Goodbye 2024... Hello 2025!
‘Learn from yesterday, live for today’ - Albert Einstein
As another year ends, and an important one at that, being our 10th anniversary year, our minds naturally begin to reflect over the past 12 months and look toward to the New Year. It has been quite a year here at UnBarred, a very special one filled with great moments and memories and one that dare we say we’ve enjoyed more than most, so it’s with sadness that we move on, but with excitement that we look towards 2025.
The process of writing the end-of-year blog this year started at the beginning of 2024 when we first teased that for our 10th year brewing and serving up incredible beers for the folks of Brighton and beyond. Our idea was to release the best and most nostalgic beers from our past, one every month or so, and relaunch them with celebration and fanfare. The beers were chosen from our back catalog of favourites, and from calls from you lot for the return of your most beloved UnBarred brews. The reflection period started right at that point, as we chose the beers to bring back and how we would honour them. We looked at what we had learned from the years since we brewed those beers, what those beers had taught us along the way, and how we might be able to bring that all together to give you some of the best beers we have ever made, every month for a whole year. That itself is the perfect metaphor for who we are, what we do, and how we approach each and every year. Learn from yesterday, live for today.
Dank Juice was the first beer to make a re-appearance in 2024, back in January, alongside its crazy cousin, and a first for us, Danker Juice. We wanted to kick off our 10th anniversary in style, and there was no better way to do it. First conceived back in 2018, Dank Juice was brewed to do exactly what it said on the tin – be deliciously dank, boozy and oily, with ‘down & dirty’ hops. Smooth, slick and thick with a chewiness that came from adding huge doses of hops that epitomise the style. Even though the beer has changed over the years, that concept hasn’t and it continues to be the inspiration for the beer. In 2023 we brewed the dankest version yet, thanks to a huge triple dry-hop that was made possible by our centrifuge. However, being UnBarred and as per tradition, we wanted to push ourselves even more this year. On 9th January 2024, Dank Day, we launched this year's Dank Juice alongside Danker Juice - an amped up version thanks to the addition of Hemp Terpenes. Both arrived with great fanfare and even greater feedback.
“As it describes very dank aroma with the addition of the hemp terpenes, slight bitterness with a rich smooth mouthfeel.” - Stuart Lamb on Untappd
Shortly after was The Long Black, our luxurious cold-weather Porter. The Long Black was First brewed in the shed where we started our journey, bottled and sold through a very select amount of local bottle shops. After its success Jordan took to local landmark, The Watchmakers Arms, to rebrew this flavoursome Porter to be a part of Rick’s micro-pub beer festival. We’ve come a long way since then, and so has this beer. However, in true UnBarred style, we never lost sight of the beer's roots, no matter how much the recipe evolved. Available this time in can AND cask, we made sure there was plenty available at The Watchmakers for old times sake!
“Dark roasty coffee porter with just the right hint of slight milk stouty sweetness to keep it balanced & not too overpowering. Bloody good.” -Colin on Untappd
Next up was Granola in February. First brewed back in 2015 with Blindside Brewery, a Brighton-based nano brewery that sadly no longer operates, the idea was to recreate a popular breakfast cereal, a cereal that at its core is very simple, but has all the elements to make the perfect breakfast bowl. It has texture, crunch, balance, it’s refreshing but yet has bags of flavour, and it’s satisfying yet leaves you wanting more. It has cult status amongst UnBarred fans, and for a very good reason, so it really was a no brainer to bring this legendary beer back!
