Grimsby's Docks Beers has expanded its brewing capability by 50 per cent, after a phenomenal first year.
The 10,000 litre set up has seen two new fermentation tanks added at ‘The Church’, taking the capacity to 15,000 litres – or an additional 8,800 pints a week.
It is a further £50,000 investment.
Director Shahram Shadan, who has overseen the transformation of the King Edward Street premises to a brewery and tap room – with events venue now to come – described it as “another fantastic birthday present”.
It follows a ‘Doctoberfest’ event and the unveiling of Docks Academy – which is set to open on the first floor in March.
Demand from the venue, trade customers and regional retail outlets has made it a necessity, while it is also seeing strong growth through listings with national specialist beer wholesalers too, opening it up to restaurants and bars the country over.
“These new fermentation vessels are essential to ensure we can keep up with demand,” Mr Shadan said. “In the last 12 months it has been amazing to see so many people coming to our taproom. But the problem with such a high volume of thirsty customers is we keep running out of beer. It’s a balancing act because we also need a lot of beer to continue supplying hundreds of trade customers and larger businesses like Dee Bee and Lincolnshire Co-op.”
The pair are manufactured by Willis European, providers of the Grimsby brewery’s original brewkit.
“We had no hesitation in going back for this commission since they made us such a user-friendly and impressive looking exhibition brewkit in the first place,” Mr Shadan said. “We planned the brewing area and ancillary area as a flexible space where more tanks could easily be installed.”
Minor changes to the chilling system and additional drainage have allowed the expansion, as staple brews Hard Graft, Never Say Die, Graveyard Shift and Overtime have proved incredibly popular, so too further additions.
Stating they “didn’t come this far, to only come this far” an additional brewer has joined in Lewis Birch in the past six months, joining original director Mike Richards.
Looking ahead, Mr Shadan said “December will be a busy month. Renovations will commence in earnest to convert upstairs into a 300-person venue. With footfall increasing exponentially next year these new tanks are going to be worked hard to make enough beer for the additional numbers coming through the doors. It’s highly likely we will need a similar expansion in Spring 2020. There’s no rest for the wicked!”
