Brewery News

Tryanuary Fun

31 Jan 2019

At Brentwood Brewery’s Tryanuary event, festival goers embraced the chance to try something different. Visitors enthusiastically supped new beer styles and flavours, tasted a variety of game fare and took part in some zany brewery World Record challenges.

The idea behind the beer festival was to encourage people to try or experience something for the first time.

“A big thank you to everyone who came along to support the event. We were delighted to see so many people enjoying themselves at the brewery on such a dull, damp, January day.

“We had fun with our World Record attempts to see how fast you could drink a third of a pint with a teaspoon and how far you could throw a cocktail stick. The challenges raised a little bit of cash for SNAP charity,” said Managing Director Roland Kannor.

Matthew – The Disney Guy

An experienced performer but playing at the brewery for the first time, Brentwood singer Matthew Haslam-Hammond, otherwise known as The Disney Guy, entertained everyone with a repertoire of popular tunes like Under the Sea from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

Remembering School Days

Matthew also managed to catch up with his old school pal, Head Brewer Ethan, although they remembered each other by their school nicknames – HH and Pace.

Matthew’s performance went down well with the brewery audience. His big dream is to appear on a much bigger stage and to wow crowds at the Brentwood Festival one day.

Special Guests

Among the many beer fans who came along to Tryanuary were members of the local CAMRA group, including the brewery’s liaison officer Beryl and her husband Trevor. And Billericay Brewing Company’s Director, Trevor Jeffery, popped in.

Lumberjack Andy

The brewery team recognised some other familiar faces. Andy Webb and his dog Pippa. Andy left his Lumberjack costume at home this time. Was he drinking a pint of Brentwood Lumberjack though?

Rubble

Also, puppy Rubble, now four months old, who has grown so much since his last brewery visit at the brewery’s Christmas Beer Festival. It seems Rubble enjoys a good beer festival.

The Ale

Beer fans were able to choose from a list of 10 draught real ales, all Brentwood and Elephant School beers except for the Chilli Porter 5.9% by Billericay Brewing.

Made by Caro B

Caroline of Made by Caro B was mixing mocktails using ingredients from her drinks range of shrub sodas. Boozy hot chocolate was another alternative for non-beer drinkers.

The Cart Shed

Burgers of venison or pheasant as well as venison curry were on the menu at the Cart Shed’s snack van, a converted horse box, which was parked outside the brewery.

William of the Cart Shed restaurant in Epping was kept busy serving hungry festival goers with assistance from Leah.

Spring Beer Festival in April

“Ethan won the cocktail stick throwing challenge, managing an impressive 6.2 metres. If anyone wants to challenge him for the title, we look forward to hosting another contest at our Spring Beer Festival on Saturday 13th April,” added Roland.

Love Beer, Love Brentwood

Breweries Working Together

29 Jan 2019

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by Wendy

Brentwood Brewing Company and Billericay Brewing Company have decided to work more closely together. Whilst this informal, friendly arrangement will see the two breweries working in co-operation with each other, they will continue to operate as separate companies, each retaining their own identity, highly regarded, popular, award-winning beers and brands.

Despite being commercial rivals, a friendly relationship has existed between Brentwood Brewing Company and Billericay Brewing Company for some years. The two Essex craft breweries aim to build on this neighbourly relationship, to their mutual benefit.

It Makes Sense

For example, sharing deliveries will benefit both companies by not only reducing costs but their carbon footprints too.

Roland Kannor, Managing Director of Brentwood Brewing Company said: “The small brewing industry is very tough at the moment with 29 pubs a week shutting, four new breweries a week opening and a 20% increase in the price of barley for 2019.

“It makes perfect sense for breweries, like Brentwood and Billericay, to work together to utilise spare capacity in brewing, deliveries and staff to cut costs and to reduce their carbon footprints.”

Working Together in the Spirit of Co-operation

Roland Kannor and Trevor Jeffery | photo by Wendy Pike

Billericay Brewing will make use of the extra production capacity that Brentwood Brewery has to offer. Brentwood’s bigger brewhouse facilities, next door to Calcott Hall Farm Shop off Ongar Road in Pilgrims Hatch, mean that Billericay can brew four times more beer per batch than before.

Trevor Jeffery, Director of Billericay Brewing Company said: “We are now at full capacity at Billericay Brewery and struggling to keep up with demand, so it will be a great move for us to brew our best-selling beers at the larger Brentwood Brewery.

“Shifting this production will also give us more space at Billericay and so we will be able to serve even more people at our popular micro-pub and brewery every weekend.”

