News / Beer
New brewery opens in St Philip’s
A husband and wife team have opened a new brewery with a female head brewer at the helm.
Newtown Park Brewing Co. have already released six different beers and are hoping to open their tap room to visitors later this year.
Co-owners Michael McKelvaney and Lara Light-McKelvaney employed Italian head brewer Virginia Casadio from Moor Beer.
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The new brewery’s premises in the Wadehurst Industrial Estate will be familiar to Bristol beer lovers, being the former premises of Left Handed Giant who have expanded into a larger space nearby.
Close to the start of the Bristol & Bath Railway Path, the brewery is ideally located for the next instalment of the East Bristol Brewery Trail, whenever that is safe to take place again.
Pouring technique needs improvement – photo: Newtown Park Brewing Co.
Before moving to Bristol to work at Moor and now Newtown Park, Italian-born Virginia worked at breweries across Europe including Strange Brew in Sweden, Oersoep in the Netherlands and Brew By Numbers in London.
“I’m excited to be fully immersed in my role as head brewer at Newtown Park,” Virginia said. “Not just for the opportunity to let my brewing passion shine, but to be able to work with like-minded individuals.
“From home brewing to qualification, my gender has always been an outlier, but I have never let that stop me from achieving my dreams.
“I aim to create stunning beers judged on their qualities and regarded highly not because they were made by a woman, but by a dedicated and considerate brewer.”
The team at Newtown Park Brewing Co, from left to right: Michael McKelvaney, Lara Light-McKelvaney and Virginia Casadio – photo: Newtown Park
Lara has spent the last decade working as brand manager at Bart Ingredients in Bedminster, while Michael has worked with numerous start-up companies including breweries and across the creative industries as well as being a home brewer for many years.
Newtown Park launched with three craft beers: pale ale Maybe Tomorrow, IPA No Going Back and stout Internal Monologue, with their range later including table beer All Day Long, pale ale Come Alive and West Coast IPA You Don’t Have to Outrun the Bear.
Lara said: “It has been equal parts exciting to terrifying but we are doing it and loving it! We have been very brave to do this in such uncertain times, but the initial feedback has been incredible and we are positive we can ride the wave out of all of this!
“We might be a small team but we are big on passion and we hope that comes through in our beers.”
Main photo: Newtown Park Brewing Co.
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