TWO friends with a real passion for beer and brewing are hoping that their aim of opening their own successful brewery can soon become reality.

Simon Appleton, of Little Leigh, and Chris Birtwistle, of Castle, have founded Hush Brewing Co and see Northwich as town with a real appetite for good quality beers.

They have been actively searching for a place to house their brewery for four years without success.

But this has not deterred them, as they will begin creating their home brews commercially from Simon’s back garden until a suitable location can be found.

“It’s always been a dream to get into brewing commercially, and when Simon started the home brew crew, we both hit it off really well,” Chris said.

“We could see that each other had a massive passion and knowledge for beer and brewing process, so we both got talking about brewing commercially together in Northwich.

“The ultimate goal is to upsize and move into somewhere where we can complement what’s already in the town.

Northwich Guardian:

A hazy IPA

“Over last few years, there’s been some great new bars opening and there’s loads of space to complement each other as everyone is doing something differently.”

Simon added: “We both became involved in craft beer and real ales having been brought up around pubs, and Northwich is definitely an up and coming place.

“It’s the place to be where craft beer is concerned, and hopefully we can complement what’s already in the town.”

The brewery promises to be Northwich down to its core, with beers paying tribute to the town’s heritage in both taste and identity.

“We’ll be aiming to create a Northwich Pale Ale as part of our core range, and as Northwich has such a history with salt, we’re keen to look at beers which could work that it,” Chris continued.

“A sour beer works quite nicely with a hint of salt, so we could try to work with that to get that Northwich connection.

“The company name Hush is something we came across in a book of old Cheshire dialect from 1877 as a kind of speakeasy. It has a nice ring to it and it ties in with Northwich, so that’s where the name came from.”

Northwich Guardian:

A raspberry and lime sour beer

But the duo are also keen to experiment and create something completely different, which they believe there is a market for in Northwich.

“We’ll also be creating seasonal beers and ‘one-offs’ depending on the time of year and the ingredients available,” Simon said.

“We put a couple of pictures of beers on our social media pages and we were astonished at the response to a raspberry and lime sour, which people seemed really up for.”

And Chris added: “There’s such a wide range of beer around now, from craft and hoppy and hazy IPS to sours, stouts and Belgian wheat beers.

“We equally like a session beer or a traditional cask beer, which is as good as any beer out there and so hard to get right.

“When you do get them right, you can stand at the bar for hours talking to your mates and sinking a few beers, so it’s something we’ll be looking at.”

Follow the guys’ progress by following @hush_brew_co on Instagram on search for Hush Brewing Co on Facebook.