A South Cumbrian brewery is celebrating its first year in business.
Lakes Brew Co was set up by Matt Clarke, Michelle Gay, Steve Ricketts and Paul Sheldon, who were formerly employed by Hawkshead Brewery at Staveley.
When they were made redundant, they decided to continue doing what they loved and set up a new firm.
Michelle said: “Adversity lit a flame within the co-founders to create something for themselves, take control of their own futures and build a brewery that they are happy to be involved in.
“It has taken lots of hard work to get to this point but it has also been a humbling first year of business for us, we have picked up several awards including
a gold national award for NE Session in can, which was up against some of the best beers in the country, a national branding award, Drinks Producer of the Year from Cumbria Food Awards and several medals in the regional awards of Society of Independent Brewers.
“To think if we hadn’t taken a leap of faith in ourselves we wouldn’t have been in this position today.”
The end of July will mark the first year of brewing for the Lakes Brew Co team and to celebrate they will be throwing a tap party at the onsite brewery pop-up bar on July 29 and 30.
