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2021: A Year In Highlights

2021: A Year In Highlights

In light of us being named The Brewer's Journal 2021 Brewery of the Year this month, we take a look back on a busy, challenging, incredibly rewarding year...

Thank you, everyone, for your support!

before and after our brewery relocation. The warehouse, 2020 (left)  with kegs on pallets and a lone pallet truck, all underneath a dilapidated office roof. The new brewery 2021 (right) with steel fermentation vessels and a bottling line.

Pictured above: before and after our brewery relocation. The warehouse, 2020 (left) and the new brewery 2021 (right)

What a year, eh? There’s been a great deal of change: moving our brewhouse, setting our roots firmly in Hackney, opening a new Taproom, while continuing to brew, sell and send our beer across London, the UK and beyond. We take a look at each month of 2021 to reflect upon some of our best memories and favourite achievements.

January | First Brew At The New Brewhouse

This is a split image, with Alana, a brewer at Five Points, turns back to face the camera. She is stood at the top of the mash tun. The second image to the right is a close-up of the mash tun's hatch opening, through which we can see the metal mixing arm and spent grain.

In late 2020, we took the opportunity to take on a long-term lease of our existing warehouse premises on Mare Street. This was a chance to create a Five Points HQ, here in the heart of Hackney – and launch our first on-site brewery taproom.

We had systematically relocated our entire brewhouse – just a mile down the road from the two railway arches underneath Hackney Downs station we had called home since 2013. We moved everything: giant fermentation tanks, brewhouse, bottling line, the beer-filled wooden barrels that make up our ageing project...

On 21st January 2021, we brewed our first brew on Mare Street: a batch of Five Points XPA.

February | We Dreamt Of The Pub... And Raised Money For Our Charity Partners

This features two photos in a split image. The first features a door from Whitelock's Ale House with text that reads: Whitelock's Ale House; Whitelock's First City Luncheon Bar; Joules' Stone Ale Always In Splendid Condition. The second image features two pints of cask ale, nicely sparkled, on the copper bar of Whitelock's. A woman in the background is laughing out of focus.

The ongoing hospitality lockdown in February this year had us especially missing one of our favourite places in the world... the pub! Luckily, we were able to share some beautiful photography in an Ode to the Pub photoessay, shot by Cal Holland, to remind us of some of the UK’s most lovely pubs, including our fantastic sister pub, Whitelock's in Leeds.

During this winter lockdown period, we were able to satisfy our thirsty customers through our webstore - and delivered over 2,000 orders to households across London and the UK. For every order placed on the webshop, we donate £1 to our charity partners, Mind in the City, Hackney & Waltham Forest, and Hackney Foodbank. Your lockdown bevs helped to raise £2,000 for charities, as well as keep you slightly more entertained during those long winter months.

This is another split image. On the lefthand side we see Brad and Jonny from The Craft Beer Channel with camera equipment. Both are wearing cloth masks and colourful warm jackets. On the right, we see Jonny and Greg Hobbs at a wooden table, with barrels behind them, and a mini-cask of Five Points Best between them. Both have a pint of Best in a dimple glass beofre them.

With pubs still closed, we were also sorely missing the experience of a lovely pint of cask ale, enjoyed properly in the pub. Turns out, Jonny and Brad from the Craft Beer Channel felt the same, so we teamed up for the Cask Festival Broadcast.

Together we hosted a live-stream cask beer festival with tastings, brewday segments, and a panel discussion featuring beer journalist and author Pete Brown, Christian Townsley, founder of North Brewing Co, and Georgina Young, Brewing Director at St Austell.

A huge cheers and shout out to the Craft Beer Channel (and its thousands of viewers who watched our videos!), for providing us with so much great content, especially all the videos that entertained us since the pandemic began.

April | Crowdfunding 2.0

This is a split image. The brewery's exterior features in the first picture, with "The Five Points Brewing Co" in large letters above the large warehouse shutter door, that is open. The sky is wonderfully clear above the peaked roof of the building. The second image features Greg Hobbs and Ed Mason standing in the brewery, facing the camera, with the brewhouse and a forklift truck in the background.

In spring, we returned to our community to help us complete the relocation project of our brewhouse, and invest in our new Taproom. We were humbled and delighted by the continued belief in our company: we passed our initial investment target and closed the campaign on £924,814 of investment raised.

Thank you, as always, to our community of investors. Without your support, our brewery relocation and new Taproom would not have been possible.

May | A New Core Beer, And The Pembury Tavern Reopened

A split image featuring on the left a picture of the Five Points Lager in a glass with a keg badge leaning against the glass. On the right, a Pembury staffer in a sweet Sonic Youth shirt is holding up a half pint full of beer.

Our customers (and brewers) had been calling for a second lager in the range, and we heard you! In May, we launched a new core range beer: an easy-drinking, flavoursome Lager celebrating British ingredients - brewed with Simpson’s finest lager malt and Goldings from Hukins Hops in Kent. Since then, we’ve brewed over 100,000 pints of Lager - safe to say it’s been going down well.

May also marked the reopening of hospitality, including our lovely Hackney pub, The Pembury Tavern, for the first time in months. It was fantastic to get back to serving our customers, and thank you to all that supported us during those winter months via takeaways.

June | “It” Didn’t Come Home, But The Outdoor Taproom Was Buzzing

A split image, with the left featuring the screening of the World Cup game to a crowd of attendees sat at Bavarian beer tables underneath a railway arch. On the right, there's a photo of an excited group of England supporters in white tees, hands in the air, celebrating a goal.

