It’s been a bit of a hectic time of late, but I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on the past couple of weeks, give a bit of an update on what’s been going on here, what’s coming up etc etc etc.

Two and a bit weeks ago I canned 2 beers. Whilst that was always the plan medium term, I didn’t foresee a global crisis bringing this forward a few months and brews 3 and 4 going in to can! However, such strange and uncertain times brings the need to adapt, and adapting I am. The 2 beers canned have sold well, initially solely through Eebria and following the granting of our premises licence last week, through our webshop (link can be found here). Around 2400 of 3000 beers have been sold, which is pretty incredible, so thank you all.

This has meant a lot of work to make changes to the webshop, organise courier accounts for wider area deliveries and mostly myself labelling 3000 damn cans. I’ve been procuring packaging, a range of snacks and generally reorganising the area around the old ‘pilot kit’ as a bit of a packing and despatch area. The aim is always next day delivery, for trade I’ve hit that and for the free local delivery being offered – some have been. Some also have been within 2 hours and others 2 or 3 days (given the weekend). The main bottleneck has been labelling cans up quickly enough to satisfy and deliver orders and the copying of order info from our website over to the couriers website to book deliveries. I have made a few improvements over the past few days to this to free up a considerable amount of time- by integrating the webstore that I had built, with that of our courier APC, so that it’s literally a couple of mouse clicks to book collection and print the box labels. I have also invested in a semi-automatic labelling machine, which makes a huge difference, labelling 30 cans a minute. Once the next 2 beers that are being canned are out the way, the cans will arrive fully labelled! Phew.

With regards to beer, I’ve just scheduled the canning of 2 new beers for the 5th of May….

The first is “Instinct Of Survival” – a 6.3% NEIPA with Ekuanot and Citra, that has been conditioning for the last couple of weeks. Lovely mouthfeel from the oat heavy grist, nice tropical and stone fruit following from the hops, with a low bitterness.

Last week, I also found the time, somehow, to brew another new beer. Black is back…..

The second new beer is “The Darkness Within” – a Black IPA heavily dry hopped with Amarillo, Simcoe and Citra.

I brewed a very small batch of this back in November while waiting for the new kit to arrive and thought I’d have a go at scaling that up to 5bbl. This is a very dark beer, full of piney, herbal and tropical hop character. #BIPACOMEBACK

Both of these will be available around May 6th for purchase via the webshop. With regards the webshop, it’s a little rough and ready looking at the moment, so expect to see gradual changes, time permitting, over coming weeks. The ‘snack’ selection is being updated regularly (ongoing reseacrh!) and this week will see guest beers starting to be added to broaden the selection, something I was looking to do in the actual Tap Room, had Covid-19 not delayed thing a little.

There are also a couple of beers brewed on the small 1/2 bl kit that will be being bottled this week, but more about these later! Moving forward, my plan is some experimental, small batch, crazy stuff on this kit, something I have always been heavily ‘into’ brewing since started.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for listening! A huge thank you again to all of you out their who’ve purchased Leviathan beer recently. It means a lot!

Chris.

Evening all. Hope you are all staying safe and not going stir crazy with the current goings on!

It’s been couple of weeks ago now since we went into some form of lockdown, with most pubs and bars closing for the foreseeable future. Like many in the industry I agonised for days over what to do. Should I dump beer and come back in a few months? Build the planned tap room? I spent days really wondering what to do for the best.

Now, I’d put a lot of hard work, time and money into starting the brewery. This on the face of it isn’t that important. However, the odd brew day over recent years has been a life saver and a welcome distraction from other serious health stuff going on in my life. The thought of not brewing for months wasn’t something I wanted to have to deal with, on top of a job I no longer enjoy and with life generally being considerably restricted for an indeterminate period of time.

The answer? Keep brewing! I decided, with many tap rooms and bottle shops now switching to take out or delivery only, that they’d still need beer. People sitting at home, unable to pop the local with their mates still needed beer. I, for my own sanity, still needed to brew beer.

