FarmEco Brewing Operation

18 ^th July 2024 Setting up a Nanobrewery  Marc Williamson       

Marc explained that his father was one of 8 children, living in the countryside where everyone made something for trading and he chose brewing his own beer, when old enough! So Marc had a natural interest from an early age, to the extent that for his Duke of Edinburgh ‘skills’ project he chose ‘brewing’. He maintained this and in the shed at the bottom of their garden he managed to get through all the loopholes to brew and sell his beer and named it the Linear Brewery, after the Linear former Railway walk in Bingham. After 23 years as research scientist, he came to the major decision to give up his job and turn his hobby into the family business.  He went to the Brew School in Bakewell and actually did some teaching there, then two months at The Navigation in Meadow Lane. The company decided they could make more money with corporate events, so closed the brewing, which enabled Marc to buy some commercial size brewing equipment. So came the move to Screveton, changing from ‘beer kits’ to brewing from grain, based in a large Farm barn and a great ‘community’ who all work together, helping each other.  However, HMRC have still not organised/approved his move from Bingham to Screveton, so currently he can’t sell his beer. Previously it was all bottled, manually, but now he’s focused on Casks, which he can make 11 or 12 casks on one brew, allowing 7 days for maturity and consumption. He talked about the ABV rates, of which his bottles tended to be 5.4%, but he will probably fix on 3.8%, depending what his customers want, as well as the skimming of their own yeast for re-use.  Within the barn some cider is brewed, which he is likely to get involved in. But basically, he just wants to make beer, to enable him to pay the bills and look after his family.  He encouraged and responded to a number of questions about 0 alcohol beers, lagers, recipes

Gail proposed the vote of thanks, mentioning that he should have the right audience as the majority were beer drinkers, so should get their attention and that she really enjoyed Marc’s talk delivered with enthusiasm, humour and the factor of someone getting out of the ‘rat race’ and turning his hobby into a career, asking members to join her with a warm round of applause.            AR