"If you have one, I hope that you'll open another one, and then maybe another one, that for me is a good beer."

These are the words of Tony Hobson, owner and Senior Brewer at Fosse Way Brewing Company, the 6,5 BBL brewery based in Offchurch.

Originally called the 'Long Itch Brewery,' and then 'Lemming Brewery,' Tony rebranded the business after he purchased it in 2017.

Fosse Way now has an established reputation in Warwickshire, having supplied a number of pubs in the region.

Tony will be familiar to shoppers at Kenilworth, Warwick, and Leamington markets, where he sells his produce every week to local residents.

His journey with brewing, and to Fosse Way is however, well worth a read.

Early Beginnings

Born and bred locally to Warwickshire, Tony started his brewing journey all the way up north in Edinburgh where he studied Brewing and Biological Sciences at Heriot-Watt University. At the time, the only establishment to offer such an undergraduate degree.

"I was actually a failed medic, I couldn't get into medicine, so the plan was after the brewing degree to switch to a medicine course," says Tony.

"But after three years I had had enough of that, so tried to find a job, but couldn't get one at all in the brewing industry."

Having written to breweries across the world Tony received a job offer from South African Breweries, which he accepted, and moved there in 1982. He was not to return permanently to the UK until 2014.

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Travelling across the continent he was initially involved in commissioning breweries. This included one in Rosslyn, Pretoria which at the time was the largest single brewhouse in the world, producing 1,500hl of beer every 3¼ hours, 365 days per year.

Tony was then involved at the SAB Central Laboratory, before becoming an Allied Trader in 1992. A job which took him across the continent to countries including Congo, Chad, and Ghana to name but a few. He continued this when in 1995 he started his own company C & H Technologies.

With such an unusual and interesting history in the industry Tony is currently working on his memoirs. "I'm not sure if it will ever get published though, I've got to page 150, but got stuck!"

Homecoming

It was in 2014 that the African chapter was to end, as Tony and his family moved back to the UK, to Warwickshire to care for his aging parents. After returning home Tony was looking for a new job, and considering how to start his own brewery in the county.

"Initially I was brewing on a 100L kit in my garage, but looking at the mould forming on the walls, it wasn't great for the longevity of the house!

"Thankfully that is when Lemming became available."

Lemming Brewery was owned at the time by two IT professionals, now friends of Tony's, who had battled to get the business off the ground. Luckily Tony was on hand to step in and rebrand the business, taking ownership in 2017.

"I started again, spent a year to eighteen months rebranding and getting it back on its feet.

"We re-did the recipes, changed the name, and began from scratch."

Now operating under the name Fosse Way Brewing Company, and producing four core beers (a porter, a pale ale, a chestnut ale, and a craft lager) Tony was able to rebuild the reputation of the business, stocking local pubs as well as six different Wetherspoons, and starting to get back the money that he invested.

Change of plans

As with all local business stories, a big chapter must now be included on the affect of coronavirus and lockdown.

"We had just got the kegging and casking properly established and then Covid hit.

"We didn't brew anything or sell anything at all in March, or April, [2020] but were finally able to start up again in late May."

As a result, the brewery has had yet another change of direction, now switching from casking to bottling which Tony does all by hand – sometimes even putting the labels on the bottles at the markets!

Fosse Way are still serving their four core beers to customers, with Tony saying that for the time being at least he has no desire to go back to casking beer.

Big Things Ahead

Despite the challenges faced over the past few months, expansion is on the cards. Fosse Way is about to enter a merger with Red Moon brewery, a Birmingham-based outfit that was founded in 2015.

"That will give me some much needed help," says Tony, "hopefully with another two pairs of hands we can keep sales up and focus on producing good beer."

Fosse Way is also hoping to expand its premises. The current 60 square metre space in a barn at Offchurch is to be expanded into over 120 square metre space by removing a false partition that currently splits the barn in half.

The space will be filled with a purpose designed cold room, and dry storage space, and Tony will be looking to install three new stainless steel cylindro-conical fermenters.

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The work is hopefully due to start early next year, "then we have a proper brewery on our hands."

When asked about the speed of their growth Tony said "you hear of these breweries becoming multi-million pound businesses in a year and think 'we're going so slowly' but all things considered, no we're not. It takes time to do things properly.

As with all things, the focus on care for and quality of his produce was clear.

"I am extremely proud of the four core beers that we offer, especially our lager. Lager doesn't have to be the Pariah that CAMRA paint it as. A good lager requires a lot of skill to produce and in my opinion it should live alongside ales and be treated with mutual respect.

"If you have one, I hope that you'll open another one, and then maybe another one as long as you're not driving. That for me is a good beer!"