Perfect Pairing

Pig and Porter was conceived as a small scale brewing and event catering business in 2012, the culmination of discussions between friends bonded by mutual hobbies, namely a love for cricket that spanned back 20 years.

“We brewed our first beer on New Year’s Eve 2012 and thereafter brewed as often as we could at several microbreweries in Sussex and Kent. In the spring, we began the event catering side of our business for which the beer had originally been intended, and this also took off with bookings every weekend in the summer,” says Wright.

He adds: “With both sides of our young business showing huge potential we had to make a decision, and when the opportunity arose to take on a former brewery in Tunbridge Wells we knew we had to take it.”

The first beer, Wright mentions, was Red Spider Rye, a red rye ale featuring an American clean tasting yeast to showcase the Centennial and Columbus hops. Brewed initially by Ayling using the facilities at West Sussex-based Downlands Brewery, the beer is dry hopped with both of them to enhance the aroma, while a small amount of rye malt lends a spiciness to balance the beer. A beer, Pig & Porter is still selling, successfully, in 2015.

Catering Catalyst

But taking a step back to the start of 2013, the team were brewing once a month as without advertising, the brewing and catering duo were booked for pretty much every weekend for Spring/ Summer/Autumn and “didn’t say no to anything” according to Wright. “We had this manic cycle having not done anything like that before to putting together high-end BBQs charging £30 a head, to hog roasts at festivals and similar.”

“Then in Autumn, we were made aware of a unit lying idle, which was used by the former Royal Tunbridge Wells Brewery, so we sat down and as catering season was finishing, we looked at renting it. And as the commitments on the brewing front took hold, we realised that the catering side was not going to be sustainable use of our resources, in that sense,” explains Wright.