Brighton Bier Story

Brighton Bier is merging with cask ale wholesale specialists WithSoul and fellow Sussex brewery Franklins, in a new venture that we are all very excited about.

We wanted to combine our passion for beer with our shared ambition to play a lead role in the revival of Brighton’s once proud and independent commercial brewing heritage, and put the city firmly back on the brewing map. While continuing to brew at its historic Brighton home in Kemp Town brewpub the Hand in Hand, joining forces means that Brighton Bier will initially be expanding its proud gypsy brewing heritage by utilising the additional cask ale capacity of the Franklins Brewery.

“The quality, integrity and provenance of both the brewery and our beers are of absolute importance. Brighton Bier will never ‘contract’ brew a beer and all beers will be designed and brewed in person, whatever the location, by either myself or Steve Medniuk”. (Gary Sillence, founder of Brighton Bier)

As well as a full range of cask ales, Brighton Bier will also be producing bottled, canned and keg beers including a new lager, in response to customer demand. We are also thrilled at the prospect of collaborating with other micro breweries on exciting one-off projects; so believe us when we say we’ve got some great ideas for this. As a gypsy brewery Brighton Bier will be sourcing available brewing and packaging capacity for some of our new beers at independent host breweries with facilities best suited to specific beers. For us this is just a temporary solution until we relocate to a new location in Brighton and build a completely new brewery where all possible production will be brought back in-house, which we’ll be striving to do as quickly as possible without comprising the quality of our beers.

 “Our aim is for the new brewery to be much more than just a commercial venture. We want it to be a hub for regeneration, tourism and job creation in the city. We want to excite and educate local people about beer and brewing, and involve wherever possible local companies and suppliers.” (Steve Medniuk, Franklins Brewery owner, ex-Dark Star and Purity)

The merger will enable us to produce and directly distribute a wider range of beers across Brighton and South East England. We will be supplementing our own ales with an unparalleled range of beer from more than forty of the UK’s most exciting breweries.

"By combining the new and extended range of Brighton Biers with the existing wholesale and distribution business of WithSoul, our customers will have access to a unique range of beers from exciting breweries across the country. As well as having a choice of great beers, we want to make our customers’ lives a bit easier by offering them one point of contact, one invoice and one delivery. Many of the beers would otherwise be unavailable to order as single casks, if at all in the South East region.” (Ollie Fisher and Steve Whitehurst, WithSoul)

 

In the short-term, some Franklins beers will still be available to fulfil existing contractual obligations, which is good news for our customers as it will give them more beers to choose from.

At Brighton Bier our plan is to embrace the attitude, ingredients and flavour profiles of the progressive beer styles from Belgium, North America and beyond, but to do so in a way that respects the character and historical integrity of British ale. Most importantly of all, we also want to produce great beer at a great price for our customers.

There will be a launch party at the Craft Beer Co, Brighton, from 7.30pm Thursday 14th November.

http://thecraftbeerco.com/2013/11/brighton-bier-co-launch/

 

We look forward to sharing a beer or two with you very soon.

 

Cheers

 

Gary, Steve, Steve and Ollie

http://www.brightonbier.com/

http://franklinsbrewery.co.uk/

http://www.withsoul.co.uk/