Brewers depart, breweries arrive

While the arrival of Weird Beard and Ellenbergs is good news, we've also lost a couple of brewers hereabouts. The first, Mark Wainwright, has resigned as brewer at the Botanist on Kew Green, a brewpub/restaurant which has become very popular locally. He is moving up north to join Blue Ball Brewery of Runcorn. The Botanist is recruiting a replacement; however, the new brewer they want can't move over yet, so Mark expects to be brewing there on a temp basis a few days a week for a little while yet.

He's also still going to be working as a consultant for Brewhouse & Kitchen, a new pubco started by two directors of Convivial (the company which runs the Botanist, plus other West London pubs including the White Swan in Twickenham and the Barley Mow in Chiswick), and which plans to use the Botanist as the model for a number of new gastro-brewpubs around London and the south-east.

Meanwhile at Twickenham Fine Ales, assistant brewer Josh Walker has left to join London Fields Brewery - I hear he will be rejoining colleagues of his from a previous job there.

Twickenham's Steve Brown (r) with head brewer Tom Madeiros

On the plus side, Twickenham Fine Ales is about to move to new premises and a larger brewery. It is remaining in Twickenham, thankfully, but is replacing its current 10 barrel kit with a 25 barrel one, in a bigger industrial unit not far from its current base. Brewery manager Steve Brown said they will recruit a new assistant brewer once they have moved - they take over the new premises on 1st May and can then start installing the new kit. He added that he has plans to expand the operation, with the addition of an artisanal bakery. Craft food to accompany the craft ale, I guess!