SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
Beerblefish Brewing Co. is a social enterprise. While the brewery is set up as a company limited by shares with a view to making a profit (we do have to eat, too!), it has aims that help us to make beer a force for good in the community. This is a really important distinction from a charity or not-for-profit organisation – we believe that it is possible to run a business with sound values, help people to achieve their goals and aim to make a profit all at the same time. It just means that pursuit of profit is not the only target we have and there are other things that we think are equally as important as (or more important than) making money.
We have four aims at Beerblefish:
- Brew fantastic beer and have fun doing it!
- Provide training and mentoring to ex-forces personnel to re-skill and re-enter the workforce after military service
- Provide material and financial support to computing-oriented youth training schemes and children’s organisations
- Pay all members of staff at least the living wage
We welcomed our first military veteran to Beerblefish in June 2018 as an Assistant Brewer. He had done a bit of home brewing but hadn’t worked in a commercial brewery before. After learning the ropes with us, eighteen months later, he left us for a fantastic new job in a macro brewery – we were really sad to see him go, but this was a major success story for us!
At the moment, we don’t have any veterans with us, but we are looking for ways to set up some kind of work experience or internship scheme – while having a member of staff from a military background is a fantastic and intensive way to deliver on our aims, we think that a scheme like this will enable us to help more people to find out if a career in brewing is right for them and give them the all important foot on the first rung of the ladder – watch this space for more on this as we develop our thinking.
VEGAN BEER
Beerblefish Brewing is committed to keeping its beers vegan. It is not necessary to include isinglass or other animal products in our beers – these additives do not add anything to the taste of the beer and simply stop some people from being able to enjoy it.
We also don’t add other ingredients to our beers that are derived from animal products, such as honey and lactose. While this might limit our options very slightly, there are so many wonderful styles of beer and types of malts, hops and yeasts (plus, of course, non-animal derived additions) that we don’t feel we need animal-derived ingredients to make fantastic beer and have fun doing it!
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
We are conscious of the impact of brewing on our environment and we are always looking for ways to reuse our by-products, including our spent grain and our used hops. We’re always open to new ideas so please get in touch with any suggestions.
INCLUSION
Beerblefish is a Work In Progress brewery, which means we’re working towards greater inclusion in the brewing industry and the wider beer-drinking community. Find out more on our Inclusion page.