Rebel Brewing in Penryn should be producing beer again by the end of January after it was taken over by new owners last week.

The Kernick-based brewery announced its closure just before Christmas, but it has been saved by the owners of Falmouth beer line cleaning company Clear Brew.

The company has taken on the existing Rebel stock, along with the brand and the intellectual property rights, and arranged a new 12 month lease for the existing brewery site, as well as retaining Matt Pascoe who will be head brewer.

New owner Stephen Trezona said new personnel will be recruited "as and when required" and he hopes to reopen the shop and bottling operations straight away, although brewing cannot start until a new licence has been granted "which will be hopefully by the end of this calendar month."

Mr Trezona plans to keep producing Rebel Brewing's existing line of beers, including several CAMRA prize winners, while using Clear Brew's network of technicians and clients to help grow the brewery's reach.

He said: "The aim is to keep the current product range and put the Rebel back in Rebel by producing some weird and wonderful stuff... but we want to get it right first time and not run before we can walk."

He added: "We will use our existing network in Cornwall and nationally - all the way to Aberdeen - take the good work Rebel has done up to this point in time... and expand it.

"We will be maintaining these relationships with Rebel Brewing customers all over the country, but particularly in Cornwall."

Rebel Brewing's current premises is currently the subject of plans to create a mixed use development with student housing, and Mr Trezona said: "We have renegotiated a new lease for the next 12 months at the current location, and we'll explore other premises in that time. We may be able to stay or we may be looking at a different location."

He added: "We are safe to trade for the next 12 months and it's a bright future, because we have got the experience and expertise in place to manage that.

"We're very passionate about beer and beer quality."

The company had been placed into administration on Friday, December 9, and its last trading day was on December 21, when it was only accepting cash as it had no card facilities.

Founder Rob Lowe wrote at the time: "It has been a rollercoaster over the last six years, we've had both the best and worst times but one thing that has always kept us smiling is your support.

"There are many reasons why this has happened which I won't go into here but needless to say life will go on."