Triple Point Brewing rapidly expands to keep up with demand

Triple Point Brewing has expanded its brewing capacity in a bid to boost volumes to keep up with demand for its beers.

The Sheffield-based brewery, which was founded in just March 2019, has already taken its first steps to expand after reaching its brewing capacity near the end of the 2020 lockdown. 

Speaking to db, Triple Point’s managing director Mike Brook, describing how the journey from opening the brewery through to the expansion has been far from usual, said: “We celebrated our first birthday and were closed down within a week as the UK went into the first lockdown. At that point we sold mostly cask beer and our biggest customer was our own bar [as] we didn’t even have a web shop or courier contract.”

Brook explained that, at this point, the brewer decided to “pivot” its business by “putting beer into mini-kegs and cans and selling direct-to-consumers online” which enabled it to keep going where some other breweries couldn’t, and thanks to that exposure it now has customers all over the country.   

Triple point sales manager, George Brook said: “As a brewery that focuses mostly on modern interpretations of classic lagers and hoppy pale ales, we wanted our beer to be mostly sold in kegs and cans. As we emerged from successive lockdowns – where people have clearly enjoyed our beers in smaller packages – we found there was much more demand for our keg beers, which was really pleasing.” 

Buoyed by a raft of award wins – Triple Point picked up five medals, including two bronze, two silvers and a gold at the International Beer Challenge last year for two lagers and three ales which resulted in it being given the Glenn Payne Rising Star Award – and high ratings on Untapped, the brewery revealed how it has been getting busier and busier. Increasing numbers of regular customers across Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham and further afield in Norwich have reportedly been visiting the site and are now buying the beers online too. 

Demand led the team to plan its expansion, growing its capacity to brew and sell more beer while taking advantage of a match-funded productivity improvement grant, it ordered a new 50 hectolitre fermenting vessel. In fact, as the production time for the vessel was six months, Triple Point ended up renting a vessel in the meantime to allow it to meet demand. 

Triple Point head brewer Alex Barlow said: “We initially applied for funds for a 25 hectolitre vessel and a carbon dioxide analyser but, such was the demand, we decided to double it up and ordered the 50 instead. The benefit is that it takes up pretty much the same floor space but can brew up to 9000 pints a time [and] we bought the CO2 analyser anyway.” 

Brooks added: “It’s a great reward for all of us at the brewery and testament to Alex’s skills as a brewer.” 

The brewery, whose motto is “the beer comes first” is now looking to grow organically within its current site, which has a tap room bar and beer garden that have also benefited from investment during Covid. 

As Brooks stated: “Our motto was coined because it was literally true, we had brewed beers that we didn’t have names or branding for. In fact, at that point we’d not even decided on a name for the brewery.” 

Barlow added: “But now ‘the beer comes first’ is our byword for quality because, as a brewery, we always put actions and expenditure that drive beer quality first. We don’t just want to brew more beer, we want to brew more beer better.”