Milestone date

Today was another busy microbrewery day and a momentous occasion. Today Scott and Nick signed the lease for our microbrewery. We are now committed to Unit 2 River Park for 5 years (with a lease break) – bloomin' hell I need a sit down and a beer. The property is a recently refurbished industrial unit with plenty of space to brew beer, host brewery tours or brew days and, if planning goes ahead, sell beer in our new trade counter. 

An industrial unit is not as quaint as a farm, water mill or other historical building. We did look at such properties, as our brewery name indicates. But there are several key considerations that the farms we looked at could not offer:

• Location and access - Convenient for dliveries, distribution to pubs and off-sales to customers.
• Drainage - Linked to the main sewer.
• Electricity - A three-pahse electricity supply.
• Hygeine - Premises suitable for producing food products and meeting all required standards.
• Cost - Consider the cost of fit-out and rent, fanrs may have inexpensive rent but high et-up costs.

We are fortunate to have Nick, a qualified building surveyor and property specialist, on our team. Nick prepared and negotiated on the lease Heads of Terms to get us the best deal; any new microbrwery will need a Nick.

Our new premises


We also had our first session with Tait, our newly appointed brand consultants and web designers. Tait are based in Harpenden but are the designers behind Here café in Berkhamsted. Today’s session focused on our core values and aspirations. It’s all very exciting and can’t wait to see what Holly and her team create for us.

We finished the day with some market research. We invited friends and colleagues to blind taste local popular beers. More on this later.