Whilst gathering content for our Cambridge United feature, in Vol.11 of STONES, we couldn’t help but have our design eye caught by their proud partners BrewBoard. Since then, we have been out and about in the Cambridge area and have seen the BrewBoard name popping up everywhere. It got us thinking about this local brewery with their quirky branding and ever-growing presence and wondering what their story is. So we got in touch and took a trip over to the brewery and tap room in Harston to meet the owners and find out more.
It all started with co-founder Stuart Chambers, who cut his teeth brewing beer at Dragon Forge brewery in Audley End. His brewing knowledge was expanding and his beer was gaining a lot of attention. Off the back of this success, Stuart decided that now was the time to start brewing beer of his own and assembled a team of like-minded people to start transforming his vision into a reality. Enter Oliver Pugh with his design and branding expertise and financial director, Paul Archer. This trio of co-founders got the keys to the premises in Harston on January 1st 2017 and after 6 months of hard graft, stripping back and getting the building fit for use as a brewery, they commissioned and installed their first brew kit in Summer 2017. The first beer went to market that Autumn and the business was gaining momentum at a rapid pace. As was the case for many businesses, the pandemic couldn’t have come at a worse time. The team were faced with an ultimatum; they could either mothball the business and hunker down, to wait and see what fate had in store, or they adapt and give it their everything to make it work despite the pandemic. Well, this being a story of brewing heroism in the face of adversity – we’re thrilled to say they opted for the latter!
In hindsight, it would seem the Universe was in favour of these guys making beer as, despite solely producing kegs up until then, they had decided to buy an expensive canning line and have it shipped in from Canada. They had started to question themselves on whether this was a good investment considering they barely produced any canned beer, but during lockdown this kit became a lifeline for BrewBoard. With pubs and restaurants closed they needed to focus their attention on domestic supply and came up with their ‘24 in 24’ campaign where if you ordered 24 cans, they would deliver it within 24 hours or you would get it for free! This kept the team busy and also gave local people a great reason to really get behind the brand. Post pandemic, BrewBoard were ready to push forward with the business and started collaborating with other businesses and organisations such as Cambridge Country Club, The Gonville Hotel and notably Cambridge United where they exclusively supply ‘Abbey Gold’ to thousands of fans, amongst other BrewBoard options.
Back at the Harston Tap Room, many happy customers have attended events over recent years and there are more in the pipeline. The event set up has needed to adapt as, due to an increase in demand, the brewing kit has taken over most of the space, meaning the built in bar and seating area had to go. But, fear not, the BrewBoard ‘Beer Bus’ is just outside and has up to 10 kegs on the go at any time! A new Tap Room is set to open in Autumn, on Pease Hill in Cambridge, and the search is underway for new brewery premises to expand into. So, keep an eye out for more details on those. BrewBoard are heavily involved in events and hospitality venues in and around the Cambridge area and supply all over the country, as well as internationally, so if you haven’t sampled this local beer offering yet, get it to the top of your to-do list and see what all the fuss is about!
