Cheltenham brewery to join line-up at new Midlands beer festival

Published by

Nicky Godding

Cheltenham brewer, Deya, is just one of a line-up of more than 20 breweries appearing at a new Midlands beer festival taking place in Birmingham in July.

Beer Central will feature world-class beer from over 20 breweries from across the region. As well as Deya, Alcester-based Purity Brewery and Coventry-based Twisted Barrel Ale, which has its brewery at Fargo Village will be included in the line-up.

Taking place across Friday 5^th and Saturday 6^th July, the festival will celebrate local and international breweries, and is aiming to attract beer lovers from across the country.

Deya began life as a hobby, with founder Theo Freyne experimenting with a basic malt extractor starting kit, before moving onto grain brewing, led by quality and consistency.

Deya’s brewery and taproom opened in 2016 in the heart of Cheltenham and aims to provide drinkers with ‘detail focused, well considered beers.’

Deya’s beers are described as ‘soft, intense and hoppy’ and stand out cans, Steady Rolling Man, a 5.2% Pale Ale, and Into the Haze, a (6.2%) a tropical IPA, have received much praise.

Purity Brewing Co is one of the UK’s largest independent breweries. Last year it received a £7.5million investment from the Business Growth Fund (BGF) to support its organic growth strategy.

Founded in 2005, Purity makes high quality beers from its brewery in Great Alne, Warwickshire. The business was named as The Good Pub Guide’s Brewery of the Year in 2018 and produces a range of international award-winning beers including Pure Gold, Pure UBU, Mad Goose, Lawless Lager and Longhorn IPA.

Purity uses the latest heat-and-steam technology to reduce energy consumption at its 90,000 hectolitres brewery. A natural ‘wetland’ system cleanses the waste water and the spent hops are used as fertiliser on the local farm.

While many craft breweries focus on their local region, Purity has successfully built a national network of customers – with a quarter of sales going to Midlands-based independent free trade pubs. BGF’s investment will be used to support Purity’s plans to expand across the UK, grow export sales, and to develop new products. Paul and Jim will continue to lead the business,

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.