Kent home brewing fanatics launch first beer

Two home brewing enthusiasts from Faversham, Kent have gone from brewing beer in their kitchen to releasing their first pale ale from their new company Arden Beer Co.

Barry Watts and Gareth Arnold, both 37 and friends since school, launched their first beer last night. Arden Pale, the first beer from their new business Arden Beer Co, is a pale ale with a strong malt backbone, a fair amount of dry hopping, a strawberry scent and a fruity flavour.

Watts and Arnold have been avid followers of the rise of craft beer in the UK and have been home brewing for five years. They soon began to develop their own recipes, joining London Amateur Brewers and competing (and winning) home brew competitions to hone their skills.

Watts said: “All our beers are perfected in our kitchen on our 100-litre pilot kit. We know how important quality and variety is so we’ve spent a long time tweaking all our beers”.

Arden Pale was brewed in collaboration with the Firebrand Brewing Co in Cornwall, and the company will look to collaborate with other breweries in the South East.

Watts said: “What makes [Arden Pale] different is that we’ve designed it to be both interesting to craft drinkers, yet accessible to people who might be trying [craft beer] for the first time. For our first beer we wanted to take the pale ale in a different direction.”

Though Watt and Arnold are keeping their focus on Kent and the south east at present, they’re currently working on “expanding our range so that drinkers can also enjoy our other ideas which we’ve been lucky enough to perfect over the past few years”.