BlackBar brewery is the incarnation of ten years of work for owner and Brewer Joseph Kennedy (aka Brewmonkey). It was back in Sixth form that the idea of a brewery really started to form in his head:

“I was sitting in a standard assembly, you know, the ones where you’re half switched off. The person talking asked ‘who is doing Chemistry and Biology?’ and I put my hand up. He said ‘You can go to Heriot Watt University and study brewing and distilling’. I can say at that moment this turned from a joke to an idea.”

Within a month Joe was at the City of Cambridge brewery on the old Cheddars Lane industrial estate in Cambridge, which now sits under Tescos on Newmarket Road.

“I asked if I could come along and brew for the day. I can say that it was a hard day, full of physical work, science and craft. Not that I knew that then, that view comes with hind sight. What I knew then, standing in the steaming mash tun at the end of a long day, was that I was still smiling. I loved every minute of that first day of professional brewing.”

BlackBar Brewery
B3 Button End Industrial Estate
Harston
Cambridge
CB22 7GX

Phone     01223 872131