It's been a while since our last customer spotlight. But don't worry! We haven't forgotten about our amazing customers.
In this weeks customer spotlight blog we speak to Angela at Crankshaft Brewery. We learn about their beer and their brewery.
Crankshaft Brewery is a small brewery based in Leyland, Lancashire. They have strong links to the motorcycle world and obviously have a passion for everything to do with them!
They current use our 500ml Amber AMC beer bottles to bottle all their amazing beers.
Hey guys. Thank you for joining us today. Can you tell me a little about your business? When did you start? How did you come up with the name Crankshaft? I’m guessing there was a car involved?
We started commercially in 2016 after doing home brew out of the garage. We had success in competitions so thought we would go commercial. Our background is motorcycles and motorcycle racing so the name fitted. So it was motorcycles not cars that inspired the name.
Sorry, I should have thought it was motorcycles! How long have you been brewing beer?
Since 2014 & commercially since 2016
What has been the biggest challenge of opening and operating a brewery?
We started small and grew organically so as not to overreach. We have funded all our purchases and only in 2020 did Haydn go full time. So we both had full time jobs as well as operating a brewery which I would say what the challenge.
Which of your beers is your favourite and why?
We do about 13 different beers and to be honest there is not a favourite.
Can you tell me more about Foggy Gold? I love the design of the label. And obviously does it relate to Carl Fogarty?
Yes, this relates to Carl Fogarty. It came about as Carl wanted a beer and a friend of ours who does his merchandise said that he knew a brewery with motorcycle connections. So we brewed a beer and hence Foggy Gold.
Where do you get inspiration from for your beers?
It depends on what style we want to brew, time of year and also whether we want to celebrate
anything. Names come from a mix of the industrial history of Leyland and engineering parts.
All of your labels have a very distinct and cohesive style. How did this originate and why did you go for the orange colour scheme?
The orange colour is from our motorcycle marshalling days and the seven stars is from the area name which we are near. The label images are designed to stand out on a shelf.
Where do you see your brewery in 5 years time?
Hopefully slightly bigger but not much with a better brewery tap and possibly go into the small
Supermarket area. We have plans we will grow like we have done organically.
I’ve noticed from your website that you have recently started selling home brew ingredients. How did this come about?
We have always sold grain and hops to home brewers however when Leyland home brew closed down, we decided to put what we have available on the website.
How has the global pandemic impacted your business?
Overnight on the 1st lockdown we lost all our wholesale overnight. We had to change to do doing home delivery of bag in box ales and bottles. If we had not then the brewery would have closed. We only got a small grant from the council however that was it. We did not qualify for furlough or the self-employed grant. It was only in March 2021 did we get any help.
What have you got planned for the rest of this year? Do you have any new and exciting beers coming?
We plan new beers all the time as we try and keep the selection fresh whilst retiring others. We have our 5 year anniversary beer being brewed along with two which are in bottle called Foglight & Cote de Reiver
I noticed on your Facebook page you have a curry recipe involving you Comet beer! How did that turn out? Do you plan on creating more recipes?
We do on occasions get asked which of our beers are best for cooking so we do demonstrations every so often. We have recently done a pork and cider with our community pressed cider that we did last Sept / Oct.
How would you rate Sen5es as a supplier? Would you recommend us to other breweries and home brewers?
Yes we recommend Stuart all the time if some asks and the service we receive from Sen5es is five stars.
We love Crankshaft Brewery over at Sen5es and can't wait to see what they bring out next.
Thank you so much to Angela for taking the time to chat with us this week.
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All the best
The team at Sen5es