While the England men’s football team didn’t bring “it” home, we still had an amazing time in the outdoor Taproom yard over the summer.

Investing in a large, outdoor (and Covid-safe) area for Five Points pints when the weather permits has been a big part of the restructuring plan at the Mare Street site. Coming 2022, we will have fully finished our permanent outdoors bar and yard set-up.

See you there come spring (and, dare we say it, a World Cup Final rematch?) 

July | The Brewers Editions: Olicana & Harlequin Pale

A glass of the Brewers' Editions Beer with a keg badge that reads "Five Points Olicana & Harlequin Pale" is on a metal surface with the brewery in the background. A second image on the right features Matt Johnson, our production brewer who made the beer.

The first Brewers' Edition beer, a series designed to allow the brewteam to flex their creative muscles, came from our Production Brewer, Matt Johnson. A 4.8% Pale Ale hopped with Olicana and Harlequin, two modern English hops created by Charles Faram, which won ‘Best New Variety’ and Gold at the 2019 National Hop Awards.

The result? It went down a storm! Bold pineapple, peach and passion fruit aromas,  - and in fact one of our favourite beers of the year. Well done, Matt.

August | Social Occasions Were Back!

This is a split image. On the left is a picture of Alana, Hannah and Alexa holding stemmed beer glasses at Hop City. On the right, there is a photo of a sign that reads "The Tobacco Dock Tavern presented by Five Points" above a room at London Craft Beer Festival.

It came flooding back... the joy of large scale events, social gatherings, and festival season! August saw us attend BrewLDN, and take on a London Craft Beer Festival vault space at Tobacco Dock.

The Five Points team took a trip to Leeds, visiting our sister pub Whitelock’s Ale House, Hop City Beer Festival, and a few lovely brewery pals along the way. It was great to be back.

September | Two Green Hop Brews, Three Festivals

This is a split image. On the left, there is a picture of Greg and Max with a big big bag of freshly-picked green hops from Hukins Hops, ready to pour at the top of a steaming kettle. On the right, hops are packed into various beer glasses, including a rather vintage Mason & Taylor 1/3rd glass.

The autumn months are those of the hop harvest, when hops are picked, then dried to be used in brews throughout the year. Once a year it becomes possible to brew with fresh, "green hops": bursting with aroma and character.

This year, as usual, we used Hukins Hops’ fantastic Bullion hops (unusual in their distinctive, delicious blackcurrant flavours) and their UK Cascade variety - which we also bottled for the very first time in 2021.

Three pictures here: First of a large crowd of people in front of a stage to see a band called Idles play. The second picture shows a sign that says "London Brewers' Market brought to you by The Five Points Brewing Co." The third picture is of the Five Points stall at Brockwell Park, with three people behind the bar, and one person drinking a beer in front of the bar..

And secondly for September, our London Brewers Market assembled ten fellow breweries to pour beer at South London's Brockwell Park’s big festival weekend: Cross the Tracks, the Mighty Hoopla and Wide Awake. Serving thousands of festival goers, across a fantastic weekend of live music... What a treat.

October | Our First Time To Host

This is an image with three pictures inside. The first picture on the left is the final product at The Pembury: a pint glass full of mild next to the handpull and pump clip that says "The Five Points Dark Ruby Mild Good Point, Well Made 5% abv Turning Point" collab beer. The second and third images feature snaps from the brewday, taken from Instagram stories. The text over the brewing photos reads: "Is that chocolate malt? @turningpointbrewco collab day!" and "Time to add the hops! Goldings, Fuggles, Challenger. Collab day with @turningpointbrewco."

The first collaboration beer was brewed at the new site in October! “Good Point, Well Made” was brewed with North Yorkshire’s Turning Point Brewing Co, and is a dark Ruby Mild in keg and cask.

November | The Five Points Taproom Opens!

This is a split image of two photos taken from our Taproom opening. The first image features two "Cold & Tasty" pints of Five Points beer on the bar, with stainless steel beer tanks in the background. The second picture features a view of a crowd of folks in the new Five Points Taproom.

Two crucial words: tank-beer.

It was important for us to celebrate how an on-site Taproom would allow us to serve the freshest possible Five Points beer... Six stainless steel tanks, filled directly from production tanks in the brewhouse, a few metres away, poured into a pint glass, and then enjoyed by our customers. 

Our new taproom pours a rotating selection of Five Points beers and guests, two cask lines, a mezzanine gallery overlooking the brewery, a delicious pizza menu from ACE Pizza (the dough-slingers you’ll know from our pub The Pembury Tavern) and weekly Saturday brewery tours. We are open Thursday to Saturday every week (and will be back early January, 2022)

December | Brewery of the Year!

A photo of Five Points staffers grouped together at the award ceremony.

And here we are… the end of 2021 is in sight. We are delighted to have been named The Brewers Journal 2021 Brewery of the Year: recognition for what has been a year of change, adaptation and incredible hard work from all of our team.

Thank you to all of Team Five Points, our customers, investors, friends, colleagues, suppliers and associates for making it all happen.

2022... is likely to be challenging for all of us, especially our hospitality venues in its early months. Support your local breweries and independent local businesses where you can. And always reach out, the virtual distance between us is never as far as it might feel.

Love, Team Five Points

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