Wolverhampton CAMRA Beerwolf Autumn 2017

Feature
It’s always good news when a new
brewery opens in your area. It’s even
better when the owners of that
brewery purchase the kit from a
much missed departing brewer.
Punchline Brewery had been a pipe
(or should that be pint) dream for
many years. When the opportunity
came up to make that dream a reality,
the five friends behind Wolverhampton’s
newest brewery jumped
at the chance.
New brewery opens in Wolverhampton
#NoJoke
A welcome to Punchline Brewery
brewing, bottling, labelling, off sales
and open days around this.
Louise said: “For us, the brewery is a
social space as well as a working
brewery, this is what we do in our
spare time so it important that it’s
fun.”
Situated in what was Sacre Brew in
Monmore Green, the Brewery is
owned by Richard and Lisa Shackleton,
James Plant who all live in Wolverhampton,
Andy Bates (an ex-
Wolvo) and his partner Louise
Rowan.
James explained: “When we heard
Gwen (Sanchirico from Sacre Brew)
was moving back to New York,
James talked to her about taking on
the kit and premises. She had very
loyal supporters and it was important
to her that the kit would stay in
Wolverhampton.”
Andy added: “We had been supporters
of Gwen’s, as crowd funders or
regular customers, and the opportunity
– plus the chance to learn from
her – was too good to miss. I have
been putting on beer tasting events
for friends for a while and was looking
at brewing on a very small scale,
so when this opportunity came up
we decided to go for it.”
All five owners are keeping their day
jobs – including accounting, social
media and IT – and are scheduling
22
Just like their dreams of brewing, the
name and the concept behind Punchline
had been around for years. All
the beers are named after the punchline
to jokes. “We wanted something
distinctive, something that would
stand out written on a chalk board or
in a beer festivals booklet,” explained
Louise.
The first range of Punchline beers are
all vegan and were brewed together
with Gwen. “We have huge respect
for Gwen and she was a great
teacher,” added James.
The initial range, Why the Long Face
(an IPA); No Eye Deer (Saison);
Dyathinkhesaurus (Imperial Porter);
Sunburnt Penguin (Wheat Beer) and
The Other Side (Black IPA) were all
launched at a preview event in July.
The distinctive labels have been designed
by Wolverhampton company,
The Studio.
Despite the short notice the team
were blown away by the turn-out
and reaction to the beer (ratings
from the first weekend ranged from
3.25 up to 5 on Untappd).
The first range of beers are all pretty
strong – 6.1 to 7.7 per cent – and
there are lower strength beers