“Lots of peach sweetness, tropical fruit, with vanilla and lots of oatmeal. Dessert in a pale beer. Croatia suck at football but this beer doesn't!” - Ed on Untappd
A pretty strong start to the year, I’m sure you’ll agree, we launched 4 huge beers and firm fan favourites in just 6 weeks. It was a whirlwind, but we wanted to go strong for our 10th year and we weren’t about to stop there! 3B’s, Mango Pale, BIG Joosy, Major Hazer, and Honeycomb Milkshake all followed in the coming months, as we continued releasing one big hitter after the next, all leading up to the big day, or 10th Birthday, where we had something very special planned - the return of Benchmark
“I suggested that he let me do a label for one of his beers, Benchmark, to see if it helped get it into some shops. The 'UnBarred' logo (always with a capital 'B') had too, in my mind, look German, authoritative, and timeless. Jordan's nickname in our circle was 'Stein', so it felt appropriate, and a nice nod to all the German beers we were trying. That logo appeared pretty much unchanged on the very first label that we sticky taped to a bottle of Benchmark. It blows my mind that the brand has come so far, and it makes me smile every time I see that logo out in the wild.” - Tom Lacey, designer of UnBarred can art
Benchmark IPA was first brewed back in 2015. UnBarred’s first ever IPA, and again brewed back in the shed in Hove, Benchmark went on to win the Bev Robbins Shield at the Sussex CAMRA Beer Festival, beating off huge competition in the process. It was the catalyst for everything UnBarred had become, and so it was pretty much number 1 on everyones list of beers to bring back! There was no better way to toast our 10th anniversary with the launch of Benchmark in the Taproom, with the first 100 pints free, and then having a big ol’ party. There isn’t an awful lot we can remember from that night, apart from an overwhelming sense of pride and happiness that we were there celebrating such an achievement surrounded by our biggest fans. It was the PERFECT way to end a celebration of 10 years of UnBarred.
“Soft hoppy nose. Hazy Amber malts with foamy head and robust mouthfeel. Soft, bittering citrus leads to soft, pithy bitterness and a clean crisp finish” - Gavin on Untappd
There wasn’t much time to recover, however, as shortly after that, on cue every year, the best was starting to stir. Stoutzilla, one of the first beers brewed at the UnBarred Shed in Hove and a passion piece for Jordan, stems from his desire to deliver a full bodied and flavoursome stout. The core project began as a Mower family experience, with everyone pitching in with everything, from brewing to bottling. There will always be a special sort of love for Stoutzilla here, It captures the essence of UnBarred’s founding spirit and Jordan has kept two bottles back from the original offering to give to his children on their 18th birthdays. Launched each year alongside its BA counterpart, for our 10th year we wanted to do something a little special, yet ANOTHER barrel aged version - Cognac single cask edition! Stoutzilla has always been something special, but this exceptional 11% edition has reached new heights after maturing for months in a single ex-cognac barrel, infusing it with deeper layers of fruit and oak richness.
With this being our first "single cask" produced, this rare, limited release was something Jordan spent countless hours and days agonising over to get absolutely perfect. This cognac-aged imperial stout, teases hints of sweet, spiced dried fruits, alongside toasted vanilla oak notes. You’ll experience a generous palate of fresh coffee, raisins, tobacco, and liquorice, all leading to an incredibly long, warming cognac finish.The launch of Stoutzilla was evern bigger and better this year with us reaching even more bars and pubs, even more drinkers than before, and even producing our first ever Stoutzilla short showing Stoutzilla terrorize Brighton!
“O m actual g.” Phil on Untappd (talking about Stouzilla Cognac)
Among all of that, we also launched another first, and another milestone for us here at UnBarred, our first-ever alcohol-free beer, LowKey. Packed with a hazy, tropical hop character and a soft, smooth mouthfeel, this is a bold, balanced beer that is bursting with flavour - true to UnBarred style. And even more true to UnBarred style, it was important for us to create a beer that had all the satisfaction of a modern pale ale, minus the alcohol & gluten - meaning LowKey was even more accessible than ever. An incredibly important beer for us, we can’t wait to see what stems from our foray into alcohol-free beers and how many new people we’ll meet along this journey.
“super citrussy, totally and utterly enjoyable for an AF…”- musicforcats on Untappd
None of this could be possible without the amazing team behind us, and the support of you, our amazing fans. Each year we continue to grow and develop our team to help us brew better beers, reach more people, and give you the best UnBarred experience we can. Each year we meet new fans at our home, the Taproom, and at beer festivals and events all over the UK. The kind words and feedback spur us on to continue to do what we do best, and what we love. 10 years have flown by and, over the holidays when our team is taking a well earned break, we’ll be raising a glass to another 10 years. We hope you join us in doing so!
