Hawkshead Brewery has opened its new Flookburgh site, trebling its annual production capacity as the craft brewer drives UK and international growth.
Hawkshead Brewery will initially produce up to 240 beer barrels (8,640 gallons or 69,000 pints) of premium beer each week, with this set to increase as it gears up to export its Hawkshead Lager and Hawkshead Windermere Pale across Eastern and Western Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Concentrating on its recently re-branded core range of craft beers, which also include Hawkshead Lager, Hawkshead Brodie’s Prime Porter, Hawkshead Lakeland Gold, Hawkshead Red and Session IPA, the Brewery is expanding its distribution in the UK too, with increased cask and keg on-trade listings with New World Trading Company, Mitchells & Butlers and JD Wetherspoon. Its pack formats will be listed in major multiple retailers.
Nigel Campbell, Commercial Director of Craft Beer at Hawkshead Brewery says: “Hawkshead’s core range has always had a really strong regional following and to be able to further expand its reach throughout the remainder of the UK and overseas is exciting.
“Hawkshead is bringing strong competition to the craft beer category globally, backed by ethical marketing activity and a reputable global infrastructure. We have already appointed a US distributor with other territories quickly following suit and the beauty of our new brewery design is that tank capacity can grow as demand increases.”
Innovation is still at the heart of Hawkshead as it grows, with the original Staveley Brewery continuing to produce small batch artisan beers, including unique sours, wild fermented beers, double dry-hopped hazy IPAs and imperial stouts, which have increasing appeal with consumers and will be made more readily available via the Hawkshead website and specialist craft beer wholesalers.
Hawkshead’s Head Brewer, Matt Clarke, is overseeing both site operations to ensure its unique processes and ingredients – including whole cone hops, which give a fresher aroma than pellet hops – are prevalent in both the core range and small batch brews.
Other unique attributes include a new barrel store, which enables Hawkshead to expand its current barrel aging programme, sourcing craft distillery barrels from all over the world. Hawkshead also cultivates its own yeast which makes its beers impossible to imitate.
