Behind the Scenes at Axeljack Brewery:

Craig Jackson shares the real story of running a small Welsh brewery , the learning curves, mistakes, teamwork, and the constant challenge of turning passion into pints.

Running Axeljack Brewery – The Honest Side of Brewing

When we started Axeljack Brewery back in 2023, I don’t think any of us really knew what we were letting ourselves in for. You can read all the books you like, but nothing actually prepares you for the reality of running a brewery day to day.

It’s been a huge learning curve , new equipment, new skills, plenty of mistakes, and we’re still learning all the time. This post is just a bit of honesty about what it’s really like to build a small Welsh brewery from scratch.

Learning the Kit (the Hard Way)

Every bit of equipment has its own personality. Pumps jam, seals leak, temperature goes off, and what should be a five hour job turns into fourteen.

You quickly learn that nothing in a brewery is ever “simple”. Every brew teaches you something new, usually because something went wrong the time before. But that’s part of it you only really learn by doing.

Recipes and Results

I’ve had beers that I thought were going to be brilliant turn out completely wrong, and others that surprised me. You can spend hours balancing hops and malts on paper, but the beer still has the final say.

Getting things slightly wrong, and then finally landing on something that just worked. Brewing isn’t just science, it’s gut feeling too.

Running a Business, Not Just Making Beer

This bit no one tells you. Brewing is the easy part compared to running the actual business.

Pricing, sales, deliveries, packaging, cash flow, all of it matters. You can make great beer and still lose money if the figures don’t add up. We’ve had to learn the hard way about margins, delivery costs, and the value of our own time.

Saying no to bad deals is one of the hardest but most important lessons. Sometimes protecting your business means walking away from a sale that just doesn’t make sense.

Working as a Small Team

When there’s only a couple of you doing everything, communication is massive. It’s easy for frustration to build up when you’re tired and something goes wrong.

We’ve all said things we shouldn’t, made calls that didn’t work out, and learned to own it. The important bit is being able to step back, admit when you’ve got it wrong, and keep moving forward together.

We’re all here for the same reason – to make the brewery work.

Owning Mistakes and Learning from Them

We’ve made plenty. Wrong ingredients ordered, wrong labels printed, wrong beers brewed. But every single one has taught us something.

The trick is to not dwell on it too long, fix it, learn from it, and do it better next time. That’s the only way you grow, both as a business and as people.

Still Learning, Still Growing

Axeljack is still young, and we’re still figuring things out as we go. Every brew, every market, every conversation with a customer teaches us something new.

It’s not always easy, but it’s ours, and that makes every long day worth it.

I still absolutely love this job. In fact, the passion for it only seems to grow stronger. If you told 20-year-old me that I’d one day be part-owner of a growing brewery in South Wales, I’d have thought you were mad, but here we are, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

So here’s to all the lessons, the wrong turns, and the small wins along the way. Running a brewery isn’t just about beer – it’s about the journey that comes with it.

Thanks' for reading

We’re proud to brew independent Welsh beer here in Maesteg. Every follow, share or pint bought helps small breweries like ours keep going ,cheers for the support!