Introduction
Hi I'm Rich Archer, founder and Managing Director of Utopian Brewing. We started brewing in Devon in 2019. In those five years, despite the hiatus going on around us, we have grown every year and are now selling our beers across the UK and internationally. We have won numerous awards and last year hit the milestone of brewing more than 1m pints in year.
We are all very proud of what our little brewery has achieved so far. But there is still one question that we get asked, a lot, that we want to change the answer to and that is :
"Do you have your own tap room or a bar where we can find your beers?”
Right now, the answer to that is 'No' but we are here to change that.
We are going to create a new, independent and original bar and eatery right in the centre of Exeter. The venue will showcase not just our beers, but also provide a fresh, healthy, and locally sourced food menu, a great indie wine list, a wide selection of AF drinks, and of course other great beers from our favourite brewing industry pals.
We are running this crowdfunder to give you the opportunity to join us on the next part of our exciting journey and your donations, in return for a wide variety of fabulous rewards, will be a key part of that. We hope we've created a variety of rewards to fit a wide range of budgets and that there is something in here that appeals to you.
Much more than just a simple tap room, we want to create an inclusive, relaxed and fun place to meet, eat and drink. We intend to do that here, in Northernhay, right in the heart of Exeter and it will be called ARCADIA.
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A Brief History of Utopian Brewing
Our journey began back in 2017 with a crazy idea to brew a range of craft lagers in London. We did a lot of research, and endured a lot of frustration with Merton Council, but just couldn't make it all work in London. So, in early 2018 my wife Gill and I gave up on the South West London planners, upped sticks, and took the plunge to take the lager idea to Devon. We had discovered two former farm barns that we could convert into a brewery and that once crazy idea had now become a plan.
In late 2018, just ahead of the brew kit arriving, we were joined by Head Brewer Jeremy Swainson, with Matt Peel joining soon after as Sales Manager. In March 2019 we packed the first batch of our signature Premium lager (still our best seller) and that crazy plan had finally become reality.
That initial crew of Utopian pioneers are all still here, and we now have a much bigger team of 12 happy souls, brewing, packing and delivering more than 1.3 million pints last year, to more than 200 loyal customers across the UK and beyond.
The Plan for Arcadia
The Vision
As the plan began to develop around creating our first site, we thought long and hard about what we wanted it to be.
Of course we wanted a showcase for our beers, but more than that it also had to be a place that would be equally welcoming to people who don't like beer, and to those who want to drink less or no alcohol. We want to create a place for great food but recognise that dining trends are changing. We think small plates and sharers, 'grazing food' if you like, are becoming an in increasingly popular way to eat out and so that's what our menu will be built around.
We think there is a shortage of venues in Exeter offering this format of local indie relaxed food and drink, so as well as filling a gap for us, we think Arcadia will also be adding something new and exciting to the city.
Arcadia will be inclusive, fresh and welcoming to all, with quality at its heart and great value at its core.
The Site
Arcadia was formerly a restaurant called Circa 1924. Spread over two floors, with a lovely beamed ceiling upstairs, a large kitchen downstairs, and space for well over 100 guests.
The challenges that we now face are primarily two fold (but not just two!). Firstly as a former restaurant the bar and cellar areas are too small and the kitchen space is a bit big. The second issue is that as the site has been closed for 2 years, there is a lot of work to be done to bring it back to operating standard, and to become the fresh, welcoming, functional space we are looking for. Added to that there are quite a lot of works required to get the utilities all back on stream and fully tested.
So all in all quite a lot of work to be done and money to be spent. And that's before we have stared on the decoration and the games!
But we don't get phased by these types of challenge, we think this is a fantastic site to create what we are striving for.
Our design will both integrate with our core values and provide a highly flexible space that can easily be re-arranged from music nights to gourmet tastings and then back again to a relaxed, after work snack, or for a board game and a beer.
The Offer
First up, we want Arcadia to be a place that welcomes everyone and not just beer lovers. We have an exciting new menu planned that will provide a selection of small plates and sharers with dishes inspired by international cuisine, but all lovingly made fresh on site from locally sourced ingredients.
Of course we will be showcasing Utopian beers but we will also have an extensive independent wine list, featuring some great small producer international wines, alongside wines from the South West.
