West by Three was the first iteration of our micro-brewery project.

Our first brew-house was small (100L).  

We had 6 tanks allowing us to produce  up to  4 different styles a month.

We had a manual bottler & a labeling machine with a three line coder.

The Pilot Series was named after our pilot brew-house.

The color coded labels matched general styles of beer.

The three line coder on the labeling machine added the specific sub-style or name, the ABV (%) & expiration date.

In 2017 we expanded our production capacity with a 600L kit & 2000L tank, we fondly dubbed this husky spaceship shaped tank "The Mothership".

We continued with pilot batches in the old tanks & developed a range of core products for the new tank.

The first release was a Witbier aptly called Mothership.

The core line up followed with a slight redesign of the label system to allowing for simplicity & greater flexibility.

I was able to use my experience of designing product & packaging systems, to create a flexible label system with a consistent grid & space for creativity.

The concept I am most proud of is our range called Gose 4 ways.

I am a big fan of these refreshing salted sour beers.

I wanted to created something that was uniquely Welsh and free from the usual tropes of innuendos, rugby & dragons.

Instead connecting to the land of Wales & particularly ocean agriculture.

Salt & seaweed are ingredients steeped in Welsh culture.

The Sea Salt came from the renowned Halen Mon in Anglesey.

I found a local seaweed lagoon that was working on scaling up production & developing new Welsh food products.

My concept was a range of beers featuring them both.

The Gose range won a coveted spot on the 2018 Raise The Bar best newcomers.

Earning us entry to pour beers at the invite only Edinburgh, London & Bristol beer festivals.

Followed by a feature in Ferment magazine & the opportunity to create a range of bottled beers shipping to 50,000 Beer52 subscribers.

As a result were invited to put on tap takeovers at bars across the UK.

Most notably at the Tate Modern bar.

I presented our story, the thinking behind the branding & our artwork.

Unfortunately, not all publicity is good publicity.

With our new found notoriety came a cease & desist letter regarding our successfully trademarked name.

A competing trademark, with one of the words in our name.

After an expensive year of legal letter writing we decided to call it & rebrand.

Freetime Beer Co. was born.