A Note from the Author
Few breweries have impressed me with their progress over the past three years so much as Fierce Beer. I remember well the first time I tasted their beers; co-founder Dave Grant had kindly sent me some samples of some of their first ever commercial brews. Although it may surprise you to hear it, at the time, those beers didn’t leave a lasting impression, especially compared to how fond of their beers I am now.
They were by no means bad, but the unusual nature of them—habanero spiced pale ales and a very early iteration of Cranachan Killer, a raspberry infused pale—was hard to ignore. Despite them not quite clicking with me back then, what they did achieve was to pique my curiosity enough for me to contact Dave and offer him some feedback.
The result of that conversation ended with me agreeing to meet Dave and Louise Grant at a tap takeover Fierce was hosting at The Rake in South London a few weeks later. Not only did I get to try some of the revised—and much improved—recipes but I also got to hear about the vision for their brewery first hand. Such was their enthusiasm and openness to my feedback, that I’ve remained curious and we’ve stayed in touch ever since.
I first visited their Aberdeen facility in October 2017, tagging on a quick stop at their operation while I was in town to interview the owner of another local brewery. Fierce were much smaller then than they are now, but the beers they poured for me during this visit had come on in serious leaps and bounds compared the beers I’d tried barely a year earlier. In the following months I watched as they continued to go from strength to strength with each new release.
And so it came to pass that in March 2019 I was invited back to Aberdeen. This time however, I was there to visit Fierce exclusively and work on an exciting project with them that encapsulated a lot of photography, and the piece you’re about to read, which they commissioned me to produce.
The project has taken me several months to complete—longer than I had planned for or anticipated—something about starting my own publication springs to mind. Now though, I’m very happy to share the story of Fierce Beer with you all. Even as this young Scottish brewery continues to grow and evolve, take home numerous awards, make big expansion plans and begin a dedicated journey into mixed fermentation brewing, I hope this serves as a lasting snapshot that is a window not just into the world of Fierce Beer, but Scottish craft brewing as a whole.
This post is intended to showcase some recent photography and consultancy I was commissioned to produce by Fierce Beer in Spring 2019.
—Matthew Curtis, October 2019
Being Fierce
If I were to mention “black gold” and “Aberdeen” within the same sentence, you may fairly assume that I’m referring to oil. The Granite City—so named because of its pale white buildings, constructed from this very stone—has been buoyed by this industry for many years. As a result it’s home to the busiest heliport in the world, which ferries around 500,000 people a year to the rigs stationed in the North Sea.
On an industrial estate adjacent to this heliport, on the outskirts of Aberdeen itself, is a brewery that is challenging this perception. Here, “black gold” refers not to crude oil, but to exquisite, barrel-aged imperial stouts. But this is just scratching the surface. Delve deeper and you’ll find everything from rich barleywines to bright and juicy IPAs, snappy, crisp lagers to complex, delicious sours and so much more besides.
This is Fierce Beer. Here is a brewery with direction and intent; one that doesn’t plan on building itself by following the more obvious brewery ideals. It’s a business that wants to balance its ambition of staying small, with the need to grow into the right markets and support the customers it values most. And through their forward-thinking beer and an ethos rooted in the exploration and enjoyment of bold flavours, they’re here to change your perception of what it means to be a modern brewery from the north-east of Scotland.
The Fierce Ones
That Fierce was born out of Aberdeen is hugely important. Until recently, its beer scene—one that in a reasonable world should sit alongside the UK’s best, including the likes of Leeds, Manchester, London and Bristol—was dominated by a single brewery, BrewDog. It could even be argued much of the infrastructure within the modern British beer scene is due the abnormally steep growth curve of this particular brewery.
But Aberdeen is far from being a one brewery town. Here, the beer scene is thriving, be that through bars such as CASC and those operated by Fierce or BrewDog themselves, or through other local breweries, such as Six Degrees North.
