From Attic to Brewery: The Journey of Attic Brew Co

In this engaging conversation we spoke to co founder Oli Hurlow from Attic Brew Co, who shares the journey of starting a brewery in Birmingham, the challenges faced, and the importance of community and local support. He discusses the evolution of their beer offerings, the significance of cask ale, and the impact of COVID-19 on their business. Oli emphasises the need for independent breweries to connect with their local markets and the role of tap rooms in fostering growth. He also shares exciting future plans for Attic Brew Co and encourages aspiring brewers to reach out for advice.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Birth of Attic Brewery
• 6:20 Flagship Beers and Market Adaptation
• 11:29 Supporting Independent Breweries & Indie Beer Week
• 17:45 The Importance of Tap Rooms
• 20:59 Funding the Brewery
• 22:22 Navigating COVID-19: A Turning Point
• 26:04 Future Plans and New Releases
• 27:57 Birmingham's Brewing Scene and Brand Expansion
• 30:19 Personal Beer Preferences and Final Words
• 34:16 Outro

Transcript

Martin (00:01)
Hello and welcome to the beer rep chats with, today I'm joined by Oli Hurlow from Attic Brew Co based in Birmingham Oli, thanks for coming on the show.

Oli (00:10)
Hi Martin, thanks for having me.

Martin (00:12)
Not a problem. It's great to have you on. So if anyone who doesn't really know about Attic Brewery and about yourself, can you tell us a bit about the brewery and how it came to life and what inspired you to start the brewery?

Oli (00:22)
Yeah, sure. we're a, we've been going about six and a half years now. We are based in South Birmingham and we came about, there's two of us that run the brewery, myself and my partner Sam. So we met at a university in Cardiff. He was brewing beer and we lived together. He was brewing beer in his bedroom, cheap beer, sort of a kind of a bit of a classic origin story, I think.

Martin (00:51)
Extract kit.

Oli (00:52)
Yeah, extract kit bucket in his bedroom. Beer wasn't very good, but it was it was fun. Did the trick sort of thing. then, you know, fast forward. Exactly. It had the right effect. But fast forward then a couple of years and we finished uni, everyone has sort of gone our separate ways. But as a house, we were still still good mates and we used to meet up every now and again. And Sam had just sort of taken that that

Martin (01:01)
It is cheap and drinkable.

Oli (01:21)
hobby and become a bit more serious about it. He converted his attic into a sort of little home brewery, was getting much more into it. And one day we had a meet up and he said, I wanna start a brewery. I need somebody to do it with, do you wanna do it with me? And I sort of was stupid enough to shrug my shoulders and say, yeah, why not? I've had a bit of a shit week at work and I'll...

let's give it, let's give it a go, why not? And then that sort of that sort of led us to here. we kind of, Sam had actually been unbeknownst to me, had been sort of buying up old bits of brewery equipment and storing it in a in a garage. And so we had a fair bit already going, we managed to find a unit quite quickly, where we still are today. And that went from there. But we had, you know, the brewery when we started was

Martin (01:52)
as you do.

Oli (02:19)
Yeah, older than the two of us put together, I think. We were brewing about 800 litres a week, which we thought was loads. And it just sort of snowboard from there.

Martin (02:25)
Yeah.

So I'm guessing that the name attic came from you brewing beer in your attic.

Oli (02:36)
Yes, yeah, we're not the most imaginative people.

Martin (02:39)
It's

a name and most of the best names are from the simplest of reasons.

Oli (02:45)
Yeah, we still get

people sort of walk into the tap room now, even now, and sort of be a bit disappointed that they haven't got to go up the stairs or up the loft ladder to get to the tap room. We don't brew in an attic anymore.

For anyone out there that's considering brewing in an attic, don't. It's a stupid place to brew. You've got to carry heavy stuff up the rickety ladder, brew in either freezing cold or boiling heat, and then carry the finished product, which is even heavier, back down so you can drink it. So, yes, it's a terrible place. Don't do it.

Martin (03:17)
When did you start brewing beer and realize, we can actually sell this?

