Amity Brew Co: Mill-ing around

Upon reflection, all these markers of demand and success point to the strength of the team behind the brand. Co-founders Richard Degnan, Russ Clarke and Verity Clarke have a lifetime of experience across different sectors of the beer world between them. Once head brewer Tom Summerscales, formerly of Osset and Vocation Brewing, joined the team in 2022, the brewery seemed destined for success. It’s interesting to sit down with the team, just a week out from Amity’s sixth birthday, and reflect on the journey to date. 

“Do you remember when everyone was fighting for cardboard? That was fun,” Russ jokes, recalling one of the many curveballs that 2020 threw at the then still-embryonic brewery. When lockdown was announced, Amity was so close to launch that Russ and Rich had quit their jobs at North Brewing and Beer Hawk respectively. Their plan had been to launch by opening the brewpub, but the government and the global supply chain had other ideas. Lockdown meant an in-person opening was out of the question, so they pivoted to contract brewing, brought plans for an online launch forward to capitalize on demand (the beer sold out within 48 hours of pre-sale orders), moved production to their own brewery in January of 2021 and opened the brewpub in April of that year. 

“It was the wrong way around, when you think about it, but it seemed normal at the time,” says Russ. “Because we were born of the pandemic, we are quite used to curveballs being thrown our way either by global situations, the government, whatever. ‘Pivoting’ is like our watchword. We can quite happily go ‘right, we need to do something different now.’” That said, Rich and Russ both credit the community in Farsley for Amity’s success, before anyone else. 

“The community there has been the absolute making of us,” says Rich, without hesitation. “They supported us in droves, and we wouldn't be here without those people who keep coming to see us.” Before I moved to Leeds, I’d never experienced anywhere like Sunnybank Mill; an old textile mill that’s been restored, and converted into a makers-hub populated by artists, artisans and skilled craftspeople of every variety. Think print-fairs, vinyl record stores, cobblers, museum and exhibition spaces, artist’s studios and haberdashery supply shops all well attended by locals — a far cry from your average industrial estate and the perfect place for a brewpub to flourish. The only constraint? Space.

“Numbers wise, we hit our business plan for year five in year three, but that also meant we hit our capacity much sooner than we were expecting to,” Rich continues. “We ran a crowdfunding campaign, which was super successful, to buy more tanks which we also filled very quickly. We then started canning on site, which we’d planned on bringing in-house much later than we had to. In early 2024 we started seriously discussing the need to expand, and by late 2024 we’d found this place, and secured finance.”

Amusingly, Russ stumbled across the site of the brewery’s new facility, in Bradford, while taking his infant son to soft play at the jungle gym next door. “I was like, ‘what the fuck is this place?!’” Russ exclaims, as though the unit had been hiding under the only stone he’d left unturned in his search for a new brewery. “I was wandering around the estate, scoping it out when I saw a small group of people side-eyeing me. Turns out it was the facilities manager. Straight away I was like ‘I need to have a word with you. What’s going on here then? What’s free?’ In that sense, the conversation started almost by accident.”

As it happens, a couple of units on the small estate were available to let, though none were big enough to house a growing brewery — bar one. “It’s quite big,” Russ admits. I’m inclined to agree. Since moving in at the back end of last year, the team has been resisting the allure of ample space, ensuring Amity only expands at a rate that aligns with demand. “If and when we need to, we can invest in hot water capacity that would allow us to brew on this six to seven times a day” says Russ, conceding that he’s in no rush to reach that point and, in the meantime, is enjoying the improved efficiency and better mash quality that the new brewhouse is yielding.

“We don't want to be the biggest brewery in the world,” Russ continues. “The goal is to retain a really small team, have a bit more beer out there, be able to have comfortable lives and enjoy what we're doing. We've seen it happen through all the various beer businesses that we've worked in; you grow past a certain point, it stops being fun and starts becoming more of the thing that you never wanted it to be. We don't want to be that kind of business, if we can avoid it.”

Whatsmore, the beer landscape of Leeds is changing; it has big players now, making competition for taps increasingly challenging for smaller outfits. “We tend to sell more beer in Bradford, Harrogate and Halifax anyway, but we can see that securing guest spots in Leeds is becoming hard,” admits Rich, somewhat sombrely. “Josh [Waldock, sales and events manager] did some back-of-the-cigarette-packet maths the other day, and reckons that there are just six guest taps available in Leeds city-centre now. The suburbs are different of course, and there are independent venues out there, but a lot of them are tied into contracts already.

“Don’t get me wrong, I also think we're in a really difficult economic climate whereby if you can get cheaper products, because they can be produced in bigger volumes, meaning you can make more margin and survive as a business, that’s a really hard thing to argue against. It’s just sad to see, in an area that is used to having a lot of independent producers, and a lot of choice on the bar.” 

As much as Leeds is at a pivotal point in its life as a beer city, Amity is keeping its sights set on its own journey, and focusing its energy on cultivating community and nurturing relationships around Bradford and beyond. That seems a sure way to be a brewery that’s around forever.