Bellingham’s award-winning The First & Last Brewery has been marking its 10th anniversary with a series of 10 unique collaborative and terroir-led beer releases.
Rather than hosting a single anniversary event, co-founders Red and Sam Kellie have chosen to celebrate their anniversary by brewing 10 distinct, limited-edition beers throughout this year.
Each is designed to honour the community, partnerships, and locally available ingredients which have defined the brewery’s first 10 years.
From humble beginnings in Elsdon to their current brewery and taproom home in Bellingham, The First & Last Brewery team have worked hard to build a national reputation for foraged beers inspired by Northumberland’s wild landscapes and dark skies. The anniversary 10B410Y project brings those founding principles into the spotlight through unique collaborations, sustainable ingredients, and foraged wild fruits.
“Instead of having a one-off event, we wanted to celebrate our journey so far by developing 10 brand new beers, each of which explores our ethos and link to the things we value in life,” said Red.
“Our community means so much to us. We wanted to actively involve people by brewing beer together, sharing the excitement of coming up with new beer ideas, and looking forward to what we’re going to do next as a brewery.
“Caring for the world around us and reducing the impact of our business has always been important to us, hence the use of locally-sourced, foraged ingredients, and organic ingredients.”
The 10B410Y beers so far
Honey, Honey (amber): brewed using caramelised local honey from the Northumberland Honey Company, celebrating shared values of working alongside nature.
Embrace (hazy pale): created as an International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day release with women from the local community and North East beer scene, featuring artwork by local artist FolkWood Designs.
Belling-Jam (fruited sour): a homage to their brewery home in Bellingham, brewed with locally-foraged damsons and plums, in collaboration with Northumbrian Pantry.
Roots (hazy IPA): packed with fresh crop hops and brewed alongside homebrewing friends who supported the brewery during its earliest days.
Learn to Fly (gluten-free hazy pale): a collaboration with long-time friends and Tynedale neighbours, Allendale Brew Co.
Latest releases
Parallel Flow (extra special bitter): a nitro ESB brewed with Stu Brew, and launched at Newcastle’s iconic Free Trade Inn.
Green to Gold (strong Belgian blonde): an organic release that recently won category champion and gold (imperial and strong ales) at the North East SIBA Indie Beer Awards (keg).
The final three 10B410Y releases are an American brown ale brewed with members of the Craft Beer Newcastle community, a beer to make the most of foraged Northumberland ingredients (brewed in collaboration with the Hepple Spirits Company, who have worked with the First & Last team to harvest juniper berries from their land. Their equipment will infuse the beer with hints of the juniper to complement the sloe berries, damsons, and bullaces), and a rich, indulgent chocolate stout created alongside local artisan producers Meraki Cacao. These will all be available before the end of the year.
Foraging lies at the heart of First & Last’s ethos. The brewery’s approach to wild ingredients increased during the pandemic, connecting their commercial operations directly to traditional country wine-making and homebrewing roots.
Because every foraged ingredient varies year to year based on local sunlight, rainfall, and other seasonal conditions, each batch brewed will offer a distinct snapshot of the North East landscape at that time. Sourcing ingredients on the brewery’s doorstep also directly supports their goal of minimising their environmental impact.
Sam Kellie said: “10 Beers for 10 Years has been a really enjoyable project so far; we’ve had a lot of fun, and it has helped our wonderful, hardworking F&L team to take stock of how far we’ve come as a brewery, flex our creative muscles, and reflect deeply on why we do things the way we do. Here’s to the next 10 years!”
