IT'S been a whirlwind few months for us here at Fierce Beer.
With the opening of our new micro-brewery back in May, to the numerous new brews we’ve been creating, to the incredible craft beer festivals we’ve been involved in already, our small team has been extremely busy.
Recently we headed to London, after being invited by one of London’s best craft beer bars to host a tap takeover.
Little did we know we’d end up showcasing our brews to craft beer giants, BrewDog’s Captain and co-founder, James Watt.
Tuesday, August 2
Dave G & Dave M (directors Dave Grant and Dave McHardy) drive down to London in Nicole, our beautiful French Renault Fierce Van, and drop kegs off at The Rake in Borough Market and bottles to The Cage - the only craft beer stall in the market.
Later on that evening, I fly down and meet the guys at Mother Kelly’s, which is an amazing craft beer bar in Bethnal Green, drop off a few samples for them to try out and decide to stay for a few beers ourselves – all in the name of market research, of course.
We then head for a curry at an Indian curry house called Monsoon, located on Brick Lane.
Hands down one of the best curries I’ve had in a long, long time.
Wednesday, August 3
After getting wind that we were making our way to London for a few days, we were invited to do a tasting at The Cage, a quirky beer shop in Borough Market for a couple of hours, talking to people about our pack-a-punch flavoursome beers.
There was a lot of interest in the beers and we generated quite a lot of sales too, which was great.
We then headed to The Rake for our Tap Take Over from 5pm.
We gifted all the staff with Fierce Beer t-shirts and Dave G stood up on one of the tables addressing the whole bar, taking them through the different beers and introducing the brand to all of the craft beer enthusiasts who had turned up.
The staff at The Rake were so passionate about craft beer, and it was great to hear so much positive feedback on our beer.
At the tap takeover, we organised a raffle which went down really well, and many punters left with prizes – all in all a great evening for everyone.
Being invited down to The Rake was incredible, it’s best known for its first class beer selection, featuring beers from Britain and across the world.
It’s also said to be London’s smallest bar, although they’ve never actually claimed this title.
Breweries across the world come to showcase their products and get to sign their wall – only brewers get to sign this wall.
This was a very proud moment for the team.
It was the moment I think we all realised how much we’ve achieved in a short space of time – it was all very overwhelming.
Fierce Beer arrives in London
Thursday, August 4
Day three in London and we took to the streets with our rucksacks packed with beer samples, tasting notes, and decided to pay a visit to numerous distributors, bars and pubs in the city.
We paid a visit to Desk Beers too, a cool company which delivers beers to your work who were really interested in us due to being one of the newest kids on the brewing scene.
A genius idea in my opinion.
We also popped into the Pig’s Ear after a quick tube journey to Richmond and then nipped into The Tate Modern.
Alex, the manager of The Tate Modern, got in touch and is now stocking our beers after hearing how successful the Tap Take Over at The Rake was.
That evening we headed to BrewDog Clapham Junction for another Fierce Beer Tap Take Over.
Again we offered tasters and hosted a raffle, but this time we decided to bring along our metal hop head and we got some fun snaps of everyone’s "Fierce Faces".
Too much fun was had!
Friday, August 5
Our last full day in London, we went around with samples again. This time we bumped into The Beer Collective and talked them through our beers.
Our final tap takeover, we headed to BrewDog Shoreditch in the evening and did what we do best, talk about our beers and tell our story.
Little did we know that we would be surprised with an unexpected visit from Captain & Co-Founder of BrewDog, James Watt.
He had been in London and was heading back to Aberdeen, so decided to pop in and see us before he left.
He stood at the bar, had samples of our range of beers and congratulated Dave G on how good they were.
It was amazing to have James pop in and make the effort to come along and support us.
Peanut Riot was his favourite brew.
Saturday, August 6
An early morning flight back to Aberdeen was on the cards for me.
The guys were lucky enough to get a longer lie and headed to Eebria later on to do a mini tap takeover and tasting at their tap room in Bermondsey.
Many people were really impressed with the flavour of the beers and all the beers were all really popular.
Later on Dave G and Dave M headed back to Aberdeen in Nicole, who was much, much lighter on her way back up the road.
London was an incredible experience for us all, and we can’t wait to go back to cause even more mischief in the bars.
Stay Fierce!
- Founded this year, Fierce Beer is Aberdeen’s only micro-brewery and moved into its new microbrewery in Dyce, in April.
James Watt of BrewDog is speaking at the Chamber's final OnLeadership event of 2016 on December 5.
Dave G signing The Rake's wall