2020 has been a uniquely challenging year for British breweries, and Donzoko Brewing Company began the pandemic with the decks stacked against it. Founded in 2017 in Hartlepool, northeastern England, and run by the 26-year-old Reece Hugill (plus occasional help from his parents on the packing line), the brewery was shut out of government aid for months, owing to the fact that its location in an industrial park meant it wasn't considered a standalone business.
But instead of stalling out, Donzoko adapted, and kept moving. Within several days of the U.K.’s March lockdown announcement, the brewery had already launched its own ecommerce site, Donzoko and Friends. Alongside its own beers, it sold products from neighboring small businesses, including bottle shop and independent butcher Block & Bottle, Rounton Coffee, Estate Tea Co., Robyn Prints, and Penman Ceramics.
“It’s obviously not crazy volume for them, but it was more to broaden my appeal without undercutting other shops by a lot, and to do something positive and proactive,” says Hugill. Recently, he’s even collaborated with many of them: Full Bloom, a jasmine and hibiscus sour, was brewed with Estate’s tea; bourbon barrel-aged coffee beans (and a beer using them) were created with Rounton, and black nduja—nduja fermented with pig’s blood—was made with Block & Bottle.
Donzoko’s collaborative spirit doesn’t end there. In June, the brewery released Indie Graft, a Belgian-inspired Pale Ale that was dry-hopped with Nelson Sauvin. Organized in partnership with Jules Gray of Sheffield’s Hop Hideout bottle shop, and sold exclusively in 40-odd independent and family-run shops, the beer was another attempt to bolster the wider industry.
Alongside the occasional Pale Ale, Stout, and IPA, Hugill is brewing some of the country’s most exciting modern Lagers, despite all of this year’s challenges. Big Foam, a hazy, “rustic” Lager that pours with an outlandishly large cap of foam and tastes like peaches and white wine, is my undisputed beer of the year, though it’s closely followed by the Vienna Lager Donzoko made in collaboration with Braybrooke Beer Co., as well as Donzoko’s Festbier. In a year where my drinking habits have changed—where IPAs and Pale Ales have fallen by the wayside in favor of Lagers of all stripes—Donzoko’s beers have been a pleasure, a buoy, and a high point throughout the weary months of quarantine.
Words,Claire Bullen