Andy Whyte (left) with Dig Brew founder Oliver Webb
25-year-old Londonder Andy Whyte has been named as the new head brewer at Birmingham’s Dig Brew.
Andy previously co-owned cuckoo brewery Whyte Bär Brewing, which licensed other breweries to create beers to his own recipes. Andy also worked in the packaging department at Siren Craft Brew, in Berkshire, while studying for a degree in geology.
His craft beer experience began with home brewing while he was a student in Exeter, after being disappointed by a lack of variety in the beers on offer at his local bars and pubs at the time.
One of his first achievements as head brewer was to arrange a Dig Brew tap takeover for Tryanuary at The Pursuit of Hoppiness, a renowned ale and wine house in Exeter. The range of specially made Dig Brew beers on tap included
three styles of IPA, a pale ale, a dark lager, and a fruited sour.
Andy was keen to join Dig Brew after the brewery was honoured with the 2019 Raise the Bar award, run by We are Beer, to find the UK’s best up and coming craft brewers.
‘I am particularly excited about using my experience of working with different brewers’
Dig Brew was established in former factory premises in 2017 by Oliver Webb, a Slade Art School graduate, with the support of Peter Towler of Mad O’Rourke’s Pie Factory in Tipton. It brews and distributes a rotating line-up of beers, including a lager (Hell), sour fruit smoothie (California), and a New England pale ale (Optimo), as well as a constantly changing range of seasonal beers for pubs, bars and off-licences nationally.
Andy said: “I am delighted to have joined such a creative community-minded brewery that believes in creating exciting new beers that are aesthetically pleasing, as well as complex and varied in their flavours.
“I am particularly excited about using my experience of working with different brewers and my analytical skills acquired at university to capitalise on the current interest in New England styles, and I am already working on my own recipe to create a lower-alcohol version of Dig Brew’s best-selling Optimo.”
Oliver added: “Andy’s experience will be invaluable as we look to grow our reputation in the craft beer market and export our beers worldwide.”
