Brew by Numbers
Brew By Numbers (Also known by BBNo) Founders Tom and Dave met in China on a rock climbing tour around Asia. In April 2011, Dave returned from travelling after two years in the Antipodes, drinking craft beer and doing some basic home brewing. At the same time, Tom – an old friend of Toby from the Kernel – was trying their fruity IPAs and Pale Ales featuring some amazing new world hops from the US. They both independently decided this new scene was something they wanted to be involved in…
By August of that year Dave and Tom, committed to opening their own microbrewery, had secured the use of a friend’s basement on Southwark Bridge Road and built a simple home brew kit, where Tom also lived at the time! Through reading books on brewing, researching online, asking for advice from friends in the industry and helping out in breweries for free, Tom & Dave taught themselves to brew.
Though experimentation, they progressed quickly by splitting batches and performing different tests on them. The winner of these batches would be brewed again, and the process repeated to find original flavour combinations. The numbering system attributed to these early gave rise to their name - Brew By Numbers. In April 2012, they took their ‘Hoppy Saison’ to the staff at Craft Beer Co. Clerkenwell for their critique. This beer would later become 01|01 and would be critical in shaping BBNo’s place in the market - an unusual style no other UK breweries were offering regularly at that time.
In November 2012 they received permission from Southwark Council to brew beer for sale, and on December 1st hosted the official launch party of Brew By Numbers at The Craft Beer Co. in Clerkenwell.
Brew By Numbers has now released over 350 different beers across an expansive range of styles. They are best-known for our diversity: hoppy, modern saisons; mixed fermentation farmhouse ales; hazy, vibrant dark coffee beers, nitro stouts, highly-hopped pale ales & IPAs. Their beers are frequently described as bold, balanced and drinkable, regardless of style or strength. Thanks to the hard work of everyone across the company, Brew By Numbers has been ranked as one of the Top 100 Breweries in The World by RateBeer.