Brewery Feature: Colchester, Essex

Brewery name: Colchester

Location: Colchester, Essex

Mission statement: Traditional double drop fermentation as a key feature of the beer production, and a focus on getting a fair price for a high quality and labour-intensive product.

Dyke's End favourites: Metropolis 3.9% Golden Hoppy Ale, Colchester No.1

4.1% Copper Best Bitter, Jack Spitty 4.0% Blonde Ale

When did you start brewing and why?

Located in the semi-rural location of Wakes Colne in the borough of Colchester, the brewery was formed in late 2011. All funding came from the 3 founding directors and their friends and family. 1st February 2012 saw the first brew on the 10 brewers’ barrels (about 1600 litres) kit, with this being the beer that remains our best-seller, namely Colchester No 1.

As a smaller, independent brewery, how do you compete in a market often dominated by larger, multi-brand owning breweries?

The brewery needed a strategy and an ethos that could enable it to establish a foothold in a crowded and competitive market. The team settled on:

• Produce a range of characterful beers for drinkers in the Essex and its neighbouring counties

• Select other breweries for reciprocal trading, allowing publicans easy access to beers from outside the region

• Focus on pub and beer festival trade, complemented by a small amount of direct-to-retail

• Seek finance from friends, family and retained profits – no bank debt

• Small, approachable and friendly, offering a high quality of service and an alternative to the corporate images and approaches of larger breweries

• Be part of the local community through working with other local business and supporting charities and other good causes

Why did you choose to focus on Traditional double drop fermentation, and can you explain what it is?

Traditional double drop fermentation is a key feature of our beer production, allowing for cleaner and easier-to-manage cask beers. It is a two-stage process where fermentation begins in one vessel, and then the wort is dropped into a second vessel to complete fermentation, leaving dead yeast and solids behind, for clearer, better tasting beer.

Your beer pump clips really stand out from the crowd - who's the artist?

Julie Clarke Edwards of Flaming Gun Tattoo studio, run by Julie and her husband Kai in Colchester town centre since 2007. Julie is responsible for the original artwork that features in many of the brewery’s pump clips. While we brewers like to think that our world- beating creations sell themselves, publicans and will tell you that a good pump clip sells a beer as much as a bad one leaves it languishing in the cellar.

What's your favourite hop and why?

Motueka, for the floral fruit flavours it imparts to the beer.

If you could take one firkin of beer to a desert island, what would it be?

4% Colchester Brewery Jack Spitty. Golden easy drinking summer ale. Full of hop flavour with delicate bitterness and light aroma.

Lastly, will you be attending the Dyke's End beer festival :)?

Yes. Many thanks for your support and I look forward to meeting up with you over the festival.