The Kentish winemaker Chapel Down has tapped into enthusiasm for craft beverages to raise almost £1.5m from small investors to build its own brewery for its Curious Drinks beer and cider business.
The company said it had raised £1.16m from a crowdfunding campaign in which investors gave as little as £100 each in return for shares in the business and various other benefits.
It raised a further £275,000 from investors with at least £25,000 to spend, and existing Chapel Down and Curious Drinks directors contributed the same sum. The total raised was £1.71m.
The company already makes cider at the Chapel Down winery, but its lager, IPA and porter beers are brewed for it by Everards, the independent Leicester-based brewer. It will now build its own brewery and a visitor centre at Ashford, about 12 miles from the winery, to bring brewing in-house and expand production.
The benefits for investors putting in up to £499 include an annual guided tour for two of the brewery or the winery. Extra perks for those putting in up to £999, include a 25% discount on Curious Drinks.
Those investing between £1,000 and £25,000 are also offered money off meals and drinks at the brewery and a discount on Chapel Down wine. The names of those putting in £25,000 or more will be engraved on a fermentation tank.
The fundraising effort easily beat the £1m target set when it was launched in October.
Construction of the brewery will start in June and the plant will start production early next year. As well as being close to the company’s Tenterden base, Ashford has fast links to Europe via Eurostar and is developing into a hub for economic activity in Kent, according to Frazer Thompson, Chapel Down’s chief executive.
About a third of the 895 investors are from the business’s home county of Kent. Thompson said the extent of local enthusiasm surprised him at first. The craze for craft beer and cider also helped fuel interest, he said.
“Maybe it shouldn’t have surprised us, because Ashford has become such a driving force for the regeneration of Kent. Most people who buy a craft beer just have a beer, but our shareholders will have a beer and a story.
“When they go to the pub they’ll be that bit more interested in whether it’s being poured correctly or if the staff know about the beer and that’s gold dust to us.”
Chapel Down started brewing in 2010 with Curious Brew lager, which uses the same champagne yeast as goes into its sparkling wines. The beer was named one of the world’s best lagers at the 2012 International Beer Challenge, the industry’s top awards.
Thompson declined to give a target for the new brewery’s output, but said the site would give Curious capacity to expand for the next four or five years.
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