What happens when you combine a couple that have a love for travel, a passion for brewing excellent beers and the desire to create an inclusive brewery that boasts a taproom loved by locals and visitors alike? Reading’s own Double-Barrelled, of course! Having celebrated its third birthday last November, and with a capacity expansion under its belt already in 2022, the brewery is only looking one way – and that’s forward. Photography by Catherine Hadler.

Adelaide? Ok. Wellington? Why not. Oregon? Of course. Buenos Aires? Be rude not to…

When starting a new business, putting in the groundwork and conducting comprehensive research is all-important. In beer, this is no different. So when Luci and Mike Clayton-Jones decided they wanted to open a brewery of their own, they knew the best way of gaining inspiration was to see what the world had to offer. And nobody can accuse them of being anything other than thorough.

In addition to other revered beer destinations as diverse as Bamberg and California to Copenhagen and Singapore, the would-be brewery founders took in some 85,000 miles and with it, a plethora of unforgettable breweries, distilleries, wineries, vineyards, maltsters and hop farms to name a few.

And some five years on, the duo have not only started a brewery of their own in Double-Barrelled but it’s one that has just celebrated its third birthday, too.

“Looking back on three years of what started as an overindulged hobby, it’s really gratifying to have got to this point because a lot of businesses don’t make it this far, especially in this climate,” says Mike. “And we have all the people that have supported us along the way to thank.”

The team marked turning three in November with a party for 350 guests and also a raft of collaborations with outfits such as Elusive Brewing, Duration, Siren Craft Brew, Amundsen, Vocation and Boxcar.

They were also nominated for ‘Best New Brewery’ at this very publication’s 2021 Brewers Choice Awards. And in addition to launching its debut cask beers, the brewery has also just completed an ambitious expansion boosting fermentation capacity giving them the ability to output up to 5,000hL next year, up from 2,500hL in 2021.

And breathe….

“When you take a step back, you sometimes have no idea how you got to that point,” says Luci. “But like a lot of our peers, we have really fought to get here, which makes it all the more humbling and rewarding.”

When two heads are better than one

The Double-Barrelled story began in 2014. With Mike a passionate home brewer, the idea of brewing a beer as a wedding favour for their big day made complete sense. And with that their first beer ‘Ginger Beered’ was born.

“It was all a bit of a joke. I’m ginger and Mike has a beard so that was that,” Luci laughs. “It was very, very homebrew!”

But their guests responded with unanimous praise, acting as something of a catalyst that this hobby could maybe be taken to the next level. And even if they didn’t know it would stick, they already had a brewery name ready to roll.

“My parents decided to create the Clayton-Jones moniker,” recalls Mike. “But when I was young they also decided to separate leaving me as the only person with that surname in the family.

“To be honest, I felt the connotations of having a double-barrelled surname was a little posh, so growing up I didn’t really like it. But here we are, it stuck.”

Luci added: “So when we called ourselves Double-Barrelled Brewery for our wedding, we never realistically planned to be where we are today. It was all a bit of fun, but it’s here to stay!”

Luci and Mike enjoyed working together and the creativity involved when brewing that special beer. Alongside the glowing reviews from friends and family, it sparked the idea of perhaps not returning from their wedding to “very normal corporate jobs” and instead making brewing something more formal.

“So one thing led to another and we started brewing in our garage, launching commercially from there and somehow we’re now operating a 6,800sq ft site with a brewery, warehouse, offices and taproom ,” says Luci. “It’s all very surreal, and looking back we came into this with a huge degree of naivety for all the aspects to be involved.”

Returning from their honeymoon, the duo registered the brewery’s name on Companies House. But realising they were lacking any real industry experience they set off travelling to learn from the great and the good of breweries and other drinks producers across the globe.

“Collectively we had come through some difficult life experiences which changes your perspective on things and that live-to-work vs work-to-live mentality that comes with the corporate side of life,” says Mike. “So we used that as the basis for justifying this trip as a way to get that much-needed knowledge. And I would wholeheartedly recommend it if you can. It was life-altering.”

The duo visited no less than 29 countries during their travels, taking in breweries as varied as Pirate Life and Three Floyds to Stone Brewing, Toppling Goliath, and Nya Carnegiebryggeriet.

And when they were due to return home in July 2017, they were already well and truly bitten by the brewing bug.

“Our plans had crystalised in our minds and we were very clear that we wanted to open a brewery on our return so we ordered our 100 litre kit a month before heading home and started on admin such as prepping for HMRC approvals,” says Luci. “And we also knew we wanted to launch properly at a fair-sized event. Craft Beer Rising in London is welcoming to new breweries so that’s the route we took. Being in front of 12,000 people as a new brewery was very special.”

Luci and Mike pitched up at the 2018 event with four beers, brews a long time in the making.

“Even though the event was in February, the size of our kit meant we had to start brewing the previous August,” laughs Mike.

Those early beers took the form of a raspberry and beetroot gose, a milk stout, an imperial stout and an India pale lager. “We wanted to avoid going down the route of IPAs and try and stand out a little and showcase some of the styles we were passionate about,” he says, “Thankfully, I think it worked.”

