Tuesday 29 May 2018

Under the Spotlight: Kettlesmith Brewing Company

Nestled within the picturesque town of Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire sits the microbrewery Kettlesmith. After spending twelve years in San Francisco discovering American style beers, owners Antony and Caroline moved back to the UK to be nearer to family and to set up their own brewery. It was then that Kettlesmith was born with a mission to produce modern variations on classic styles and encourage more people to pair food with beer. This bank holiday weekend saw Kettlesmith turn two years old and the brewery opened its doors to celebrate!

Kettlesmith’s 6 core beers are influenced by Head Brewer Antony’s time in America and background in England. Some of the range has also been inspired by Belgian styles where he can experiment with different yeast strains. He says, “I love the variety and complexity that Belgian brewing styles offer. It’s interesting to move between English/American styles where hops are often at the forefront of the flavour profile to Belgian where the yeast gets a chance to shine.” Antony first started brewing, like most budding brewers, with his own home brew kit. He experimented with as many ingredients and styles as he could which he still has records of today. Faultline and Fogline were amongst the first to be developed over 10 years ago, named after the San Andreas Fault and the foggy conditions of San Francisco. This has inspired the branding to add the suffix ‘line’ to the end of each name - Coastline, Plotline and Skyline to name a few. Despite the brewing kit being upgraded to expand Kettlesmith, the home brew equipment is still in use to trial new ideas. Over the last few years Antony has been exploring the use of White Labs yeast so hopefully there will be something in the pipeline! 

The brewery has also taken the modern view to not clarify their beers with finings. The team are mostly vegetarian or vegan and so it was important to make the transition away from the use of Isinglass. A bold move as many consumers in the area are used to traditionally fined beers. The team at Kettlesmith have taken the time to talk to their customers about hazy beers and for the last 6 months all bottled, cask and keg beers are 100% vegan friendly.

Kettlesmith has already won many awards for its beer, most recently winning Best Food & Drink Producer at Bradford on Avon’s Business Awards for the second year in a row! A great accolade for a brewery that is passionate about good food and beer pairings. Antony is a Certified Cicerone and feels that beer has great potential to be matched with food in restaurants as well as at home. All the bottled beers come with food pairing suggestions on the labels and the brewery is always looking for local food producers they can partner with for tasting events.

When I arrived at Kettlesmith's 2nd Birthday open day there was already a buzz of people queuing for beers. I noticed how not only were people stopping to have a drink but they were also coming away with cases full of bottles to sample at home. The bar was serving most of the core range as well as a new ‘White Label’ one off brew. Whilst all the range is great tasting and easy drinking, my highlight from the open day has to be Timeline. It had a real herby/floral flavour from the blend of American and English hops making it a standout from all the beers I tried. 

So what's next for Kettlesmith? Well Caroline is waiting for a beer to be named after her though she hasn't yet decided which style will suit her personality best! Antony explains that he wants to continue experimenting with new styles and has come up with Kettlesmith's White Label range of one-off batched beers. He says, “We intend to release a wide variety of beers under this label over the next year including a Kolsch, a Tripel, German wheat beer and some sour beers.” Development of the taproom and brewery shop is also on the cards which will offer a more welcoming environment for customers. I think the team at Kettlesmith already do a good job of making customers feel at ease as they are really engaging and excited about their beers. The brewery is very community focused and holds many open days to interact with customers. It was great to see so many people chatting with the team, with many locals being recognised and offered their regular beers. This wasn't my first visit to the brewery and it won't be the last. I look forward to the next open day! 

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