As a result of this, a night out in the Granite City is not to be taken lightly. Such is the quality of its beer (and, admittedly, the prevalence of excellent whisky) it can be difficult to judge when it’s time to stop enjoying yourself. Although when you finally visit, enjoy yourself you should, as you’ll soon find yourself nodding in agreement that this is as solid a beer town as the walls of Marischal College itself, standing tall and proud in Aberdeen city centre.
“Aberdeen is an absolutely cracking town,” Fierce Beer’s co-founder Dave Grant tells me. “The three breweries that are in or around Aberdeen are doing completely different things. You can wander from one pub to another and not drink the same thing, or even close to it.”
Before Fierce managing director Grant met his co-founder, operations director Dave McHardy, they were already experimenting separately as homebrewers. Both were working in the oil and gas industry, when a chance meeting on a four-day intensive brewing course at Brewlab in Sunderland took place. They didn’t know one another at the time of their first encounter, but it’s here the seeds that would sprout Fierce Beer were sown.
“Everybody comes in, sits down and they ask us to stand up and say something about ourselves,” McHardy remembers of that first encounter. “This guy says ‘I’m Dave, I’m in oil and gas and I’m looking to get out of the industry and into brewing,’ and there was I thinking, ‘hey, that’s my story!’”
Thanks to the presence of BrewDog and its flagship bar on Aberdeen’s Gallowgate, the two Daves were easily able to try a wide range of beers in their hometown. Grant remarks that the bar was “the place to be” at the time. In particular they were able to try a lot of exciting, hard to find beers imported from the United States. Beers like the unctuous, coffee-infused Speedway Stout from Alesmith in San Diego, and the bitter, resinous Titan IPA from Denver’s Great Divide Brewing.
Several homebrewers, including the two Daves, would meet here to trade beers and get feedback from their peers. After a little positive encouragement the pair were convinced that they would be able to make things work as a commercial brewery. Fierce Beer would be incorporated in 2015, eventually mashing in its first ever brew on the 3rd of May, 2016.
At this point it would have perhaps been easier to launch the brewery with a simple, accessible core range. A pale ale perhaps, maybe a West Coast IPA and definitely a lager. However, that wasn’t Grant and McHardy’s style. Instead they would begin scale up homebrew recipes such as Fuego Feroz, a habanero and lime pale ale, a smoked porter called Dirty Sanchez and a raspberry pale inspired by the legendary Scottish dessert of the same name, Cranachan Killer.
“To make exactly the sort of beers that other breweries were putting out would’ve been a bit too close to home. We had to be different,” Grant says. “ I firmly believe that if we’d started out with a lager and a pale ale, a brown thing and whatever else, no-one would have even noticed us.”
Grant goes on to admit that upscaling some of their more adventurous homebrew recipes was somewhat challenging. Sourcing a great enough quantity of the required fresh produce proved to be problematic on occasion. As they’ve grown, things have evolved slightly, with the brewery maturing into producing some more conventional styles as consumer demand began to dictate this. These include some of their most popular beers, such as the juicy pale ale, Day Shift, and a gluten-free, eponymously-named Pilsner.
Fierce’s core range grew rapidly, with it numbering in double figures at one point. It’s something that Grant soon realised needed tweaking, and so it was cut down to just seven beers. This in turn has given the brewery more room to experiment, freeing up tank space for one off releases such as it’s single hop series. It’s also given them more time to collaborate with other breweries, including Thornbridge, Gipsy Hill, Verdant, Jopen from The Netherlands. You can tell just by speaking to Grant and McHardy how much of a buzz they get from collaborating with other breweries, it’s especially palpable when they reveal they’ll soon be working with California’s The Bruery—one of the breweries that directly inspired Fierce and its ethos.
That initial desire to experiment never went away, however and it’s here that much of the breweries future focus lies. Within the heart of Fierce HQ are racks of barrels, from red wine to Cognac to bourbon and more. There’s plenty more “black gold” steadily maturing, biding its time until its flavour dictates that it’s time to be released, and plenty more surprises besides.
