Originally published in the Nov 2016 edition of the Hullfire.
The award winning Atom Brewery are the one of the best independent brewery’s in Hull and East Yorkshire and ship their wide range of experimental and flavoursome beers worldwide. One of their beers Phobos and Deimos RIPA is rated as the best beer in East Yorkshire at the moment on RateBeer and their unique style and approach has got them acclaim all over the market. I had the chance to go down to their Sutton Fields brewery and have a chat with self-confessed beer geeks and founder and head brewer respectively Allan Rice and Jack Walker.
Former University of Hull student Jack showed me briefly around the workshop floor of the brew house when I arrived. There was a distinct wheaty aroma throughout the brewery that was apparently unnoticeable to Jack after so long. I was surrounded by enormous tanks that each had a different affectionate name given to them. Some were for fermenting, some for conditioning. I even got to try a little beer straight from one of the cold room tanks. It was apparently not quite ready and a little too hoppy for that particular recipe but it was nonetheless refreshing and there was definitely a satisfaction in drinking something essentially straight from the source.
It was clear from the off that these two gents lived and breathed this stuff although Jack was quick to acknowledge that despite the opportunity that might appear to present itself, each working day was not a complete booze up. In fact, due to a more acquired taste for a good beer they only ever drink what they enjoy.
My first proper question was regarding their ethos which is about more than just selling beer. It’s clearly something the whole team share and Jack chips in straight away. “It would be Science and Education really. Our tagline is ‘The Science of Brewing’. When Allan and Sarah [co-founder] first set up the company it was so they could teach and educate people about science in a different and more interesting way.” And it’s still quite central to what they’re about, with the University itself being involved in one of their most popular beers. “We worked with the University of Hull on our Schrodingers Cat [beer] and we have Wyke College come down and do science and food and hygiene sessions here. They can’t drink it but they can certainly learn about it! We run beer schools, an eight week course for beer enthusiasts.”
Science is even at the heart of the weird and wonderful names for their beers, it’s not just branding. “There is usually a reason behind them. Dark Alchemy has no hops in so it has a really unusual recipe, Schrodingers Cat has got a lot of interesting science in, the Pale Ale has lots of different varieties [of hops] in it. A brewing house is just like an alchemy play kit for a scientist really.”
I asked Allan about their origins. “We launched in January 2014. Sarah and I raised the finances with life savings and bits and bobs, Sarah’s dad helped us build the brewery in November and December before. The name stemmed from an idea back in 2010 walking along a beach in Edinburgh where we decided we wanted to build something around the name Atom. What it would be we had no idea. We both really liked beer and experimentation so it made logical sense to go down that road. I had to work like a beast to get through university and growing up didn’t have any money or help during that process. So we thought the brewing would hopefully inspire another generation. We once had a group of students in and there was one lad, 17, who didn’t want to be seen and was failing all his classes, felt he was stupid. We got him to do a couple of things around the brewery as part of the day. He went from bottom of the class to top 3 and has applied to do a brewing and distilling course. From a business perspective I always say, if in 5 years he’s become a brewer somewhere then we’ve achieved our goal. So we’re not only creating great beer we’re also inspiring another generation.”
Atom beer has spread far and wide and in fact Hull has not until recently been where they’ve had the most success, Jack told me. “To start with the local craft scene hadn’t developed so a lot of our beer went up to Edinburgh or London where there are a lot of good bars and good beer. But name a big city and we’ve probably been in it. Now increasingly the local scene has bumped up and to name a few places Furly and Co. in town was probably the first ‘craft beer’ bar to open up in the city. There’s also The Boardroom Café on Newland and 88’s Beer House on Princes Ave that have our beers on. We’re now international as well. 27,000 bottles of our Brown Ale went out to Norway and won a competition which is crazy. Scandinavia in general. Italy and France have had some stuff too. We’ve had enquiry from China as well so we’re trying to sort that out. How we’re going to do that, we don’t know! Really surreal. Hull is linked with Raleigh, North Carolina, another university town and Trophy is one of the biggest and best brewery’s there so we’re going to do a collab with them.” And they do get to travel around a lot on the job; exhausting but fun.
City of Culture, excited?
