Everards beer hall and distillery plan
Brewery plans for its new HQ
EVERARDS has announced plans to build a 200-plus capacity beer hall and start distilling its own gins, vodkas, rums and Japanese-style sakes.
The family brewing business wants to create a range of spirits for its 172 pubs and partners, such as the Leicester Tigers and Riders and Curve Theatre, alongside its Tiger, Beacon Hill and Old Original beers.
Managing director Stephen Gould said the spirits will be inspired by the county, with names and branding reflecting their Leicestershire heritage.
As part of a trend for craft distilleries, Everards will follow in the footsteps of spirits manufacturers such as Burleighs Gin, in Nanpantan, Two Birds, in Harborough, and Sloeberry Spirits in Cold Overton.
Everards wants to install a copper still in a brewery planned as part of a £20 million investment at its Everards Meadows site, next to the police headquarters in Enderby.
The business has also revealed plans for a beer hall linked to the brewery, which would host tasting sessions, brewery tours, food and drink festivals and other events, helping establish Everards Meadows as a tourist destination.
It hopes the brewery, beer hall and a new Everards head office will be ready by November 2019 . ‘We’ll be producing different styles of beer, along with our traditional drinks’ Mr Gould said.
“We will be working with our partners between now and the end of 2019 to create a range of Everards spirits produced by us using, I hope, botanicals we have harvested in Everards Meadows.
“Because the new brewery will be more agile than the one we had at Castle Acres, I suspect we will be producing different styles and varieties of beers – alongside our main traditional styles – in addition to lots of different styles and varieties of spirits.
“We are still looking into distilling from our own beer – some distillers buy in the raw spirit and some produce from beer mash so there will be more news on that to follow.” He said they would be investing £5.4 million in brewing and distillation equipment supplied by industry leader Briggs of Burton.
Formal construction work on a 70-acre public park at Everards Meadows with almost two miles of cycling and footpaths, mooring points on the Grand Union Canal and a bridge over the Soar got under way on Tuesday.
A cycle centre – run by Rutland Cycles, where bikes can be bought and rented – and a cafe will open next May.
Mr Gould felt it was an inspired decision to replace earlier pub plans with the 5,000 sq ft beer hall idea, which he said would be open seven days a week.
He said: “We were inspired to have a beer hall by the type of things they have in America and Australia, where they have a lot of bars attached to breweries.
“We think it will be a fabulous, vibrant space joined to the brewery rather than separate from it.
“People will be able to have a pint looking directly at the brewery in a space that is very much open-plan, and managed by Everards.
“It has necessitated a refreshed planning application, though, and we have shared the vision with Blaby District Council and it has been hugely supportive.”
About £2.4 million was spent last year laying the groundwork for Everards Meadows, with access points, drains, water and utilities already in place.
The £31 million turnover business sold its old site at Castle Acres for an undisclosed amount last year to the national landowner the Crown Estate, which is extending Fosse Park with new stores including a flagship Next shop, Debenhams and TK Maxx.
Everards beers are being brewed by Robinsons of Stockport and Joule’s of Market Drayton until the new brewery and headquarters are up and running.
In the meantime, the Everards management team is working from a purpose-built £4.2 million brewery yard and warehouse in Optimus Point, Glenfield.
Mr Gould said despite the upheaval of the move, the pub estate had performed well with like-forlike turnover up 2.2 per cent in the year to September 30, and up another 1.9 per cent in the last six months.
David Middlemiss, managing director of Rutland Cycling said they were excited to be partners in the Everards Meadows plans. He said: “At Everards Meadows we’ll be opening our 13th store and it’s our most exciting project to date.
“This is an opportunity to bring cycle hire and sales to Leicestershire like we have been able to do in Rutland and other locations across the East Midlands.
“Leicester and Leicestershire doesn’t have an offer like this.
“There are lots of safe, interesting and traffic free paths for people of all ages and ability to cycle on.
“We feel privileged to be working with Everards, a regional, family business like ours.”