Raise the Bar Indeed!
It was over three years ago when We Are Beer announced us as winners of their ‘Raise The Bar’ competition; but doesn’t time fly when you are having fun!
Raise the Bar is a national competition in which a panel of prestigious judges choose four winners per year from a whole host of new and exciting breweries. These four winning newcomers then go on to pour alongside the industry’s best at We Are Beer’s festivals that year. What a prize!
Here is what they said about our rambunctious selves:
“Turning Point were a complete newcomer to many of the panel, yet instantly impressed. With the best IPA of the competition, and a rich and decadent—but well-balanced—barrel-aged stout, the North Yorkshire brewery showed an understanding of the market with two great beers. We can’t wait for you to be as pleasantly surprised at our festivals as we were in the judging.”
Due to this victory, we got to showcase our beers further afield than ever before, and to larger audiences than we had ever experienced. It was awesome!
Since then, A LOT has happened.
We moved into a new site at Knaresborough - three times the size of our old one. We more than tripled our staff size. We entered international markets as far away as Singapore. We collaborated with some of the biggest craft beer legends in the nation. And, of course, we navigated our way through a global pandemic!
Turning Point back in 2019, Kirkbymoorside.
Our production area in Knaresborough, 2021
It is safe to say that we have grown in more ways than one.
Fast forward more than three years to early August 2022, when I am writing this whilst on the train down to London for We Are Beer’s London Craft Beer Festival at Tobacco Docks - a festival that we are now becoming regulars at.
This time is particularly special, however, as we have got ourselves into one of the legendary vault rooms…
An arched cavern, dark and looming, converted for a long weekend into ‘The Hall Of The Disco King’. Neon pink fruit drums as tables, our own DJ pumping out the aforementioned Disco to match our bestselling beer, rare can tastings, a plethora of new merchandise on the wall, EIGHT draft beers on at once, and a whole team of TP staff ready to eagerly greet the punters.
There are definitely milestones and moments that make you feel that you are heading in the right direction, and that what you are doing is worth all the hard work.
This weekend will be one of those moments.
Raise the Bar gave us a magnificent opportunity, and it is heart-warming to see our progress from that milestone to this one. I cannot say what the next milestone will be; but I will know it when we arrive there.
It must be said, however, that although so much has changed since our surprise entrance into We Are Beer’s circle as ‘complete newcomers’, we would like to think that we are still the same, if not even better, where it matters - the beer.
I can’t wait to see many of you at LCBF and all of our fringe events this week!
Love TP x
Tue 9th
Ticketed Tasting @ Stag & Lantern, London
Wed 10th
Meet the Brewer @ The Paper Mill, Sittingbourne
Thur 11th
Meet the Brewer @ Craft Beer Junction, London
Joint Tap Takeover @ King’s Head, London
Friday 12th & Saturday 13th
London Craft Beer Festival, Tobacco Docks, London
Tickets available here
