We aim to buy a canning machine to help expand our delivery market to your homes, keep our Brewery alive in these trying times.
The Story
Mill Valley Brewery began life in a garage in 2015; the hobby of Steve Hemingway who had a vision to create unique craft ales and beers.
His passion and determination saw him move into a unit at Woodroyd Mills in 2016 to allow him to expand the brewing operations. We opened in pallet bar in June 2016 was added into the corner, with a single pump so that his beers could be shared with friends and neighbours and their opinions helped to shape the future of Mill Valley Brewery.
All the beers in production were Vegan Friendly and still are today! There has also been a couple of awards picked up, notably for the Chocolate Orange Stout and Fudge Stout!
Over the following years, the hard work continued. Steve’s long-suffering wife, Wendy joined the team in 2017 as the Mill Valley Taproom in Cleckheaton became a “real” bar. More seating was added, a proper bar was introduced, and indoor toilets were created (a real luxury for the regulars!) Live music became a staple of Saturday nights, comedy evenings sold out as soon as tickets were released, and the open mic sessions saw people flocking to showcase their talents.
In 2019, the success of Mill Valley Brewery meant that Steve was searching for a new premises to increase brewing capacity. He moved into the Brew House in Liversedge, the 12-barrel system there allowed us to increase our brewing capacity. This also meant opening the small Taproom at the front – to the delight of local people who had seen this close a few years previously. Mill Valley Brewery were now able to brew 3 days a week, for the two taps and for pubs, restaurants and bars from Blackpool to Hull & from Newcastle down to Nottingham.
COVID-19
Then Covid-19 hit.
Both bars were closed, the brewery shut down and the staff furloughed. Steve and Wendy continued to work, providing a local delivery and collection service.
To save most of the brewed barrels from waste, we sent the barrels to a bottling manufactured company; with the idea that these niche, vegan craft ales could be sold in local delis and specialist food shops. After huge delays, the Bottling company returned every single barrel, many damaged, and had to be poured down the drain as they could not fulfill our order.
Seeing all the beer go to waste we were devastating. The loss of money was devastating. The future of Mill Valley was in jeopardy – restricted opening time with reduced capacity meant that sales through the bars were at an all-time low.
Then the second lock down hit.
THE PLAN B
Steve Not one to sit down and wallow. He came up with a clever plan! (See Wendy there with her head in her hands!?)
If Mill Valley Brewery started our own canning line, we could be in charged in sorting the canning.
This is where we need your help & support.
We genuinely believe in the future success of Mill Valley Brewery and our vision is that people from all over the UK can enjoy our vegan craft ales. So, if the canning cannot be done elsewhere, Steve & Wendy will do it ourselves!
Why A Canning Line?
It Will
- Enable Mill Valley Brewery to bring a greater variety of beers to supply to demand for the canning market, that better suits our diverse product range
- An extra string to our bow to Safeguard against the disruption in the draught market
- Delivery directly to people homes across the UK & save cost in bringing packaging in house
- Split packaging across draught and small pack according to demand for a particular style
- and see the possibility of Mill Valley Vegan Craft Ales been drunk around the world!
We are excited at what the canning line can do over 700 per hour, but we need your help to make it happen! This is hard to do – but we are asking our customers for your support as we are starting crowd funding page to meet the cost of the machinery.
We have put together a crowdfunding package that we think gives back as much as it asks for. We are both about community involvement in our business, and this crowd funding is as much about us getting our canning line as it is about rewarding your faith in our Mill Valley Brewery. We did not want to go back to the bank and borrow the money for this machine, we wanted to create a real Mill Valley Community – with customers feeling like this is “their” brewery.
The Mill valley Team are looking for donations to help with the future success of our business.
This project successfully funded on 27th December 2020