We couldn’t do what we do at The Tuppenny if it wasn’t for all the amazing producers who make the fabulous drinks we sell. Whilst we are very happy to receive all offered plaudits for the bar and our drink selection, to be completely fair we need to share credit with all of the teams all over the UK and around the world, who are actually the true artisan geniuses. After all, all we do is pick the good stuff and serve it to you, and what is hard about that? So, we wanted to start a series of little features on some of our favourites.
First under our spotlight are the team at Fallen Acorn Brewing Co. We only stumbled upon these fine folks last year as they really started ramping distribution up, but are very glad we did as the beers are awesome. The brewery was borne out of the ashes of Gosport institution Oakleaf Brewery and still brews on the same site. Established in 2000, Oakleaf built a well deserved reputation locally for the quality of its cask brews until running into some financial difficulties in 2016. Fortunately, the business attracted a lot of interest and was swiftly rescued by the management and an investment company, resulting in a rebrand with an updated contemporary image and marketing and new beers to go along with them.
The beers are now a very diverse range of cask and keg ales ranging from Imperial Stouts through hefty hop-forward pales and sours to more traditional brews and even lager. Everything we have had from so far has been superb, and we fully intend to explore more of their output when lockdown eases, especially their cask and keg lines, but at time of writing you will find two beers in stock in our Fridge of Dreams™ – Crystal Haze and the mighty Not With That Oatitude.
Crystal Haze is a pokey New England style IPA from their core range. It turns in at a decent 7.2% ABV and is dry hopped with big hitters Cascade, Comet, and Mosaic for plenty of juicy notes of mango, citrus, stone fruit, and berries coupled with a silky smooth finish. Not With That Oatitude hails from their specials program and weighs in at a hefty 10.5% ABV. Loaded with a massive double dry hop of El Dorado, Azacca, and Amarillo it explodes with candied tropical fruits (pineapple, mango, and orange), combined with a soft and pillowy mouthfeel from an oat cream addition. The guys say they were inspired by New York outfit Other Half Brewing for this first foray into both oat cream and triple IPAs, which is no bad thing. Both these beers (at time of writing) are available on the Webshop, but if you miss out, don’t fear, there will be plenty more coming from their range!
So, loving what they do and unable to visit due to pesky lockdown considerations, we did the next best thing and had a digital Q&A with them to ask about their journey and how things have been for them during the pandemic. So, in their own words, here are Fallen Acorn Brewing Co…
What got you into brewing and led you to this point?
There’s been a brewery on this site for 20 years. The team now has come together from across the brewing scene – Tim worked for Northern Monk, and Fullers before that, Felix was one of the first UK brewing apprenticeship graduates. Aaron started from being a homebrewer, and helping out at local breweries. Different foundations but the same shared passion. We have a relatively new team here but dedicated to building on the history of the brewery and those here before us.
What ethos do you have as a brewery / what are you trying to do?
We are striving to deliver the highest quality beer from traditional styles and brewing techniques, to push modern brewing boundaries and combine a range of brewing experience with a passion for innovation.
Offering a wide range of styles, we aim to brew something for all tastes, breaking the divide between traditional and craft (and beyond) and instead seeing all as simply, beer. We hold community, experimentation, sustainability, collaboration, and quality at the heart of what we do.
Tell us about the team. How does it all work?
We’re very much a ‘all hands on deck’ team – as we are only a small brewery, we all tend to muck in to all aspects of the job. From creating beer concepts, to the brew day, to sales, to marketing, everyone has an input at some stage. Mostly we just have a beer, come up with ideas we’ve not been able to do before, and go for it.
How has Covid and the restrictions affected your business (or you as people if you are feeling brave)
Pubs being closed has hit our sales drastically. Our whole business model has had to change – we’re blessed to have a lot of loyal locals who have been amazing, buying beer for home delivery. Unfortunately it’s ten times more work for less money, but it’s kept us going and we cannot thank the community around us enough. We have tried to look at the positives as much as we can – we’ve been able to fast forward our rebrand, due to the speed of small pack going out increasing. We’ve had more time to experiment and brew small batch specials. We’ve established a core range too.
I think the mental toll has hit us all, as I’m sure it has to everyone, but we’re a brewery family here and we have each other’s backs whenever things get hard.
What hopes have you got for the future?
We just want to keep pushing forward in the same vein we have over the last year. More specials, more experimenting. We can’t wait to get back to normality so we can collaborate with some of the amazing breweries and artists around the UK.
Most of all, we want to get the taproom back open. Beer is about community and we miss ours. And getting our beer festival back into planning would be amazing. We are hating not being able to get out and visit the bars stocking us, but fingers crossed we’ll be able to again in the not too distant future.
Massive thanks to the guys at Fallen Acorn for taking the time to chat to us. You will be seeing plenty more of their beer at The Tuppenny over the coming months – on the bar eventually (Hurrah) and in the meantime, in our fridge. So, go and check out what we have in stock at the moment and keep an eye out for more drops soon.
