Northbound Brewery

Derry Journal

2 months ago

Northbound Brewery

Transcript

00:00Can you just introduce yourselves please?

00:02Hi, my name's Martina from Northbound Brewery.

00:05My name's David Rogers from Northbound Brewery and I brew the beer.

00:10And very simply, what is Northbound Brewery?

00:13Northbound Brewery is a family-run brewery based in Derry

00:19where we try and mix the best ingredients to make the best freshest beer we can for the local and national market.

00:27Yeah, we've been going now for 10 years.

00:30It was a leap of faith having returned from Australia for almost a decade.

00:35So we relocated here with our young, growing family

00:38with the dream of setting up our brewery, I guess, in a market where nobody else was doing it.

00:45But we backed ourselves and have had fabulous local support.

00:50You're telling me a bit about your backstory, Aaron,

00:52but I was curious, and I think it's important to people from Derry,

00:55about the area, but why was the area the spot you picked yourself, I suppose?

01:00That's a really, really good question, as both of us aren't from here.

01:05I'm originally from Fermanagh and David's from Glasgow.

01:07But we felt that, I suppose, firstly, it was a great place

01:12and had a great proposition for a young family, really good work-life balance,

01:18not far from the beaches in Donegal, but equally a really great education system

01:23and somewhere where we thought we'd have a really good quality of life.

01:27And then secondly, as I mentioned, there wasn't a brewery here,

01:31but having spoken with potential customers, Derry people felt that they would support a locally brewed beer,

01:37and that gave us the confidence to start our brewery.

01:40Yeah, I worked in an engineering company in Derry in the mid-90s and really enjoyed my time here.

01:47And my dad's originally from South Derry, but he emigrated to Scotland in the 50s.

01:53So, yeah, all the things Martina said, and yeah, it just looked like a great place.

01:59And it's proximity to Donegal, the coastline, and all the options that we'd have for a family, yeah.

02:05As Martina said, we backed ourselves and came back.

02:09We've had ten years in the making now, or nearly ten years?

02:12Or are we at ten years now?

02:13Ten years, yeah.

02:14What's it like, you know, where are we now, and what's it like looking back?

02:19I guess probably looking back, I might not have the appetite now to do what we did then.

02:24It was really chaotic, but again, we had lots of support locally.

02:30There was a really strong focus on local food and drink,

02:35and we were, I suppose, fortunate to commence when people are now more interested to understand

02:42where their drink comes from, where food comes from as well.

02:46Covid was really hard, in that we were probably more focused on the entree,

02:53in terms of restaurants and bars and hotels, and less on the retail side.

02:58So we've focused our business since that.

03:01But look, there's lots of challenges, but you really have to consider different revenue streams within your business.

03:08So we're hoping to launch soon our tour experience.

03:12And you always try to make life a little bit more exciting as well, when you have your own business.

03:20Yeah, yeah.

03:21Looking back over ten years, it's been challenging, but really positive.

03:26It's been a family business.

03:27I think it's given us a chance to get to know Derry and get to know the people in Derry.

03:34And it's been a labour of love.

03:36You know, I would have worked away for maybe eight or nine years, pretty much until Covid,

03:41and worked in the brewery and Martina had to raise three kids with me away working.

03:46But it's come together and the kids are a bit older now.

03:50As Martina mentioned, we've got a great plan to bring up our visitor centre.

03:55So we're now hoping that we can really work on Northbound Brewery and grow locally and nationally.

04:01And I think these wards have fit into that.

04:03It gives us the recognition, hopefully, and the respect and the confidence in the customers

04:08that have been buying Northbound beer.

04:11There is a well-recognised, hopefully, award-winning beer.

04:16I'll bring it back a little bit to the visitor centre.

04:20You said there's a tasting bar?

04:23Yeah, a tasting room.

04:25So, with the launch of our tour experience, we'll have a tasting room

04:30where people can see behind the scenes of how beer is crafted and produced.

04:37And then, at the end of the tour, have the opportunity to have some tastings.

04:42So, it's an immersive experience.

04:46And I guess we're lucky in that it's indoors, given our climate.

04:49So, it's pretty much weatherproof.

