BrewBoard lines up tap room in Cambridge – and rooftop terrace in Harston

BrewBoard’s ambitious plans for reopening include opening a new tap room in the centre of Cambridge, and installing a roof garden for visitors to its Harston brewery.

The craft brewers, who launched in 2017, have 13 beers as part of a hop-forward range, each with distinctive artwork produced in-house by co-founder Oliver Pugh.

The last year has, however, not been easy.

“Right from the start we set out to be a brewery making the best hop-forward craft beer we possibly could,” says Oliver, “sharing those beers with the community across Cambridge and its surrounding towns and villages.

“We weathered the storm during 2020 but this latest lockdown has meant an extended period without most of our key income generators.Yet again we have had to close our tap room, cancel brewery tours, cancel external events to which we would have taken our mobile bar and ‘Beer Bus’ and, with pubs shut, we have lost all our keg sales for the last few months as well.

“We’ve been brewing since 2017 and have grown year-on-year since, even just about through 2020, which let’s face it, was a bit of a stinker for our industry. As we all emerge from hopefully the final lockdown, it is time to kick on, and we would love it if you came on that merry voyage with us.”

The BrewBoard team now ready and raring to go for a new start.

“To get BrewBoard comrades old and new back together, we want to open a new tap room in Cambridge,” says Oliver. There will be “a formidable selection of BrewBoard beers ranging from our core firm favourites, through to a diverse selection of seasonals and specials”.

Oliver promises “a fully-immersive BrewBoard experience” with “food, music and laughter, and the walls adorned with BrewBoard artwork”.

A crowdfunding appeal is up and running until May 17, and so far £19,000 has been raised towards the £30,000 goal.

“If we get to the £30k target it’s a catalyst for the roof terrace and the opening of the bar in Cambridge. We’re hoping to get the Cambridge tap room open in six or seven weeks. It’ll be 60 covers at any one time, a 10-tap bar.”

Oliver can’t reveal the location but the location is clearly central.

“It has the perfect cellar for it, it’ll be good, a sort of Speakeasy-type cool.”

The funding appeal includes ‘buy-forward’ offers, adds Oliver. These include packaged options of free beer for a year, T-shirts and tickets to the reopening party.

“There are lots of ways you can support us,” says Oliver. “We’re offering a mighty fine selection from first access to new beer releases, to signed prints of our core brands, to brew-day experiences, to a year’s worth of beer, to tap room discounts, to home pub kits and many, many more.

“Through these ‘buy forward’ options we’re aiming to raise a minimum of £30,000.

“All we ask is that you head to the full list of what’s up for grabs, if any of them take your fancy for yourself, your favourite relative, best bud or your other half – basically anyone that you like enough to give a super-cool exclusive gift to – then you snap them up and we’re all on our way to great things ahead…”

The second part of the equation is the design and build of the new 40-ft terrace seating area at Harston.

“It will be astroturfed so guests will feel like they’re in a floating garden up in the trees, which we’re going to flood with coloured lights. Think Jabba the Hutt’s sail barge in Return of the Jedi, the floating ship with the multi-part canvas roof. It’ll be pretty damn cool.”

Crowdfunder details here.