Five years of Jump Ship

Five years on…

I can very clearly remember standing in my garage at the start of December 2019. It was freezing cold and close to midnight as I finished packing up the last of my crowdfunding rewards. My first pallet of beer had been delivered into Drydrinker, with sales going live the next day.  All those hopes and dreams, packaged up in a 330ml alcohol free beer can.

It felt like being at the top of the first rise on a rollercoaster, knowing that the first exciting drop was going to happen, and not sure what was around the next corner.

Quite a lot was waiting around that next corner.

2020 dawned a shiny new year, full of hope and optimism. I held a launch party at the end of January down in Leith, surrounded by our crowd funders and supporters.  I won my first few listings in some of Edinburgh's top bars and restaurants, everything was going brilliantly.

And then covid hit, hospitality shut down, the brewery furloughed and suddenly I had three kids to homeschool. It all felt very bleak. Was it over before it had really begun?

But bright spots begun to appear, one for me was the nascent online business that developed. I started by delivering beer in my own vehicle across Edinburgh (kids and dog in the back, listening to an audiobook), and then sending cans by courier across the country.

2021, and the world started to open up. I made my first hire, Pete Sharp, who joined as head brewer.  I was so nervous on his first day, but fortunately he didn't run for the hills at the sight of the unconventional office, my lack of systems and processes, or the troublesome brews.

Laid low with covid in September 2021, I was blown away by the news that our Yardarm Lager had won best in the WORLD, at the world beer awards. It boosted my confidence, and gave me new resolve to push on with the business and make sure our beer got into the hands of new people. People deserved better choices when they were cutting back on the booze.

2022 brought more ups and downs. The outbreak of the war in Ukraine made the world feel more uncertain and caused a huge spike in energy prices. The cost of our contract brewing went up 50%. I was being quoted a cost of £1/kwh to sign a new energy contract. The figures on my business plan no longer stacked up. Was it time to call it day?

But a stroke of good luck led me to viewing a business unit down in Midlothian. I was already taken in by the beautiful setting, but most important of all was the big shiny biomass boiler next door. Not only would we be able to brew on 100% renewable energy, we'd also have a secure, local energy supply at an affordable price. 

All I needed to do now was raise £300,000 in an economic down turn and the brewery dream was in touching distance. And that's where our amazing shipmates came into play. I laid bare my dream in an email to our database - if I wanted to go big, would the back me? And the answer came back a resounding yes.

The crowdfund itself was exhilarating, terrifying and exhausting. But we hit our target and then some.  It took another eight months to begin work on the installation, more ups and downs (I don't even want to mention the legal wranglings with a brewery behemoth..).  

But we got there, and in January of this year brewed our first batch of Yardarm on our new site.

And so here we are at the end of 2024, five years on since launch, and the rollercoaster shows no sign of slowing down. We’re now a crew of six, each person bringing their own skills, experience and eclectic music taste to the brewery Spotify playlist. Please, no more Baby Shark…

Our beers are found in over 350 stockists, from Kelso to Kirkwall and Walthamstow to Winnipeg.  We’ve launched four new beers this year alone, with two more due to drop in January and February – including a very exciting collab. We’re buzzing with ideas for more new beers we want to release after these, but we’ll let Pete have a good rest first, it’s been hectic!

It feels such a privilege to be at the helm of Jump Ship. I know there will be more storms to weather, but with such an amazing community of shipmates around us, I couldn’t hope for a better crew.

Cheers to the next five years!

If all of this has got you in a celebratory mood, join us back in Leith on the 23rd of January as we drink, dance and party to celebrate this massive milestone. Get your tickets here