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Is Wild Card Brewery about to fold?
Wild Card Brewery in Walthamstow, London has been shuttered while tackling rent payment issues according to local sources.
The reasons cited are that the brewery has been unable to reach an ongoing agreement with the landlord of the unit, Waltham Forest Council, over rent arrears from Covid.
A council spokesperson said: “We work hard to assist local businesses and give them the time and support they need to thrive. When a company has accrued significant rent arrears, we may need to take action to protect the public purse and ensure taxpayers’ money is used wisely.”
Wild Card was founded by William Harris and Andrew Birkby in 2012, who were joined later by Jaega Wise, who very much became the face of the brewery.
A former chemical engineer, Wise was named joint winner of the British Guild of Beer Writers’ Brewer of the Year, receiving the same title in 2022 from the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group.
A regular proponent for equality in beer, pushing both SIBA and CAMRA to ban sexist beer marketing, she was also a key participant in International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day, a contributor to both BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme and Saturday Kitchen and co-hosted the AB-InBev funded Amazon Prime series Beer Masters, alongside singer James Blunt. She also released her first book Wild Brews: The craft of home brewing, from sour and fruit beers to farmhouse ales in 2022.
The company’s website currently lists eight other employees, whose future is not yet known, and the acclaimed spot’s closure will be seen as a blow to the popular Black Horse Beer Mile.
At present, as rumours continue to circulate, the future of both the Ravenswood Barrel Store and the Tavern on the Hill, both run by the company, are also unclear.
Until now, Wild Card’s history has served the brewery up with success after success. From it having first secured an all-important listing for its beers in UK supermarket Tesco as it sought investment and doubled production to meet demand.
Wise then also went on to secure many more top female brewer accolades and recognition for her efforts towards equality and diversity in the beer industry as well as become a familiar face abd voice on national television and radio. Wise, while steering the helm at Wild Card was also integral to the banning of sexist names for beers at UK beer festival GBBF in a bid to tackle discrimination and put a stop to beer being seen as only a drink for men.
Since the time of publishing, the drinks business has now seen the official forfeiture notice issued by Waltham Forest Council to Wild Card Brewery confirming the situation.
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