Normally, when we at Beer Merchants come to look at the top new breweries of the year, it is usually a year of traveling and drinking our way across the amazing beer festivals, tap takeovers, and brewery showcases that usually take place throughout the year. It goes without saying, last year looked very different. Without a doubt, 2020 was the most challenging year on record. Businesses across the industry pivoted, adapted and overcame the constant hurdles.
Whether that be opening up a community based taproom, launching their first beers during a global pandemic, or breaking ground on a new brewery, all of these deserve some serious kudos. Whilst we couldn't meet new friends, we've found a few breakout stars for different reasons.
Picking five of this year’s hottest breweries is no easy task, but with the end of Tryanuary it was an excuse to to try a few new ones and see what the future holds in store. Most of the breweries we have chosen are a cut above the rest for their own unique reasons, but for some the beer was just so damn good we had to include them in the list. We urge you to seek all five out, whatever it takes. We’ll be doing the same, and some will appear on the site from time to time very soon!
Beak Brewery
What a year the Lewes based brewery had. Conceived as a ‘nomadic’ project, The Beak Brewery have spent several years creating unfiltered, seasonally inspired beer with friends at some the greatest UK breweries, including North Brew Co, Partizan, Beavertown, Burning Sky and Northern Monk. Early last year, they settled down in their hometown of Lewes in East Sussex (famous for being home to Harvey’s Brewery.), where they have built a 15-BBL neighbourhood brewery and taproom with a mixed-fermentation project and weekend street food canteen.
Not only that, but they’ve also been gaining all the plaudits as one of the breakout breweries of 2020, so it goes without saying that this year will see The Beak Brewery cementing its place as one of the most exciting new breweries in the UK.
Rivington Brewing
Rivington are a modern craft brewery and tap room founded in 2014 in Rivington. Focusing on innovative modern styles, while drawing inspiration from the past. They hit the Beermerchants shelves in late 2020 and have quickly become one of our top breweries to watch out for.
With near on weekly drops of new beers we thought we had better create a Rivington Mixed Case to keep up, and have selected 8 of the best Rivington beers we currently have on offer.
With their flagship beer, Never Known Fog Like It, a 5.2% New England pale ale, murky, and juicy as anything kind of beer that really shows what these guys can do.
Glasshouse Beer Co.
GlassHouse are a brewery that we’ve had our eyes on for some time, but with their focus mainly on draught beer in the past it meant we couldn’t get out hands on their beer that easily at BM HQ. However, with the news that they’re releasing their first commercial batch of cans, this will be a game changer for the Birmingham based brewery.
After installing a new centralised glycol chiller to feed their growing capacity, they can now put out up to 30k+ cans per month. So being able to put their ridiculously soft and juicy pales, tart fruit ales or even their velvety milk stouts into the hands of more people – we can imagine 2021 being the year you see their beers poppin’ up left, right & centre.
Good Things Brewing Co.
As we move into another year, we are looking towards breweries that are taking the extra steps in their business models and ethics, especially in regard to the environmental impact breweries have. Good Things Brewing Co are the first closed loop, fully sustainable brewery. They bore their own water, create their own power and turn their spent brewers’ grain in to flour which is used all over from pizza restaurants to bakeries. Not only that, every part of their brewing process also happens on their site, from production through to packaging.
Newbarns Brewery
Launching a brewery is no easy task. Launching a brewery in a global pandemic should be near impossible. That didn’t stop Emma and George. With a little help from Freddy and James. With a CV as great as theirs, plus a few early gypsy brews at The Kernel, they opened their brewery in Leith. Taking their influence from easy going Germanic beers. We’ve seen a full range of their beers on our site over the last year, and expect even more.
