A brewery founded by two lifelong friends bonded by a love of sport, Blink 182 and brilliant beer, Phantom Brewing has swiftly become one of the breweries putting reading on the map for fans of this beautiful beverage. And they’re just getting started.
We’re taking this way too slow (I’m feeling this).”
Next year will mark 20 years since Blink 182, the US punk-rock band released their latest hit ‘Feeling This’. How it’s nearly two decades makes this writer feel very, very old. But like any great song, it continues to resonate with fans far and wide many years on.
And Dane White and Dom Gemski, founders of Phantom Brewing, can count themselves members of that particular fan club. They’ve not only named beers after tracks from the Californian group, but those lyrics above also do an apt job of summing up their approach to opening their beloved brewery.
“We’re not the most patient people,” Gemski smiles. “The longer the process went on, the more we wanted to push the button and get it all started!”
Phantom Brewing officially opened its doors in November 2019, some two years after registering the business on Companies House. “We didn’t have your typical sort of brewery opening but then, who does?” he recalls.
“It took us that long to find the right location for what we wanted to do,” Gemski explains. “People familiar with Reading will know that we’re a really large town that’s begrudgingly not called a city by most people.
“We have a high street with all of the usual chain shops you’d come to expect. But until the last couple of years, we didn’t have anywhere you could really enjoy good beer. Thankfully that’s changed and hopefully we’re playing our own part in that.”
Gemski and White were clear on their objectives. They wanted a production facility but were also minded that, armed with a major warehouse, they still wanted somewhere accessible for people to navigate to from the City Centre.
“When you look at Reading geographically, it’s pretty hard to get too much closer to the centre with a unit of our size,” he says. “From day one we wanted the taproom to be a major part of what we do so when it came to securing this place, it was very much a case of right place and right time.”
We are always learning, exploring new techniques and trying different things,”
Dom Gemski, Phantom Brewing
However, before securing their dream spot, the hunt would take the duo elsewhere. Other locations in Reading, as well as Maidenhead, were investigated. A property in Reading was settled on, the lease was negotiated and contractors were being lined up but then, no. The landlord decided against a brewery taking on the facility.
“It was a setback, and the type of teething problem that countless breweries no doubt encounter. But that period felt like a lifetime,” says Gemski. “We were probably a little wet behind the ears, and just wanted nothing more to just get going.
“When starting out you get excited about one thing, and that’s making beer for people. It’s easy to forget about securing licensing from HMRC and setting up with the AWRS. Things that can bore you to death but they have to be done!”
Up until as late as July 2019, the duo had planned for Phantom Brewing to start out from the former property. But as one door closes, another opens…
“We lucked out,” Gemski gleams. “Another property came up and we were in a fortunate position where the landlord wanted to make it work for us. It needed a lot of renovation but they agreed to it. In a few short months we moved in to what felt like a brand new unit.”
He adds: “Because of all the work that we had done previously with regards to paperwork and also the facility specifications we wanted, everything moved at a really fast pace. A cold store was built, the brew floor had gone down, tanks were in and the all-important toilets fitted out. We had been contract brewing so all that was left was the brew kit to arrive.”
A soft launch for friends and family took place mid November 2019 and Phantom Brewing immediately made an impact with the great and good of Berkshire.
But let’s rewind a bit. Gemski has been friends with co-founder Dane White since “forever”.
“We started on that typical homebrew journey at a time we were both working corporate jobs,” he recalls. “Dane was working for an automotive engineering company that involved global travel while I was involved in security technology solutions.
“But we stayed friends and our love of homebrewing reached a point where we made more and more beer. Our personalities are similar in that if there’s something we like then we will absolutely saturate ourselves in it. And in this case, that was brewing!”
Production swiftly moved up to a Grainfather and temperature-controlled FVs. “We wanted better results in what we were making, while those around us started to accept that Saturday became the brewday,” says Gemski. “Anyone that starts a brewery has probably heard the story many times, but you often don’t realise it’s taking over your free time because of the pure enjoyment you get from it.”
As their love of brewing grew, they would begin to look at their full-time professions and question the pleasure they were gaining from it. “At one point over a few beers we found ourselves asking ‘Could we? Could we do this properly?’. We were egging ourselves on and well…here we are.”
Phantom Brewing opened its doors with kit from companies such as Elite Stainless Fabrications, a Swindon-based firm specialising in the manufacture and installation of stainless steel equipment
“We went with Elite as they had made kit for breweries we respected and, quite frankly, had a really good price point,” says Gemski. The 12BBL kit would go on to be backed up by wealth of tanks in the fermentation cellar. “They did a truly great job for us and it has served us really well these last few years,” he adds.
And following a successful stint on the Elite kit, the arrival of a new setup from SSV Ltd is imminent. Machinery that will enable the brewery to capitalise from a range of additional benefits.
From day one, Phantom Brewing has made its name from producing a wealth of different beers with some 60 released in those earlier, formative months. “That’s been by design from the very start,” says Gemski.
These have included Pales and IPAs to Blackberry & Pomegranate Sours, Oatmeal Stouts, Helles, and a lot more besides. “We meet every Tuesday and discuss what styles are interesting us. Only a while back the idea of brewing a Foeder-aged Red Lager was suggested, so we did one. We also aged it on cherries,” smiles Gemski. “I was told, it’s great we’re making it. Just good luck selling it.”
He adds: “I think producing many different beers keeps things enjoyable for us as a team. We are always learning, exploring new techniques and trying different things. It keeps things interesting and keeps things diplomatic. too.”
Despite the wealth of releases, one beer that continues to resonate on a major scale is ‘Feeling This’, a 5% Columbus, Cascade, Citra & Mosaic Pale Ale. It’s brewed, it comes on sale, it sells out. Repeat.
“Alongside sport and beer, music is the other major passion Dane and I share,” says Gemski. “We played in the same bands growing up in the early 2000s, and listened to pop punk bands like Blink 182.”
He adds: “So when it came to Phantom Brewing, we reached the fun part of naming beers. When we started out we liked the idea of our first tap pouring ‘Feeling This’, which is named after the first track on Blink 182’s self-titled album released in 2003.”
The following year a new IPA, ‘ Online Songs’, track two on the same band’s album ‘Take Off Your Pants and Jacket’ would mark the start of year two of the brewery. And into year three in 2022, ‘Dammit’, the third track on the album ‘Dude Ranch’, would take the form of a 7% IPA loaded with Citra, Mosaic Lupomax, Simcoe and Strata was launched.
“It’s not something we can continue forever but we think it’s really cool that there’s probably fans of Blink 182 that have been introduced to our brewery, and maybe craft as a whole, through those releases,” he explains. “And that’s a great feeling.”
With a burgeoning team, a growing production setup and a relationship that flourishes in Reading and beyond, Gemski is understandably excited about the path ahead.
“Let’s make no bones about it,” he says. “Owning and running a brewery is a great job. We’re very fortunate to have the team we do and we are grateful for the support we continue to get from the community locally and further afield.”