Billericay Dickie

The first batch of Billericay Brewing Company beer, Billericay Dickie 4.2% ABV (a balanced amber ale with biscuit notes), has already been brewed at Brentwood.

Brentwood Gold

Bottles of popular Brentwood beers, like Brentwood Gold 4.3% ABV, will continue to be available at Billericay Brewery in their Essex Beer Shop. Billericay Brewery’s onsite bar, micro-pub and shop are just off Billericay High Street in Chapel Street.

Collaboration Brew & Competition

To celebrate this new arrangement, the two local breweries are planning a collaboration brew which should be ready for drinking in March. The new IPA 5% ABV beer is yet to be named, so the breweries have launched a competition inviting suggestions. There is an 18 pint Polypin of the new brew for the winner.

The new collaboration beer is due to be officially launched at Billericay Brewery’s Spring Beer Festival which runs from 21st – 24th March.

Brentwood Brewing Company began trading in 2006. Billericay Brewing Company started in 2012. Both companies are run by people with a passion for making and drinking the finest craft beer.

“We’re all looking forward to finding lots of other ways that we can work together in the future,” added Trevor.

Love Beer, Love Brentwood

Beer, Games, Music & Food for Tryanuary Beer Fest

24 Jan 2019

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by Wendy

We’re getting really excited about our Tryanuary Beer Festival this Saturday (26th January). We hope you can join us at Brentwood Brewery anytime between 11am – 5pm.

The aim of the festival is to try something new for the first time.

Along with a diverse drinks menu which includes interesting, new beer flavours and styles, there’ll be fermented mocktails using shrub sodas and water Kefir by Caro B, forager Prosecco cocktails as well as Choc and a Shot – hot chocolate with a shot of something (alcoholic) in it.

The Cart Shed Restaurant (based in Epping) will be joining us to tempt you with some tasty game fare including their Venison Curry.

Our friends at SNAP charity are organising some fun games and ‘World Record’ attempts for you to get involved in. Have you ever tried to find out how quickly you can drink half a pint of beer with a teaspoon? Or seen how far you can throw a cocktail stick? These are just some of the zany activities the brewery has planned.

The entertainment is set to continue with music from The Disney Guy – Matthew Haslam-Hammond from 2pm. The Brentwood singer, who performs gigs throughout Essex, describes his genre of music as ‘pop, punk, acoustic Disney’ and himself as ‘a hero to some, village idiot to others’. His burning ambition is to perform at The Brentwood Festival.

Tryanuary has lots of new and interesting beer, food, activities and music for you to experience. Don’t worry, we’ll have some of your Brentwood Beer favourites to enjoy too. See you for a pint on Saturday?

Love Beer, Love Brentwood

Go Low-Cal, Low Alcohol BBC1

14 Jan 2019

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by Wendy

If you’re struggling to complete your Dryanuary challenge or have kicked off the new year on a weight loss diet, Brentwood Brewery has some marvellous news for you.

If no alcohol in January is proving too tough going, can we suggest going low alcohol with us instead? Our BBC1 is bursting with real ale goodness and flavour yet is just 1.5% ABV.

Low-Cal BBC1

More wonderful news. A 500ml bottle of BBC1 is just 80 calories. That’s fewer than an apple (about 95 calories) and less than half the calories of a standard beer. Typically a 4% beer is approximately 200 calories and 6% about 250.

Wine drinkers might be tempted to switch tipples too when they discover a bottle of BBC1 is half the calorific value of a standard 175ml glass of wine at around 160 calories.

Calories V Exercise

For anyone not completely au fait with calorie counting, what does this mean? In terms of the amount of exercise required to burn off a standard 4% ABV beer at 200 calories, it would take roughly:

half an hour of moderate swimming or singles tennis or football
three quarters of an hour walking or walking the dog or yoga
1 hour playing darts or bowling or volleyball

BBC1, our Beer of the Month for January, is a ridiculously drinkable, light brown coloured ale. It offers loads of flavours that burst on the palate from the mix of Columbus, Chinook, Citra and Cascade hops. BBC1 is available in 500ml bottles or Polypins from the Brewery Shop or online.

Head Brewer Ethan Kannor Pouring Himself a Bottle of BBC1 | Photo by Wendy Pike

Brentwood Brewery Tap Room is open six days a week. Why not pop in for a pint?

Love Beer, Love Brentwood

Tryanuary Beer Festival

07 Jan 2019

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by Wendy

Trying something new for the New Year is the idea behind Brentwood Brewery’s Tryanuary Beer Festival on Saturday 26th January. From new beers to new foods and new pastimes, Tryanuary Festival will be the perfect opportunity for you to experience something you’ve not tried or done before.