Oli (03:22)
So, I mean, I'll have to admit I'm not the brewing brains at all, never have been. Sam very much started off as that was kind of his hobby and I was kind of almost along for the ride on the beer side of things. I've always been more sort of sales marketing, all the fluffy stuff I would describe it as. But yeah, I mean, it was kind of a case of, before we'd even talked about the brewery, we were

Martin (03:43)
Yeah.

Oli (03:51)
Sam would bring some, he'd keg the beer and bring it along to a sort of weekend away or something like that. And we'd all be sort of saying genuinely meaning it was really, really good, really good beer. I think on a home brew level, it's so difficult to do hoppy pales and do them well. And I think that kind of that led us to when we started because that was mostly what Sam was brewing at the time was kind of wheat beers, Belgians.

Martin (04:10)
Yeah.

Oli (04:20)
and we kind of thought, oh, here's our niche in the market. We're going to be a, we're going to be a Belgian and Saison brewery. Um, and that's going to be our sort of, yeah, that's going to be our, our USP. We quickly opened the tap room and realized that not that many people want to drink that Everyone wants to drink a pale ale. Um, so we kind of rapidly, quite rapidly transitioned. but happily, once you're on a bit more of a commercial scale, it becomes a bit easier to, to control the factors that, that.

stop a home brewer being able to brew a pale ale

Martin (04:52)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I

So you're based in Birmingham. It's quite a big growing beer scene at the moment. How has being based there influenced your journey and your style?

Oli (05:04)
Massively I'd say. mean Birmingham we set up in I'm not a Brummie, not natively. I grew up down south but Sam is local and that was very much sort of part of why we wanted to open the brewery full stop is that we saw a good opportunity in Birmingham. I mean since before we started there's been some really really good beers being brewed in the city but

everybody was quite small scale and we kind of thought, there's an opportunity there to really kind of get a bit bigger and to sell beer, make it freely available to the people of Birmingham. So that's kind of always been our, and certainly until now has always been our kind of, what we wanted to do, we wanted to make it easy for people in Birmingham to drink local beer. Which if you go to

Martin (05:44)
Yeah.

Oli (06:00)
most other major cities in the UK, there's loads of breweries, there's loads of locally brewed beer available. If you want it, you can get it. And at the time when we set up in 2018, it just wasn't the case in Birmingham. There's some great bars, there's some great beer being brewed, but it didn't quite mesh properly.

Martin (06:17)
Yeah.

Yeah, it was

a bit hard to find local beer in in like your local pubs and things like that.

Oli (06:28)
Exactly. And I think

that it's for a load of different reasons. think we are in where the city is sort of heartland, old family, brewer. So, you know, there's still 150 Mitchell's and Butler's pubs, which are very, very difficult to get beer into. And that's just within the, you know, within Birmingham itself, within Birmingham proper.

Martin (06:50)
Yeah.

Oli (06:51)
It just means that it kind of limits the number of lines that you have available. So it definitely has influenced the kind of beers that we've brewed. We've wanted our beers to be accessible to people that maybe haven't actually, maybe haven't been introduced to craft beer, to independent beer before, because they haven't had it available. So we've certainly wanted to make things accessible. We've tried to focus a lot on our local market, focus a lot on getting

beers into pubs that otherwise wouldn't serve sort of hazy beer or something similar. And, you know, to a certain extent, I think we've been pretty successful at that. I think we've done a really good job at growing the understanding of beer and sort of getting people to know about us and about the kind of beers we brew and, you know, getting beer into pubs that otherwise maybe wouldn't have had sort of craft beer on previously.

Martin (07:26)
Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah, definitely. obviously, so what would you say is been your most popular beer today? Which one are you most proud of?

Oli (08:00)
The answer to both of those, think was certainly Intuition That's our flagship sort of pale ale, 4.4 % pale ale. it's been it wasn't, it took us a while to get to the recipe. When we first started, we were brewing a different beer every week. Really kind of just experimenting, finding our feet. We making some good beers and not so good beers and just really working our way around it. And now sort of where we are now, we're kind of...

know a bit more what we're doing now. Intuition came in about 2020, think, so part way through lockdown. we, just immediately, as soon as it, released it, it was an instant hit. And we kind of thought, well, this is our, this is the first core beer that we want to commit to. And then, you know, we were able to say to trade customers, yep, we're always going to have this in stock. We're backing this beer.

