T|E|H: Meet the Brewers – Tartarus Beers

Hello, my fellow beer lovers,

Welcome back to the Eternal Hoptimists’. Today we are talking to the folks at Tartarus Beers which is a Nano-Brewery in Horsforth, which is Sam’s main stomping ground at the moment. Tartarus, is ran by the dynamic duo of Jordan and Jack, and they specialise in strong (and very strong) ales along with a number of European styles of beer.

“Hello there! Thank you for joining us today. Can you please tell us a little about how Tartarus Beers came about and your ethos towards beer?”

Hi, Thanks for inviting us to the interview. Tartarus Beers was founded in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic, however this was always something we have wanted to do but I suppose lockdown gave us the time to put everything into motion. I (Jack) was working as a brewer at Northern Monk when we bought a house in Horsforth, which had additional space for me to build my own small Nano-brewery. And I did just that, I built a 100L brew kit and mainly used this for home brew for a couple of years. It was at the start of the pandemic, whilst on Furlough from Brew York I took the opportunity to get set up as a commercial brewery. Things took off quickly from there, I went full time with Tartarus in Feb 2021 and then Jordan (my partner) joined in October 2021 due to us expanding to a larger site where we are currently cuckoo brewing.

Our ethos to beer is brew anything but boring! We like to brew traditional styles of beer but always add some sort of twist (a Tartarus twist if you wish!) The brewery is named after the Greek Hell and all of our beers are named after mythical creatures and legends.

“I agree that you certainly don’t brew boring beers. I have recently just had your purple IPA Qilin, and I have to say it was far from ordinary. How did you first come across such an unusual ingredient as butterfly pea flower? and what other unusual ingredients would you like to incorporate into a brew?”

Thank you, we saw a few purple IPA’s being brewed in America a few years ago and it is something that we have always wanted to experiment with. We released a 100L batch of it at the beginning of last year and then we did a re-brew on the larger kit in the Autumn, and it is safe to say we have seen a few UK breweries producing purple/blue coloured beers since then. We hear imitation is the greatest form of flattery, right? We have some wacky ideas but you never know who might be reading this so you will have to wait and see! 

“I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for your next wacky brew. Now, being a fan of high and classic fantasy, I am very impressed by your naming convention, but what came first. The mystical Creature, or the Keg?”

Normally, we choose the style of beer that we would like to brew and then the naming comes afterwards. We do try and match the style of beer to the myth as much as possible and there is always a story behind it. There have been a couple of occasions where the name has come first, this is usually when we really want to do a specific character/myth.

“Right, now that we have covered how your beers are named. How do you choose which styles of beer to brew?”

We both love Belgian beer and the stronger styles so we hit the ground running with our first 3 beers releases being a Belgian triple, a Saison and a 17% Russian Imperial Stout. It is safe to say we didn’t take the easy route as these styles are not necessarily ‘hype’ beers. We definitely brew styles that we like to drink ourselves, but we also feel like we are filling a void with more interesting beers/styles. Even 4 years ago, walking into any bottle shop you would see a wide range of beer styles on offer, and now it feels like we are drowning in a sea of haze. Don’t get me wrong, we also like drinking the haze, but we prefer to be different with the beers we brew!

“As you said you like beers that are created in a Belgian style. But what Belgian brewery would you love to do a collab with? and what kind of tipple do you think you would create?“

Ooh do we have to choose?! We have done a lot of brewery tours around Belgium and they are all fantastic, but a clear winner for us would be De Struisse who brew crazy stouts and big strong beers, just like us! I think we would definitely have to brew a very strong Belgian beer, and probably shove it in a barrel so something like a quadruple would be great.

