Paul Bowker - Brick Lane Brewing Company

This week I speak with Paul Bowker, Managing Director of Brick Lane Brewing company. The small brewing movement was built on a lot of romantic ideas about brewing that were born from a reaction to a brewing duopoly that didn’t offer consumers a lot of choice. The craft narrative was small, traditional and independent, it initially eschewed a lot of brewing techniques and business strategies that were seen as not being craft…and in doing so spawned a million discussions about what the term craft meant.  In this world, a brewery such as Brick Lane - well-resourced from the outset with the help of business people and celebrities, and openly adopting the modern brewing techniques that its resources provided - was viewed by a craft industry with some cynicism. And yet, in 2023, the brewery has won a swag of major awards for beer quality and - in world where so much news is on craft businesses struggling - Brick Lane appears to be going from strength to strength. These are the observations that continue to fascinate me, and I always enjoy discussing Brick Lane’s role in the brewing industry with Paul Bowker as a result.  FEEDBACK: If you'd like to post a question or a voicemail for us to play on an upcoming podcast, you can leave a 90 second message for us here. Entries for the 2024 Awards are now open. Visit brewingawards.org for more information and to enter. If you like what we do at Radio Brews News you can help us out by: Sponsoring the show Reviewing us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcasting service Emailing us at [email protected] to share your thoughts