Martin (08:31)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Oli (08:57)
this is going to be the one that the people are going to know us for.

Martin (09:00)
Yeah, you do quite a lot of cask ale as well. Can you tell us a bit, was the cask always available when you started up as a brewery or did you gradually bring that in down the years, further down the line?

Oli (09:13)
No, was, we've only been doing that for the last couple of years. originally, we've always loved drinking cask beer, but I think that originally it was, so when we first started, keg beer was kind of what everybody wanted to drink from smaller breweries. That was the in thing, I suppose. And whilst we had, you know, we couldn't brew enough beer, it made sense. Cask.

Martin (09:33)
Yeah.

Oli (09:41)
came in when we were wanting to push outside of Birmingham a little bit and a bit more rural and then that tends to be when pubs wanted to take on cask beer rather than anything on keg. So that kind of has helped us to grow a little bit further beyond Birmingham and also was a good excuse for us to drink what is probably the serving style of beer that I will generally go for.

Martin (10:09)
Yeah,

I mean, if I'm going somewhere and there's a good cask selection on, I'll go straight for the cask rather than the keg.

Oli (10:17)
Yeah, I think it's really interesting how everyone's tastes change because I think most people seem to have gone on a similar journey than as I have where you kind of, I came up on cask and I was drinking, you know, drinking bitter. I've always preferred to drink sort of like, or whatever local beer is on wherever you go. And that was usually a cask. Then you kind of like, going, oh, wow, what's this? What's this new type of beer like, Hazy Pales, that sort of thing. That's is

Martin (10:45)
Yeah.

Oli (10:45)
great, absolutely loving this. And then you kind of almost come full circle and cask is cool again. I feel like, and I don't know, maybe this is just me being hopeful, but I feel like us in the industry are maybe a little bit more attuned to it than the general public. But I feel like I probably will get here as well, is that it will come back round, it will become a cool thing again. And everybody's been talking about...

how to make cask relevant and I keep it cool and everything. And I think it's doing that of its own accord almost.

Martin (11:19)
You've been supporting the Indie Beer UK campaign. Why is promoting independent breweries so important to you?

Oli (11:29)
because I think that, obviously it's important to us because we are one, which is, which is the, the short answer. but in terms of a broader answer, I think that I think it's what actually customers want. I think people want to know that they're supporting people that they would like to support. don't, think that people don't really want to support big corporates. they want to see that they're supporting, you know,

somebody that is giving it a go. I think certainly in Britain there's a real big sort of sentiment that you like to support the underdog, the little guy, and what's local as well. And I think that that's something that Indie Beer really has as a very powerful message. And it's the sort of thing that you get big brewers that co-opt it and they'll put a man with a flat cap on the front of Madri and...

Martin (12:18)
Yeah.

Oli (12:27)
try and sort of fool people into thinking, you know, not by saying anything outright, but by, just by looking at it, you think, that's kind of what I'm, I think I want to drink, if that makes any sense. And I think that it's just really important to be able to label what is actually independent, what is what people actually are looking to drink and what's not. And that's why we kind of have really got behind the Indie beer campaign

Martin (12:41)
Yeah, yeah.

Oli (12:56)
we think that it's a great thing to be talking about.

Martin (13:00)
Yeah, it's to the point and it's, you know, it makes a lot of things clearer to customers and consumers of what is an independent beer. You've done, you're doing a beer trial, is that right? For the Indie Beer campaign, for Indie Beer Week. Can you tell us little bit more about that?

