“I brew beer, read about making beer, listen to music, go out and eat nice food.”
Craig is from from Edinburgh where his family are Scottish folk musicians who play bagpipes, local ceilidhs and shows like The Spirit of Scotland. He is now completing a diploma in brewing at The Institute of Brewing and Distilling and considers himself the “black sheep of the family”.
Having studied Zoology at the University of Edinburgh, Craig had not always planned on brewing beer for a living; “I wanted to be Steve Irwin when I was young but I soon realised that it wasn’t going to be possible to achieve that dream in central london so I soon gave up on it.”
Having moved to London for a job, Craig applied to a bunch and was offered the opportunity to brew; “There was a job going for a brewer in Camden Brewery and out of about 200 applicants only three of them had tasted any of the beer from Camden beforehand, so that’s quite a good thing to talk about in an interview.”
Now with many years surrounded by tanks of beer, under his belt, he has identified his strengths. “My real skill in brewing is technical brewing which is more to do with machinery and looking after the quality of beer. I’ve got an extremely good knowledge of how the brewing process works and what the best practices are.”
This is fantastic news for us but why did he leave such a flourishing big brewery for a converted garage in SE London?
“One of the things I like about Brockley is that it’s a small team, I like to work with people and be part of a smaller business. It’s quite a dynamic place to work, it’s also extremely exciting working here knowing there is a big expansion programme on the horizon. I want to give Brockley a name for having extremely good beer, if you buy beer from here it’s not going to be sub-optimal. We are also working towards introducing some new special ranges.”
Pop into the brewery on a Friday evening and you may catch him explaining the latest brews at the bar.