Take the barrel aged variant of its eternally popular imperial stout, Very Big Moose for example. Fierce have executed this sweet, “pastry” style stout (so named because it quite literally tastes like a cake) impeccably well. It’s something I feel confident in saying, as it’s a style I generally don’t like, but such is the execution that it’s almost impossible not to fall for. Adding the vanilla and oak quality of a great bourbon barrel only enhances this already brilliant beer. It’s unsurprising that it scores a monstrous 4.22 out of 5 on beer rating site, Untappd.
Fierce recognise the value in their barrel ageing process, and it’s something they intend to double down on as the popularity of these beers continues to soar. Its clean barrel aged beers will span a range of styles from stout to barleywine and many more, each finding its way into an increasingly varied selection of barrels. It’s an exciting project that will continue to grow anticipation in its customers, as barrel stocks continue to swell.
Not content with simply producing high ABV, barrel-aged beers, soon these will be joined a new range of sour and wild mixed-fermentation beers in a series aptly named “Fierce by Nature”. By expanding a little at their existing site it allowed them to begin this project—something that was planned from the beginning—sooner than they thought would be possible. On my visit barrels were already filled with fermenting and maturing beer, ready for a Summer 2019 release.
Fierce by Nature marks something of a departure from the brewery you may already know and love. Even the bottles and their label artwork is removed from the brewery’s existing branding and image. It’s allowed the brewery to fully pursue its ideal, inspired by North American breweries such as Anchorage, Jolly Pumpkin and Alesmith. Much of this brewery’s future lies in barrels, even at the expense of growth, or being able to release more beers over a shorter period of time.
You don’t have to scratch far below the surface of what drives the two Daves to see it’s still the same enthusiasm for experimentation that they had as homebrewers. And at its core is a focus on deliciousness, driving this Scottish brewery forward.
In fact such is the dedication from Fierce themselves that Grant has gone as far as having the words “Fierce by Nature” permanently inked into his forearm.
“Barrel ageing, whether clean or mixed fermentation, is what we have always wanted to do,” Grant tells me, tapping his tattooed arm on the table as he to enunciate both his point and his excitement. “This is both what we are good at, as well as what we love.”
Fiercely Flavoursome
Approaching their beer with a focus on bold and unusual flavour was always essential for Grant and McHardy. Because when you’re brewing in the shadow of one of the largest breweries in the UK (to the point where, bizarrely, some people think they’re actually the same company,) and the fastest growing company in any category within Europe, finding both a sense of place and a strong voice is essential if you’re to succeed.
Despite early success with scaling up their homebrew recipes, Fierce’s sizeable ambition could not be achieved by the two Dave’s alone. Aptly, their first employee, self-proclaimed “sales weapon” (and chief taster) was Grant’s wife, Louise. She first got involved with the brewery during the homebrewing days, which she remembers fondly.
“I was assistant to the brewer. That was my title, which meant cleaner.” she says with laughter. “We used to have lots of people around to try the beers—it was good fun!”
Now, however, the operation is far larger. Perhaps there’s something in the water, but adventurous breweries in the northeast of Scotland seem to grow at an incredibly fast rate. Louise’s role has changed too, and as the head of sales she’s often the first point of contact for customers—a role she appears to relish.
Grant is keen to emphasise that all beer production is done in house and always has been. Fierce’s existing facility on Kirkhill Industrial Estate now occupies five units. There’s the brewery itself, all shining and chrome, currently producing around 3500 hectolitres (hl) of beer per year (an impressive 739,000 pints) but is capable of around twice that, giving them room to grow. There’s a warehouse, offices, and then lots of barrels. I must reiterate this. It could be said that Fierce Beer has something of a barrel fetish.
The mixed fermentation room, forming the origin of the Fierce by Nature project, is perhaps the most exciting unit of all on the estate. In order to prevent cross-contamination, they’ve built a makeshift cover for the barrels out of a wooden frame and plastic sheeting. Shoe covers must be worn when visiting, to minimise the chance of wild yeasts or bacteria making their way into clean beers. It almost resembles the set of E.T., with you half expecting a scientist in full radiation gear to appear in the room at any moment.
