Brewery launches new site as it gears up for expansion

A YORKSHIRE brewery has moved into a new site as it gets set to expand its business with collaborations and international growth.

Northern Monk Brew has moved into a 5,000 sq ft site across three floors at The Old Flax Store, Marshalls Mill in Leeds.

The business has a 10BBL (barrel) brewery which means it can brew approximately 1,660 litres each time and will be producing around 5,000 litres per week, or roughly 10,000 pints.

The Yorkshire business, formerly based in Bradford and run by founder Russell Bisset, secured a £100,000 investment from an unnamed local businessman last year to help it secure its new premises.  

Bisset said: “We’ll now be one of, if not the most accessible breweries in the UK in a part of the city that is steeped in history. Leeds doesn’t really have any publicly accessible buildings that showcase the city’s industrial heritage and we’re really looking forward to inviting people in, not just for brewery tours, tasting sessions, pi-up events, open brew days and to our on-site tap room, but also to learn more about John Marshall and the history of the area.

“Our tap room will showcase 20 beers, with a focus on beer made by us as well as some of the best in the North of the UK, plus a few extra special beers from all over the world. It will be a true celebration of Northern craftsmanship and industry.”

Northern Monk Brewery has collaborated with a number of other businesses. It will be brewing the first ever Anglo-Indian collaboration with Mumbai’s first craft brewery, Gateway Brewing, and brewing for the newly opened Leeds-based street food and craft beer bar – Bundobust. The beer for Bundobust will be an Indian Spiced festival ale and will be launched later in the year. The firm is also working with Leeds-based North Star Micro Roasters on a Mocha Porter.

Bisset said: “Collaborations were a big part of our evolution and we’ve got a long list of breweries to invite over to the new site whom we’ve already worked with including Saltaire, Atom, BadSeed, Weird Beard, Hopcraft and Blackjack.

“We’ll continue to collaborate with local businesses, bars, festivals and caterers and we look forward to working together with other businesses in Leeds to drive the scene forwards which in turn will create more opportunities for all. We also have plans to take our beers overseas.”

Looking ahead, Bisset said he does plan to take on more staff to add to the small team of two but said first and foremost he wants to produce “consistently excellent, forward thinking beers”.

“We have the space to expand at our site and will do in time as and when the demand arises,” he added.

Despite Northern Monk being close by to popular breweries, Bisset said he doesn’t see them as competition.

“I think the beer industry is fairly unique in that I don’t see other breweries as competition,” Bisset said.

“There are more breweries in the UK than there have been for hundreds of years but the vast majority are incredibly supportive of each other and work together to develop the micro brewing industry in the UK. In Leeds we’ve got some fantastic breweries with Kirkstall and Leeds brewery just down the road. I think there’s room for us all locally with each of us taking a slightly different approach. We’ve already talked about working with Kirkstall down the line and they’ve been very supportive of our plans and a number of Leeds’ pubs have stocked our beers.”