Business of The Week: Horsforth Brewery

Mark Costello - owner of Horsforth Brewery for Business of The Week

Transcript

00:00We started in August 2017, I started the brewery in my garage whilst I was working full-time at Yorkshire Building Society in my previous career

00:10and eventually transitioned to full-time in March 2020 which was perfect timing for Covid.

00:15And then October 2020 we moved here to where we are now and we've got a bit of a team behind us, it's not just me anymore thankfully.

00:24Our next steps are hopefully to expand our brewing capacity because we're full to the rafters at the moment.

00:30So how many different beers do you brew here?

00:33We tend to have about eight different beers going at any one time.

00:38We've got a range of cans, cask and keg so we can just mix and match whatever the season dictates really.

00:45So we do a stout all year round but we do more stouts over winter and we do sours over summer.

00:51But yeah it tends to be about eight to ten different beers at any time.

00:54Is there one that's a very popular beer?

00:56We've probably got three that I'd say are super popular.

01:00We've got Trinity which is our America Pale Ale, we've got Brew Order which is our New England Pale

01:04and then we've got Tiger Club which is a new 4.8% Hazy Pale that we did with Against the Grain in Bramley, a nice little bar there.

01:11And everything is brewed on site here is it?

01:14Everything is brewed on site and we've just got a new canner machine as well.

01:17We did a crowd funder for a new canner machine so it's all brewed and packaged on site by us.

01:22And what's the future for the brewery?

01:25We'd like to increase our brewing capacity.

01:27We are currently full all the time for the last couple of months

01:32and we're getting to the point where we really need to get some more capacity and space.

01:36We've got the Crafty Dog Beer Festival in July and then we're hosting our own beer festival over the August bank holiday weekend.

01:43And then obviously we'll be going to Leeds International Beer Festival in Kirkstead Abbey in September.

01:48So these festivals, that's something you've done quite a lot?

01:50Yeah, we try and keep it local. We've only got an electric van so we can't go too far and wide

01:54but we like to go to as many festivals as we can.

01:57And the response from the people at the festivals must be good?

02:00Yeah, it's brilliant. They're always a good time.

02:02I try and not pull too many pints and I just enjoy chatting with people mainly.

02:07And what sort of, what average pints do you do here or amount of beer do you produce here weekly or monthly?

02:14Let me just have a think about that. Good question.

02:18That'd be about, that's actually quite shocking when you think about it.

02:22We probably do about 5,000 pints a week, which is quite a lot, isn't it?

02:26I don't know. It sounds like a lot.

02:28Yeah, it sounds like a lot.

02:31Right, we brew about 5,000 pints a week here.

02:36It ebbs and flows depending on if we've got capacity but yeah, about 5,000 a week.

02:41And obviously the grain and cost of things, has that had an effect?

02:46Have you managed to get the grain and keep costs down?

02:49The recent inflation has really been hitting us.

02:52The cost of our ingredients has really shot up but we've managed to keep it controlled as much as possible

02:58without compromising the quality of the beer that we're producing.