why paradigm?

rob and neil met nearly twenty years ago, funnily enough over a pint!

we both had careers, or so we thought....... rob in government and, later, IT account management, neil in insurance and IT but neither of us were entirely happy "working for the man". It was chance that we should both be "pursuing other interests" at the same time in the summer of 2014 and the topic naturally arose of really pursuing another interest. but what? It was rob's wife, jan who first suggested the idea of a brewery and why not? real ale is a life long passion for both of us so that was the ball rolling.

we moved into our sarratt home in november 2014 and set about making the changes necessary to accommodate brewing and launched our first two ales, "low hanging fruit" & "win-win" in May 2015. since then we've added two more production ales; "touch point" and "synergy" and a seasonal special "watford winter warmer"

we've also won many awards, including a record three times at the Watford Festival.

brewed in sarratt, hertfordshire with finest hops and barley, some love and just a hint of irony..........

which brings us to the the bloke in the bowler. his name is ‘son of hop’ and he has a sister, ‘hop de soir’.

we take our brewing seriously but we’re determined to have a bit of fun with the "brand"

years of business meetings, power point presentations and corporate “bull” have given the founders a healthy cynicism for the commercial world, where life can seem ironic, sometimes even surreal, so what better than some distinctly surreal images for our branding?

our pictures are inspired by surrealist art of the 1920s & 30s especially the work of René Magritte, an artist who loved to subvert the form

At first glance, a most conventional man, with very conservative headwear, from an ordinary Belgium town, but, in reality, a rebel with a strong sense of humour and an ironic view of the world and himself

we hope he would like our little homard…

some reasons why we do this......

finding the right premises proved tricky but we hit the jackpot at green end farm. its a truly lovely place to work and our commute is measured in minutes.

we're a bit eco right on; our waste water goes into a reed bed, the steam from the kettle goes up a bespoke condensing flue to reclaim the heat. Used hops go for fertilizer in the village and used malt is used for animal feed.

the reed bed on a crisp morning, a rather beautiful way to deal with your waste water.