Tapstone Brewery in Chard is planning for the future today by brewing up a success

James Davies and Johno Boyd are the driving force behind Tapstone Brewery, which is fast becoming the new taste sensation for beer drinkers in Somerset.

It is starting to prove its calibre among the ‘big boys of the brewing world’ as it recently won a Gold medal award at the Banbury Beer Festival in Oxfordshire, where Tapstone Brewery beat some of the best brewers in the UK.

This is not only hand-crafted beer but it is brewed in a brewery which was hand-built from scratch by James during a tense period of 14 months.

It was tense, as James did not know if what he was doing would work; he had never built a brewery up from scratch and he learnt a lot of what he needed to do from watching videos on YouTube.

He said: “I did not know if it was going to work. What I had was a passion and a belief I was never going to give up.”

James came up with his own motto for how to deal with the trails and tribulations of building, which was: “Relax, take things slowly, and think what can I do in the next hour.”

Things got a lot easier or less stressful when Johno came on board and suddenly everything moved a bit faster and what looked a little ‘Heath Robinson’ (as it was hand-built) started to brew beer.

James is steeped in the tradition of brewing. Before he set up Tapstone Brewery in 2015, he worked at Dawkins Ales, based in Bristol, for three-and-a-half years.

He worked himself up from washing casks to become the head brewer.

Speaking about his passion for brewing, James said: “There is nothing like a good beer. You are like a chef cooking food or an artist with all the colours on his palette. The first time I brewed a beer here I started late in the afternoon and finished at about 2am/3am the next day.

“There is nothing like brewing your own pint. When you taste it there is a huge release of endorphins as they go wild with the flavour.

“There are so many flavours in pale ale, like citrus or mango.

Also, there is so much fun to be had as brewing is both mentally and physically challenging.”

Johno said: “For me, I started brewing beer with a couple of pals. We set up in a shed and all four of us got involved. It was relaxing, as you were in your own world.

“It was a lifestyle we enjoyed. It was by accident; I was sitting in a pub when James came in making a delivery.

“I really enjoyed Tapstone beer and said I would love to join what you are doing and, if you need a business partner, then count me in. I have been onboard for a year.”

Tapstone Brewery produce six beers: Sea Monster; Wild Woods, Soma, Voodoo Juice, Kush Kingdom and Giant Slayer.

He said: “This is the main element of branding as each word has to mean something and every word has to have a feeling.”

A new feeling is emerging at Tapstone as the company has two exciting plans on the horizon.

First out of the blocks is the aim to start canning its beer and this should, hopefully, be completed by the end of the summer. This would allow them to sell direct to customers from the brewery, online and see the beer sold in shops.

Tapstone is already in 40-50 locations, including Bristol, Southampton, Taunton, Chard and Bridport. The other step which has started, but will take a little longer, is James and Johno are growing their own hops.

The long-term aim is to produce a Tapstone hop which will be unique to the brewery and allow them to use it in making their beer.

In a secluded field in Somerset they are already growing 273 plants which will be cross-bred to find the perfect plant to produce hops but this will take between three to seven years.

As well as growing these plants, the duo are growing Centennial hops, an American variety which will grow this summer.

James said: “This is still exciting. We are moving on from one plateau up to the next step.

“This is our next step in our expansion and we are the only brewery in the UK which will have its own unique hop.”

- More about The Tapstone Brewery online at tapstone.co.uk