The most important things in life are good food, good drink and good company, which is why we’ve decided to bring Lone Goat Brewing Co. to life. Hosted at Sadeh, LGBC is a pickle kitchen and brewery bringing the community together through pickles, beer and education, whilst donating a share of our revenue back to Sadeh.
Sadeh Farm is a Jewish registered charity based in Kent, the garden of England, centred on regenerative agriculture, environmental education and community food growing.
Lone Goat's aim is to build and enrich the Sadeh community. Where Sadeh focuses on teaching the community to grow food, LGBC teaches the importance of preservation and processing that food, the importance of ingredients, and the importance of food in community.
We take a holistic view on food production. The vegetables are grown next to us, we process them, and return the waste to the compost. We sell the produce through our cafe where they’re consumed. The vegetable’s lifecycle is fully integrated into Sadeh and Lone Goat.
We’re setting up a farmhouse nano brewery to produce beer. It won’t be ordinary beer though, that would be too easy. We’ll be utilising rare yeast strains to give our beers unique character, as well as culturing and developing our own, and adding hops grown on our farm.
Being a nano brewery gives us the flexibility to make beer for a range of needs. Whilst we’ll produce three house brews, we’ll also make seasonal beers, one off specials, and cater to community events such as parties, weddings, cabbage funerals etc.
Currently it’s running as a “home brewery” where we can make trial batches and experiments, but can’t yet sell it. We need to upgrade some of the equipment, buy suitable fermenters, increase safety features and get proper lockable storage for stock. We’re also sorting out licences to legally produce and sell beer.
If it ferments, we’ll ferment it. We love sauerkraut and experimenting, and with such a wealth of vegetables and fruits around us there are limitless recipes and dishes to be made. Each batch of kraut will be different - whatever we have to hand or feel like making that week - as it’s more fun to make and eat that way.
We want to launch with two product lines: Sauerkraut and mini ferments. The former will be different batch to batch, and the latter will showcase different ferments, seasonal produce and one off productions.
We make the pickles in a five star rated commercial kitchen on site at Sadeh. We’ve produced a few batches so far but we’re looking for the ability to increase our capacity.
Having a brewery and pickle kitchen is an excellent community resource and we plan to utilise it to the fullest. We plan on running brew days, pickling classes, food and beer pairings, pickle pairings, beer tastings and other events. Through these, we can build community and teach about the importance of food production, preservation and the impact food has on the environment.
The Crowdfunder campaign will be live from 11th November - 9th December 2020, and during this time you can donate and reserve rewards. By doing this you’ll be contributing to Lone Goat Brewing Co.’s startup costs.
The crowdfunding campaign closes on the 9th December, and if we hit our target the good people at Crowdfunder will hand the money over shortly after. We do have some stock of pickles and can start sending them out on a first come first serve basis, however if all goes well we’ll have a lot more pickles to make than usual, which this crowdfunder will finance. Whilst some backers should get their pickles relatively soon others might have to wait until the batch is ready, which might take two to three months.
Similarly, we’ll be in touch with those who have bought a pickling class, brewery tour or brewday to find a suitable date. However, as Covid-19 restrictions change it may be that we’ll have to postpone events. We will hold a class for you - we’re as excited to teach as you are to learn - but it might have to wait until it’s safe to do so.
There’s a saying in brewing: brewers make wort, yeast makes beer. This rings true for pickles as well. Goats make salty cabbage, lactobacillus makes sauerkraut (or something to that effect). Making most fermented foods comes with some risk of the batch going bad, and in the unlikely event this happens we will have to start again, meaning there may be a delay in getting the pickles to you.
What are we spending this money on? In short, it will enable Lone Goat Brewing Co. to get off the ground and start fermenting. In a bit more detail:
- Bulk buy ingredients including jars, bottles and labels. Not terribly exciting but very important. With more money we can buy bigger orders, meaning each jar of pickles and bottle of beer is cheaper to make. Whilst ingredients is something we’ll be buying regularly, this initial investment will be enough to get us set up. It will also pay for the ingredients needed for this crowdfunder.
- Equipment for pickling: we need to get some fermenters, stationery, environmentally friendly gloves etc.
- Equipment for classes: knives, chopping boards, printed literature designed by our artist Louis, knife sharpener (blunt knives are dangerous!), enough scales for a group.
- Brewery equipment including safer electronics, room upgrades like better locks, fermenters, better plumbing, and specialist equipment required by law.
- Other business costs like website, packaging, marketing, and experimenting.
- A percentage of the income generated from the prints will go to the artists who made them.
All pickles are vegan and all food offered, even as part of a class, is vegan.
Not into pickles but want to help out a good community project? Donate and we’ll be forever grateful. We appreciate donations of all sizes and want everyone to feel part of Lone Goat and Sadeh.
This is from the Queen Goat’s secret stash and she isn’t keen on sharing it. Packing a heated punch, this fermented hot sauce is tangy, hot with a range of flavours brought out from the fermentation. Queen Goat is quite sad we’re giving this away, probably best we stop talking about it.
