Two of the region’s leading craft beer businesses are combining to stage an ale festival which is expected to attract thousands of fans from around the South West.
Plymouth’s Vessel Beer Shop and Newton Abbot’s have worked together to create , which will be staged at the Tuckers Maltings building, in Newton Abbot, on November 12 and 13.
Organisers are expecting about 1,000 people to attend the festival on each day, and said that with the maltings building being close to Newton Abbot railway station, and with late trains departing in either direction, it is hoped that fans will travel from Bristol, Plymouth and further.
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The event follows the successful Vessel Beer Festival, which was held at Plymouth Guildhall in 2018 and 2019. But this couldn’t go ahead in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, and Sam and Katie Congdon, the couple behind Vessel, said rearranged events meant that the Guildhall is now fully booked and not an option for 2021.
So Vessel has teamed up with Maltings Taphouse to use the empty former malthouse. It closed and ceased beer production in 2018 leaving just the tap room still operating.
It means the 100-year-old building, which had been one of just four traditional malthouses still operating in the 海角视频 at the time of its closure, is now available, and about the same size as the Plymouth Guildhall.
Mr Congdon said it means about 25 breweries, from all over the country, will be able to attend the festival and showcase their brews. Already confirmed are Plymouth’s Roam Brewing Co and Steel Brew Co, Devon’s Powderkeg, New Lion Brewery, and Stannary Brewing Co, and Cornwall’s Black Flag Brewery, Pipeline Brewing Co, Firebrand Brewing Co, and Verdant Brewing Co.
Also attending from around the South West are Deya Brewing Co, from Cheltenham; Somerset’s Yonder, and Bristol’s Moor Beer Co. And from elsewhere in England, already confirmed are Pastore Brewing and Blending, from Cambridgeshire; Polly’s Brew Co, from Wales; Reading’s Double-Barreled, Norfolk’s Duration Brewing, Rock Leopard Brewing Co, from London; Abbeydale Brewery, from Sheffield; and Palmona Island, from Salford.
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Mr Congdon said there is the potential to work with Maltings in future, but said: “It would be nice to get it (the festival) back to Plymouth again.”
Vessel, like many food and beverage businesses, was forced to close to the public during the Covid lockdowns, which meant it could also not allow people to drink on the premises, as it had done. And although it decided not to sell online, it was able to deliver to customers in the Plymouth area.
“We were fortunate that we could do local deliveries all the way through,” said Mr Congdon. “We never wanted to go online, but we have got regular customers and they supported us throughout.”
The shop, in Plymouth’s Exeter Street, was able to reopen when restrictions were lifted and installed outside seating, with a capacity of up to 30 inside, but table service only.
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“We also did some online events for customers,” Mr Congdon said. “These were with breweries in New York and the Netherlands, with about 40 regulars taking part.”
Mr and Mrs Congdon have also been working with Duration Brewing, in King’s Lynn, to produce a special beer to mark the company’s fifth anniversary in December 2021. Meanwhile, it announced plans to create their own brews, and are looking at opening a microbrewery and tap room in a former shop unit just doors away from the Vessel base. But Mr Congdon said: “It’s early days for that, the middle of 2022 at the earliest.”