Craft beer producer Beavertown Brewery has opened Beaverworld, a new brewery and visitor centre at Ponders End, Enfield in London, UK.

The project involved an investment of £40m ($55m) and is expected to create 150 new jobs. The brewing company sold a 49% minority stake in its business to brewing major Heineken in June 2018. The proceeds from the transaction were used to fund the new brewery project.

The brewery has ten times more production capacity than Beavertown Brewery’s site in Tottenham Hale, allowing the company to increase its beer production from 45,000hl to 450,000hl per year.

Beavertown Brewery reached a 25-year lease agreement with Aberdeen Standard Investments and Graftongate Investments to lease space at Enfield Distribution Park in North London for the new brewery.

Beaverworld brewery location

The brewery and visitor centre is located in close proximity to the Ponders End station and adjacent to the public footpath on the canal. It is situated 7.24km north of the company’s brewing site in Tottenham.

The new location provides views of the River Lea, King George’s Reservoir and Epping Forest.

Beaverworld brewery design and features

The 129,670ft² brewing facility lies on a six-acre land parcel and includes a brewhouse, warehouse, logistics hub, visitor centre, packaging operations, and offices.

It is equipped with brewhouse, cellar, and utilities provided by German packaging and bottling machine manufacturer Krones. The Krones Steinecker brewhouse features advanced equipment and is designed to provide high efficiency, flavour consistency and energy efficiency.

“The five-vessel brewhouse includes mash conversion vessel, wort kettle, Variomill, lauter tun, whirlpool and Equitherm energy recovery system.”

The brewhouse has a maximum brewing capacity of 500,000hl a year and brewing is performed in 150hl batches. The five-vessel brewhouse includes mash conversion vessel, wort kettle, Variomill, lauter tun, whirlpool and Equitherm energy recovery system. Krones supplied 38 fermentation maturation tanks (FMTs), filtration, centrifuge and an automated dry hoping dosing system.

A fully automated KHS can line is used to fill up to 30,000 cans (330ml each) per hour. The filling process involves the computer-controlled KHS Innofill DVD filler with 50 filling heads. Electronic flow metering is used for accuracy in controlling can contents.

The keg line has the capacity to fill up to 160 kegs per hour with a provision to expand the capacity to 240 kegs per hour in future.

Spread across 12,000ft², the visitor centre includes a main taproom space that provides visual connectivity with a full length view of the brewery. A small professional kitchen for food traders and external caterers was also developed. Approximately 8,000ft² is dedicated to break out areas, kitchen, a gym, canteen and office space for the brewery staff. Nearly 5,000ft²-6,000ft² of external space is used as an outside drinking space and areas that can be used to host gigs.

The facility includes an internal space for 800 guests, three bars and a kitchen. The visitor centre includes the Beaver School, which is used to educate guests about Beavertown and its brewing process.

Gantries and walkways have been created to enhance the visitor experience.

Contractors involved

Readie Construction was the main contractor for the project. The firm was involved in the design and construction of the brewery, including its office space, car parking, external yard works, and landscaping.

RMC Building & Civil Eng performed groundworks and concreting work. UMC Architects delivered the detailed design of the project and provided support to Readie Construction throughout the project.

In addition to the supply of brewhouse and associated equipment, Krones handled the utilities, site supervision, product engineering, and installation of mechanical and electrical equipment. KHS was contracted to deliver packaging equipment for the brewery.

Law firm Osborne Clarke and boutique investment bank Arlington Capital Advisors advised Beavertown on the transaction with Heineken.

Product portfolio

Beavertown Brewery’s product portfolio covers different categories, including core, seasonals, speciality, collab beers, and ‘Beavertown Says’ series of one-off beers brewed on a pilot brew kit.

The company offers core beers such as Nanobot, Beavertown Beavo Lager, Bloody ‘Ell, Neck Oil, Gamma Ray, and Lupuloid. The product range in the seasonals category includes Passion Phantom, Staycation, 8 Ball, Smog Rocket, and Black Betty.

The Beavertown specials range features From the Deep, Skullfresco, Bomb and Cherry, Pride Gamma Ray, Birthday Beer, Sapling, and Sonoma Pride.

Products available in the collab beers category are Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, Mercury, Bandit Brew, Lollypalooza, Megamorph, Wrath, and Sloth.

Marketing commentary on Beavertown Brewery

Beavertown Brewery was established in 2011 by founder and owner Logan Plant.

The craft beer producer partnered with English football club Tottenham Hotspur in May 2018 to open a microbrewery at the latter’s new stadium in North London.

It is the official Craft Beer Supplier at the stadium and launched the official Spurs beer in January 2020. The company collaborated with eight breweries to create eight beers each named after the planets of the solar system in early 2020.