I hope you had a wonderful festive holiday and enjoyed a homebrew or two. I know I say this every year, but where does the time go?! 2024 was a busy one for us, but we do feel like we’ve made a lot progress over the past year.

 One big milestone was hosting our first MASHED homebrew tournament back in the spring, which was a major success. Brewers from all over the country came to compete in our exciting and novel tournament. We’ve already had many people asking to pre-register for this year’s tournament. We’re still working on the details for this so watch this space. We’re also looking at feedback from last year to make the event even more fun for those who come to watch or take part.

 And, of course, we opened a shop in Aberystwyth - something which I never thought we would do! But when an opportunity arrives, sometimes you just have to take the leap. Having a shop has allowed us to open the doors to the wonderful community in Aberystwyth and to homebrewers from further afield. We have already built some amazing friendships and created invaluable contacts with local businesses and professionals. This is a side of having bricks and mortar that I had never considered, and now couldn’t do without. 

 Registering and licensing our microbrewery was probably one of the hardest parts this year, with a very steep and short learning curve. There is so much to consider behind the scenes and sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of why we wanted to do it. But having our license and community brewery has truly allowed us to share the wonderful skill of brewing with the wider community. It has taken me almost a full year to build the confidence to brew beer for the public’s discerning taste buds. We quickly learned that you have to be true to yourself and brew the way you want, as everyone has an opinion and they are all different. And you can’t please all tastes all of the time!

 Opening our doors and taking part in our first ever beer festival (Aber Beer Fest) and serving our own beers had to be a true highlight of 2024. The event galvanised my grey matter in to how we can develop MASHED Community Brewery even more in 2025 - where we hope to see you sometime.

 And not forgetting our shiny new website at www.mashed.beer. There will be a lot more to come over the next few months, so I will hold off revealing too much until we are ready to shout about it. But if you want to get access to the new site, with all the back issues of MASHED, please get in touch (email gareth@darkfarm.co.uk) so we can transfer your account to the new system. 

 What’s new for 2025? First off, a small break over the winter to get the creative juices going, and then it will be full steam ahead again! You will just have to wait and see.

Until next time, happy brewing!