by Andrew Mitchell
I’ve been pretty much obsessed with beer for about twenty years, ever since I invested the best part of my student loan into the coffers of Rehill’s and The Head of Steam when they started selling Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in the early 2000s.
Back in 2012 I set myself the morally reprehensible challenge of drinking and writing about a different beer every day for an entire year on my then blog Oh Beery Me. Cleverly, I did away with the idea of writing a pithy 50-word post and went for something slightly more long-form. So after 366 beers and 350,000 words, I definitely reached the point of never wanting to come up with a unique way to describe head retention ever again.
Hop on the Bike
It was around the same time that I met Andy Heggs, who was running the fantastic Hop on the Bike website with his friend Nick. They created superb content, discovering great breweries around the UK by bike. While I was working at Anarchy Brew Co they swung by for a chat. We made plans to saunter around Newcastle for a few pints the same evening which of course, resulted in us getting absolutely clattered, and we’ve been firm friends ever since.
Our respective blogs both fell by the wayside but we’ve made countless plans and hatched hundreds of ideas over the years; both of us looking for a way to work together on a new project. And Swigpoint is the culmination of this.
Getting to finally work with Andy is an absolute joy. He’s so prolific in the beer scene and yet resolutely refuses to acknowledge this himself. The national Tryanuary campaign, with its amazing Cask & Keg & Bottle & Can logo – that was Andy, who ran it single-handedly for a few years. Art by Volume, reimagining beer labels as record sleeves – yep, also Andy. He’s shaped the design aesthetic of many small breweries and beer festivals, too. And he does all of this outside of running a digital design, branding and marketing agency. He’s a whirlwind of creativity and will absolutely loathe me for saying this. But it’s all true.
We’re both hugely passionate about our respective cities, Newcastle and Manchester, and the fact the pubs have been closed for a year really lit a fire under us. It’s great to be able to champion some of the truly iconic pubs in our hometowns. And Twitter user @adimhales said it best: “If there’s one thing I truly love, it’s niche graphic tees.” You and me both, Adim.
The Locations
We really wanted Swigpoint to capture that pubs are an embodiment of their exact location, shaped and honed by their geographical position. The Free Trade wouldn’t be the same without THAT view. The Cumby without its epic beer garden? The Strawberry not standing in the shadow of St. James’ Park? Their location makes them what they are.
We’re using a print-on-demand service to supply our goods, which means this is far from a money-making enterprise. We’re also donating £1 from each t-shirt sold to Hospitality Action; a charity that offers assistance to all who work, or have worked within hospitality in the UK.
We hope to work with some regional beer writers to offer insight into our towns as we build out our offering for more locations. We really want to have local knowledge baked into the selection of the pubs, so we’d be keen to hear some recommendations for our next set of places.
The best part of this whole project has been writing about the pubs we love. Remembering why these places are so important to us and their communities they support. Reopening can’t come soon enough.
Have a deeks at the shop at swigpoint.com.
You can follow the Swigpoint journey on their social media links below:
Discover more of your favourite beer venues in the North East with our Breweries Directory.