The town of Cockermouth recently suffered a devastating blow to its brewing heritage when Carlsberg Marstons Brewing Company announced the closure of Jennings Brewery, much to the upset of its local community.
The brewery bears the weight of significant heritage for our town and over a century of proud history. Not only did it provide much-loved beer to our community but also drew tourism to our town with its brewery tours and shop.
The people of Cockermouth, and West Cumbria as a whole, are a resilient and proud bunch; we see so much potential in the area and want to play a part in helping it move forwards and thrive.
We are Crooked River Brewing Co, a small-scale beer business run by two locals that specialises in modern styles of craft beer. We recently launched our first beers at Taste Cumbria with an overwhelming sell-out and success. Our beers are sold exclusively to local businesses to help stimulate further trade and support but we are already outgrowing our demand and cannot sustain the production volume for long without upscaling our business.
Our intention is not to be the next Jennings-sized brewery, nor do we wish to replace what they have done for the town or move into their property, we simply want to give the town a fresh start and a chance for continuation of its already established brewing history with a beer brand the area can be recognised for and the community can enjoy.
Our mission is to:
- nurture a thriving craft beer scene in West Cumbria by selling to more local businesses
- introduce a reputable brand of beer that Cockermouth can be recognised for
- help keep Cockermouth on the map as a thriving town with a reputable brewery
- stimulate trade and tourism with brewery tours, classes, talks and events
- create community events, with regular monthly brewery tap days, local food, live music, market stalls and more
...but we cannot do it without your support!
We are only a two-man team and our vision is overshadowed by the cost involved in scaling up our production not to mention the economic climate. We have explored many options but without raising support, we are facing an uncompromising challenge to take the next step.
Whatever funds we raise will contribute to these initial start-up costs to brew at large scale. We need to raise a minimum of £20,000 to cover these initial costs. Any additional donations above this will help massively to cover additional costs to launch our events unfortunately there are no grants offering relief due to our economic climate.
We know we do not stand alone in our vision for Cockermouth and we know there is also a growing community of us who have experienced the thriving craft beer scene across cities and towns in the UK and agree that we deserve to see the same diversity and opportunity here in West Cumbria.
With your help, we can collectively do something not just for us but for our community, our heritage and our future for tourism and trade.
You can learn more about us at www.crooked-river.co.uk
Help us get there and we can celebrate together over beers!
If we do not hit 20K you will be refunded your donations.