Wild Beer Co, Burning Sky and Duration Beer will all supply the blendery with spontaneously fermented wort from their breweries, as well as offering technical advice on how best to blend it to produce barrel-aged beers for sale exclusively at the taproom, scheduled to open in early 2018.
Good Company Blendery will take the wort and barrel age the liquid for up to three years before blending with younger versions in a technique not dissimilar to that employed by Belgian Lambic producers.
Some blends will be aged further over fruits while others will be bottled for sale exclusively from the company's Beer Merchants Tap in east London.
Pushing boundaries and expectations
All three brewers have expressed delight at being included in the project.
“As soon as we heard about the project we wanted to get involved in as big a way possible,” said Brett Ellis, head brewer at Wild Beer Co. “It’s a great honour for us to be recognised and partnered with the Good Company Blendery. I feel this is coming at the perfect time for the UK beer scene.
“Pushing boundaries and expectations has been Wild Beer Co’s unique selling point from day one, so we are very eager to get creating with some new components and materials.
“It’s great spontaneous beer is getting the renaissance it deserves,” added Derek Bates, founder of Duration Brewing. “We will be doing all we can to help the blendery come into being and to be a roaring success.
“We will be providing the wort made in our coolship for starters and, when operational, I’ll give training and some practical sessions on the coolship, using foeders and all the mother strain good stuff we’ll have going on.”
“We’re absolutely stoked to be announcing that we will be supplying inoculated wort to the blendery from our coolship,” said Mark Tranter of Burning Sky. “Cave has been fighting the good fight for many years, supplying gueuze and other Belgian wonders when they were far from trendy, but to us at Burning Sky, this project shows a level of maturity and faith in the UK beer scene we have been yearning for.
“The Cave guys are nailing their hearts to their sleeves and we are humbled to be on board.”
Steep learning curve
Cave Direct head of marketing Jonny Garrett added: “To have brewers of this calibre so excited by our project that they want to be involved has blown us away and we can’t wait to get started.
“It’s going to be a seriously steep learning curve but with the amazing brewing expertise and talents now on board, I just can’t wait to see what we can all achieve together.”
Beer Merchants is currently crowdfunding for the taproom, bottle shop and blendery until 30 November, offering all investors double their money in the form of a bar tab.
The taproom will also include a state-of-the-art cellar where Cave Direct will offer training to customers and staff on best practice, changing kegs and line cleaning. Regular sensory training with Cicerone-certified staff and beer experts will also feature.