To help cope with growing demand for craft bottled beer, Sambrook’s, Westerham and Ramsgate breweries have teamed up to launch a joint venture bottling plant.

The facility, in Bradstairs, Kent, is due to come online in June, and for Sambrook’s it means it can double its production by the end of this year and widen its portfolio of beers, with new releases planned for the summer and autumn.

To create the bottling plant, the breweries received funding from regional growth fund Grow For It in East Kent, Kent County Council’s new campaign to encourage businesses to invest in the area. The plant will generate ten new jobs for the region. Sambrook’s founder, Duncan Sambrook, and Robert Wicks, of Westerham Brewery, attended the Grow For It launch at the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Duncan said: “We are excited at the prospect of having our own bottling facilities and see this as a fantastic step forward for Sambrook’s, allowing us to sell our bottled products outside of our core local markets.

“It is well known that the UK has experienced a huge growth in craft brewers across the country, but it’s less well known that bottling capacity for these brewers has not kept pace and there is real demand for quality bottling facilities to service the smaller producers needs. South East Bottling will not only be able to service our own needs, but other craft breweries around the UK.”

Sambrook’s, Ramsgate and Westerham are inviting brewers from around the UK to utilise the bottling plant to increase access to the bottled beer market in the UK and overseas.

This blog post is not by Wobbly Wallet but originally appeared on Beer Today: http://beertoday.co.uk/?p=12635