Oli (13:19)
Yes, so it starts on the 14th of April, so 14th to the 20th of April. We've got, this is like bit more than 50 venues in and around Birmingham that are serving our beer and other independent beer as well. And we're basically saying, you will go to any of the venues, pick up a guide, and then they'll stamp every one of our beers you

buy or you go to one place, you buy a beer and you get a stamp and then you can move on to the next one, get another stamp and when you've got six stamps then you'll get a badge to show that you've completed it. It's something that we've been of toying with for ages because I like it because obviously it promotes us but also it's a really good way of showing customers that might usually drink our beer in one place. look at all these other places that are actually, you

Martin (13:50)
Yeah.

Oli (14:14)
serving interesting beer, go and check them out. And it kind of, think it gives a real boost to our customers as well, which I really, I really like that sort of, kind of helps to build the community around Birmingham and helps to sort of, you know, ultimately our goal is to try and build that community to build Birmingham as a great place to come and drink, whether that's local people or sort of people coming in. So it's kind of a way of showing anybody who's doing the trail.

Martin (14:17)
Yeah.

Oli (14:44)
here are all these lists of places that you can come and try a great beer and go out and try them.

Martin (14:50)
Yeah, it's a great thing for the pubs to show that they're supporting independent breweries. And, if you want a good tasting independent beer, then this is the venue to come to find it.

Oli (15:02)
this is what we kind of liked about this independent beer, the Indie Beer campaign. I think it's less about, it's certainly about raising awareness. I think it's more about raising awareness about what is independent, what isn't. I think, like I say, I think that the desire to drink independent beer is already there. I don't think we're trying to really persuade people about why that's good. I think that a lot of people already think that

Martin (15:18)
Yeah.

Oli (15:31)
I think that movement is already going. I think that I think it's more just a case of trying to display what is independent and what isn't because it can be so misleading out there and so difficult as a consumer. if you're a consumer that's you just want to go to the pub, you want to have a beer. you don't have you have have an in passing interest in drinking beer, you're not interested in the industry. We'll also sort of sit around in the industry and talk about

you know, we'll do podcasts about it and we'll talk about sort of how Heineken now own neck oil and whatever. If you're just a drinker, want to go well neck oil looks like a craft beer to you, you think that's the kind of business I want to support and there's no way of you knowing that it isn't.

Martin (16:08)
Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah, until now. Yeah.

Oli (16:22)
Yeah, until now. I think that's what's

great about it is because it's kind of helping to break that down a little bit. Yeah.

Martin (16:28)
Differentiate. Yeah,

Do you think they're a bit unaware of the actual difficulties that you face as an independent brewery?

Oli (16:38)
I think there's a general sense of it's tough for small business, but not specifically breweries or small hospitality venues or anything like that. But yeah, I think generally people, people I think are understanding that it's difficult, but similarly, I think that people can.

Martin (16:48)
Yeah.

Oli (16:57)
You can quite easily, I mean, you could come to our tap room on a busy Saturday night and think, wow, this is great. They must be making loads of money. there isn't a real understanding of how much it goes into producing that experience from ingredient costs and energy costs and then staffing it, making sure that you're investing in the equipment to do it and to make the beer.

Martin (17:15)
Yeah, exactly.

Oli (17:26)
to the quality that we want it to be. Everything else is in there. I don't think there's a real understanding of quite how much goes into it behind the scenes.

Martin (17:36)
Do think it's quite important for a brewery to try and find themselves a tap room to sell their beer?

Oli (17:43)
I we would, I'd say so definitely. think that it, wouldn't be anywhere near where we are today without, without, without a tap room. I mean, we've been able to grow to where we are now without, taking on any investment. And that's entirely because the tap room has been busy. It's been successful and it's, it's, it's, it's supported the brewery whilst the brewery side of the business has grown. And yeah, I, if anybody is out there thinking about.

Martin (18:01)
Yeah.

Oli (18:12)
starting a brewery, I couldn't recommend it enough. can be a headache, you know it's another thing to worry about beyond the beer. But I think if you're starting off small, it's something that's so important. And I think that if you're, as a brewery only, and all you're doing is brewing beer and selling it to the on trade or whatever, you've...

you've got to have some real volume going through in order to make it work. I think if you're on the smaller side of things, it just makes so much difference to be able to sell beer directly to people. And also to get the feedback from people, to understand what people like and don't like. Help that sort of shape your brewery and the beers you make to the community.