04:51But we're lucky in that we collaborate with other local producers,

04:54with Kevin and Julie at Dart Mountain Cheese,

04:56and offer a beer and cheese experience as well.

05:01So, it's just looking at different ways to work with others

05:03and to make, I guess, brewery life interesting.

05:06So, there's malt, hops, water and yeast, basically make up beer.

05:12And the malt is the contributing factor that gives the sugars

05:17that turn into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

05:19And different types of malt give you different types of beer.

05:23So, Guinness would have a particular type of malt.

05:25Bill and our 08 and our laggards, our 26s, all have different malts.

05:29And this is what the malt looks like.

05:31This is wheat, which is an ingredient for one of them.

05:35And these are basically grains that come out of a field that are malted,

05:39so heated up in a kiln.

05:41And then they're sent to us, cracked.

05:44And what we try and do is get as much of that white stuff,

05:47that sugar, substrate, starch, converted into sugars that the yeast can eat.

05:52And this also acts as our natural filter bed,

05:56which is one of the reasons our beers are not filtered.

05:59They're naturally clarified.

06:03A big part of the day is the two awards you brought up very briefly.

06:08What does it mean for you to be reaching the finals of these awards?

06:14It means a huge amount to us.

06:18We're constantly working on the beer and the quality of the beer.

06:22And another interesting point is part of the reason for choosing Derry and Campsia

06:29is the quality of water that we've got here.

06:31So all the beers we make are tailored to the water supply

06:34and they just happen to be the beers that I certainly like to drink.

06:37So the laggards, the koshas, the pale ales all rely on the type of water that we get here.

06:43So there's a lot of thoughts going into it and that combination of good, great water, fantastic grain for it

06:53and then hopefully a bit of artwork for ourselves into how to craft the beer.

06:58It's just brilliant to get that level of recognition from your glass of iron and the Great British Food Awards.

07:05So it means an awful lot, an awful lot.

07:08As a business it gives you confidence to look at other markets and speak with new customers

07:15because you feel that you have an independent quality endorsement.

07:23So we will say that our beers are fabulous but it's nice when the experts

07:27and those that have experience within the food and drink industry

07:31and our professional tasters give you that endorsement.

07:35It's really nice and it just gives you a bit of backing and confidence to approach different markets.

07:42Bringing it back to the area, what's it like seeing the beer in shops or in bars and seeing people drinking?

07:50Honestly, it can be nerve-wracking because I suppose David and I were quite quiet achievers

07:58and I would like to think that we're humble and you're just hoping that that person enjoys them as much as we do.

08:05And we've been really lucky in that we've had really great feedback around our consistency and quality.

08:11But, you know, seeing it there, you just, you know, sometimes you do take a step back and just take a deep breath

08:18and think, you know, we actually set out and achieve what was a dream.

08:25And I suppose we're fortunate that we could do that, but equally we have the appetite for the risk as well.

08:31Yeah, I'd say it's still, if I go into a pub and dairy or a restaurant and there's someone drinking a pint of Northbound,

08:38it's still very surreal. And my first instinct is to want to go over and ask them how it is and how it tastes.

08:43And it's never going away. And if a friend sends me a picture of them drinking a beer on a Friday,

08:49then my first question is, how is it? So, it's still surreal.

08:52We'll probably always be coming to terms with that, yeah.

08:57And how do we get more people in there and beyond a gift of wine beer a go?

09:03Yeah, that's a great question. I think I would, I really want people to give our beer a try.

09:10You know, it's locally made, it's a local family business. We have local people helping us.

09:17We've set this, we've only been able to set this business up because of the support of the consumers, the customers,

09:26the off licenses, bars, pubs that support our product. And, you know, the council invest in it.

09:34It would be just to say, people give it a go. You should have a local beer in your local town.

09:39Dairy's a great city, we'll be here forever. Have a try Northbound because it's an award-winning beer.

09:45Exactly. I mean, dairy's all about eating local and why not drinking your local beer?

09:50Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. And, you know, you can be confident if you open it Northbound,

09:55it's full of quality and love and passion.

09:57Yeah.

09:58Yeah.

09:59Okay.

10:00I'll take it.

10:01I'll take it.

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