I first met Ken at the Great British Beer Festival a couple of years ago. I was attending as one of my beers was in the final of CAMRA’s homebrew competition. The timing suited me extremely well, as I had made quite a few beer industry friends through the zoom drinks sessions which had been a highlight of my lockdown experience. Andy and Ruth from Elusive Brewing introduced me to Ken and we immediately got on well together. At the time I was just beginning to think seriously about setting up Bríd’s Cross, and Ken was happy to listen to me talking about my plans.

Fast forward to March 2023 and I bumped into Ken again at BeerX in Liverpool. By this time I was about ready for my first commercial brew. Ken and his brewing and business partner, Adam, had also decided to take the plunge into professional brewing and were at a similar stage to me. As it turned out, Ken and Adam had a smoother journey to their brewery launch in May 2023 (Mysterious Brewing).

From time to time Ken and I exchanged emails or Insta DMs sharing our progress, trials and tribulations. Last December Ken asked if I would be interested in doing a collab. I jumped at the chance to spend the day with Ken and Adam, eager to use their brewery set up, learn some new tips and join them in their first birthday celebrations.

For the brew day itself, we were up early to enjoy our Premier Inn breakfast before heading out to the brewery in nearby Silchester. Ken and Adam were already hard at work when we arrived, and we were soon ready to mash in. As Ken emptied sacks of malt into the mash tun, I had my first workout of the day giving everything.