In the three years that have followed, the brewery has produced countless beers across the style gamut, frequently leaning on sours, pales and stouts. Core beers such as its pale ale Parka and keller lager Ding are house favourites both to drink and produce.

Mike says: “The beauty of running core beers is having the ability to make small changes to each brew and really understand how that impacts the end product. Doing that means we can also translate that knowledge into our one-off releases, too.

“Because we’re learning every time we brew our core beers, we can make slightly bigger changes to our one-offs. If it works really well then we obviously utilise that knowledge for the better. This state of continuous improvement is so fundamental to us; we never want to stop learning and progressing.

“Not long ago we started to pick up some issues in house with head retention on ‘Ding’, that we then confirmed at a local pub. We began implementing some recipe and process changes and we’re now at the point we’re much happier but that doesn’t mean we’ll suddenly stop there. It’s key to keep going and improve each and every time.”

Those core beers help pay the bills but also enable the brew team to regularly create one-off seasonal and limited brews. With a team of 12, both Mike and Luci are also clear that the quality of their beers have benefited immeasurably from the skillset and knowledge of their colleagues.

“As we’ve grown, our team has grown as well,” says Luci. “We brought on people that have got great expertise in brewing pales, IPAs and lagers, and they’ve really helped us to develop to where we are today.

“People trust us with these beers and with that, it gives us the freedom to explore brewing more experimental and boundary pushing recipes”

Early Adopters

Events such as Craft Beer Rising played an important role in the formative stages of Double-Barrelled. So has the support from pubs and bars that put faith in those beers early on.

The Hop Locker, located on London’s South Bank, was a spot that Luci and Mike would frequent as beer fans but its founders, Joel and Laura, have stocked the brewery’s beers from early on, as have The Fox and Hounds in Caversham.

“Their support is what makes your business and it’s what keeps you going. To this day, both of those places are some of our biggest customers,” says Luci. “And that’s amazing, especially when our beers were probably not where we wanted them to be early on.

“Hopefully one day we can repay them for their leap of faith. I’m not sure how, but it’s a nice idea.”

While venues such as The Hop Locker and The Fox and Hounds have been invaluable allies since the early days, Double-Barrelled’s beers can now be enjoyed far and wide. But, unsurprisingly, there’s few better spots to imbibe than their taproom. A facet of the brewery’s identity that is a particular point of pride for the duo.

“We were heavily-influenced by the US taproom model,” says Luci. “Living in Reading in our 20’s meant we had to go into London to experience the type of beer environments that resonated with us.

“So when it came to doing something ourselves, we wanted to create somewhere that we enjoyed and hoped others would, too. Simple things, like having seats with backs on!”

Located some 10 mins out of Reading town centre, Luci says they’re fully-aware Double-Barrelled is not part of something like the famed Bermondsey Beer Mile but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a destination venue, either.

“We are fortunate to attract a wide range of people from our local community. They bring their children down, their dogs, even their grandmas,” she smiles. “For me, that’s an environment I can be proud we’ve created.”

And that sense of inclusivity is of utmost important to Double-Barrelled. Having experienced a wealth of drinking establishments across the globe, they knew creating somewhere that people felt welcomed was imperative.

Luci explains: “There are many people who are immediately put off by the concept of beer because they tried something that they didn’t enjoy previously. But we want to change opinions, having something for everyone, and creating an environment for all. Starting conversations with customers about what flavours they like rather than what beer they drink makes that a more approachable topic.

“We’ve all been guilty of being part of a beer bubble at times, so it’s so important to recognise that we involve everyone and exclude no-one. In her talk at The Brewers Congress, Ruth (Mitchell of Elusive Brewing) talked on using language to attract people to the category overall. You need to connect with consumers with terms they can relate to, and I couldn’t agree more.”

And thanks to the taproom, Luci, Mike and the team have been able to do just that. While some visitors will stick to core beers such as Parka and Ding, many others will take that journey trying the myriad of other releases on offer.

“We’ll be asked about a beer that was only a one-off or seasonal release but you find that people really start to love certain beers,” she says. “As we grow we’ll develop our beer range to reflect our customers purchasing habits, as well as the beers we are passionate about. Keeping the mix of both is key to keeping our customers happy, and brew team engaged!”

The demand for the Reading brewery’s beers led it to undertake a fermentation expansion programme at the start of this year. It now brews into six 50 HL FVs and four 24HL FVs, which also gives the team room to grow further when, not if, needed. So if you can’t make it to their taproom, expect to see beers such as Parka, Ding and others in more pubs, bars and bottle shops in 2022 and beyond.

“You need to take a leap of faith at every stage of the brewery’s life. When it comes to starting out, and when it comes to growing. But we are optimistic about the future, and passionate about everything we do,” says Luci.

Mike adds: “Passionate, and determined to keep making positive changes.”

Photography by Catherine Hadler: https://www.creativecommercialphotography.co.uk/