20+ Years of Beer BrillianceMeet The Brewer: Chris Ellis

With more than 20 years of service under his belt, Chris has played a part in the production of hundreds of Everards beers – both at the brewery’s former Castle Acres site and at its current Everards Meadows home.

According to Chris, whilst the team nowadays is multi-skilled and rotates between roles, when he started, people joined at the bottom of the ladder, learned one job and then worked their way up. Chris started off working in the yard, loading casks and kegs, before gradually progressing into different areas of the business.

“I started off filling and loading casks and kegs, forklifting and doing general yard work then progressed onto the process area, doing filtering, and then onto the brewhouse where I was a lot more involved with the brewing side of things,” he recalls.

“Now, the roles change from week to week. One week you could be brewing, one week you could be cask racking and kegging. It’s nice because you get the variety – you’re not just doing one thing all the time.”

For Chris, a highlight of the job is the camaraderie among the team of brewers. “You can enjoy your work, but if you don’t get on with everybody, you wouldn’t want to be here, so that’s why it’s good to be surrounded by people I like being with. There’s a really good camaraderie,” he says.

When asked about his preferred beer style, Chris says he enjoys “the stronger side” of the beer market, with Everards’ Old Original ruby ale among his favourites, along with some of the stronger Belgian beers.

“It is good the variety that Everards is putting out at the moment,” adds Chris, saying that although he doesn’t get involved in the recipe creation of the limited edition brews, his expertise and ideas are always welcomed – and he’s always more than happy to try the finished product!