North East brewery celebrates 25 years with Stateside collaboration

Hadrian Border Brewery is celebrating its 25th anniversary in the brewing business by working with an American-based brewery to produce a special beer.

Based in Newburn near Newcastle, the brewery marked the occasion by welcoming The Airline Brewing Company from Maine, US to share knowledge and create a new beer.

Owned by Andy and Shona Burrows, Hadrian Border Brewery currently employs 18 members of staff and runs two pubs alongside its main brewing operation, which was originally set up in Berwick in 1994 before expanding to new premises in Byker in 2000, finally moving to its current Newburn home in 2011.

Hadrian Border Brewery co-owner and qualified brewing graduate Andy explained: “We were very excited about the visit from Gary and Sharon Cresswell from the Airline Brewing Company and enjoyed swapping brewing expertise and introducing different flavours and textures to our own brews.”

He continued: “During the time that the team from Airline Brewing were in the North East, we brewed their New England IPA as well as collaborating on a joint brew, combining all of our brewing expertise and making it a fitting way to mark our very special business anniversary.”

Originally from Yorkshire, Gary Cresswell and his wife Sharon opened the Airline Brewing Company based in rural Maine, in the North East corner of the US. Specialising in old world beer from Britain and Europe, the visit to the UK helped with their own brewing development as well as producing celebratory beer the New England IPA.

Gary explained: “This visit is very important to us as Andy and the team at Hadrian are hosting our brewer for several days to help him refine our processes, especially focusing on carbonation levels and head retention.”

He added: “We’re delighted and honoured that the New England IPA is being used to mark Hadrian Border Brewery’s very special anniversary and look forward to helping them celebrate their 50th in the future.”