Hoppy Birthday: Neon Raptor Brewery turns ten

Tell us about the early days. How did Neon Raptor first begin?
Tom: Neon Raptor was originally set up a decade ago by two Scottish guys, Gavin and Adam who both worked at Rolls Royce in Derby. Gavin left around 2016 before it got off the ground, which was when we both got involved. Then Adam left the business in 2020.

What jobs did you both do before this?
Josh: We were both postmen in Derby and we used to take the same route to work. But we really got to know each other in pubs.
Tom: I’d been in various forms of hospitality all my working life and moved around a fair bit. Then I did eight years of postal work, and it was eight years too long. Luckily Josh was also there and we formed a getaway plan.

Tell us about opening up the taproom and brewery in Sneinton in 2018?
Josh: Tom and I were running a bar in Derby called Suds and Soda. When we saw the space was available we wanted it. We were both physically involved in building the site from the ground up.
Tom: We used the experience from opening our own bar to do something similar, but it was way more complicated. None of us had any money so we had to be very creative. Luckily Ikea were selling functional chairs for £4 so our customers had somewhere to sit when we opened.

Sneinton Market has since become a destination for food and drink. How have you seen the area change?
Josh: When we arrived the site still had lots of empty units and was just finding its feet. Now the market has so many incredible food makers, from coffee, chocolate to baked goods and street food.
Tom: Some places are so established now, I forget they weren’t always here. We’ve had such a fluctuation of neighbours over the years, some sadly missed, many gratefully added.

Neon Raptor has a strong visual identity. Where did that come from and how do you maintain it?
Tom: We have a creative artist called Heather Rudd, who has a broad range of skills and we give her a lot of freedom to do what she thinks is best. In a world of AI slop I think it’s important to work with an actual living artist.
Josh: It’s always been important to us to focus on our visual identity. We know what Neon Raptor means within the company. We love nostalgia and we celebrate our geeky and nerdy side.

Give us some of your personal highlights from over the last decade. Is there a beer, collab, or moment you're proudest of?
Tom: The recent Jester King collab was not only one of my favourite ever Neon beers, I also loved that we made it happen. Also, any time we’re asked back to a festival is great, as it means we did something right the first time. It’s always great going to Billie’s festival in Antwerp.
Josh: Being invited to pour beer in Tokyo was pretty awesome. It then meant I was then invited to Miami the following year by someone I met there. Travelling around the world has been a huge perk.

What's changed most about the UK craft beer scene over the years; for better and worse?
Tom: It’s gotten both bigger and smaller since we started. Breweries and venues have opened, closed, expanded, downsized and all the while had to adapt and adjust with different trends, changes of government, and loads of quite boring stuff.
Josh: Beer duty is more complex than it’s ever been, which isn’t great. But I think the outlook is good if you go with the flow. If you’re trying to become some £1 billion valued company, then good luck to you. But if you work in beer because you love it and can make a living from it you’re winning.

It’s taken three years to get the new bar on Gedling Street open. Why so long?
Tom: How long is this article? I think you might need a book to cover everything that’s happened!
Josh: We were told after twelve months of planning our build that putting a brewery in the new site would be impossible because there’s a basement under the ground floor. This led to us changing our plans and with builder delays and red tape we’re finally getting ready to open. I honestly can’t wait.

Looking on Untappd it says you’ve got nearly 600 different beers on there. Does that sound right? Bleddy hell it’s a lot (more than one new beer every week for a decade)...
Tom: That sounds way too high, though before we had settled on a core range we were maybe releasing eight new beers a month! I guess if you include all the collabs we’ve done both home and away then the numbers do start adding up!

What’s your personal favourite Neon Raptor beer ever and why? 
Tom: It might be recency bias but Joyfulness, our low ABV Belgian style table beer collab with Jester King, really hit the brief and was a delight to drink during this ridiculously hot neverending summer! The cans look cool too!
Josh: Only A Paper Moon. We made it for my mum’s sixtieth birthday and I just love witbiers!

What beer would you never brew again and why? 
Tom: Doctor Galapagos; a mango milkshake IPA that we got so wrong. It was one of the last beers we packaged before lockdown. Everything about it was dreadful, from the artwork to the final product.
Josh: There’s a few… a lot of the early beers were out of spec. ABVs that were much lower than we thought they were. Poor quality control and sketchy brewing techniques.

What are your thoughts on the Nottingham beer scene?
Tom: It’s easily one of the best in the country, both for quality and variety of the local breweries, and for the bars and pubs dotted all over the city and the outskirts. So many of the bars are walkable too.
Josh: It's improving year by year. There was lots going on before we moved to Nottingham and I’d like to think over ten years we’ve made a positive contribution too.

Where do you hope to be in another ten years?
Josh: I want to take some time off! I want to make things easier for our team by making improvements and to work on some more fun projects.
Tom: We want to be the house brewery in a dinosaur theme park on Mars. Honestly, so much has changed in the last decade it’s impossible to predict. Hopefully we’ll be with a beer and friends somewhere.

Neon Raptor’s new bar at 7 Gedling Street will open to the public in late October. 

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