Brewery Focus: Oli Hurlow - Attic Brew Co.
It was back in December 2019 when we first interviewed these guys and since then their beer has really flourished. They’ve produced some awesome brews, including a couple of EPIC Mild’s! We caught up with Oli from Attic Brew Co. to find out how they’re faring with the current times as part of our current Brewery Focus series;
How much have things changed since before lockdown?
“Mate, it’s completely different! We’ve had to completely pivot the business, we were selling everything that we brewed in keg, nothing else, no small pack at all. As soon as lockdown hit we had to change completely and now everything that we sell is in small pack. Massive, massive change, we were very lucky that we had a canning line and were in the process of commissioning it. It wasn’t there yet but it gave us a good impetus to get it all sorted and get that going and it's actually given us the opportunity to dial in canning and make sure our canned beer is at the same standard as our kegged beer. We’re happy to be selling it now and into the future!”
What’s been your biggest challenge?
“It’s not knowing what’s going to happen next to be honest with you. We’re putting everything that we can brew into cans now. If suddenly pubs are allowed to open again, we’ll have no kegged beer for a good few weeks. That’s the most difficult thing for sure, it’s just not really knowing what’s going on and if we can open again and whether social distancing will allow the taproom to be a feasible thing for us to run. So whilst things are not too bad at the moment, we’ll sort of see how things plan out after that. It’s not necessarily a bad thing in the long run, it’s certainly been useful for us to have diversified a lot. Although, certainly a massive pillar of our business has gone and it’ll certainly be a while before it comes back, so that’s the biggest issue.”
What have you learnt?
“All about canning, all about selling smaller packages of beer to a whole new customer-base in terms of trade. People who are taking our cans off us, who we hadn’t necessarily spoken to before; smaller bottle shops, cafes. It’s a huge change from that perspective, obviously the process of canning has been a huge learning curve but certainly really valuable. There’s been some very positive things to take from this, as dreadful a situation as it has been, we’re always trying to make lemonade from lemons.”
Can you share any of your future plans for after lockdown?
“The hope is that we can now use the fact that we’re in cans to more widely spread Attic beer more across the country. We’ve been very Birmingham-centric up to now and now we’ve got the opportunity to send beer a lot further and allow people from further afield to try what we’ve been brewing, it’s great. We’re really proud of what we’re putting out now, I think that it’s head and shoulders from where we were six months ago. So we’re excited to get it into the hands of people nationwide!”
What will be the first pub that you hit up after lockdown and what will you be drinking?
“I think it will be The Juke, it’s a tiny little micro in Kings Heath, Birmingham and there’s always great beers on rotation and I'll be just happy to drink whatever's on. Happy to be there in good company, maybe in the sun depending on the time! Having a beer with people I love, that’s the main thing!”Well said Oli, hopefully we’ll see you there! :)
