2018 - 2019
Development
In 2018 our founder Ben Cleary was running The Pip Stop, his beer, wine & spirits retail outlet from their location in Annfield Plain, which is where he met our Head Brewer, Alex Redpath. The two spoke at length about starting a brewery as Alex was a keen home brewer, having recently completed a course at Brewlab who was looking to take his knowledge and passion into a full time career as a brewer.
Ben hired Alex to work as a development brewer for what would become Full Circle Brew Co. They bought a 140L kit (left) and started experimenting with brews, while test marketing them with customers at The Pip Stop to learn all they could about their likes and dislikes regarding the beers, the branding and anything else they could discover.
When they were happy with the product, brand and their new location they decided in 2019 that it was time to take this project to the next step and take Full Circle Brew Co. from a shed in Stanley to our location in Hoults Yard, Byker.
2020 - 2022
Navigating Lockdown(s)
Moving into our first 'real' brewery felt like such a massive step up for us, especially being able to have our own taproom on site and keeping The Pip Stop alive within the same premises. But as we fired up the brew kit for it's first turn in March 2023 we would soon be in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic and all of our movements were put on an indefinite hiatus.
Luckily we were able to quickly adapt and find ways of getting our beer into the hands of those who wanted it, despite us not being an established brand yet. We ramped up our export comms as Europe were ahead of the UK with navigating the pandemic, they were resuming normal life long before we were and therefore had bars in need of beer. We still have a strong export trade and currently export to 12 different countries across Europe and Asia.
Through other initiatives such as our FCBC NOW delivery option, which people could use to get same day delivery on their beers alongside a roaring trade through The Pip Stop, we managed to get through lockdowns without having to furlough our staff and managed to grow well in what seemed like the worst time to start a business we could possibly imagine.
2023 - present
Establishing FCBC
Once the world started to return to business as usual, we were finally able to find our feet and discover who we wanted to become and start conducting business as we had always planned.
We have been a part of countless successful collaborations with other breweries as well as other businesses and charities. Most recently including our partnership with The OddBalls Foundation who are a testicular cancer charity. The artwork for our brew of Hippy Jungle was inspired by one of their most famous pants designs and a percentage of all sales from that beer are donated back to The OddBalls Foundation.
We have picked up quite a few awards in our time, notably winning the Community Engagement award in 2022 & 2023 and Best Independent Brewery Web Shop in 2024 at SIBA BeerX Business Awards. Our community is a massive part of who we are and we love giving back to them whenever we can, our work with our run club and local artists displaying in our taproom are just an example of what we have done over the years.
As well as the awards we have picked up for our work outside of brewing, we have picked up our fair share on awards for our beer. Our Looper IPA is the flagbearer in this instance having picked up the Gold award for keg IPA at SIBA BeerX in 2022 & 2024 as well as collecting Gold at Asia Beer Awards 2023 & FHA Beer Awards 2024.
Our production in 2023 was up 99.5% vs 2022 after securing a number of lucrative contracts. In 2024 our beers began pouring in Newcastle International Airport, making us the first independent brewery pouring there for a considerable time.
The future is looking incredibly bright and we're looking forward to growing further in the years to come. Thanks for reading and continuing to join us on our journey!