It was late in 2021 when, not for the first time, somebody suggested I give up my primary school teaching job and make my homebrewing hobby into a new career. My instant response was in doing that, it would take capital and lots of expertise beyond my kitchen homebrewing experience. However, I immediately realised I did in fact have the capital I would need, having just sold my house, and that I am lucky enough to have a number of friends who work in a wide range of brewing industry roles.

The first half of 2022 saw me dipping my toe into some research and business planning while I saw out the school year and prepared to move house from Suffolk to Lancashire. My homebrewing continued with a new focus on developing recipes to be scaled up when the time comes. Friends and family kindly gave me helpful feedback and I enjoyed a guest appearance on the Beer O’Clock Show podcast.

Once I had settled into my new home, I was able to devote more time to business planning and brand development. At the same time my homebrewing continued to get good responses including 2nd place in the Elusive 6th Birthday Homebrew Competition, the Great British Beer Festival Homebrew Competition and the Norwich Amateur Brewers Hoptober Competition.

At the time of writing I am awaiting my beer duty registration and working towards getting a raft of other registrations and licenses into place.