Anglesey Brewhouse
Having received funding from Project HELIX, Anglesey Brewhouse was able to attend an introductory brewing workshop, in partnership with Brewlab, at the Food Technology Centre.
BACKGROUND
Anglesey Brewhouse was established in July 2017 as a nano-brewery on Anglesey by husband and wife Phil and Karen Chadwick, and with Karen's son Adam also joining the team.
In the nano-brewery, they began testing and brewing on their five-gallon home brew equipment, developing 11 brews. They ran a social media campaign for champion tasters who were invited to sample four of their preferred brews.
In August 2018 they were delighted when their Rhosneigr IPA won a Great Taste award, and this gave them the encouragement to go on and develop their award winning core beers, Trearddur Bay Extra Special Bitter (ESB) and Beaumaris Strong Pale Ale (SPA) which form the backbone of their premium brews.
In April 2019 with demand outstripping supply, they decided to upscale and move to larger premises in Llangefni, and production in the 10 barrel brewhouse commenced in autumn 2019.
SUPPORT RECEIVED FROM FOOD TECHNOLOGY CENTRE
Having received funding from Project HELIX, Anglesey Brewhouse was able to attend an introductory brewing workshop, in partnership with Brewlab, at the Food Technology Centre.
Brewlab delivers a range of specialist training courses for those trying brewing for the first time through to professional brewers looking to keep their skills and knowledge up-to-date.
The Food Technology Centre also carried out alcohol testing on samples of ales for labelling purposes, validated their internal process and supported their labelling requirements.
BENEFITS OF THE SUPPORT
Within the Brewlab training they gained first-hand knowledge and experience of the brewing process, as well as access to questions and discussions with experts in the industry.
Steven Prys Williams, Food Technologist said,
The locality of the course on Anglesey, as well as the funded support, was a great asset for the client as they did not need to travel far or have additional overnight expenses. They also had opportunities to network with other producers while improving their brewing skills. The speed of response for the alcohol analysis also allowed the client to validate their process and labelling much quicker, resulting in getting the product on the market much faster.
Phil Chadwick, owner and founder of Anglesey Brewhouse commented,
The Food Technology Centre has been very helpful to our brewhouse business. Attending the Brewlab course through the Project HELIX funding was invaluable, and the centre bends over backwards if you have any enquiries. We have also attended a HACCP awareness course and did have an STS accreditation at our old brewery. However, since moving to our larger premises we have decided to become SALSA accredited so next step for us is attending a SALSA Plus beer workshop at the centre through Project HELIX, and we are looking at the mentoring element of the project with possibly one of the food technologists helping to complete the paperwork.
