At Attic we have always benefited from the differing opinions and tastes of people who work here. After all, beer is such a subjective thing that what one person enjoys is not strictly what someone else likes. Sam loves session beers with a bit of bitterness, Oli can’t get enough rauchbier, Georgina enjoys a NEIPA, Liam likes a stout, Piarias will drink anything big, Tim imbibes in Belgian Trappist beers, Jacobs favourite is a saison and I exclusively drink Wee Heavy’s. This means that we have spent a considerable amount of time arguing over what we should be brewing.
The ethos has always been based around good process and continued improvement, but finding a USP for our beer has taken time. Initially session beers were the focus. After all, those are the beers that keep people coming back time and time again. As we have grown, however, it has become more important to show the range of our brewing capabilities. Over the last year we have had the opportunity to take a bit of time to work on other styles of beer that we wouldn’t normally have had the luxury to make and our variety has increased beyond our typical selection.
Since then our aim has been to provide a beer for everyone with an emphasis on drinkability. Just because one of our team doesn’t like a style of beer doesn’t mean we shouldnt make it. Case in point, our 13.5% barrel aged barleywine which is great, but a tough sell if you’re sat in the sun dreaming of something hoppy (still have some in stock in case you were interested, get it before it’s gone).
Attempting to not rely on heavily dry hopped beers, artificially sweet stouts or gimmicky recipe additions we put a focus on quality beer. From my perspective that involves being our own harshest critics and following our own path with what we all collectively agree tastes good. With creative homebrewers, experienced production brewers and chemical engineers on our team we have a collection of skilled people that can take this quality approach and make it a reality. Experimenting with numerous brewing parameters based on the current industry research we are continuously adjusting our process to deliver beer that we can be truly proud of and that you can truly enjoy.
We’ll continue to produce diverse styles because it’s what makes beer so exciting to so many people. It will be easier to shift some rather than others of course, but we always aim to keep a wide variety available.
Sam Fraise, Head Brewer
