Brewing Services: A helping hand

When David Smith founded Brewing Services Ltd, in 1988, there were no more than 300 breweries in the UK. He’d worked at Samuel Smith's for years prior to this and so had something to compare the small-brewery boom to, when it arrived. His son Rob would be a part of this new era in British brewing, working at Dartmoor Brewery, then Freedom Brewery, then as quality control at Meantime before joining Brewing Services Ltd in 2016. Between them, David and Rob have decades of experience working in breweries of every shape, size and orientation. Today they’re using that experience to help other brewers. 

“When you're at the coal face of brewing all the time, sometimes it's difficult to take that step back, look over things and just compare how things are going,” says Rob. “Brewing is such a multifaceted process that problems don’t necessarily have a simple or direct cause. That’s why it can be useful for someone external to come in, take a holistic look at what’s going on, and offer a bespoke service, depending on the needs of the brewery”. 

Today, there are three pillars to Brewing Services Ltd — training, troubleshooting and quality control, startups and expansion — though in summary, Rob describes himself as “someone to call”, whether you’re a homebrewer looking to take your first steps into the commercial realm, or an established, sizable brewery trying to get to the root of unexpected consistency issues. 

“Brewing Services has provided lots of help, advice and assistance to us over the last 20+ years,” says Kate Balchin, director of Wold Top Brewery. “We send all new production staff on the 'Brewing: The Fundamentals’ course run by Rob and David as it’s a really good intro to the wonderful world of brewing. They have also been really helpful and involved when we've increased capacity; helping source new equipment and advice on what heating, cooling and monitoring systems to install. Plus lots of smaller instances regarding the day to day running of the brewhouse, providing information about hops and substitutions, or methods to help revitalise yeast.”

Bookings are now live for the November 2026 session of Brewing Services’ bi-annual residential training course in York. All experience levels are welcome, and more information can be found on Brewing Services’ website: www.brewingservices.co.uk