Polly’s Collaboration

I don’t receive many exciting emails, it’s mainly strangers trying to sell me SEO optimisation, but the one I received from Arron in late 2024 made me stop scrolling and call my wife.

Arron’s email was asking us (Us! Spookton!) whether we were interested in being a part of Polly’s 7th Birthday Collaboration beers.

I didn’t know how secret the lineup of collaborators were, but I managed to not immediately blurt it out on Instagram. I’m not really known for that much restraint to be honest.

I’ve been a fan of Polly’s ever since I was drinking their beer in New Brighton’s Bow Legged Beagle. It was there, in late 2019, whilst drinking Polly’s with my school friends who had come up to visit, that I floated the idea to them about “buying a brewery to make stuff like this”. I/We obviously had no idea what that might have entailed (I was just messing about with my home brew stuff in my spare time) but I remember being bowled over by the beer I was drinking.

Fast forward a few years and I’m now looking down the list of the other 6 collaborators and saying to myself: “wow. this is amazing. We’re definitely the smallest and shittest of all of these”. Which sounds gratuitously self deprecating until you hear the other six breweries are Duration, Thornbridge, Sureshot, Pastore, Pomona Island and Lost Cause.

It was at this point where I felt a deep sense of thanks to Arron and the rest of the team at Polly’s. They had clearly taken a punt on us despite having the pick of the UK (European?!) craft beer scene to collaborate with.

Which perhaps all sounds a bit OTT and sycophantic, but it’s true. Being asked to be involved was one of the absolute highlights of my professional life.

The brew day eventually rolled around and then flashed by. Joe, Tom, Lally and the whole team were very generous in sharing their knowledge and advice over the course of the day and the weeks leading up to it whilst the recipe was hammered out. I was delighted to be able to brew a 6.?% Hazy IPA with them after having drunk so many of their superb examples over the years. Our version utilised Idaho 7 and a relatively new hop called Krush.

We can’t wait for everyone to enjoy the beers after the launch on the 24th January. If you have a Tap Take Over happening near you (and you almost certainly do), it would mean the world if you could get out and support your local hospitality business and a powerhouse UK craft brewer who took a punt on a little company like ours, when they really didn’t need to.

Thanks again Polly’s. Can’t wait for the return leg.