Beer Geek Opens Up New Brewery

Beer Geek Opens Up New Brewery

A self-confessed “beer geek” is hoping to become the toast in the town after opening a brand new brewery.

Atom Beers will supply thousands of pints a week to and bars across the nation, making it one of the biggest breweries in East Yorkshire.

The brewery has been set up by experienced brewer Allan Rice, who signs his emails “Chief Beer Geek.” Its first brew will be ready to drink before Christmas.

Allan, 33, said: “Running my own brewery is my dream job. I’m fascinated by ingredients and flavour. I also like to try out ingredients and techniques to create exciting new beers.

“Everyone has a fascination with brewing. It’s an industry which helps be merry and have a fun.

“In that way it’s a very cool business to be in. It’s young and vibrant and constantly evolving. You can’t rest on your laurels. You need to continually push the flavour boundaries to create something totally new.”

Allan’s partner Sarah, 31, has helped him set up the business. The pair, who live in Beverley, decided to call their brewery Atom Beers due to their mutual passion for science.

Allan has a degree in physiology and worked for Tempest Brewery in Kelso in the Scottish Borders, before launching Atom Beers.

Sarah is a science teacher at Scarborough Sixth Form College and has a masters’ degree in Chemistry from Oxford University and a PHD in chemistry from Edinburgh University.

They have invested their life savings setting up the brewery.

Allan said: “Sarah came up with the name Atom Beers. We both like it because it’s short and sweet but it also describes something which is at the core of what we do. Brewing is referred to as an art but we believe the science is equally important.”

Initially, there will be a range of four core beers – a pale ale, India pale ale, golden ale and a “dark alchemy” but there are also plans to launch a range of “experimental” beers.

“The only thing that limits us is our imagination. We’ve enough recipes to do 30 beers and we are discovering new ones all the time however they have to make financial sense. We might increase the core range as well,” said Allan.

Atom Beers is based at the Food Innovation and Technology Park on Sutton Fields Industrial Estate, . The brewery’s tag line is “The science behind brewing.”

The brewery features a 10-barrel brew house able to produce 6,500 pints per week.

The beers will be available at Chequers Micropub in Beverley and Pave, Larkins and Henry Yeast and Son in Hull. Atom Beers is also supplying real ale outlets in , York, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Allan expects the beers and modern brand to appeal to the 25-45 year olds, that is a younger audience than is traditionally connected with real ale.

He said: “We will be creating beers with big flavours, using more hops and complex malts.

“We also want to promote the science of brewing and encourage people to learn more about beer. Right now, we don’t think that’s catered for within the brewing world.

“Our pump clips are designed to look like molecules so people will naturally be intrigued. Most importantly, once they drink the beer they’ll taste something really complex with lots of flavour.

“Fundamentally, the difference between a good and a bad beer is whether or not you want to drink another of them.”

Regardless of the regular reports of pubs closing, Allan believes this is an excellent time to open a brewery.

He explained: “Like a lot of things, the united kingdom often takes a lead from America. In the US, the small brewing industry is growing at an exponential rate.

“Here in the UK there are a lot more people doing well-made flavoursome beers but there is a lot of room for growth.

“People are seeking out bars and pubs that sell hand-crafted beers. Ironically, when people have less money to spend they tend to spend more on little luxuries which is applicable to beers too.”



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