The Cart Shed Restaurant (based in Epping) will be joining us at Brentwood Brewery to tempt you with some tasty game fare including their Venison Curry.

As for new entertainments, have you ever tried to find out how quickly you can drink half a pint of beer with a teaspoon? Or seen how far you can throw a cocktail stick? These are just some of the zany activities and challenges the brewery has planned.

There will be some new beer styles and recipes to try too along with some spiced cider and speciality soft drinks.

More details to follow closer to the event.

Hope you can join us.

Love Beer, Love Brentwood

Panto Brings Festive Cheer

10 Dec 2018

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by Wendy

As tradition dictates there was a panto dame, a hapless hero and plenty of audience participation. That perhaps is where most similarities to any other panto you’ve ever seen, end. But this free-to-watch, low-to-no-budget production, Jack and the Beer Stalk, was hugely energetic, heartwarming and so very uplifting. Of course, unique. Brentwood Brewery MD Roland Kannor, who acted as narrator, was solely responsible for the script. And most likely, all the corny jokes. As you might expect from Roland, they were plentiful.

The cast of Jack and the Beer Stalk, Brentwood Brewery’s Panto
Photo by Wendy Pike

Enthusiastic Cast

Goldie and Jack ‘treading the boards’. Photo by Wendy Pike

Performed by an enthusiastic cast of brewery staff and friends, other roles included a hard-to-sell cow called Brexit, which the audience front rows soon learned had very leaky udders, a lumberjack (Andy Webb) and a talking bottle of Brentwood Gold, otherwise known as Goldie (Penny Hollington). The brewery’s own Statler and Waldorf Muppet Show theatre balcony critics, along with a host of extras, completed the cast.

Goldie the talking bottle of Brentwood Gold (aka Penny Hollington) with Jack (Ethan Kannor).
Photo by Wendy Pike

Lumberjack Andy
Photo by Wendy Pike

Hard-to-sell Brexit the cow (with leaky udders)
Photo by Wendy Pike

Audience enjoying the panto.
Photo by Wendy Pike

(Losing) The Plot

The audience was taken on an entertaining journey which sees the fortunes of poor Jack (Head Brewer Ethan Kannor) and his rather eccentric mother (Brewery Manager Dean Beckwith) take a turn for the worse when Jack has one too many in the pub and sells the family cow, Brexit, for a bag of hops. Miraculously things do eventually turnaround for the family of craft brewers and the story culminates in a happy-ever-after ending for all.

And they all lived happily ever after.
Photo by Wendy Pike

Quirkiness

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any quirkier, the whole production was filmed by another cow, an over-sized Friesian in the front row, with the intention of live-streaming it on Facebook.

Oversized Friesan seen in front row eating ice cream and filming whole production. Has anyone seen Shannon?
Photo by Wendy Pike

Sing-a-Longs

Action at the panto.
Photo by Wendy Pike

Familiar sing-a-long tunes with words written out for the audience to follow, with help from a large pointy stick, ably wielded by office manager Carol Tomsett, and some hilarious dancing from Jack’s Mum with help from a variety of other cast members, added to the fun.

Jack’s Mum – rather eccentric, bit bossy and a fashion sense best described as quirky. (Brewery Manager Dean)
Photo by Wendy Pike

One festival goer was spotted napping. But ten week old bulldog puppy Rubble can be excused for falling asleep on his owner’s shoulder.

Too much excitement for Rubble the bulldog puppy. Photo by Wendy Pike

Beer Elves Were Busy

Good Elf, Elf ’n’ Safety and Elf ’n’ Happiness behind the bar served those who bought participation tickets for the panto with a variety of six different Brentwood ales at the appropriate moments throughout the show.

Good Elf, Elf ‘n’ Safety & Elf ‘n’ Happiness busy serving beer to audience members taking part in the Panto.

SNAP Charity

Included in the participation ticket price was a donation to Warley-based charity Special Needs and Parents (SNAP). The charity also had a stall at the Brewery’s Christmas Beer Festival on Saturday (8th December) which is when the panto took place. SNAP volunteers were kept busy selling the charity’s Christmas cards and raffle tickets as well as running games and competitions for children of all ages.