“Now you said earlier that you are currently cuckoo brewing, but at what capacity are you currently brewing since your 100L start? Also, what % are you getting brewed off-premises, and is this all being done locally to Leeds?“

We are cuckoo brewing outside of Leeds so can’t say we are that local currently (which makes us sad). The kit we are now using is a 1500L kit so it was a pretty big jump for us in terms of production but also logistics is a lot harder! The 100L kit is still at home but doesn’t get used at all anymore, there is actually one final 100L batch currently doing it’s thing, it might be a while until you see it’s release.

“Now I hope you don’t mind me saying, but the first thing that stands out to us when we saw your beers, was the absolutely stunning artwork that is on your labels, who is responsible for those, and what other beautiful illustrations could we expect in the future?“

Not at all, and we really can’t take any credit for our amazing artwork. It is all done by our friend Sam aka FarrerArt who has also worked in the beer industry and has previously illustrated for other breweries before us. We are always planning new beers and names for them, so there will always be new and exciting illustrations being designed by Sam. Although we usually choose the beer name ourselves (the name usually fits in with the style), we do have a list of creatures/legends that Sam would like to design which we are currently working through. Although no spoilers, we have designs coming from greek mythology, african folklore and fairytales of the Brothers Grimm in the near future.Please support Sam, his instagram is farrerart and he also streams the artwork on Twitch.

“I will certainly be sure to check that out! Getting back to the beer, what would you say was the biggest learning curve that you’ve been through in brewing thus far?“

Although there have been no real challenges in the way of brewing (due to Jack’s previous industry experience), the one thing that has been the biggest learning curve is sales, marketing & distribution as a whole. This is a full time role and we now realise why the larger breweries have an entire team working on these areas. It is always difficult to approach new potential clients and nothing in this industry is guaranteed. However, we feel like we are getting the hang of this business malarkey and we have even managed to negotiate some large wholesale orders here in the UK and also overseas.

“Now that you are supplying beer oversea’s, I would imagine that there has been quite the increase in production, how do you stop yourself from burning out and avoid brewer’s block?“

We are lucky that the opportunity to export happened at the same time we moved onto the larger kit, so it was a fairly organic step for us. The last few months (since the upscale) have been pretty hectic as we are doing everything ourselves. We gave ourselves nearly a month off over Christmas to recharge as we did get close to burning out. Since coming back in the New Year, we have moved all of our packaging to an external company, this is to help relieve some of the pressure from us as well as allow for a more consistent packaged product. Brewer’s block isn’t something we have experienced yet, as a fairly new brewery we still have plenty to offer (we hope)

“I myself am partial to a barrel-aged beer, is this an avenue you have ever considered pursuing, and what type of barrel would you choose to create your brew?”

Barrel-aged beer is always on our minds, back on the 100L kit we didn’t have the space or the volume of beer to barrel age anything. We have actually just bought our first couple of rum barrels, the release for this will be later this year. It is something special we have planned with a bottleshop/bar who we are great friends with.

“Do you have any future plans for expansion for Tartarus, and if so what could we look forward to witnessing?“

We are currently cuckoo brewing and whilst this has helped us get our beers further afield and in larger volumes, we really want our own place. We are in the process of getting funding together to set up our own brewery, which will of course have a taproom. Watch this space!

“and finally, where would our readers be able to purchase your fantastical creations?“

We have an online shop which is www.tartarusbeers.co.uk and we also sell to many bottle shops and bars all around the country. We also have a guest stall at Horsforth Farmers market so you will be able to find us there a couple of times this year.

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That unfortunately brings this interview to an end, thank you very much Jordan and Jack for taking the time to speak to us today. I hope all of you readers take sometime to check out Tartarus Beers, and be sure to keep your eyes peeled, as our reviews of their tipples are well on the way, the first of which Qilin will be released tomorrow!

For those of you in the Leeds / Ilkley area, Tartarus along with some other top brewers will be taking part in the Crafty Dogg Beer Festival April 30th, May 1st. Tickets for which go on sale on 12/2/22 ( make sure you put it in your diaries!!)

Until next time, drink more beer!!!… (Responsibly of course)