The original plan was to get four beers brewed under contract in quick succession in late spring / early summer 2023 and then to hold a launch event or two. As the proverb says though – “People plan and God laughs.”

Sadly, my first commercial brew went down the drain – literally. It smelled and tasted wonderful, but unfortunately, it looked awful. Moving onwards there were ups and downs. I was happy with my second beer, which was Ash and Elm, but scheduling production was complicated.

It was really only in December that I felt like I was able to start to get into my stride. Ken, at Serious Brewing offered me the chance to brew on his kit crucially with much more flexibility to schedule production.

At the time of writing, I now have three beers in cask, one in keg, and all four in cans. A fifth beer will be brewed soon, although this will only be available in cask for the time being. The slow and piecemeal process I have been through has meant that I have not been able to have a proper launch event.

This Friday is Imbolc, or St Bridget’s Day, so I was very pleased to get a call from Andrew at the Fox & Goose in Hebden Bridge asking if he could take three of my beers to put on this weekend. He had taken the time to look at the website and realise the significance of the date.

The Fox & Goose is a little way out of the centre of Hebden and so I hadn’t visited it on my previous couple of visits to the town. When I made my delivery, I immediately realised I had been missing out on a lovely pub, so I am very much looking forward to enjoying three of my beers in the same session this Friday evening. It’s not really a launch event, but I’m sure it will be just as good.

At the same time as this, I am also planning for my first tap takeover. While I was still living in Suffolk, I was a regular at the Theberton Lion Beer Club. Each month Tom would organise a selection of five beers for us to sample and discuss, often with somebody from the brewery coming along to talk about the brewery and their beers. In fact, one of those Beer Club sessions was instrumental in me making the decision to attempt to go ‘pro’ myself.

Tom is one of a few publicans I know in East Anglia who have ordered beer from me when I have been visiting family back in Suffolk. I was very pleased to receive some positive feedback from him about the two beers he took for his recent Winter Beer Festival. It’s early days yet, but I am looking forward to returning to Beer Club as a professional brewer. Hopefully, a few Suffolk friends and relatives will come along too and discover what a great pub the Lion truly is.