LOCAL brewing company, Brotherhood Brewery, run by twin brothers Tom and Joe Lewis on Westbury’s Northacre trading estate, has been selected for the 2019 CAMRA Good Beer Guide.
After the realisation that their current jobs weren’t giving them the satisfaction the beer-loving pair needed, Joe, an accountant, and Tom, a sales director, both chose a change of direction in December 2016 and have never looked back.
They began their brewing career with one 2,000 litre barrel and a taste for good beer, selling their first beer on May 18th, 2017 to local pub The Royal Oak at Hawkeridge, who remains their longest-standing customer.
Now, they sell their 9-variety branded beer in pubs across the country and are invited to prestigious events such as the Kia Oval 5-day series held at The Oval international cricket ground in London.
Joe, who does the majority of the brewing said, “When you hate your job, you just have to find some other way to make money. With myself and Tom both loving beer, we just went for it!
“We now sell to the whole of the UK from Manchester down to London across to Taunton, so nationally! It’s intense with lots of work, but great fun.
“Working with your twin brother is great, but like all brothers we fall out a lot, but we always sort it out again after five minutes!”
Tom, who is the frontman of the team said, “The future for Brotherhood Brewery is that we hope to continue to grow at the rate we are and eventually open up our own tap rooms. It’s great to be receiving repeat customers too, it shows they love it as much as we do.”
CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide is the original independent guide to good beer and good pubs. Now in its 46th edition, the fully revised and updated Guide recommends pubs in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and offshore islands that serve the best real ale. Brotherhood Brewery has made it in as one of the South West’s new breweries for the 2019 edition.
Tom Stainer, chief communications officer at CAMRA, who create the Good Beer Guide says, “We’ve seen such sweeping changes across the brewing and pub scene over the past year with brewing becoming more collaborative and socially-minded, and pubs continuing to diversify to cater for all tastes with the continued increase in micropubs, tap rooms and community-run pubs, each improving choice for drinkers.
“This is the 46th issue of the Guide – a book that has become an essential companion for those with a passion for real ale and discovering the best places to find it.”
