“I’m in one of the pivotal moments now of taking a step back and thinking ‘wow, this is better than I ever dreamt of’,” said Wiper & True’s founder, Michael Wiper. The illustrious Bristol brewery has recently celebrated ten years of making some of the city's best craft beer, which has helped contribute to Bristol's rapidly evolving food and drink sector.
It's best known for beers such as Kaleidoscope Pale Ale, In The Pines Amber Ale and Milk Shake Milk Stout, available on draught or packaged in a sleek, minimalistic, white can at its new state-of-the-art headquarters. Last June, Wiper & True opened the huge facility in Old Market, enabling the business to more than double its brewing capacity - with the potential for new venues in the pipeline.
Founded in 2012, Michael started as a "home brewer who got carried away", becoming fascinated with the process and driven by the big, bold, hoppy flavours coming out of the US beer market at the time. With the help of some people already in the industry, he was able to borrow production kits in the evenings and weekends, allowing him to sell small batches of his own beer at market stalls.
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Wiper & True made a name for itself at the beginning by never making the same beer twice. "We didn’t have a core range, and as we’ve grown there are some recipes we’ve landed on that we couldn’t resist making again that became the core range. It was quite slow building and we’ve always retained that sense of adventure and wanting to try new things and discover.”
Beer 'discovery' over loyalty
The brewery now has seven core range beers with the recent addition of Tomorrow, its alcohol-free lager, as well as new beers in constant rotation. “We release roughly one a week,” Michael said. This constant striving for new brews works to the brewery's advantage, as it is a huge facet of the craft beer industry where typically there is much more enthusiasm for discovery than there is loyalty.
"A lot of our market is driven by new flavours. For most kinds of people who are into the beer that we’re making, there’s much more excitement for new discoveries. Old school traditional Guinness drinkers would only drink Guinness, but the craft beer lovers who are excited by the scene have gone the complete opposite way."
That being said, Kaleidoscope, Wiper & True's signature pale ale, makes up 55 per cent of production. This is closely followed by Milkshake, a sweet, chocolatey milk stout that’s popular even in the warmer months, which the brewery is immensely proud of, especially with Guinness being one of the most popular beers in the world.
Half of Wiper & True's beer remains in the city. Meanwhile, 30 per cent stays at the taprooms and the remaining 20 per cent goes out to supermarkets and wholesalers - at more than 100 pubs and retailers across the country - distributed nationally through Waitrose.
New flagship venue with more on the way
“We’re still seeing a lot of growth around Bristol. It feels very exciting that there’s more coming,” Michael said. There are also two new venues in the pipeline as the brewery looks at the possibility of opening another site in Bristol city centre and another in the South West.
Having started out from a small barrel store on York Street in St Werburghs, but it maxed out the capacity several years ago meaning the team was unable to take on new accounts and build trade until the Old Market expansion in City Business Park, funded by private investment. It has retained its presence in St Werbughs as a barrel store and taproom but has moved mass production to the larger site.
The taproom takes up five units on the industrial estate, a 28,000-square-foot space that houses the main beer production facility including a canning line that fills 5,000 cans an hour. It is also home to the warehouse, offices, and a beautiful plant-filled taproom filled with natural light, which has been designed to be an inclusive, accessible space.
“The beer world in general has a lot of work to do around inclusivity whether it’s about women feeling safe to people with disabilities being able to use the venues properly. We really did a lot of work on making the venues as inclusive and welcoming as possible to anyone who wants to enjoy beer," Michael added.
Going green during an energy crisis
Brewing is an energy intensive process; spiralling fuel costs have caused many fatalities in the brewing industry over the past 12 months. Wiper & True had already draw up plans for the new site, which they moved into in June 2022, that focused heavily on green energy, including lining the roof with as many solar panels as possible.
“The energy crisis made some sometimes difficult decisions much easier. For example, when we had to sign a new electricity contract, it was so expensive when we moved in that we had to put our pen to paper and worked out it was cheaper to borrow money from the bank and buy solar panels and install them than it was to pay the electricity that generated at the same unit.”
Michael said he hopes between 50 to 60 per cent of the brewery’s energy will come from the roof in the near future. Also, the brewery will be one of the first in the UK to use a machine that collects and reharvests CO2, which brewers typically have to buy in for the beer-making process. It will help them save around 35 tonnes of CO2 a year.
On top of the pioneering environmental strategies and beer innovation, Michael attributed the brewery's success to the phenomenal Wiper & True family, which has swelled to 46 people. The team shares a passion for "beautiful beer", an integral part of the company's ethos at every level.
"It’s about our environmental impact and our community, about how we look after our team, customers and suppliers. Everything has to fall under that banner," Michael said.
Wiper and True is a registered Living Wage company and is working towards attaining B-corp status in the next few years.
“When we talk about 'beautiful beer' at Wiper & True, that goes from the taste and smell of the product and making it the best thing we can ever make. We work really hard at that and we’re fastidious with everything to do with the product to how we brand it and make sure it stands out on the shelf."
Find Wiper & True in Old Market (Units 11-15, City Business Park, Easton Road) or St Werburghs (York Road). Visit its website for more information.
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