Almasty Brewing Co invites visitors for open day

One of the North East’s newest breweries, Almasty Brewing Co, is to throw open its doors and welcome in drinkers for the first time.

The one man firm, on the Algernon Industrial Estate in  Shiremoor – near the Cobalt business park – produced its first beer in August.

And now, 11 different beers later, brewer Mark McGarry is preparing to show beer fans some of what he’d been doing – just as soon as he’s built a bar and finished with a paintbrush.

“We started with the Session IPA and the Export Brown Ale and have aimed to brew once a week since then,” said Mark, who spoke to CannyBrew between last minute preparations for the event this Saturday.

“The beers have mainly gone out to pubs in and around Newcastle, with a few down to places like the Quaker House and Half Moon in Darlington, and up to the Hanging Bat in Edinburgh.

“And I’ve been getting good feedback and sales are going up.”

Mark plans to have six of his beers – New Zealand Pale, US Pale, Australian Pale, Cherry Sour, Vanilla Milk Stout and a Fig Porter, which was produced in collaboration with the Hanging Bat – available for his open day.

“We’ll also hopefully have take home growlers that can be filled because I don’t do any bottles yet,” said Mark, formerly of North Shields’ Mordue and, most recently, Byker’s Tyne Bank Brewery.

“Though maybe after Christmas, when I’ve got my website done, then maybe I might look to do 100 to 200 bottles of each brew.”

The Almasty Brewing Co open day takes place from 12pm to 5pm on Saturday November 15.

As well as the craft beer, local food will be available from Utter Swine and coffee from Newcastle city centre based Lola’s Coffee, while work will be on display from Tyneside artist Muro Buro.

For those requiring transport to the event, a bus will be leaving The Free Trade Inn in Byker on Saturday morning. Call 07892676629 to reserve a seat.