Sam Tandy from SNAP with the SNAP stall run with help by volunteers. Photo by Wendy Pike

JW Ice Cream Company

There were mince pie flavoured ice cream samples to try in the short interval, supplied by J W Ice Cream Company, specialist alcoholic ice cream makers based at Chafford Hundred (www.jwicecreamcompany.ltd). The company also had a popular stall at the festival, serving ice cream tasters and selling individual tubs of their delicious products.

JW Ice Cream Company L-R Shans, Jay, Tracy and Mia
Photo by Wendy Pike

Shenfield Operatic Society

Earlier in the day, members of Shenfield Operatic Society came along with their Musical Director Alli Smith to sing Christmas carols to festival goers and to promote their latest show, All Shook Up, which runs at The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch 30th Jan – 2nd Feb. Along with lots of popular, traditional carols, the group gave a hearty rendition of The Twelve (Brentwood) Beers of Christmas. (See the video – in the brewery’s next blog post.)

Members of Shenfield Operatic Society in fine voice at the brewery’s Christmas Beer Festival.
Photo by Wendy Pike

Next Year

If you happened to miss the panto, (and it really was an amusing sight to behold) there are whispers of another possible panto production next year. Let’s raise a glass to that.

Local CAMRA members with Brewery Liaison Officer Beryl (in pink) with Roland.
Photo by Wendy Pike

BIG THANKS

Roland and the Brewery Team would like to thank everyone who came along to watch, participate and perform in the panto. Special thanks go to our local CAMRA group and Brewery Liaison Officer Beryl, Shenfield Operatic Society, SNAP charity, JW Ice Cream Company and Lillypuds, as well as all visitors to the Christmas Beer Festival.

Panto Audience Participants enjoying a beer and a sing-a-long.
Photo by Wendy Pike

Love Beer, Love Brentwood

Beer Hampers

05 Dec 2018

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by Wendy

If you’re stuck for a Christmas gift idea for someone who loves real ale, we’d like to recommend … a Brentwood Beer Hamper.

It contains 4 x bottles of Brentwood Beer, a pint glass, a bar towel, a pen & a bottle-opening keyring, all packaged in a gift hamper. All for £22.

Beer Hampers can be ordered on our website but are for collection only from the Brewery Shop (we feel the glass is quite likely to break if we try to post them).

Or if you’re passing, you could call in and buy a hamper from the Brewery Shop. As you know, we’re next door to Calcott Hall Farm Shop.

Love Beer, Love Brentwood

New for Christmas 2018

04 Dec 2018

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by Wendy

To help keep you refreshed this Christmas here are four new festive Brentwood Beers to tempt you:

Crimble Crumble 4.5%

Santa’s Sack 4%

Toblerone Stout 4.5%

Jungle All the Way 4.3%

We ho-ho-hope you enjoy a tasty, festive pint of Brentwood Beer this Christmas.

Love Beer, Love Brentwood

Beer Tasting at Library – New Date

09 Nov 2018

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by Wendy

Following a highly enjoyable evening at Harold Wood Library’s Beer Tasting event, which Brentwood Brewery was invited to run as part of Havering Library Festival, Havering Libraries have invited us back. This time the Beer Tasting event is at Elm Park Library on Thursday 15^th November at 7.30pm.

Debbie and Roland Kannor at Harold Wood Library Beer Tasting

Tickets for the Elm Park Library Beer Tasting, costing £10 each, are available from Eventbrite or local libraries. Here’s the Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/brentwood-brewery-tasting-event-tickets-49984461871

Elm Park Library, 12 Saint Nicholas Avenue, Hornchurch, RM12 4PT.

Attendees Enjoying Some Brentwood Beer at Havering Libraries’ Recent Beer Tasting Event at Harold Wood Library

There’ll be a good range of different Brentwood-brewed beers to taste. Hope you can join Roland and team for a fun night out.

Love Beer, Love Brentwood

Gold Wins Gold at SIBA East

12 Oct 2018

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by Wendy

Brentwood Gold has won the Gold award in its class at SIBA East’s Beer Competition. It came top in the Bottled British Bitter (up to 4.4%) award and is the East of England region’s champion beer in this category. The Society of Independent Brewers East (region) Beer Competition was held at Elgoods Brewery in Wisbech earlier this month (September).

The brewery is so delighted that Roland and Bill, with a little help from Ethan, have made a short video in celebration:

It means that Brentwood Gold goes through to the national beer competition at SIBA Beer X which will be held in Liverpool next March where the eight regional Gold winners will battle it out for the national title.

Brentwood Brewing Company MD Roland Kannor said: “We’re very pleased to win a gold award for one of our most popular beers and one of my personal favourites; Brentwood Gold. On to the finals in Liverpool!”