“I started home brewing about 20 years ago,” explains the former chemical lab manager as he stirs a huge vat of bubbling mash. “I was the ‘university brewer’ and got into Boots’ kits.”
But he didn’t stop there and his quest for a better, more commercially tasting brew took him a step closer to striking out on his own.

“It was a combination of general dissatisfaction with the job and people commenting on how good my beer was that decided me,” he says. “And then the chancellor cut the duty rates for small breweries, plus Objective One funding became available.”

Helped by his wife Adele who looks after the office side of the business, the brewery’s success now finds him in bigger premises, doubling capacity and enabling automatic bottling.

That said, he wants to remain in touch with his customers, and will even brew small batches of specially created beers for individual pubs and special occasions.

“Real ale is undergoing something of a renaissance,” he says. “We’re delivering a niche product for the more discerning drinker, moving away from the old-man type image.”

But doesn’t spending all his days in white wellies, stirring the mash, transferring it to a vast copper kettle, before bottling the product put him off the beer he worked so hard to perfect?