Wild Card Brewery lands national deal with Tesco

Walthamstow craft brewery Wild Card has secured a listing for three of its beers in UK supermarket Tesco as it seeks investment and doubles production to meet demand.

Wild Card has announced that three of its beers – Queen of Diamonds IPA, King of Hearts Blonde and Jack of Clubs Ruby Ale – will be hitting the shelves of 214 Tesco stores nationwide this month.

In order to meet the increased demand, the craft brewer has doubled its production and is now brewing beer seven days a week. In addition, it is seeking investment to increase its fermentation capacity, employ several more brewers and bring more packaging in house, according to founder and director, William Harris.

Speaking to db, he said: “Our current brewery site has plenty of room for us to grow into. We are keeping our options open and are looking for the right investor, and we certainly would consider crowdfunding again”.

Wild Card currently employs around 20 people, half of which are part-time. Last year, it launched a crowdfunding campaign, raising £300,000 in just one week.

Its beers are also stocked in Claridges, Harvey Nichols and the Shard’s Oblix restaurant as well as in its two tap bars.

“This is a big step for us, a huge opportunity to grow the business and we are really excited to get our beers out there to a wider audience to enjoy,” said Harris.

“Wild Card’s growth has meant we can brew some fantastic beers, working with really interesting ingredients. We are constantly experimenting; collaborating with local producers, foragers and other brewers to make some truly great beer. This year we are starting a barrel ageing programme,” added head brewer, Jaega Wise.

The first products of the programme will be 12 wine casks filled with a Saison, with the barrels provided by Speyside Cooperage. Harris says that they’re also looking into producing an Imperial Stout too.

Wise, who was elected a director of The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) South East regional brand, has been a staunch campaigner against sexism in the beer industry, calling on organisations such as CAMRA to ban sexist imagery from their competitions. At its AGM last week, CAMRA stated that new diversity and equality measures would now be implemented. 

Wise also joined the team on series two of The Wine Show, alongside Jancis Robinson MW, Joe Fattorini, Amelia Singer, Matthew Goode, James Purefoy, Matthew Rhys and Stéphane Reynaud.