Martin (18:53)
Yeah.

Yeah. How you go

forward and what styles you make in the future and what ones you continue to improve. Yeah. It's, it must be hard for a lot of independent breweries out there that haven't got their own tap room because they haven't got the space. And obviously probably can't afford to, to rent or to buy a place to, to use as their, as their tap room. So yeah, it's a good, it's a good bit of advice to people. Anyone who's looking to start up a brewery, make sure you've got the space.

put in a tap room, I suppose because that will essentially give you the funds to grow.

Oli (19:33)
Yeah,

I mean, we got quite lucky in that we found a unit when we first were starting the brewery, we found a unit that we liked the look of, we thought it was twice as big as we needed it. But we thought, you know what, the location's great, it's exactly what we want, otherwise, let's go for it. And we'll just sort of put a curtain across the back when the tap room's open so it doesn't feel too empty in cavernous. within the first sort of week or two, that space was full. And we kind of...

Martin (19:55)
Yeah.

Oli (20:04)
we were lucky that we didn't really expect it to be and we got lucky by I think just taking a punt on it anyway and it worked out and if we had gone for a much smaller unit I think we would have struggled to have grown and struggled to have had the taproom as busy and with as nice a vibe as it was so I'd say if you're looking now go try and find a unit that's big enough or twice as big as you think you want and then

Martin (20:30)
Yeah.

Oli (20:34)
Find out how to fill it.

Martin (20:35)
Yeah, definitely, definitely. If you find a nice looking unit, think again, go bigger. That's the message we're getting across here.

Oli (20:42)
Yeah.

Sorry if anyone's

just put some money down on the lease or anything.

Martin (20:49)
Yeah, of course. The funding as

well. Yeah. How did you, how did you go about all the, all the funding and stuff? means do you have money already to invest or do you have to outsource?

Oli (20:58)
So we, like I said, we haven't taken on any investment. we set up kind of on a shoestring really, but we had a bit of money saved, sort just personal savings. And then I took out just a personal loan in order to fund the shortfall as well. So yeah, just sort of loans and a bit of savings. And that's kind of what set us up. then after that, it's just, we were selling.

the first year, well until Covid, we were selling just into our own tap room so it's really good for, it was profitable for us, we didn't have to deliver it, we could just roll it around the back and it was there so our costs were pretty low, we weren't really paying ourselves either so we were making money, we were able to just reinvest it back into growing the brewery, back into the tap room in order to grow that and it kind of just sort of

went up from there really. So yeah, and since then we've still, I guess, had the pretty similar approach in that we've borrowed money or we've saved a bit of money to buy some equipment or something like that. And that's how we've...

Martin (22:12)
Yeah, I mean, how

did you get on through COVID? Did you do anything to, know, a lot of places were shut. Did you do, still brewing beer, still able to meet them volumes to keep going? How did you get through it all?

Oli (22:28)
Yeah,

I would say that it's weird to say it because it was the most difficult sort of time for hospitality in anybody's lifetime, it's amazing, isn't it? But I look back on it in hindsight, and I think that that was that sort of made our business, I think that that really improved the business that we were and the brewery that we were and made us a better

Martin (22:36)
Yeah, it's nearly five years ago as well, it's crazy how quick it's gone.

Oli (22:56)
It made us produce better beer and sell it to more customers. we were, our original plan was to, we had our tap room and we were going to think, well, we will just sell to that. Maybe open another bar or pub and just sell to that. weren't going to sell to, we were going to can the beer. weren't going to, we weren't going to sell to the trade at all. And then over COVID, we were, we were lucky enough. We had actually then decided we were going to can the beer and we had bought a canning line.

small sort of knackered old canning line that didn't work at all. And as COVID hit, suddenly our entire income, which was the tap room, was shut. And so we, and then that really gave us the impetus to get the canning line working. And we could actually, because there was such a scramble for mobile canners in the market, we were quite lucky in that we could do it all ourselves and then start just

Martin (23:34)
was canon. It was canon.

