Our first birthday party weekend on Friday 11th to Sunday 13th October 2019 is a major landmark event for Docks Beers.
It has come round far quicker than we can believe. And by way of a thank you for all your support we would like you to join us at Docktoberfest – our twist on the German beer legend – as we let our hair down to celebrate this fairytale year.
A massive thanks to every single one of you who has bought our beers or our merchandise. Our business stands or falls on the shoulders of those who are prepared to buy locally made beer, those who are craft curious and are willing to try new beer, and those who want to keep it Grimsby. We thank you.
The last twelve months have been non stop hard graft. But every pint of blood, sweat and tears shed were worth it.
We have converted a Church, built a new brewery, brewed six new beers (including the first ever lager in Grimsby) and opened the taproom which was voted as best pub/bar of the year in the Grimsby Telegraph Food and Drink Awards!
We launched a website and online shop, built a huge online following, debuted our hand built mobile bar, Hard Graft became the first ever Lincolnshire beer at 30,000 ft (on Eastern Airways), and on the day of the first ‘Meaningful Vote’ the same beer was introduced in the House of Commons’ Strangers Bar. [The first time there has been any Hard Graft in Parliament ;)]. The whole team has been working like trojans and been pulled every which way in their herculean endeavours to create craft beers that Grimsby can be proud of. There’s always room to improve, but it’s gratifying to feel we’ve achieved what we set out to do, and a bit more besides.
Here are some stats for the first 12 months of Docks Beers:
70,000 pints of Docks Beer have been poured in the taproom
20,000 followers amassed on social media
11 different beers brewed
6 beers canned: Hard Graft, Graveyard Shift, Never Say Die, Overtime, Controlled Explosion, Golden Hour (with Wind Power planned before the end of 2019).
8 Tap takeovers in our taproom: Brewdog, Brew York, Magic Rock, Tiny Rebel, Timothy Taylors, Thornbridge, Castle Rock and Stone Brewing
9 different food vendors: Tredici, Squeaky Beaver, Slap ‘n’ Pickle, Little Bao Boy, Little Urban BBQ, Alfred Enderby, Curry Jacks, Mr Citron and Galloping Gourmet
3 brewery collaborations; Brew York (York), Magic Rock (Huddersfield), Salt Beer Factory (Keighley) – two of which happened here in Grimsby
2 Tap Takeovers in other towns: Draughtsman (Doncaster) People’s Republic (Hull)
2 cracking beer festivals: Keg Fest Brew York, Wakefield Festival of Beer
And tons of events in the brewery taproom, most notably; Dockument DJ nights, the Sherlocks gig, Grimbarians Exhibition, Bouncers, and Forward’s 15th Birthday party.
Thank you!
Huge thanks to everyone in the beer industry who has supported us in the last twelve months including the following breweries; Wayne and Lee at Brew York, Sid at BrewDog, James at Thornbridge, Matthew at Freedom, Lewis at Castle Rock. Your encouragement and advice has been invaluable.
We have a very big debt of gratitude (and big love) for the amazing Sourcefour – huge thanks to Rob, Kirk, Alex, Phil, Jayne and Jon for building the big, bad, beautiful brand we wanted. The cans, website, social media, clothing designs and everything else – it all rocks. There are many other wonderful businesses that have helped us (you know who you are), but too many to mention without the risk of offending some by leaving them out, so if your name isn’t featured here please forgive us!
Also, a massive shout out to our local trade customers – the pubs, hotels, bars, cafes, restaurants, clubs and cinemas of Lincolnshire who have been a major foundation stone of the fastest growing craft brewery in Lincolnshire.
To our social media Queen, Kate who’s smashing it in the digital universe. Amassing a huge, engaged and happy bunch of Docks Beers followers and for keeping Docks Beers on your timelines.
Of course, none of this could have happened without our Docks Beers team back in Grimsby – Sid, Stuart, Keeley, Luke, Hattie, Bridie, Shaynee, Nikki, Caitlyn, Jay, Delfina, Holly, Alex, Ben, Jenny, Sas (not forgetting honorary Dockers Mike, Guy, Paul and Brad) . Thank you for your hard work and your can do, never say die attitude. You are our frontline and you too, rock. Big love.
Finally, Mike (I Am The One Who Hops) Richards, our company founder and Head Brewer and Senior Brewer Lewis (the fittest brewer on the planet) Birch. Mike and Lewis are machines but they are never entirely satisfied and are on a constant quest to improve our brewing resulting in what we hope you agree is more than half decent beer. Thank you Brewgods.
Here’s to the next year! There’s loads of exciting stuff to come so keep watching this space! We have done all the above from a standing start, we are only beginning to reach cruising speed and we plan on covering some serious ground in the next 12 months