On Monday, I’ve 3 beers going exclusively into cans. These will be available to trade customers only from Tuesday and, if the information I have is correct, will be available for general sale nationwide via our website the following week. The brewery is still just me on my own, so nobody is being forced into work, and our couriers operate with certain social distancing restrictions both when collecting and delivering.

I’ll be publishing more details tomorrow of the first 3 beers available and how to buy. If you are an Eebria user they should be on there from Tuesday, but we now have couriers in place should you prefer to deal direct (details of setting up accounts to follow!)

The week after next we should be in a position to sell direct to the public and to local customers. We also are looking at doing one or two virtual events in coming weeks, so watch this space!

Thanks for reading. Stay safe people and look after each other.

Chris.

Hello everyone. A month has passed since the last blog and, with lots going on at the brewery and further afield, I thought it would be a good time to share a few words.

First week of February I brewed our first beer on the new kit and, after some wort chilling issues, started again a few days later. The brew went smoothly at the second attempt but fermentation was slow – a combination of the ambient temperature of around 12 degrees in our unit for several weeks, and London Ale III being somewhat temperamental at times. It got there in the end.

I followed this up with a brew a week – a Citra Pale, an Oatmeal Stout and, this week, a Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe IPA. Next up in coming weeks are a proper dank and piney West Coast IPA, the return of the very well received Mild we brewed last year, a full size brew of our table beer (brewed again recently on the 1bbl kit) and a couple of pilsners. We’ve also a couple of fruited pale/IPAs and sours coming up in the next month or so. We started selling in earnest this week and after a week have shifted 50% of the 2 beers packaged, which is pretty pleasing, especially as most orders have come from venues new to us via Eebria / social media without any real push from our end.

Am I pleased with the beers produced so far? No. None are yet to quite hit the sweet spot in terms of being fully as intended. Then again I never am happy with them. Ever. I am always looking at how I can make beer better, improve flavours, experimenting with new ingredients and techniques etc. It’s an attitude that is ingrained in me in everything I do. One thing I am good at is learning, developing and improving. Both from a hell of a lot of reading and, of course, practice. Brewing on a 5bbl kit is something of a step up from 60 ish litres and every brew has improved my understanding of the way my kit performs and getting used to some of it’s unique nuances. This is feeding back into a process of continuous improvement, adjusting my brewing processes and future recipes.

I’m fortunate / unfortunate that I have other commitments at the moment. I’ve been a self employed Management Consultant for 20 years and, having decided 2.5 years ago to knock it on the head I’m still doing it. A situation that I find at best frustrating and at worst very difficult mentally to handle. I’ve had a difficult year or two adjusting to doing a job that not only do I not enjoy, but one that is also preventing me from brewing full time. It’s a bit of a catch 22 – I can’t make a living brewing here and there, so I continue to do a job that pays well but prevents me brewing full time. That said, my current project will be my last and will shortly become part time, allowing me to brew in the week as oppose to the rather tiring last month of brewing Saturdays and calling in before and after work most days to look after and check beer in progress, package, clean and so on.

I’ve been reflecting a lot over recent weeks on this situation and I think the current Coronavirus situation has forced my hand a little, or at least allowed me to focus and think and plan ahead with a little more clarity. I just had a festival cancellation, something I fully expected and support, but something that’s a bit disappointing given the level of excitement the invite had generated. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t do excitement 😂. What all this means is that, rather than push on and brew more often, I will stick to the brew a week schedule, possibly missing the odd week as I see how this pans out. What this approach does is allow me to focus on other aspects of what I have planned e.g. building a cold store, taproom – and these are certainly the two main areas of focus in coming months. We are well along the Licensing process, have been speaking to fellow breweries about securing their beers for our guest lines / fridge and started clearing the space for where the tap room will be situated.

So, plenty of beer still coming out over the next few months and more opportunity for people to get out and sample our beers. More importantly it means more opportunities for you to get out and support the small, independent bars and bottle shops that we are grateful for buying our beer and who are likely to need every bit of support in the difficult months ahead.

I’ll continue to do my best to keep you updated as and when new beers are coming, so keep an eye as always on our various social media.

Cheers, Chris Hodgetts