“Absolutely, I’m born and raised in and around the area. For us it’s been a gradual increase over time until one day I was sitting in Thieving Harry’s and thinking, Hull’s really changing and some really funky places are opening up. I think a lot of people are thinking 2017 is when the independent scene is really going to start to come through in the city. Hopefully we’ll get somewhere like a Manchester’s Northern quarter. We’ve got plans for a lot of new places down Humber street area who are going to take our beer. We were at Freedom Fest. First time at a major festival and I think we handled it well. Weather was terrible which didn’t help in terms of sales but did help us to manage people a little easier. Hopefully be at Humber Street Sesh next year. We’re a local company and we do want to see the city do well and [City of Culture] is a great opportunity for that.”
“Traditionally we’ve always struggled locally,” Allan tells me. “Lots of people got interviewed at Freedom Fest and were like ‘It’s really amazing to see a brewery from London come up to support us’. We’re 2 and a half miles away. Brewed 2 and a half miles away! People are starting to notice that we’re here and be proud that we’re here. We definitely have a bigger reputation nationally than locally. We were at the Rake in London one of the first craft beer bars in the country. Been their twice. And you don’t get invited back twice unless people are interested.”
In general in the UK the independent brewing market is growing, there’s places popping up all over the place. The naysayers claim it’s a bubble that will pop but Jack doesn’t seem to think so. “I always look to America who are 10-20 years ahead of where we are. Sierra Nevada which is one of the grandad’s of good beer in America took about 10 years to get properly settled in and now some of the stalwarts of the US brewery scene dwarf the biggest ones here. So there’s still a long way to go. In Hull and East Yorkshire it certainly feels like it’s starting to hit here.”
“Not that size is everything,” Allan points out. “One primary goal and what makes us more unique as a brewery, is building a facility that incorporates brewery, manufacturing, production, a bar/restaurant, lecture theatre, teaching facilities and research lab. With a lot of other brewery’s it would be a case of let’s grow so we can sell lots of beer, whereas we want to teach 200 people per day. Imagine the Deep. Remove the fish and put in beer and that’s pretty much where we’re at. The people that come to us on the beer school, leave enthused and passionate about beer.” They admit that their nerdiness about beer isn’t always reciprocated but that it is still an interesting subject to learn about.
It’s not all been an easy road, there have been changes around in team and dodgy tanks that have set them back on occasions but they now have some new tanks and Allan is very positive about the current team. For now it seems the only way is up. Moving forward, they would love to increase the team in size which may mean they need to move elsewhere. Currently the shop floor is full. Allan is clear that the team has to fit together and share the ethos and passion. “Normally the message and ethos of a business come from the owner, if you remove the owner the rest of the staff are kind of irrelevant. But with us, if you were to take me and Sarah out and you asked Sam, Jack and Jamie, you get the same feeling and belief. So we want people that are built on the same stuff. The brewing industry isn’t about making loads of money, it never has been and that’s the same from bottom to top. It’s all about passion.” That would essentially be their advice for young budding entrepreneurs, Jack echoes. “It has to be your passion if you’re going to put in 80 hours a week which you probably will do – and there’s going to be real tough days and real tough weeks – it has to be what you love doing.” Allan talked of the benefits of having a supportive team. It’s clear that at Atom the bond between them is tight. “A lot of budding entrepreneurs go ‘it’s me against the world’ and they’re battering away in their own little bubble. That’s the wrong way of doing it, you have to be open. There is a slight disparity because you have to draw the line between employees and friends somewhere but it is nice to have a team that you get along with.”
Their faces scrunched up when I asked them what their personal favourite atom beers were, a tough ask no doubt. Jack went with Phobos and Deimos which was also the first beer he brewed for the company. Allan went with Dark Alchemy and Schrodingers Cat both beers that go straight on and then off the bar. You can learn more about these beers on their website.
Other personal favourite beers were Vermont beer Alchemist Heady Topper, and the stout Dark Lord and were both fans of New Zealand brewery Garage Project and Bermondsey brewery Fourpure. Jack recommended looking for something local and fresh and ask around for what the best local beer is.
Throughout the conversation I couldn’t help but share their enthusiasm for the wide world of craft beer; a thirst waiting to be quenched. They have ambitions to work with the Union to set up their beers there and also in doing so set up a bursary for students, so it helps everyone. Great beer, good times and helping students in education. So is the ‘Allan Rice/Jack Walker Fund for Poor Students’ just around the corner?
You can keep in contact with Atom via email, phone, twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. They do a great brewery tour for groups of 6 people, £12 pound each. They are always happy to answer any questions and welcome people interested in brewing to come down and help out, so get in contact. They are a great bunch of lads.
Tim Goodfellow 