Rye man Will takes on themantle of Head Brewer

He takes over the mantle from Ed Wray who has moved on to new brewing projects.

William brings years of brewing experience to the role, having worked at the brewery, housed in a former milking parlour in Rolvenden, Kent, from its beginnings over three and a half years ago, not only in production but also in all other areas including sales and logistics.

He will continue in his role as co-manager and will now also be managing the team of brewers and production staff, as well as overseeing quality and consistency of the beers. William will be instrumental in the installation of a new brewery of six times the current capacity to meet growing demands for the beers.

It is perhaps no coincidence that William was destined to have a career in the world of brewing, with connections to the oldest brewery in the country, Faversham based Shepherd Neame.

William learnt the art of brewing from his father and their passion, combined with some regular home brewing experiments, resulted in some decent drops of real ale.

William relishes conjuring up new recipes, when time permits. His latest offering Dark Side of the Moo, a seriously hoppy 7% ABV Imperial Porter, made with Chinook and Amarillo hops is an award-winner. It won ‘Beer of the Festival at the 5th annual Real Ale and Cider Festival at the Kent & East Sussex Railway in June and is proving to be rather sought after… .it’s even been spotted for sale in Amsterdam!

Another great success was the brewery’s green hop ale Fresh Hop, brewed last autumn with a large percentage of that season’s fresh green hop’s in the boil.

Old Dairy plans to brew with fresh hops again this September but is likely to experiment with different hop varieties to produce a selection of green hopped ales.

Beers the brewery produce have distinctive badging with cows - a nod to the herd that still shares the beautiful farm estate where the brewery is based. Beers include Blue Top, Red Top and Gold Top.