Yeah.

Oli (23:53)
I was just out in the van every night delivering to people. So we'd come in, we'd brew, we'd package a beer, finish it. We'd finish packaging it at four o'clock maybe. Sam would, just the two of us at the time, Sam would finish sort of clearing everything up. I'd load all the boxes in the back of the van and go out and drop it to everyone. And then suddenly, it kind of means, it meant that...

Martin (24:17)
commitment to the cause.

Oli (24:21)
where we are, Stirchley the area, we used to only serve that community. And then suddenly we were delivering to all of South Birmingham. And so suddenly we had customers all over the south of the city. And then that meant that when everything sort of relaxed and reopened, then we had pubs picking up the phone and saying, look, we tried your beer, we really like it. Can we put some in? We try some. And at that point we were kind of going, well, yeah, of course.

We've got this beer to sell, let's sell it. And so it just sort of, it really helped grow the, grow our brand, I suppose, in sort of locally, in a way that we hadn't ever really planned to do. And then we're all the better for it now. whilst it was a very difficult time and there was points where we were pretty close to losing the business as I'm sure everybody was, we've come out with it pretty well.

Martin (25:20)
It's

really, really good to hear a positive story from COVID, you know, as well as it really affected breweries and a lot of them closed. It also really helped a lot of breweries to grow as a brand. Like you said, where they wouldn't think of doing canning, they had to do canning to, you know, sell and grew as a business from it. It's really positive to hear that there was some good stories to come out of COVID for hospitality.

which is nice. So what's next for Attic? Any exciting beers, events, collaborations coming up soon?

Oli (26:01)
Yeah, so we're, well, a couple of exciting things. I'm really excited about later this month, yeah, later this month, we're releasing a new beer, which is sort of really, really there to sort of try and challenge neck oil, I think. I get fed up of seeing it on the taps everywhere. I think half the people in the world get fed up of seeing it on the taps everywhere. And I'm really determined to try and knock it off as many taps as I possibly can.

Martin (26:30)
You and everyone else.

Oli (26:33)
We're producing a beer called Centro, is kind of like Birmingham's answer to it is the idea. it's a, it's like a bright, clear pale ale, not too crazy hopped it's just like, it's like a real nice sort of sit out in the sun, really refreshing, not like too much flavour, just sort of enough to be able to, you know, what we want to do is try and draw people in from drinking, you know, if they're a lager drinker.

and there only a lager drinker just say, come and try this. Let's sort of start you on your craft beer journey a bit. Really excited about that. think that'll be really good. I can't wait to get that out. It's in tank at the moment and yeah, I'm raring to go on that.

Martin (27:07)
Yeah.

And

just finished off a collaboration with Thornbridge I was seeing. A keg only beer.

Oli (27:22)
Yeah, so that's really, really exciting.

Yeah, mean, anytime you get to work with a brewery of that caliber is amazing. Yeah, it's just really exciting to be able to see, produce a badge. We've been up there and done a collab before, but for us to be able to produce a badge or a can, which has Thornbridge logo on it, is really exciting. So that'll be due in the next couple of weeks.

Martin (27:47)
Awesome. So where do you see Attic Brew Co going in the next five years? What's your ambitions for the next five years?

Oli (27:57)
So like I said, we've focused almost entirely to date on Birmingham. I guess our sort of broader goal is to be sort of the kind of go-to brewery in the West Midlands. So that is for local people, want everyone to know us and really identify with us and really love drinking our beer. But also for them to be able to go and visit a mate in...

Bristol or in Manchester or Leeds and see an Attic beer on the tap and say that's from where I'm from, that's mine and be proud of us. So a big part of that is then to try and expand a bit further. we're this year trying to focus a bit more on sending a bit more beer down south, down to Bristol, across to London. So we're hoping for a good bit of uptake there, which would be great. then it just sort of kind of, it starts to...

Martin (28:33)
Yeah.

