Leeds based Northern Monk Brew Co is tripling its brewing capacity with a new facility and is open to the idea of opening company owned pubs, MCA has learnt.
Founder Russell Bisset said the £500,000 investment would give the business capacity to produce 180 barrels a week – around 290 hectolitres – and would be up and running by March 2017.
The craft brewery, which started two years producing around 15 barrels a week, will keep some brewing at its current site, which also has a tap room and restaurant, while moving its core production to the new facility.
On the possibility of opening pubs in the UK, Bisset said: “We’re not actively seeking venues but if the right person came along we’d be open to it.
“The tap room is great and looks after itself, but it’s hard to make a business case for more venues at the moment when we’re still working on getting the first one right.
“But if the perfect venue came up we definitely wouldn’t say no.
“Beer is all about experience. The more you can control that experience and give customers the right environment to consume the beer, and the beer is kept properly and dispensed properly, the more customer is going to enjoy it.
“If we could take more control over elements of that process then by all means we would do it.”
About 70% of Northern Monk’s production goes into cans, with a 40/60 split between the on and off trade.
Last year the company received £100,000 funding from LEP and the Business Growth Programme which it invested in new machinery and jobs.
As well as its tap room and Refectory restaurant, Northern Monk launched the NMBCo True North Bar a bar in Norway with its distribution partner.
