The Brew Shack

The Brew Shack is a small brewery based in Dorset selling 100% British hopped beer to pubs, shops and festivals around their local area and online.

Run by Adam Bascombe the brewery has been operational for 6 years. Their core range currently includes Bill’s Bitter, Golden Ale, Pale Ale, 8 Grain Porter and Vienna Oat Stout, available in cask, keg and can.

We spoke to Adam about getting the best out of home-grown hops.

Independent brewing with 100% British hops.

“I’d describe Brew Shack as a modern brewery with a mostly traditional customer base. With a relatively small range of beers, we have a straightforward approach and a strong focus on brewing classic beer styles packed full of flavour to the very best of our ability, for this to be successful it is vital that we get consistent levels of high-quality ingredients from our suppliers. The hops in particular need to shine through in the finished beer. We believe that there is no need to overcomplicate recipes if the raw ingredients and processes are top quality.”

The decision to brew with only British hops was driven partly by environmental concerns but also a desire to keep ingredients as local as possible and highlight what’s achievable with home-grown hops, I also felt that the market was already saturated with similar beers using the same combinations of US Hops and although popular I wanted to offer customers an independent local brewing experience with a British profile.”

Quality, care and attention to detail.

Having had variable quality experiences with hop suppliers in the past, we took the decision to work exclusively with Brook House Hops, the quality, care and attention to detail is evident in the hops, packaging and service.

Our recent experience of using Brook House Hops UK Cascade was typical of what we’ve come to expect, and proof that British hops can be just as exciting and flavourful as anything else when properly cared for. On opening the bag the aroma was amazing, the hop cones were fresh, bright green and resinous, I had to double-check we hadn’t been sent US Cascade by mistake!

UK Cascade – A modern edge with a clean, crisp finish.

Our Pale Ale is single hopped with Brook House Hops UK Cascade which we find gives a modern edge but is more subtle and balanced compared with the US variant which makes the beer more accessible to our local customer base, a simple extra pale malt bill helps us to achieve a clean crisp, hop-forward finish and with UK Cascade we find we get a softer, more rounded, easy-going, balanced beer.

Whole cones go into the kettle mostly as a late addition
and we dry hop towards the end of fermentation.

As well as UK Cascade we also use Challenger, Goldings, Bramling Cross, Phoenix and UK Chinook, with each variety adding a unique character and complimenting the beer style.


Our latest batch of Pale Ale will go into both cask and keg in the next few weeks and always goes down very well with our existing customer base. Over the next few months, we’ll continue to grow the small pack side of our business to support online demand and independent shops as well as adding new beers to the range.

You can sample our beers at local pubs around Dorset and at various festivals and events throughout the year”

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