Fuller’s brews with Tiny Rebel friends
Tiny Rebel, an award-winning brewery founded in Newport South Wales by two brothers-in-law, recently visited The Griffin Brewery in London to create a collaboration brew for the Fuller’s & Friends project.
Returning for its second instalment, Fuller’s & Friends is a collaboration project between Fuller’s and six breweries – this time from all around the world. Each partner brewery is hand-picked by Fuller’s and paired with a Fuller’s brewer.
They are given full creative freedom – including the style of beer, flavour, name and design. The beers are packaged together for launch in Waitrose.
Tiny Rebel Co-founder and Brewer Gareth Williams [pictured right] travelled from Newport to kick-off the brewing process on 31 January. While he was adding hops to their brew with Fuller’s Brewer Dave Evans [left] we asked them a few questions about the beer they’re creating together for the Fuller’s & Friends project.
Q&A with Gareth Williams from Tiny Rebel, South Wales
Why did you say yes to taking part in the Fuller’s & Friends project?
“When we were asked I was chuffed, because I was a home brewer when I started out and I’ve always looked up to breweries like Fuller’s. It’s always nice to be recognised by a big, respected brewery. There are more than 2,000 breweries out there so to get asked is both a compliment and a nod to us, really.”
Tell us a bit about your brewery and your brewing story. How did you start out?
“It began about nine years ago. I’ve always been into ale, especially cask beer because that’s what I grew up on in South Wales, and that’s what I’ve always liked to drink. My grandfather home brews, even now into his 80s, and I picked it up from him. I soon realised that I enjoyed making beer even more than I enjoyed drinking it.
“After I met my wife I got her brother into craft beer about 10 years ago. He used to come over to the house and we’d do a homebrew together and we both worked together as engineers and we were working in the same office in Bristol. We talked about how cool it would be to start our own microbrewery.
“Beer in South Wales was pretty boring, and we wanted to bring something different to the market and turn a hobby into a career. That’s how the brewery started. We spent a few years planning and have been in operation for seven years commercially now.”
What’s your favourite Fuller’s beer?
“Whenever Bengal Lancer comes out I’m always on that. I really enjoy that beer, as well as ESB – I like traditional style beers.”
What type of beer did you choose to make for the Fuller’s & Friends project and why?
Fuller’s Brewer Dave Evans said: “We had a chat about several different beers and they liked the idea of our ESB. They use Mosaic Hops and we’ve never used those hops before – it’s like a dark berry, tropical hop and it sounded really good.”
Gareth added: “To us it was about meeting halfway. We love the beers that Fuller’s create, and Fuller’s yeast is probably one of the most famous yeasts in the world. It just made sense to marry up that old school beer with new hops and complement each other. It’s a nice blend between the two – old and new.”
What inspired your beer’s name and design?
“Our artwork is always a bit quirky, as are our names. We met our designer nine years ago, she was a post-grad and we loved her work and she’s been our designer ever since. We never take ourselves too seriously – we’re not beer snobs, we’re beer enthusiasts and beer drinkers who also make beer, so we like our designs to poke fun at the industry and ourselves really.
“We wanted our beer’s name to be a bit light-hearted, so we came up with the name Respect Your Elders. There’s a lot of new brewers on the block and some of them don’t respect the guys that have been doing it for hundreds of years and think they know everything after just a short time, so it’s a bit tongue and cheek.”
Fuller’s Brewer Dave added: “I’ve always liked the Tiny Rebel designs – they’re so quirky and so different, and the design they’ve created for the beer incorporates the Fuller’s Griffin in a really clever way.”
What has been the best part of the project and why?
“I’m a brewery geek and I love going to big traditional breweries and having a look around because it’s like a big museum. There’s so much history in it and it’s amazing to see how everything used to be done. Even though there’s tradition, the equipment is high tech so it’s great to see how Fuller’s has evolved through the times.”
Fuller’s & Friends is brewing…
Fuller’s and Tiny Rebel's collaboration beer Respect Your Elders will be available as part of the Fuller’s & Friend’s mixed pack launching in Waitrose later in 2019.
Read more about the Fuller’s & Friends project: Fuller's & Friends Round Two.
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