The owners of Bury St Edmunds-based Biochemist Brewery, makers of small-batch beer and cider, have announced that the business has stopped trading.

Biochemist Brewery beers

“After four years trading small and working full-time in our respective careers, we wanted to make a decision going forward,” explained co-owner Luke in a statement.

“Do we carry on with our current capacity, or do we upscale and upgrade equipment to go bigger and better, and really dig into the scientific/experimental theme of the business?

“Continuing at current capacity is not sustainable because of constraints on time and money — the business thus far has paid for itself; we’ve never pocketed money from it. On the other hand, upscaling and upgrading would require two dramatic things: 1) a large capital investment; and 2) one or both of us dropping our jobs to keep up with brewing activities.”

In the end, Luke and Rachel have decided to concentrate on their full-time careers, although Luke says the will revert to homebrewing, “making tiny batches with compulsive, ridiculous experimentation”.