Newbarns Brewery was established in 2019 in Leith, Scotland, by partners Gordon McKenzie and Emma McIntosh (formerly of The Kernel Brewery), along with friends Jonny Hamilton and Freddie Bjerkseth, (formerly of Beavertown Brewery).
Gordon and Emma fell into brewing after relocating to London in 2012, with Gordon spending two years at Berkshire’s Siren Craft Brew before moving on to The Kernel, where Emma was already based. They met Jonny and Freddie through a mutual love of beer and pubs. The pair bring considerable experience to the Newbarns team, with Freddie’s work as a sales account manager, and Jonny having headed up Beavertown’s Tempus barrel-ageing project.
The Beers
Table Beer
3.0% abv.
Core-range Table Beer. Inspired by Scottish brewing heritage, this Table Beer is made with pale Golden Promise malt and a significant proportion of oats, both malted and unmalted. Fermented using a clean ale yeast, and hopped with a rotating hop bill. This first batch will be brewed at The Kernel in Bermondsey, London, and hopped 100% with Mosaic.
Pale Ale
4.5% abv.
Core-range Pale Ale. Brewed with a base of pale Golden Promise malt, fermented using a clean ale yeast, and hopped with a rotating hop bill. This first batch will be brewed at The Kernel in Bermondsey, London, and hopped 100% with Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand.
Oat Lager
4.5% abv.
Core-range Oat Lager, which the brewery also refer to amongst themselves as their “Adjunct Lager”, or “Rustic Pils”. This beer is a take on some of the teams’ favourite beers and is brewed with extra pale malt, and a healthy proportion of oats, wheat, flaked barley, and other adjuncts they feel fit the rustic nature of this beer.
Fermented with a German lager strain and hopped with UK Goldings and UK Challenger hops from Brook House Hops in Herefordshire for a pronounced hop character, this batch will be brewed at Burnt Mill in Suffolk.
Pils
4.2% abv.
Core-range Pils – the brewers’ take on a classic German-style Pilsner. This is the beer they drink to celebrate the end of the working day. Clean, crisp, and refreshing, with bitterness balanced by bready malt character. Brewed with 100% low colour Golden Promise malt, fermented with a German lager strain and hopped with classic noble varieties.
The Current Situation
The brewery was a week or so away from being able to brew their first batch of beer at their brand-new site in Leith before COVID-19 came along. The final installation at the brewery (to increase gas supply into the building to power the steam generator) was due to begin on April 1st.
With the gas network now only dealing with emergency works, the brewery has been put on hold until things go back to normal, whenever that happens…it’ll be a month or so after that before they’ll be able to brew the first batch at the brewery. Like many others in this situation, a global pandemic wasn’t something that had crossed their minds when writing the business plan.
Plan B
Newbarns will be using spare capacity from other brewers at the moment, and so in the coming days will begin to contract to brew their core beers at these breweries. Everything brewed for the foreseeable future will be going into small-pack (cans and bottles) and will be available to buy from their webshop.
If you want to try the first batches, all of the beers are now available to pre-order for a limited time via the webshop. By pre-ordering, you’ll be helping this fledgling business immensely, (and they’re giving out some rewards as a thank you – check the website for more info).
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