As the brewery continues to expand, so has the team—there are currently seven full-time and two part-time members of staff based at the brewery in Aberdeen, including the two Daves and Louise. There are is also a field sales representative apiece in the key markets of London and Manchester.
With the business growing, so too did responsibilities begin to shift. As the founders no longer found time to brew themselves, they placed this responsibility in the capable hands of head brewer Aaron Coleman Dingivan and his team. In 2018 that team was joined by Dominique “Do” Bongers. Formerly of Oersoep Brewery in the Netherlands, Do has the enviable responsibility of heading up the Fierce By Nature mixed fermentation barrel program.
When you look at a growing team such as this—which will no doubt become even larger within the next few months—you can easily understand the impact a small brewing business has on its local economy. A brewery such as Fierce isn’t simply producing great beer, but it’s supporting its local infrastructure by providing sustainable jobs, as well as a steady source of revenue for the town. This is as true for its beer as it is for the first of its bars, on Exchequer row in Aberdeen city centre.
It’s also plain to see that, despite this rapid jump in both team and brewery size within a mere three years, Fierce’s ethos of experimentation and fun that existed in those early homebrewing days is still very much at the core of everything they do, be it in the citrus kick of Tangerine Tart, or the rich chocolate undertones of Moose Mousse.
“What drives us is being different and getting our beer into as many peoples hands as possible,” Grant says. “We don’t want to do that with beers we don’t think are particularly exciting.”
What also drives them, as Louise is eager to point out, is offering the best service they possibly can. You’ll find this if you meet them in person. They’re eager to get a beer in your hands as soon as possible and can’t wait to hear what you think. This is true whether you’re meeting them in person at a beer festival, placing an order over the phone, sharing a beer with them at their Aberdeen bar—or at their newly opened branch on Edinburgh’s famous Rose Street.
“We’re all about just being honest with people and not blowing smoke up their arse,” Louise says. “It makes a massive difference, and when people comment and say ‘oh great service from Fierce,’ it makes it all worthwhile.”
This service now extends beyond interacting directly with the brewery itself, or at the Aberdeen or Edinburgh bars. With their field representatives Marc Taylor and Alan Robinson operating in the key markets of London and Manchester respectively, the brewery is working to ensure that level of service remains consistent with its most important markets. To achieve this they’ve empowered their field sales duo, essentially by making them ambassadors for the brand when in the field.
“We want them to feel like part of the family, bring them up here and go to events with them in their area but we also want to let them go wild and do a bit of their own thing,” Grant tells me. “If they wanted to do a tap takeover that was key for them, then that’s cool. It’s completely their deal.”
Reflecting on this, Fierce does feel very much like a family—a very busy one at that. It will be fascinating to watch this family grow and change as the business continues to grow. Only one thing’s for certain: it sure isn’t getting any smaller.
Fierce by Nature
“It’s nice to be able to say that we are the only brewery in Aberdeen,” Grant remarks with a smile, knowing full well that Fierce is the only brewery technically within the city limits. “We don’t have to be, and actually it would be great if there were some more, but there you are.”
Although Scotland has a rich brewing history—from traditional styles that originated here such as heather-infused ales to “wee heavies” (a style that was hugely influential within the American craft brewing movement)—Scotland has, for one reason or another, not seen the same brewing boom as the industry south of the border.
Despite there being close to a reported 2500 active breweries within the United Kingdom, just 115 of this number operate in Scotland, according to figures published in late 2018. When you consider that London is home to around 120 breweries, and another 80-odd exist in Manchester, suddenly the scale of the Scottish brewing industry comes sharply into focus.
It’s true that Scotland is home to breweries that could be described as “legendary”, be that the highly traditional ales produced by Traquair House, or modern classics such as the ever-popular Jarl, brewed by Fyne Ales in Cairndow. Two high notes within a beer scene that has otherwise failed to break outside of its mould in some instances.
