In May 2025 I left Waitrose after 13 very happy years. I had an amazing time in my first career out of University and made some amazing friends along the way. For a while, however, I had known that my enthusiasm was waning for a role and department that I had so long enjoyed working in.
Not knowing what to do, and following a number of conversations with friends and family, I decided to hand my notice in and give myself some headspace to work out what was next. All I knew was that I wanted to spend more time with my family and had a vague dream of selling some beer (homebrewing having become a major passion) to my local pubs.
Fast Forward 5 months and tomorrow my web shop goes live this weekend. It will only be live over the weekend initially to test the water but it has taken a lot of hard work and a very proud moment. I have regular local customers in the on trade sector and it is still very surreal to be able to go in and drink one of my beers in a local pub!
The last few months have been absolutely amazing. I have never worked so hard, physically or mentally, but it has been a real joy to work on my passion. More importantly I am far more engaged with my children and able to plan my day around them. Getting up in the early hours to brew allows me to finish early and make time for more school picks up, after school clubs and swimming classes etc. Admin and packaging often then take place in the evening when they are in bed.
I am far away from finding the holy grail of the “right balance” (and I have played nowhere near as much golf as planned…) but it has been a really fun year of change. I attended Brewers Congress this week and it was amazing to spend a few days around other small business owners and Brewers. It is an incredibly supportive and engaging industry, everyone pulling together to create amazing beers for their local communities.
I still don’t know what is next. I want the brewery to stay small but I do have a few ideas for sensible expansion in my current space. It will be very strange not planning Christmas stock levels in Waitrose for the first time in over a decade but I do have a few stock planning spreadsheets of my own to organise now…