September 2021

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PEOPLE THE PLAN The trio created a business plan that centred around the desire to create beers that spoke of and to Northumberland, using local suppliers and inspired by the history and landscape of the area. “It was important to get across that although we weren’t from the area, we were committed to creating a product that reflected where we were located and that was synonymous with Northumberland. The name Cheviot Brewery comes from the Cheviot Hills which span North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. We were keen to work with the local community and reach out to groups and societies such as local rugby and cricket clubs”. Jonny, Pete and Neil started looking for business space and contacted various landowners, eventually being introduced to the Ford and Etal Estate, which had some derelict buildings that had formerly housed the North Northumberland Hunt’s kennels. “The estate is huge and includes multiple farms, two villages, and tourist attractions including Etal Castle, a light railway and a heavy horse centre. It is a working estate with livestock and arable agriculture but there is a great tourism economy there. The estate has been very generous to us in terms of their support and in refurbishing the buildings to get them into shape for us to take out a lease. They had great faith in us as they were essentially taking a risk on three people that, despite track records of running businesses, had not “THREE YEARS ON AND WE ARE CONSIDERED AN ASSET TO THE ESTATE AND WE NOW WORK TOGETHER ON THE MANAGEMENT OF THE LOCAL PUB IN THE VILLAGE, THE BLACK BULL INN” worked in the industry or the area. “Three years on and we are considered an asset to the estate and we now work together on the management of the local pub in the village, The Black Bull Inn. We manage it on their behalf and both the pub and our fledgling glamping enterprise are under the care of Ellie Bain. We brought Ellie in as she has extensive experience in the hospitality and holiday park industry. She has managed pubs and bars; she’s a perfect addition to the team”. With the space secured on a 10 year lease, Jonny started to design the brewery. “Jonny is a structural engineer by trade, which proved very useful! He has been the architect of the whole site and, as he’s worked on many high profile developments and public infrastructure projects, he found spec’ing a brewery no problem! We use a partial Victorian ‘gravity drop’ model, which uses gravity to move the liquid around as much as possible. The process is very manual – we don’t just press buttons – and Jonny has used his skills to up efficiency through design and layout”. Everything was self-financed, or by loans from friends and family, and the first three beers were brewed back to back in 2018. “Cask ale takes around 10 days (dependent on the beer) from brew day to pour,” explains Neil. “Our launch to the public was an event for a caravan lodge park that was opening a new event space at Barmoor Castle. It was tight getting everything ready for that but we did it!” A PLACE TO POUR It was always in the business’s vision to offer brewery tours and tastings, tapping into the tourist and local trade. During the first lockdown, the team built Cheviot Tap, an on-site tap bar in one of the other outbuildings on the site and now serves beer and pizza on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. “There is a sawmill one mile down the road processing wood from the estate. We took wood from there to help build the bar, the hop pergola and some of the furniture. We had previously run tap days with marquees in the yard, borrowing tables from the local village hall, but we soon saw the value in selling beer directly to the public as well as wholesale. This was especially clear during the height of the pandemic when we were losing revenue from the pubs being 16 WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM
PEOPLE closed. Selling bottles direct to the public helped to make up for the loss of cask ale sales. “The tap bar also meant we could control standards as beer needs to be handled and stored correctly, also there’s no transport costs with the brewery being the other side of the yard. Cask sales to other pubs are still an important part of the business however, and we have lots of regular custom from some of the best pubs in the North East who know how to serve a great pint and have a loyal customer base, many of whom have become Cheviot fans.” The tap bar doubles as an events space. “We’ve had birthdays, wedding receptions and corporate bookings. GLAMPING IS BORN The second lockdown was the perfect opportunity for more diversification. “We always had the idea of creating horizontal integration within the business; having different revenue streams make great sense. Our site includes a small field which is too small for camping at scale, but perfect for the lower numbers and higher bednight rates of glamping. “We opened quite late in the season with six bell tents and two pods. The pods are fabulous and a bit more than what most people think of as a pod. Jonny designed them from used shipping containers, although you wouldn’t know that from looking at them. “They are clad in local wood from the sawmill down WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM 17
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September 2021

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