will be serving K*ntish Town Beard, Sorachi Faceplant and the ludicrously tasty, The Hanging Bat collaboration brew: Rye Smile.

Read more about the tap-list from our "what's on the bar?" blog.

We will also have some t-shirts for sale at £15 and limited stock of our beautifully branded glassware at £3. The holidays may be coming to an end but we sure don't want you feeling blue about it.


Looking forward to seeing you there!

Winter Open Days Round-Up

10 days ago, we officially opened the doors of our brewery, inviting people to come see the Weird Beard setup and drink our beers on the grounds where they are made. This had been long overdue since we've been based in Hanwell from the start, almost 2 years running. At the same time, the idea of getting people to venture here, off the beaten track of Craft Beer in London, seemed like a stretch. With Christmas around the corner and an otherwise uneventful weekend in the diary, we decided to do it and boy are we glad we did!

On the Friday, Gregg rigged up the shutter to the Boston Business Park warehouse where we've hidden ourselves and on the dot of opening friends, beer geeks and beer enthusiasts poured into the brewery. On the Sunday we expected a quieter affair; instead the brewery was full to the brim with locals, CAMRA members and tradespeople, as well as a similarly wonderful crowd to the previous day. Bryan, the brewer in that night, and the rest of our team were relentless in efforts to keep the beer pouring for those who eagerly and repeatedly queued into the road outside. Seriously though, thank you for bearing with us if you did. We're still amazed at the turn out and flattered by the feedback and reviews for both Friday and Sunday. Indeed, we've been asked when are our next Open Days and we promise they'll be a regular fixture in the new year.

If you missed out on it all: the beers (bottle, draft or truffle form), chatting with the brewers, seeing our newly expanded kit and partaking in the fun pay more attention here next time! At least we have some snaps (some ours and some from attendees) for you that capture the vibe of the events. Sadly these photos do not capture, if we can say so ourselves, the epic punk or rock'n'roll playlists we had on and the magnanimous enjoyment shared. Particularly with more locals stopping down on the Sunday, we deemed the event a success in community-building. We also managed to raise over £200 in Charity Pours and donations for Alice's Youth Music Memorial Fund. For who anyone remotely knows us, we value music as much as we value great beer. Knowing our Open Days and brewery's taproom debut could contribute to a project that brings music to young people, is an added perk to what was an amazing time.

Many thanks to all those who helped spread the word, those who trekked over to us, came and drank, came and danced and to everyone who added to the fun. Here's to very happy holidays!