On the bar we will have 12 keg lines with a wide selection of Utopian beers, local ciders and other great independent beers from a rotating selection of our brewery chums. We will also have 4 cask lines serving both cask ales and cask ciders.
We currently plan to open 6 days a week to ensure all our staff get a breather. We will open all day on the those days and food will be available all day both for eat in and takeaway.
The Team
If I have learnt anything in my 30 ish years in business it is that whilst it is important to have exciting business ideas, to make any idea a reality depends entirely on building a good team.
I am very pleased that we have been able to bring together not just a good team, but a great one to take this plan forward and create an engaging and successful long term business.
- Graham Plant heads up operations. He has spent a lifetime in hospitality most recently in senior management roles with Bourne Leisure. He brings a huge amount of experience and insight to the team. Graham is a personal investor in Utopian and so is doubly invested in this project.
- Dan Ward is our newly appointed General Manager for the site. Dan also brings a wealth of hospitality experience, initially as a chef, then in a varied range of operational and general management roles. He is busy helping plan the offer, building his team, planning the menus and preparing everything to be ready for launch.
- Chloe Wynn, founder of Maven design studios, is leading on the design of our beautifully crafted, welcoming space. She is not just an amazing designer but also shares our passion for sustainability. Her designs are inspired by nature, culture, and the senses, with circularity always in mind. We are very excited to have Chloe on board and to seeing her turn our vision into a reality.
We are making great progress with recruiting Dan's operational team now too.
Utopian and Arcadia Core Values
Our initial mission statement at Utopian was to "brew a range of high quality lagers, using only British grown ingredients, to provide a genuine alternative to the international mega brewers".
Creating an original, high quality, locally sourced, independent alternative to the big brands, is now exactly what we also intend to do at Arcadia.
We built Utopian around 4 key principles and these values will also form the core at Arcadia.
- Quality Everything we do starts and ends with a zero compromise approach to quality. This applies to everything we do, from the brewing of our beers and the cooking of our food, to how we serve our customers and treat our suppliers.
- Sustainability We care about the future of the planet and will always endeavour to find ways to continue to reduce our footprint. We are now self-sufficient in carbon dioxide (CO2) at the Brewery from the use of a capture and reprocessing unit. We have a wastewater treatment plant in commissioning and use LED movement sensing lighting. All of our cardboard cartons are FSC approved card and we have a zero single use plastic policy. Sustainability will be at the heart of Arcadia.
- Authentic and Natural We believe in brewing using traditional techniques and in using only natural ingredients. We brew using only ingredients grown in the UK and do not use additives. The menus at Arcadia will also use just locally grown, natural ingredients and be as healthy as we can possibly make them.
- Developing Our People Nothing happens without the team and we are nothing without them. We believe in vocational training and in continuous developement. At Utopian have two team members on the brewers' apprentice scheme and are supporting three more through their Institute of Brewing qualifications. We will mirror this training and development philosophy at Arcadia as well as adopting the Utopian commitment to being a Real Living Wage Employer.
The Crowdfunder
This crowdfunder is intended to raise some additional funding to that being provided by the brewery, to get all the work done and to get the site operational. We have come up with a range of rewards in return for various levels of donations, as we want everyone to have a chance to participate and become part of our supporter family.
Everyone who participates with a donation will have their name on display on the "Supporter Champions Board" in public view in Arcadia and of course will forever have our massive gratitude.
Rewards range from a £30 donation, getting a 33% bonus uplift, for a £40 bar tab , right up to a brew day experience where you will spend a full day at Utopian, not just watching a brew day, but brewing your own beer, with up to 5 friends on our pilot kit. The beer will be packaged exclusively for you in personalised labelled cans.
There are also lots of great options in between so hopefully something for everyone. We would love you to participate in this fund raise and to play a pivotal part in helping to make the next part of our dream come true.
So what happens now ?
Hopefully you like what you have seen and heard and would like to support our project. If you do then please just take a look through the list of available reward options, select the donation and reward that you are comfortable with and in doing so you will become a very valued supporter of Utopian's next stage of its development.
You can of course select more than one option if you wish.
Share with your friends
If you like what you have seen then please do share the link with any friends or family that you think may also be interested. The wider we spread the word the more chance we will have of reaching the target. The more people that are aware of our project the more chance we have of success.
Huge thanks in advance from all of us for your support
Rich and the whole of the Utopian and Arcadia family.