T|E|H : Meet the Brewers – Merakai Brewing Co

Hello, my fellow beer drinkers!

Welcome back to the Eternal Hoptimist’s! It feels like an age since we did our last Meet the Brewers interview. But today we are back at it, and in the hot seat we have the dynamic fusion duo of Olly & Emma from Merakai Brewing.

We met the pair whilst we were sampling the available beers at the Crafty Dog Beer festival earlier this year and fell in love with what they had to offer so naturally we just had to get them to tell you all a little about them, and of course showcase their beers in a special week feature!

Now lets get to those quizzie questions!

Hello! Thank both for joining us today, can you please tell us a little about how you got started and what you & Merakai Brewing is all about!

Thanks for having us! We are Olly and Emma and we are the co-owners and founders of independent craft brewery: Merakai Brewing CO.  

We launched Merakai during the pandemic in November 2020. The idea is something we’ve been working on/towards for 10 years.  We knew that we wanted to work together in the future in some capacity, but didn’t know that it would manifest as a brewery.  

The idea of a brewery came from Olly’s background in brewing, and the pandemic accelerated our plans. 
Merakai Brewing CO. is all about starting conversations around beer and creating and supporting initiatives that promote inclusivity within craft. 

Now when we last spoke, you said how you both feature regularly on your can designs, who’s the brainchild behind these and what comes first the the art, the name or the tipple?

The beer always comes first, then the name then the creative concept. 

Emma is the one who makes me (Olly) feature on our can designs. 

Now that things are opening up again post pandemic, what is the festival or event you are most looking forward to this year? And what has been the best event you have taken part in so far?

We’re still new and finding our feet as far as festivals go. We had a really good time at Arundel Brewfest and Craft Dogg fest. We will be appearing at some festivals further up north later in the year too. 

I appreciate that it’s not an event, but this year we were really proud of the beer and campaign we launched with our community for the Brave Noise initiative. We encourage everyone from homebrewers to breweries to brew the beer and support our community. Please visit Brave Noise beer for more information. 

Your right, It’s not an event but its an important campaign, and well worth a talking about! Would you care to tell us a little more about the Brave Noise Campaign/Community? (I will include the link too)

In 2021 US brewer Brienne Allan created a post on Instagram that simply said ‘ Have you ever experienced sexism in the beer industry?’  It was overwhelming and heart-breaking the volume and the content of the stories that were shared. Brave Noise was created as a way to honour those who shared their experiences, as a pledge/promise to take steps to ultimately create a safe and discrimination-free craft beer industry.  There are so many amazing individuals and organisations involved with Brave Noise within the Craft Beer Community, from Brienne herself, Ren Navarro founder of Beer Diversity, and Ash Eliot, founder of Women of the Bevolution– please check them out.  There is a website with guidance and the Brave Noise community is offering their expertise to help breweries change their culture and develop frameworks that lead to a discrimination and harassment free craft beer industry.

Now I know about the influence behind the very tasty ‘Fusion Dance’ but what was the inspiration behind some of your other tipples?

‘One Day’ was our first imperial stout, brewed in collaboration with the wonderful EKO brewery. Imperial in style as we both love stouts and neither of us had done an impy before. The name ‘One Day’ came from our aspirations for ourselves and each other in the future. There’s a bourbon barrel aged version coming soon(ish).

Our fruited gose or ‘frose’ series is our take on a traditional gose, but we’ve put our Merakai spin on it, and cranked up the fruit to make it bonkers. Each beer name is a fruity pun and the labels are designed by the same artist. 

Everything we do, we do with purpose. Each element is considered. 

I’m looking forward to trying the barrel aged version of “One Day” Darker ales are my favourite, and as you know John really likes the Sours! what are your favourite styles? And if money was no option, what amazing brew would you create?

(Emma) Amazing, the barrel aged version of one day is tasting sublime, we are really happy with it. It has a depth of flavour and complexity that we were looking for, it’s very delicious and we can’t wait to get it out there.   As a brewery, we create what we like to drink, and we don’t currently hold back on the beers that we’ve put out there.  What I mean by that is, Olly will create a brew, and I’ll work out the cost, and we could probably pump it out, and do it cheaper, but that’s not what we’re about. 

(Olly) I’m already doing most of the stupid, amazing brews I want to do. But if pressed, and if money was no object I’d like to do much bigger beers, with higher ABVs.  Stick gold bars in the mash maybe? 

What would you say the greatest challenge you have faced thus far is, from Cuckoo brewing to where you are now?

There seems to be a new challenge each month, from launching in a pandemic, to the cost of living crisis, increase in raw materials and fuel, and a recession is on the horizon. It’s an interesting time to own and run a brewery, and it’s made the journey all the more interesting. 

As you say running a brewery is quite the journey, you’re not only juggling aspects of increased costs, but also the growing need for sustainable and environmentally friendly practices and equal representation in the industry as well. Have you seen any initiatives or actions taken by other breweries in 2021/2022 that you admire and plan or have already implemented into the business?

(Emma) Going back to Brave Noise, we want to make sure that we have the foundation for the culture we want to foster within our brewery and our community, so when we grow, that belief system will grow with us, and hopefully inspire others to implement similar values within their brewery. 

(Olly) We have environmental initiatives within our brewery and brewery practices, for example, 90% of our kit is second hand (lower carbon footprint).  We reuse the cold liquor from cooling the wort to be used as hot liquor for our next brew.  Water from our sink goes back into the cistern in our bathroom. The spent grain from our brews is sent to farms as feed for animals. We invest in and buy products from companies that promote sustainable business practices. There is more to be done,for sure, right now we are currently limited by our location and space, but we are doing the best we can. 

What do you think the next big beer trend is likely to be? We’ve had the Hazy IPA’s and now there’s an increasing thirst for Sours and Rose Beers, with sour beer being the oldest type of beer in history, do you think this re-vamp of the classics will continue?

(Emma) Sours, ales, mild’s, bitters, smoked lagers, it’s hard to predict as the craft brewing industry takes its cue from history and the community. The craft beer drinker is always seeking the next, and the new, as well as something that offers nostalgia.  As you referenced, the beer styles that come out as being ‘new’ have historical origins with a modern twist.  I’m a Northerner so I just remember pints of mild, and bitter, bitter shandy being the beer of choice growing up. There’s always talk of bitter or mild making a comeback, so..

(Olly) If there’s an opportunity to do a maple, smoked beer, any smoked beer whether it’s a lager, porter, that’s what I’d like to try.

What are the plans for Merakai in the latter half of 2022?

The plans for us for the latter half of 2022 and into 2023 are a step change in growth. We want to secure more listings nationwide and to expand overseas. We want to be able to connect with our community more through in-person events, so that will be a focus for us too. 

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Well from what we have sampled thus far, I certainly think you have the potential to be an overseas sensation, so we at T|E|H wish you well on your future endeavours!

Unfortunately this brings our interview to a close but we would like to thank Emma & Ollie for joining us today, and for creating some choice tipples which we will be telling you more about in the coming week!

If you want to check out their website, social media or purchase any of their top tipples, here is all the info you will need!

Twitter : @merakaibrewing
Instagram: here
Website and Online Store

Until next time, drink responsibly, and have a good one!