Who are we?
We are Driftwood Spars Brewery. An award winning independent microbrewery based 100 meters from the coast in Trevaunance Cove, North Cornwall.
We are:
Lou (left) - Brewery Owner and Landlady of the pub of the same name which is situated right across the road. Keen wild swimmer, no wetsuit necessary (even in this weather) and lover of all things beer, especially Lou's Brew - her very own English IPA.
Mike (middle) - Having been offered a brewing position by Pete, our founding Head Brewer who sadly passed away in early 2020, Mike took the reigns as Head Brewer. He surfs in his spare time and as a surfer from the midlands, he will attempt to surf in a puddle if the wind whips up enough chop. His all time favourite beer is a tie between Cask Marston's Pedigree or Left Hand Brewing's Nitro Milk Stout, depending on the setting.
Tim (right) - Tim rejoined the brewery recently after a two year hiatus and loves long distance bikepacking (a hip way of saying backpacking with a bike). He also loves experimenting with alternative brewing ingredients on his brewkit at home. His favourite beer? It changes every week!
What do we do?
For over 10 years we have brewed small batch, traditional beers with exclusively British hops and malt. We choose to use British ingredients for two reasons, firstly to reduce our environmental impact through avoiding long boat and airplane trips for our hops. Secondly we are completely committed to empowering the local economy, where we can we will always spend our money locally.
Recently we launched our more contemporary Cove range of canned beers using locally sourced ingredients such as Seabuckthorn Berries and taking inspiration from the sights and stories around us, these include a 6% Milk Stout, a 21st century English IPA and as a Christmas special we brewed a Gingerbread Imperial Stout.
What's next?
Since the beginning we have been relentlessly experimenting, we've worked alongside British hop growers to experiment with new varieties - we brewed with Harlequin years before it had a catchy name, to us it was known as CF212. In 2018 we were the first Cornish brewery to become completely Gluten Free and in 2020 we made all but one of our core beers Vegan.
With the introduction of our new Head Brewer Mike, perfecting big, decadent stouts has been a focus of ours, as well as using more of the natural ingredients that surround us. That's where we, as brewers, have fun - experimenting, tweaking and letting our imaginations run wild.
We have always wrestled with the fact that whilst our brew kit isn't huge, the minimum amount of beer we can brew is somewhere around 900 pints, which is a lot of beer to brew to test an idea we've not perfected yet. The COVID-19 situation has really amplified this issue for us meaning we just can't risk brewing such a large quantity of any experimental beers. You can imagine how daunting it was, mid lockdown, adding a bucketful of Seabuckthorn Berry juice to a full batch of a perfectly good saison in hope that it would make it a brilliant beer...
The solution? A Pilot Kit - a 70 litre brew kit that will sit alongside our current brewery and offer us the flexibility to bring to life those experimental ideas we have. It also means we can be much more flexible in offering bespoke beers for weddings in the pub, we can teach more of the public about how to make beer at a smaller scale and we can test new and exciting British ingredients in manageable sized batches.
Where do you come in?
It's been a tough 12 months for everybody, we know that, that's why we have put together a rewards list we feel is truly good value for money. The first three beers we brew on this kit are exclusively for Crowdfunders only. They will not be available to anybody else and the recipes will be truly unique. Our pilot kit brewdays will be educational, fun and a benefit to everybody from complete novices to experienced homebrewers, and having our crowd's names and messages on the pilot kit will make this a really special part of our brewery, and our story.
We're really excited about what this kit could mean for the future of our brewery, and how much more expressive it will allow us to be with the beers that you guys drink. And that's it for our pitch, thanks for reading and stay safe!