Much of this is problematic for small, innovative breweries like Fierce. Be that they’re tainted with an endless sea of malty, brown beers, branded up to the eyeballs with Scotland’s iconic Saltire flag, or that they live deep under the shadow of one of the most boisterous voices with the entire brewing industry.
It’s something Grant and McHardy are all too aware of. They know they must overcome both of these challenges if they are to stand out as a business—but being mindful of this is what’s helping them to overcome such a challenge, and in turn find a unique voice for themselves.
In order to succeed in the short term they know they need to continue growing—at least to a certain point. Fatefully, an opportunity to move to a brand new, purpose built site within the vicinity of their existing brewery has fallen neatly into their laps.
How that will look is still an uncertainty, although Grant has a glint in his eye when asked what the next step for Fierce will look like. “At some point we want to build a real destination brewery,” he says with a coy smile.
If, or when, they do move it’ll be no small feat, especially when you consider it’s running a clean brewing operation, barrel ageing project and now a new mixed-fermentation operation too. There is a hint of excitement when this idea of expansion is mooted, you can tell that this next step is something that is already occupying much of their thought process. And putting Aberdeen at the centre of that seems crucial to Fierce.
“It won’t just be ‘come along, look at our tour and here’s some shiny stainless steel.’ We want to do something a bit more involving than that and making sure that they feel a part of that experience. It’s something that we’ll spend a lot of time on getting right,” Grant says.
What’s also fascinating is that once Fierce has reached what they see as a sustainable size and turnover, Grant sees little reason to keep on growing. Instead the energy that has driven this growth will be driven into other projects. A lot of that will be into producing the mammoth barleywines and imperial stouts that has earned this brewery much of its plaudits. Much will be invested into the Fierce by Nature mixed-fermentation program, where Do will be allowed to run riot with wild yeasts and bacteria. And, of course, there will be plenty of pilsner and juicy pale ale to keep us sated while we eagerly await the next barrel-aged release.
However, the Fierce team’s ambition doesn’t end there. They’re also dedicated towards fostering a sustainable and specialist amount of export trade. Dave Grant tells me he expects around 15-20% of the beer Fierce produce will be exported, but that the majority of exports will be specialist beers—such as the barrel aged and Fierce by Nature ranges—going into “hand picked key markets who will appreciate what we specialise in.”
And that’s not all. The brewery has also recently entered the world of spirit production for the first time, having recently released it’s No. 1 Gin, alongside a version infused with raspberries (perhaps a nod to its early experimentation and the much-loved Cranachan Killer) and a Café Racer inspired coffee and vanilla infused rum. Plus, you can bet there will be more bars. Although, the two Dave’s are coy over their locations, saying that these will be determined by “the right venues becoming available.” One thing’s for sure, these locations are almost certainly not limited to the confines of Scotland alone.
What’s crucial, though, is that despite the whirlwind that has been the first three years of Fierce Beer’s existence—and the fact that the next three plus will be an even more turbulent ride—is that the beer is at the heart of what drives this small, independent, Scottish business. It may sound corny, but those bold, flavoursome, often outrageous beers that the two Dave’s produced in their respective garages is still at the very core of what they do as a brewery.
And, looking over their future plans, it’s evident that it will drive them into their next phase—and the entire Scottish craft beer scene along with them.
“We want to specialise, and look after the people who will look after us,” Grant tells me. “Our plan is to open another 4 or 5 bars around the country and sell the majority what we make to our own places. The remainder would be sold to quality, independent craft beer establishments, and a few selected overseas markets.”
Fierce’s long term plan is to sell approximately 60% of its beer through its own sites. However, Grant is also keen to point out that his aim is to channel as much of its remaining volume through the independent retailers that helped them get their footing in the industry to begin with. In a market that’s becoming ever more crowded as competition intensifies, he’s all to aware of the importance of doubling down on independence.
“This decision means everything,” he says. “We want to make the best beer we can with no cost barriers, and to have fun doing that. That’s what being Fierce means to us.”
