News

Utopian brewery to expand further and open Exeter venue

08 October 2024 By Jessica Mason

Devonshire-based Utopian Brewery has plans to open a new city centre pub in Exeter in the former site of Circa restaurant.

Speaking exclsuively to the drinks business about the potential of the new site, Utopian founder Richard Archer said: “We have been looking for suitable sites in the South West for a while as we think having a direct to consumer on trade offering is now a must have for smaller indie brewers like us.

Archer explained: “It’s still fairly early days, as we are at the first stage of getting the site premises licence back, so a few hurdles to jump. But assuming there are no issues with that, and the process doesn’t take too long, then we are very excited about the potential at Northernhay.”

Archer told db: “Whilst the offer will include a broad range of Utopian and guest beers, with 10 keg lines and three cask lines planned, the site has been rumoured to offer the local community much more than just a brewery tap.

Archer revealed: “We plan to have a first class independent wine list form our friends at East Street wines and an exciting food offer that will be sourced entirely with local ingredients but just like our beers will be influenced by some of our international favourites. We want to create an inclusive space that is welcoming to all, irrespective of whether you like beer.”

According to Archer, the motivation for looking for a site in Exeter was first about finding a site that suited the planned offering, but, he admitted that there was also a bigger reason.

Describing his love of the area, Archer added: “Exeter is a great city with a rich heritage, a fine university, a broad vocational college and a gateway to the beautiful South West. What it’s lacking though, compared to some other cities like Bristol, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester, is a strong independent hospitality sector. We know we are not the only ones that think this and so, hopefully, our site will just be part of a bigger movement for less big chain pubs and eateries and more local sourced high quality independent hospitality venues in the city.”

The expansion comes just three months after Utopian revealed its first venture into pubs when it became the brewery partner in the reopening of the Tally Ho pub in Hatherleigh. The pub, which received a significant refurbishment, was relaunched in July as a Country Inn and Brewery site.

At the time, Utopian had hinted that it was planning to start using the pub’s in-house brewery which had been out of use since 2007. Archer had also admitted that it had planned to offer tasting days and brewery experiences for beer fans.

Utopian Brewery is well known and revered for its flagship decoction mashed award-winning lagers made with British ingredients.