Target reached!
Help us go from surviving to thriving! With our stretch target the dream is to creat...
Love Cornwall? Love Skinner’s beer? We need YOU!
Truro, England, United Kingdom
Aim
NEW GOAL: To give back to the community by creating an outdoor eating, drinking & events space at the brewery, a game-changer for us & Truro
We’re thrilled to unveil an animated impression of Skinner’s Brewery Bar, sharing this exciting vision of our new outdoor venue here in Truro. With your help via our Crowdfunder Campaign, we hope to make this dream a reality by late spring!
As you can see this project will create a buzzing new social space just moments from Lemon Quay; perfect for after-work drinks, leisurely weekend brunches and long-overdue gatherings of friends.
Skinner’s Brewery Bar will have a casual, working-brewery feel, with repurposed beer barrels, wooden benches and shipping containers – which will house a vibrant street food offering. Softened by lots of green planting (fruit trees and hops of course!) festoon lighting and timber cladding, the space will be designed to take you seamlessly from day to night, when that stage will really come into it’s own! They’ll be three areas; Alfresco Square, Woodland Hangout & Skinner’s Corner – we’ll leave it to you to find your crews’ regular spot!
We’ll be looking after the drinks of course, with our freshest brews on tap. But this project is about becoming more than just a brewery; you’ll find great food, live music, DJs and events here throughout the year. Jobs, opportunities and diversification will all flow from this game-changing project, allowing us to give back to our community whilst also becoming a more resilient business in the future.
Huge thanks to Adam and the team at Märraum in Penryn for putting this architectural visualisation together in record time, and to The Oggymen for the lend of Down By The Riverside (can’t wait to have you belt out a few notes here guys!)
Get behind this post-pandemic project for Cornwall’s capital city and help us create a new food and drink hang-out to liven things up a bit! There are still plenty of great rewards available on our Crowdfunder Page (where you can buy Beer In The Bank tokens to spend this spring!) See you soon...
Brighter times are coming, but things have been touch and go for Skinner’s during the pandemic. With the latest news that many pubs won't reopen until May, we are asking for your help to get over the final hurdle. We’d love to be there for you in the sunshine-filled, Lushingtons kind-of-days ahead!
For us specifically, 2020 was a perfect storm. Covid hit just as the business was in a key transition phase, leaving us extremely vulnerable.
During this time, our tap room, brewery tours, onsite shop and the Old Ale House in Truro - and of course the whole of the UK - had to close, leaving us without key income generators.
We’ve made it this far, and we can almost hear the first pints being poured. There is light at the end of the long Covid tunnel, and we have so many exciting plans for our beloved brewery. We just need YOU, our loyal Skinner’s crew, to carry us over the final hurdle and into that bright future, where we can all raise a pint together!
In case saving your favourite band of Cornish brewers wasn’t enough, we’ve come up with some awesome rewards to thank you for giving us a leg up.
From first access to our new release of Chapel Rock, Crisp Cornish Session IPA (the first time we’ve bottled this beauty!) to signed prints celebrating our three core brands; from the ultimate brewday experience to a year’s worth of beer - the warm glow of appreciation awaits you - and there’s plenty of beer to go around too…
Every week has felt like a marathon since March 2020 as we’ve battled some scary scenarios, all the while fearing for the future of our iconic brewery and close-knit team.
Pubs, restaurants and hotels – accounting for up to 70% of our turnover – have been either closed or operating under restrictions for almost a year now and, like many other breweries, we are officially running on empty!
With the latest news that the majority of Britain's pubs won't be able to open for months yet (not all pubs have large outdoor areas, and even if they do opening exclusively outdoors may not be viable) there is a real danger that our operating costs will drag us under before then.
Covid also meant that so many exciting plans for new beers, tour experiences, tap room nights and community events simply didn’t happen. All of this has left us in a state of limbo we’d dearly love to put behind us.
We’re the real thing! Skinner’s Brewery is woven into the fabric of Cornwall, and the incredible food and drink scene of the South West. We’re not a microbrewery, nor are we a giant, we’re simply an 100% independent quality brewery, owned and run by a husband and wife team, who employ a dedicated and passionate local workforce.
Flying the Cornish Flag
We supply the best pubs in Cornwall, as well as flying the Cornish flag across the UK and beyond. Skinner’s have helped put Cornish beer on the map since 1997, first with Betty Stogs - which won Champion Best Bitter of Great Britain - and more recently with contemporary classics like Porthleven and Lushingtons.
We love giving back!
From PTA raffles to helping transform Truro Cathedral into one huge dancefloor to raise money for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity, Skinner’s is proud to have given huge amounts of time and product to good causes in the local community.
Alongside the Queen of Cornish Ales, Betty Stogs, we estimate we’ve raised over £500,000 for grassroots charities over the years (Betty, aka Fred Thomas, and her famous bucket has raised on her own in excess of £200k in just over 10 years, truly amazing!) Community is what we live for here at Skinner’s, and we can’t wait to get back into the thick of things again.
We’ve got big plans!
As an independent brewery we are agile, honest and passionate. We have plans for a whole host of new beers, plus introducing an exciting canned range. We stand on the cusp of a bright new era, if we could just make it through this sticky patch! And we cannot wait to welcome you back to the brewery for tours, tastings and exclusive experiences.
We bring the fun!
From quenching thirsty voices at the International Sea Shanty Festival, to pouring pint after pint at Falmouth Oyster Festival, you can always count on finding Skinner’s at the heart of a crowd (at least when such a thing was allowed!)
The Old Ale House
Our brewpub, The Old Ale House, is one of the best places to enjoy a pint in the whole of Cornwall, and a great venue for live music in the heart of the city. We can't wait to get the beer flowing here again!
Sales were down over 70% last year, leaving us with a huge hole in our finances that even the best cost-cutting measures won’t fix any time soon. But, on the plus side, we have survived so far by the skin of our teeth; our pride may be a little battered but our independence, aspiration and passion is intact.
We want to turn this incredibly tough experience into a positive, using this moment to reset and move forward with greater clarity and purpose than ever before.
For example, online sales of bottles have been so successful that we are now determined to invest in a canning line to help us reach new audiences and also to reduce our environmental impact through transportation emissions.
We’re not asking for handouts, we’re asking for a leg-up!
We’re aiming to raise a minimum of £100,000 - enough to help keep us operational until the pubs finally reopen - first outdoors from 12th April and then hopefully fully from 17th May - and at long last our income begins to pick up again.
The idea is that this will give us a cash injection to start brewing a wider range of beers for you to drink once again.
It will also give us the financial impetus to initiate launchpad projects – improving the website, purchasing a canning line etc – all of which are designed to secure the future of the brewery in an exciting and sustainable form.
Basically, we want your help to take us from surviving to thriving!
We’ve put our heads together and come up with a range of rewards which offer bang for buck.
From an exclusive release of Chapel Rock (in bottles - new and exclusively available first for Crowdfunder supporters) and early access to fresh merch, 'Beer In The Bank' beer vouchers, to post-Covid party invites, there are experiences here that only your generous support for the brewery can buy.
Remember, beer and merchandise will arrive with supporters by the end of April - something to look forward to! Cost of delivery is included.
Now is the time to save our Skinner’s, so that we can raise a pint with you in the future! May Betty bless you all x
This project successfully funded on 29th March 2021