Beer Merchants has announced the three British breweries providing wort for its blendery project at the soon-to-open Beer Merchants Tap in Hackney Wick.
Wild Beer Co, Burning Sky and Duration will all supply the blendery with spontaneously fermented wort from their breweries, as well as offering technical advice, in-keeping with the blendery’s open and collaborative approach.
Based on the traditional Belgian lambics, Good Company — the name for the blendery — will take the infected wort from the breweries and barrel age the liquid for up to three years before blending with younger versions. Some blends will be aged further over fruits, while others will be bottled for sale exclusively from the Beer Merchants Tap.
Brett Ellis, head brewer at Wild Beer Co, said: “As soon as we heard about the project we wanted to get involved in as big a way possible. It’s a great honour for us to be recognised and partnered with The Good Company blendery.
Beer Merchants is crowdfunding for the taproom, bottleshop and blendery until 10am on Thursday (November 30), offering all investors double their money in the form of a bar tab at the Tap. To invest, go to https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/opening-the-beer-merchants-tap
“I feel this is coming at the perfect time for the UK beer scene. Pushing boundaries and expectations has been Wild Beer Co’s USP from day one, so we are very eager to get creating with some new components and materials.”
Derek Bates, founder of Duration Brewing, said: “It’s great spontaneous beer is getting the renaissance it deserves. We will be doing all we can to help the blendery come into being and to be a roaring success.
“We will be providing the wort made in our coolship for starters, and when operational I’ll give training and some
practical sessions on the coolship, using foeders and all the mother strain good stuff we’ll have going on.”
Mark Tranter, founder of Burning Sky, was “absolutely stoked” to be supplying innoculated wort to the blendery from his brewery’s our coolship.
He said: “Cave [Direct, owner of Beer Merchants] have been fighting the good fight for many years, supplying Gueuze and other Belgian wonders when they were far from trendy, but to us at Burning Sky, this project shows a level of maturity and faith in the UK beer scene we have been yearning for. The Cave guys are nailing their hearts to their sleeves and we are humbled to be on board.”
Jonny Garrett, head of marketing at Cave Direct, said: “To have brewers of this calibre so excited by our project that they want to be involved has blown us away and we can’t wait to get started.
“It’s going to be a seriously steep learning curve, but with the amazing brewing expertise and talents now on board, I just can’t wait to see what we can all achieve together.”
» A walk around Beer Merchants Tap site
» Beer Merchants Tap coming to London
