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1st March 2024

Cheers to 30 years: Hadrian Border Brewery celebrates milestone birthday with the launch of an exciting new beer festival

Hadrian Border, the Newcastle-based brewery renowned for its classic styles, traditionally brewed, is thrilled to announce its much-anticipated 30th Birthday Beer Festival, set to take place from Friday 7th June to Sunday 9th June.

Owners Andy and Shona Burrows, and the rest of the Hadrian Border team will be on hand at the brewery on Newburn Industrial Estate for a weekend pouring their award-winning beers alongside others from their favourite breweries, plus delicious street food, and live music, as they say cheers to commemorate three incredible decades.

There will be a large marquee set up outside the brewery, with a bar serving a great range of cask and keg beers. A token system will operate, for hassle-free beer purchases, with cash and card payments accepted for buying tokens. The festival is dog-friendly (provided your furry friends remain on a short lead), and there’s a commemorative glass for festival-goers to take away as a memento of the event.

Shona Burrows, Co-owner of Hadrian Border Brewery comments: “The beer festival is something we decided to do because ‘it’s not what we do’, and this has become a bit of a theme in our celebratory brews. As a business we have always been a bit insular, quietly getting on with what we do. So we are welcoming everyone to our space; tours of the brewery will run during the days of the festival, and opportunities to taste beers from the tank throughout the maturation process. There will be giveaways, random ticket selection prizes, and fun questions that will pop up on the screens to win prizes. Our ideas just keep coming. We are all so excited to see people enjoy ‘us’ and all the great beers and breweries the North East has to offer.”

“During the past 30 years, we’ve been in three different locations, we’ve moved house three times, we’ve had two kids (18 and 21 this year), and we’ve made it to 35 years married. We are still a family-owned business, just us, Andy and Shona. We have a fabulous team working with us both here in the brewery and our pub. And we’ve made it through two recessions, a stock market crash, a pandemic, and are bang in the middle of a cost of living crisis. To still be thriving after three decades, that must be worth celebrating!”, Shona continues.

Celebratory Beer Releases

As part of the 30th birthday celebrations, the brewery will release a series of limited-edition beers and collaborations throughout 2024. The first releases launched on 26th February, as a nod to the fact that brewing traditional styles in recent years may not be considered the trendiest, but they’re ok with that. These beers are available in an exclusive gift pack on their webshop, featuring a branded glass and one 330ml can of each of the following:

  • Too Uncool For School (10.0% ABV) – cacao and coconut imperial stout. Full-bodied and rich, with flavours of dark chocolate leading to a tasty coconut finish.
  • Too Old To Care (10.2% ABV) – caffe latte imperial porter, brewed with locally roasted coffee from Pumphrey’s Coffee. It is rich and filled with coffee aroma and flavours, with sweet notes and a light hint of vanilla.

Brais Mallo, Brewer at Hadrian Border, said: “It is amazing being involved in a brewery with so much history and experience in the micro-brewing industry. Brewing both classic and contemporary styles every day and brewing the special beers we’re putting out for the anniversary has been really exciting. I’m really pleased to be part of Hadrian Border’s 30-year story!”

Tickets for Hadrian Border’s 30th Birthday Beer Festival go on general sale via Eventbrite on Saturday 2nd March at 9am.

Notes to Editors

About Hadrian Border Brewery

Established on 9th June 1994 when Andy and Shona Burrows took over the Border Brewery Company in Berwick-upon-Tweed, the brewery expanded in 2000 when The Four Rivers Brewery in Byker (previously known as Hadrian Brewery) went into liquidation, and the decision was made to relocate to this site and change the name to Hadrian and Border.

With further expansion needed, a new home was identified in April 2009 in the former Ross’s pickle factory in Newburn, west of the city. The purchase was completed that September and the extensive refit began, with the first brew mashed in during April 2011.

The current production capacity is 200 barrels per week, and in 2014 the team achieved the SALSA (safe and local supplier approval) accreditation, passing the SALSA+ beer audit in the following year, making Hadrian Border the first brewery in the North of England to achieve this accolade.

With a strong focus on quality cask beer, they also now produce keg beers, plus bottles and cans. The award-winning core range of beers can be enjoyed all year round and includes favourites such as Tyneside Blonde, Grainger Ale, Farne Island, Northern Pale and Northern IPA.

The brewery’s pub, Station East, opened in November 2016 and is located in Gateshead’s Railway Quarter.

BEER AT ITS BEST

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Contact Info

For further information, interviews or beer samples, please email Shona Burrows: shona@hadrian-border-brewery.co.uk

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