A round up of 2021 at DBC...
Well, what a year! It had a difficult start with lockdown closing pubs across the country, but we’ve still been able to celebrate many successes. Here are just a few…
Great beer.
Our Beardy Brewers (Andy, Jon and Tom) have been busy this year brewing some fantastic beers! Alongside our core eight beers, they’ve also brewed several seasonal and one-off beers including the ones shown below, as well as our core bottles and a new can, Walter IPA!
We’ve also sold approximately 121,000 pints this year on top of bottle and can sales, keeping our brewers busy even throughout lockdown at the start of the year.
Successes
We secured two more wins in the SIBA Regional Bottle & Can Awards Beer Awards for the Midlands! Business As Usual received Bronze in the British Bitters category, and Quintessential received Silver in the Premium Bitters category.
We also brewed our first DIPA - an 8% called “That Sexy Snare Sound From St Anger.” If you’re a Metallica fan, you’ll probably know what that’s referring to. You might not agree with the sound’s sexiness, however, but I think everyone’s in agreement with the beer’s tastiness.
2021 in beer…
Great pubs.
Our pubs have continued to be amazing this year, with them all doing some great events, pulling in fantastic trade, and - most importantly - keeping our customers happy.
With five pubs now under our belt, the events we’ve seen have included:
Gin tasting nights
Pub quizzes
An NHS fundraiser
Beer brewing community events
Live music
Open mic nights
A three-month kitchen takeover by El Contador (if you see them at events in the area, make sure you try their tacos)
Beer festivals
Tap takeovers
And much more besides!
Opening the Middle Bell.
In May, we finally opened the Middle Bell, coinciding with pub openings. The pub, based in Barton-Under-Needwood in Staffordshire, features cosy, airy, welcoming surroundings with a pub garden. It has great gastro food, a chippy night, pie night and a quiz night. The pub is in the heart of a great community, and the locals have given it fantastic reviews.
helping dcfc with Paulo One Hop.
We love being part of the community here at Derby Brewing, so with our football club in need we thought what better way to help than to brew a beer to help raise money for The Rams. With the club in administration we decided to brew a beer with 20p from every pint sold going towards DCFC.
We worked with our friend’s Derby Country podcast Steve Bloomers Washing, to help name the beer via a fans competition with over 300 names suggested. The winner by a landslide on the public vote was Paulo One Hop named after Derby’s former Costa Rican legend Paulo Wanchope. The beer has even been recognised in Costa Rica appearing in the country’s largest newspaper, Paulo himself says he can’t wait to try it!
Our people.
Last but by no means least, we recognise that we couldn’t have got through this year without our people. From the Beardy Brewers and office team, to those working on the front line in our pubs - we thank you all!
We recently shared how one of our staff members, Andy Marshall, has worked with us for a full decade. He started back in 2011 in The Greyhound before quickly working his way into the brewery - he’s now Head Brewer with many award-winning brews under his belt.
The year ahead…
We’ve got lots planned for early 2022, with announcements coming soon. Watch this space..!!