Padstow Brewing Co.

We paid a visit to an amazing local brewery in Padstow who wants nothing more than to remain a local Cornish business. Carry on reading our 10 mins with the lovely Caron

How long ago did you start and why choose Padstow?

We moved down to Cornwall about 10 years ago. We started the brewery in 2013 so it’s 5 years old this weekend. We started the brewery in an old surf shower at the back of the house in Newquay and had a little kit which made about 72 pints. It’s the same process now as it was then, same process to make 72 pints as it is to make 3,000 which is what the kit does now. Then we moved to Padstow which is why we chose the name.

Is it true that you’re the only female head brewster in Cornwall?

As far as I’m aware I was. Des and I started the company and initially we did everything. It was just us for a year and we both brewed and now we’ve got a young brewer George. I’m more on the recipes and thinking of what we’re going to do next.

Where do you sell your products?

We sell them at brewery and the shop and then we also supply a lot of pubs, restaurant and wine and bottle shops. The shop opened last year and it is our biggest customer, it’s a separate business now.

When did you open the shop and tasting room? Is it like another step of what you wanted to do?

Yeah I think selling direct from the brewers is the best way to sell to customers and a lot of people didn't know there was a brewery in Padstow because we’re up in the industrial estate. Although we had a shop at the brewery, people weren’t finding us so it made sense to actually have a shop in Padstow. We supply about 4 or 5 restaurants in Padstow who stock our beers.

What’s the best way to enjoy your drinks in the summer?

We’ve got a 7% cider called Padstow sunshine which is fermented with a champagne yeast and uses a bit of brandy apple and is very popular in the summer so we serve that chilled. We’ve got keg beer which is served chilled and that’s the trendy way, in the summer the craft keg beer is very popular. We do a range of cans which are ideal for the summer because you can chill them down and take them to the beach.

Can you tell us about your brew day experiences?

We do a tour which is about an hour and a half, you get tasting and a tour round the brewery to look how we do the bottling and that’s £25 and you get a pack to take away. The brew day experience starts in the morning and we go through the whole brew process and get a pasty lunch and a t-shirt and a pack to take away as well and that’s £105. Here at the shop we do tastings upstairs and we have another little bar and we also do beer and food matching.

What hopes do you have for your business in the upcoming years?

Well what we dont want is to be in supermarkets. We don’t want to be all over the country, basically we want to stay Cornish. We send some beer out to distributors but what we don’t want is when people come on holiday they’re getting stuff that they get in their pubs and bars at home.

Tell us about Sunday event?

It’s actually on Saturday. We’re five years old on the 21st it’s the date we sold our first cask to the Blissland which is real ale pub just off the A30. We’re having live music and we sponsor a local band called The Stones, a celtic folk band, they’re playing. We’ve done a beer for them called Stowaway IPA. George the brewer will also be playing with his band, he’s on the drums. There’s Wildbake pizza and they sell pizza out the back of a horsebox, it’s amazing best pizza in Cornwall. We’ll have beer, wine and cider and it’s going to be at the brewery, we have a little marquee incase the weather doesn’t hold us but it looks like it’s going to be lovely.

It was a real treat for us to meet Caron and Des the other day, especially since their 5 year anniversary is coming up on Saturday the 21st. It starts at 7pm so check out their website and go and enjoy a fun filled evening with a pint of Padstow.