Hopulist Issue2

THE BRAINCHILD
OF TWO
PASSIONATE
BRITISH BEER
BUFFS, VERDANT
BREWING CO
COMBINES A HEAD
FOR HOPS AND
A FERVOUR FOR
FLAVOUR. TOM
SELL CATCHES
UP WITH CO-
FOUNDER JAMES
HEFFRON AND
DISCOVERS WHY
THIS IS SMALL
BATCH BEER WITH
BIG HEART.
In many ways, James Heffron (left) is your typical man.
Once he gets interested in something, he gets really
interested and consumes all reading material on the
matter he can get his hands on. It was this quirk that lead
him to becoming co-founder of one of the UK’s smartest
small-batch breweries Verdant.
“I started to get interested in the tastes of beers in
around 2010. I was travelling in New Zealand and
noticed a lot of small breweries cropping up on my
travels and thought like it looked like a good way to start
up. I came back home and started to read about different
breweries and their beers, I started drink a lot more
different beers, too. I’m one of those guys who just gets
into something and will read a lot about it. Before my
wife knew it, the fridge was filling up with hops!”
James took the idea of starting a brewery to his good
friend Adam Robertson, who was equally interested
in beer flavours and also frustrated by the lack of hopforward
beers available in his locals. And so they began
upgrading their homebrewing kit, trying and testing
their own and other people’s home brews, reading (even
more) on the subject, all while holding down day jobs.
They were shortly joined by Richard White, who came
on board after installing electrics in the company’s first
base and became a natural fit.