ALPHABET BREWING COMPANY

You’ve probably heard the same brewery origin story from different breweries time-after-time. A couple of white dudes in their thirties want to make their own beer. They find a brewer that can turn their vision into something tangible.

They get second-hand equipment from here, there and everywhere. They make some great beer. They make some questionable beer. They gradually get better and are now going strong six years later. Happily ever after.

That may well be the origin story for Alphabet Brewing Company too, but it’s not the origin story for the Alphabet Brewing Company that exists today. Alphabet is a rarity in that despite being a relatively young and small business, a change in staff and ownership means that nobody has been at the company for more than four years. The people who make ABC what it is today deserve the opportunity to tell their tale, and here it is. Jair Sian came into the company initially to bring some much needed structure during a period of adversity. She fell in love with both beer and the brewery, and never left. She’s now the Managing Director, and having negotiated ABC through some troubled waters, is finally enjoying the task of managing the business through a period of sustainable growth and expansion. “I wasn’t into craft beer before I joined the company, and whilst I have learnt a lot in the last few years, I think my outsider perspective forces us to think and act differently.”

Sam Franklyn, who started doing deliveries for Alphabet three years ago and has now risen to the position of Lead Brewer, is the longest serving member of the brew team. He’s responsible for the day-to-day goings on in the brewhouse, and his high standards and organisational knowhow mean that all beer is brewed to specification and to schedule. “A brewery is a constantly moving puzzle; my job is to ensure that once a tank is empty, it doesn’t stay that way for very long.”

“It’s very easy to look at things and say ‘this is how we’ve always done it, let’s just carry on’. What we’re trying to do is constantly improve both our beers and the processes involved in doing so.” Technical Brewer Andrew Walker has been brewing with Alphabet for two years and his question-everything approach has allowed this relatively fresh-faced

THEY’VE RECENTLY INVESTED IN NEW EQUIPMENT TO BOTH INCREASE THEIR CAPACITY AND TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF THEIR EXISTING OUTPUT.

team to dial in their inherited recipes and push them onto another level.

The brewery’s core range consists of three relatively sessionable beers, brewed with drinkability and accessibility in mind. Charlie Don’t Surf, a light and crushable 4% Session IPA, A To The K, an oatladen 5.6% American Pale Ale, and Juice Springsteen, a 4.5%Session IPA with Mango, Pineapple, Guava and Passionfruit added during fermentation.

Those staples provide the team ample opportunity to get creative. Special releases have included There Cannoli Be One, a Chocolate & Pistachio Cannoli Imperial Stout, and It’s Hotter Than The Sun!, a double dry-hopped IPA fermented with Kveik, a Norwegian farmhouse yeast strain that ferments at much higher temperatures than conventional yeasts. The rate of special releases has also increased. Six new beers were brewed in 2018 in total. In 2020, that number was 36, even with the unique pressures that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the brewing industry. Adapting to the changes along the way has been vital to their continued success.

Enter Alex Parkinson, Alphabet’s Operations Manager and jack of all trades. He’s worked in beer the longest of anyone on the team, and has done everything from brewing to sales to running bars in that time. His role at ABC is similarly an omnium gatherum of activities; he works closely with the team to develop new recipes, is responsible for creating branding concepts (that the illustrator Hammo executes with aplomb), and writes copy for social media, beer releases and for publications like the one you’re reading now. “Alphabet has given me the chance to develop my varied skills, and after frequently moving jobs in the past in search of somewhere that matches my ambition and rewards my versatility, I am happy to have found my place.”

Last but certainly not least, is Nigel Lewis, who is responsible for warehousing and the pallets of orders that leave the site on a daily basis. Keeping control of a busy and tightly-packed cold store is a vital component of a brewery that has never brewed as much beer as they are brewing right now; everyone has openly admitted that the brewery would fall apart without him. He’s a man of few words, all of which are golden. Nigel naturally declined to comment.

So with a strong and passionate team in place, what does the future hold for Alphabet? They’ve recently invested in new equipment to both increase their capacity and to improve the quality of their existing output. Recruitment policies have been drawn up to increase the diversity of their brewery team when the time comes to hire more staff. An ethos of community and ‘giving back’ has been established, with not-forprofit charity beers being produced, and discount structures for fellow industry professionals and NHS staff put in place over the past year. There is a working culture where colleagues feel safe to talk about their mental health, their general wellbeing, and any support they may need. There is also a pride in the beer that they’re producing, and a clear vision of where they’re heading.

www.alphabetbrewing.co.uk @alphabetbrewing