Nothing beats a good cold craft beer with some friends and a good hangout spot, in fact we call this our perfect night! Brick Brewery embodies this and so much more by focusing on community and creating great craft beer right in our home country of the UK.
Brick Brewery all started in a garden shed in Peckham, South East London, where they remain today (but have outgrown the shed). They are a family owned, independent brewery where they get inspiration by the creative and cultural surroundings of South East London. We spoke with Sally Stewart, the Brand Director on how Brick Brewery started, the importance of their community and what makes them so unique.
Tell us about the story behind Brick Brewery starting in a shed? That’s such a unique start!
Sally: "It started back in 2013 when Ian was creating home-brews in our shed in our house in Peckham. He had brewed when he was younger, but I brought him a kit for Christmas one year, and after 6 months I asked if he was ever going to do it and that’s it! It grew from there, the kit in the shed got bigger, the brews got better, so Ian looked at it from a business perspective, spent a lot of time on a business plan and then eventually he secured an arch under Peckham Rye station which was our original Brewhouse and still houses our Taproom today.
Now we are here, 7 years later, having grown significantly but still with our feet very firmly on the ground."
How important is your community and what makes Brick Brewery so unique?
Sally: "The community is incredibly important. In those early days, the support from businesses and people in Peckham was amazing. From advice to drinking our beer, we wouldn’t be here without their support. Our mission is to inspire and enrich choice through consistency, quality and innovation and whilst a lot of breweries have become all about special beers and one offs, whilst we do this and do it very well, we have also worked really hard on providing a consistent core range that we feel has something for everyone. We are a family run, independent brewery, producing and packaging beer in London. There aren’t that many of those left."
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Did the Coronavirus Pandemic affect your business? Did you have to shut down?
Sally: "Unfortunately I think it affected everyone and in varying ways. We did shut down for 3 weeks as the country went into lockdown, however Ian and myself kept working behind the scenes trying to ensure that the business would survive. We adapted quickly and creatively and once we realised that online sales were rapidly picking up, we got our product online and brought back a small part of our production team to produce more beer."
What services does Brick Brewery offer and how has Zapiet helped you?
Sally: "As soon as we went online, we initially started off with local deliveries, picked and packed by Ian himself, plus national deliveries through a courier. We used Zapiet for the local deliveries to ensure we could set the applicable post codes and minimums spends and to be honest, without this, it would have been a very difficult time.
The support from the local community was amazing. As restrictions eased slightly, we also offered Click and Collect from our Taproom using Zapiet, which was also really helpful as it gave people another avenue in which they could purchase our beer (plus draft beer),
which also took the pressure off the home deliveries a little bit, allowing us to start planning for potential re opening of our Taproom and pubs and venues which we used to supply to."
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Will these / this service remain part of your business moving forward?
Sally: "Click and Collect has ceased as the Taproom is now open, however we are continuing with local deliveries and will do the foreseeable future."
What is an absolute must try when visiting Brick Brewery?
Sally: "Well we are very well known for our kettle sours and produce a new one every 4-6 weeks but depending on your preference in beer you can’t go wrong with our Peckham Pils, which was one of the first beers we ever brewed, and if you like hazy beer then our Peckham Session is definitely one not to miss!"
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Yum! 😋 We will definitely be hitting Brick Brewery up for these must try beers soon. To learn more about Zapiet or Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery view our video tutorials and explore the app. Get started using the Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery app from Shopify and get a 30 day free trial.
