Harbour lights up Cornwall

The Harbour Brewing Company near Bodmin Moor in Cornwall opened its doors on 12 January and will sell a range of beers -- from light ale to lager -- to pubs, bars and restaurants. The brewery is the dream-come-true of brewer Rhys Powell and hotelier Eddie Lofthouse who share a passion for beer and surfing.

Rhys studied brewing and distilling at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh and then worked as a brewer at Sharp's in Rock. Eddie ran the family business, the Atlantic Hotel and Doom Bar, in New Polzeath. The hotel closed in 2011 for a major refit and he thought it was a good time to move on.

He says: "Rhys and I met in a puib in Padstow and decided to open a brewery. We had a few beers and, because of the location, decided to call it the Harbour Brewing Company."

Eddie found a 10-barrel brewery in California that had been built in Hungary. The investment in the brewery cost the partners close to £30,000.

"We are committed to making beers that are contemporary and deliver uncompromising taste," Eddie says. "We use pure Cornish water from the hills next to the brewery and only the finest raw materials. We produce beer in cask, keg and bottle -- we think different beers lend themselves to different styles of dispense." The brewing kit is based on a mash tun and lauter, a kettle and whirpool, four fermenters and four conditioning tanks.

The beers are: Harbour IPA 5% draught/5.4% bottle, using six hops from the U.S. and England; Amber Ale 4/4.5%; Light Ale 3.5%; and Lager (5/5.5%), a Czech-style Pilsner.

*Harbour Brewing Company, Kirland, Bodmin, Cornwall PL30 5BB. 01208 832131; www.harbourbrewing.com