This three pack of pickles includes our core product, sauerkraut, and two of our mini ferments: could be lacto-fermented carrots, could be garlic sauce, could be courgette pickle, maybe some jam! We’d usually serve the mini ferments in a 300ml jar, but for the crowdfunder we’re using 500ml servings. Lucky you. Our lacto ferments are unpasteurised meaning they contain all the bacterial goodness they were born with, but must be kept refrigerated at all times!
We have 10 hop plants consisting of five varieties growing on site which we will use in our beer production, and you can sponsor one. This will ensure we can carry on using our homegrown plants once the brewery is up and operational. When the time is right, we can take a cutting of the rhizome for you to grow in your garden, and we’ll put a sign by each hop so future visitors will know the key role you played in helping us to start up.
Cuttings can only be taken just before spring, so if you’d like a cutting please let us know and we will send them out around this time. We don’t spray our hops with any chemicals, and grow our plants using only organic methods.
The above three pickles and a limited edition Lone Goat Brewing Co. branded beer glass, only available through this crowdfunder to help you wash down all those pickles you’ll be eating. Whilst pickle brine has health benefits, drinking an entire pint of it may be a bit much at once. If that is your jam though, we don’t judge.
Prints may vary
The above pickles and 5 postcard prints from the artists behind LGBC. Our art expresses our vision, values and our humorous underbelly, and we’ve been lucky to work with two very talented artists from the beginning.
Josh, the goat herder, has been brewing beer for a number of years building the Lone Goat Brewing Co. concept along the way. Louis Valenzuela and Jamie Kyle have designed some amazing labels for these homebrews which are good enough to be artworks on their own.
At Sadeh and Lone Goat, we support artists and a percentage of these sales will go towards them.
Ever wondered how beer is made? Maybe you know how beer is made but want to look around a brewery anyway? Come on our brewery tour and learn about how we make beer at Lone Goat Brewing Co. You’ll see how beer gets from grain to glass, including the interesting yeasts we use to give our beers their unique character.
But wait, there’s more! Being adjacent to the farm means we can also go see the various hops growing in the field and learn how they are part of the wider ecosystem at Sadeh. Learn about other uses for hops and how they became a staple ingredient in beer.
As we go around the brewery and farm, you’ll be sampling some of the produce made at LGBC too.
Whilst we’d love to show people around the brewery and farm every day, hop growing season is from April to mid-September, and we would look to hold tours during this time so you can see these marvellous plants. October to March, you’d be staring at muddy patches in the field.
If you can’t tell by now, we’re hugely into a variety of pickles. It’s upsetting to see them relegated to mere sides or a cheap burger garnish afterthought. With a range of flavours, these delicious snacks used correctly can elevate a meal to the next dimension. See how pickles can transform food and how to make the most out of them as snacks.
We want to serve you the best pickles available, including some which aren’t easy to find in most shops, therefore we are at the mercy of Sadeh’s harvest. This event will be best in the autumn when we’ve harvested and processed the season’s veg.
Everyone loves a hamper, but a pickle hamper is way better than any other. Receive jars of sauerkraut, mini ferments, a glass, as well as some art prints and other tasty treats we can create.
Do you want to know how to make pickles as well as I do? Come to the farm to learn how to make krunchy krout, carrots and hot sauce. Take home some pickles with you and munch down on tasty snacks throughout the day. The classes offered here will be smaller than normal for a more intimate setting.
You’ll learn how to make sure your ferments come out well every time, and be confident making your own ferments using a range of vegetables and ingredients.
Roll up your sleeves and get hooves-on as you spend the day making a Lone Goat beer. Learn about the importance of all the ingredients whilst sampling Lone Goat’s produce, and take home some beer either on the day or come back to collect the beer you made.
It’s not possible to ferment without a fermenter, and by adopting one you’re enabling the capacity needed to make the pickles we want to make. These special crock pots last a lifetime and allow LGBC to make pickles for as long as we can. We’ll be looking at getting some specialist 20 litre vegetable fermentation crocks to produce our awesome pickles in.
You’ll get to name the crock, and when you visit the farm you have the opportunity to see the crock, pet it, stroke it, whisper loving words into its protective moat. You’ll also get a jar of whatever it produces whenever it’s ready, and we will send a 3 pack of pickles. You’ll also be a hero of the herd.
Maybe it all sounds good to you and you want a piece of everything. Maybe you want to invite a pickle and beer loving friend along? This is for you. As well as being a hero of the herd, you’ll get invited to a brew day, pickling class, a load of pickles and pickle goodies, art prints and a glass. You can also bring a lucky friend along to the events, and will receive extra pickles to share with them.
There's a lot here to chose from, and we can answer any questions you may have about these perks or Lone Goat Brewing Co. We appreciate any support, whether directly buying a reward or sharing this with your friends.
Thank you!
This campaign is being spearheaded by a member of ROI Community and has been awarded a matching grant. ROI Community is an international network of over 1,600 Jewish activists, entrepreneurs and innovators who are enhancing Jewish engagement and fostering positive social change globally. Learn more about ROI Community here.