Oli (28:54)
Spread the brand a bit and really hopefully, Birmingham tends to get a bit of a bad rep. As somebody that grew up not in Birmingham, I'd never been to Birmingham and that was my view of it. I thought it was just like another nice place to be, not a great city. And having moved here, started the business here, it's an absolutely awesome city. I absolutely love it.

I want us to be able to present to the rest of the country how good it is.

would encourage anyone to get the train into Birmingham New Street and then get on the train to Bournville. That is right next to our tap room and then you can come for a beer with us, then walk up into Stirchley, spend a whole Saturday. You can go to three different breweries, loads of great bars, amazing places to eat. It's such a great day out to come and just hit up some...

really great beer, some great food. I would really, really encourage anybody to give it a go for a Saturday. And it's very easy to get to on the train as well, so no one's got any excuses.

Martin (30:05)
There we go.

Sounds like a deal breaker to me. We're gonna finish things off, but before we let you go, if there was one beer style you could drink for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

Oli (30:21)
That is such a difficult question. You told me you were going to ask me this question and it's kind of the whole point, the whole magic of beer, the whole reason that all of us like beer is that there isn't just one style.

Martin (30:37)
Yeah,

that's why I asked the question, because it's such a hard question to answer.

Oli (30:39)
Yeah, because you're really mean

Yeah, I mean, I think that obviously that being my huge caveat, and I don't really think there is a style suited to every occasion. I think I would probably, in my heart of hearts, I would say if I could only drink one beer style for rest of my life, probably pick bitter.

Martin (31:04)
That's

surprising. I thought you was going to go for a Pale or an IPA.

Oli (31:08)
I wonder if it's just because I'm just kind of into it at the moment. I haven't really given it enough thought. Yeah, I just, think, I don't know, there's just something about it that's just really comforting and unless it's blazing hot sunshine, you've just been for a run. It kind of, I can, it's most, most times of the year. And I think that, I just think it's a great style. There's a reason that it's, it's been going for so long and I think it's just so.

Martin (31:26)
Yeah.

Oli (31:35)
drinkable and comforting and just enjoyable to sit at the pub and enjoy with friends. I might live to regret that in a year.

Martin (31:44)
We'll come back in a year and ask you the same question and see if it's still bitter. Everyone's style of beer changes, doesn't it, over the time? I I was drinking lots of Dunkels at one point. I really, really just liked Dunkels Now I'm going back onto me hazy IPAs again.

is there anything else you'd like to leave our customers and your customers as well about Attic and any inspiring brewers out there that are looking to do exactly what you did all them years ago?

Oli (32:19)
And that's quite tough. mean, if anyone's got any questions, do drop me an email. I think more of my details are up on our website. yeah, please do. I can't promise I'll get back to you immediately, but I will work my way through it. But yeah, so if anyone's got any thoughts on it and does want to chat through any ideas, then please do get in touch. But yeah, generally, I'd just say it's a...

It's a very difficult industry to be in, but it's a really rewarding one and people are always super helpful. think that try and get a taproom that works well, try and position yourself in a place where there's a lot of people who live nearby that might be interested in coming in and drinking your beer. think that's a huge thing and it really helps to get the ball rolling whilst you're waiting.

taking the time to build up the brand, just, does take time no matter what you do. It's great to have that there to sort of, to lean back on. So I would say, yeah, certainly, certainly a good tap room. And then, and if anybody wants to come up to Birmingham and come for a beer, we've got two bars, one in Stirchley one in the Jewelry Quarter. Please come and visit, try out some beers and come and see what else Birmingham's got to offer.

Martin (33:32)
Tech Room and big space.

Oli (33:47)
because it really is a great city.

Martin (33:50)
Yeah, definitely recommend that. Get yourself up to Attic Brew Co whenever you can. Oli it's been a pleasure chatting with you. I'm sure we'll catch up again soon. Thanks for coming on the show and our customers will definitely be looking forward to trying some of your beers on our site soon. Thanks a lot for joining us.

So yeah, join us back on the Monday, Monday, the 21st is the next episode from here. So yeah, until then, thanks, Oli for coming on the show. And we'll see you again soon. Cheers.

Oli (34:23)
Thank you, Martin.

Cheers.