Lovibonds, 69 IPA
We caught up with Jeff, founder of Lovibonds and asked him how exactly did a guy from Milwaukee end up brewing some of the best beers we've ever tasted from a cobbled together set-up in Henley on Thames...
Matt: How did you get in to brewing and why did you start Lovibonds Jeff?
Jeff: The short answer; because this is what I believe I am meant to do. The more verbose answer; I had several beer epiphanies in the early 1990's in Milwaukee Wisconsin, not far from where I grew up...one of these was tasting a friends home brew. I, like most people at the time, didn't know it was even possible. I was hooked from the first extract boil over on my rented apartment stove. In 1996 I moved to England with my previous life as a software guy...I wasn't going to carry on brewing as I was only meant to be here for two years...until the little village I ended up at in the Midlands had a home brew shop. The home breweries kept evolving as did my level of corporate burn out. At some point I decided to chuck in the easy money and do something that I really gave a shit about.
Matt: How many of you make up team Lovibonds?
Jeff: I've been really lucky to have some great people help me over the years. I would be dead without them. About two years ago I stepped back from the actual brewing side (I still help mash in every batch) and focus more on the cellar grunt work, fixing shit, figuring out new gear, playing with bugs and barrels and all the other business stuff that sadly needs to be done. During this time I have been blessed with the best brewer that anyone could hope for. Rudilynn hails from South Africa and like me, she has been through several beer epiphanies and corporate burnouts. I think it is the only 'job interview' that I ever ended with a hug. She's a legend. I also have a great group of people that run our funky tasting room in Henley, handle sales, telesales and deliveries...Rico, Sarah, Chris, John, Viv and Warren...I'd be screwed without them.
Matt: Any plans you can share for the near future?
Jeff: I'm happy to say that we have just agreed to take our own space just up the road and have put a deposit on a brand new, very shiny brew house which should be going by the end of the year. Nothing crazy, but should quadruple our production, give us some expansion space and remove an amazing amount of inefficiency and risk from every brew.
Jeff: I was originally going to go with 66 with the US road sign, but walking down the aisles of Tesco I saw Budweiser '66'. The first batch happened to be 6.9% and you know a little sexual innuendo never hurts. A couple batches in we got a cease and desist from Diageo as they own the VAT 69 whiskey brand...in the end we beat them at their own game. This was my take on a West Coast IPA and is loaded with Cascade and Centennial hops. There are hops in the mash, first wort hops, bittering and a massive late charge, plus dry hopping. The labels still mentions a 'Hopinator' device. This was a Heath Robinson affair that we had to figure out to do dry hopping way back then. Sadly this method ruined a few batches of beer and we moved to a more conventional method of dry hopping. We will revisit this when we have the right gear. Hope you guys and gals enjoy it!