Brewing up perfect pints at the Quantock Brewery in Bishops Lydeard

The secret ingredient for the brewery, which was founded in 2008, is ‘passion’, which while wildly available in many locations and areas of life and business, is 100 per cent prevalent at this Somerset firm.

Run by Cheryl Ford and Rob Rainey, a duo who have been on what they described as an ‘emotional rollercoaster’ in the last decade, but a ride on which they have never wavered from the belief they are producing ‘a premium product’.

And the proof has been in the drinking, as it has not only won over a legion of beer fans but also the judges.

For example in 2016, the company won four Awards at the SIBA SW Independent Beer awards 2016, which took place at Tuckers maltings; Rale Head won Gold in Standard Bitters & Pale Ales (up to 3.9%) then went on to win Reserve Overall Champion of the Cask Competition.

The Quantock Brewery has an eight-barrel size with three fermenters, allowing them to produce three brews per week, up to 48 casks or approximately 7,000 bottles.

Speaking to Cheryl and Rob, you can sense their True Grit or True Hops in battling to build their company and get their brands noticed.

Each came to Somerset through different routes.

Rob was a nuclear engineer who used to work at Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing and nuclear decommissioning site.

Then one day he got fed up of doing this and decided to do something different. That ‘something different’ was firstly running the Rising Sun at West Bagborough for four years.

It was then Cheryl and Rob decided they wanted to run their own brewery.

Rob had always been a keen home brewer and his first brewing kit had been from Boots.

The beer he first made tasted awful so he decided to build his own brewing kit and that is when things really improved.

Cheryl, who originally coms from the East End of London, had a background in running pubs and working in the pub trade.

When they started they thought they could do it themselves with no help from the banks.

At the start it was Cheryl, her dad and Rob running the company and they soon found the dream of running their own brewery was a lot harder than they ever imagined.

The worst point came in early 2017 when they went into administration but they never stopped working and never closed.

As a result, additional investment was secured and the company has never been healthier and both Cheryl and Rob are looking to a bright new future.

Cheryl said: “We are one of the brewers in the South West which has won more awards than anyone. But that is no good if you cannot market it and sell it.

“You need to be able to make the beer consistently well all the time.

"You have to hope the landlord who buys the beer allows it to settle for 48 hours and when it is connected to the pipes they need to be clean so the beers tastes good.

"The pub for us is our shop window.”

This shop window is getting crowded with the number of micro breweries growing.

Craft beers are being bought and drunk predominately by people in their 30s.

It is a growing trend and sales have risen by at eight percent while traditional ale has dropped by four per cent.

The craft beers produced by Quantock Brewery includes Amber Bitter, QPA Pale Ale, Sunraker craft ale, Nightjar copper ale and West Coast IPA.

Rob said: “It is great to be involved in making something that people like. There is a buzz to it all.”

Cheryl added: “I have never been so excited to be an owner of a brewery.

“What we learnt being in charge or our own brewery is you don’t ever give up if you want something that badly.

“Our passion and commitment and what we do are our inspiration. This is what we want to do as our brewery is our labour of love.”

Further details online at quantockbrewery.co.uk or call the brewery on 01823 433812 if you want to place any orders.