Hi everyone,
We have some important news to share: we have decided to stop trading.
Before I get into the details behind the decision, I want to thank every single person who has helped our brewery flourish into a small business. To all the customers, family, friends, colleagues, market organisers, breweries, bottle shops, media and small businesses, I am so grateful for your support. You all helped a dream become reality.
Why are we closing? The reasons are manyfold and centre around what Rachel and I want for ourselves in the years ahead. I started Biochemist Brewery as a passion project which could test the waters as a small business from home. Early on in the journey, it became clear that going fully commercial in a premises was not what we wanted. However, we did wonder what it would be like to scale up operations at home and increase sales to a point that could bring in a meaningful income. After four years trading small and working full-time in our respective careers, we wanted to make a decision going forward – do we carry on with our current capacity, or do we upscale and upgrade equipment to go bigger & better, and really dig into the scientific/experimental theme of the business?
Continuing at current capacity is not sustainable because of constraints on time and money - the business thus far has paid for itself; we’ve never pocketed money from it. On the other hand, upscaling and upgrading would require two dramatic things: 1) a large capital investment, and 2) one or both of us dropping our jobs to keep up with brewing activities. I work as a scientist and find my career quite engaging and rewarding. Rachel completely reinvented herself in a new field and is at the start of a bright future in financial planning. Ultimately, we do not want to trade in our current careers and financial security for a larger brewery. They say there is nothing that kills entrepreneurialism more than a stable job, but neither of us want to sacrifice our careers. We have a dog; we’re getting older; and my hands & wrists are pretty wrecked from years of excessive music, typing, clicking, gaming, and an annoying physiological predisposition to carpal tunnel issues.
So what now? I’m going to revert back to homebrewing, making tiny batches with compulsive, ridiculous experimentation. We’re going to spend more time on hobbies that we desperately missed, and we’re going to catch up with the shameful lack of DIY around the house (he says!).
The web shop has been deactivated but the website will remain live until July when the domain and hosting subscription expires. I’ll be monitoring the brewery Gmail account for a while yet so you can still reach us at biochemistbrewery@gmail.com or on the blower at 07821540237.
Sipping through the ‘craft’ beer explosion has been a fun and flavoursome ride. We’re wishing all the local breweries the very best in carving out their niche and earning a decent living. I understand the immense satisfaction of cooking up a brew, whacking a label on it, and sharing it with the world.
Thank you again, to everybody who has helped.
Luke & Rachel