Ayling and his counterpart took a lease for a year, brewing once a week each, but sharing the brewery with another brewing concern meant that toes were well and truly being stepped on from both sides.
However, 12 months later, in October 2014, it came to the point where the duo decided that they needed to brew more and the sharing arrangement simply wasn’t working. In the subsequent months, the other brewing outfit moved its beers to a contract concern and finally, in February of this year, they had the unit to themselves.
“It was a massive step both both of us. We are both 50/50 owners of the business and it’s something I suppose we’ve done on a shoestring until now, but it’s enabled us to build a strong relationship with those around us and give us a solid grounding,” adds Wright.
Additional Capacity
The brewery is currently at capacity operating three fermentors and that capacity it sold flat out. However, the advent of a second unit that will provide additional storage, means they will be able to install two more fermentors, moving from brewing three times a fortnight, to three a week. “Unless we move into lager,” says an eager Ayling. “But it’s very much a step by step approach,” he adds.
Pig & Porter’s cause has been helped by distribution across the UK through companies such as Pig’s Ears in the South East, Glassworks in Manchester, as well as Shiny Brewery and Jolly Good Beer, among others.
“Initially, we would build relationships through beer events and when Sean came on full time, it was knocking on doors across the country, but the fact that we worked with Glassworks helped a lot. The name helped, there, that’s for sure,” adds Wright.
The brewery’s core output in 2015 comprises four beers. The aforementioned ‘Red Spider Rye’, ‘Ashburnham Pale Ale’ which is a classic English Pale Ale brewed with Fuggles and East Kent Golding hops late in the boil and then dry hopped with EKG’s to add a spicy finish.
Another part of the core range is ‘Fatal Flaw – American Amber’ which features an aromatic malt and American ale yeast, coupled with the “most interesting hops” available at the time as Ayling says it is the malt backbone of biscuit and toffee that makes this beer. Fatal Flaw comes from one of Wright’s favourite American novels, Secret History by Donna Tartt.
The final element of its core output is a dark beer, most recently ‘Summer Stout’. “It’s always good to have a dark beer on, especially in the summer as so many are only producing pales. In winter, it’ll become Slow, Black, and the first brew will be Sloe Black, which features Sloe berries in the mix.
“Everything we did to start with is because we were told to do, rather than what we knew would necessarily work. Seasonal beer allows you to build up a following if it’s a good beer, and then could move it into your so-called core range,” adds Wright.
He explains: “We started with the beer, get that right, and it went well, then we have a business. We recognised that our branding isn’t right though, so we’ve recently rebranded and we are looking at the younger market with our beers.”
