London City lawyer and new father, Rob Fink, takes a break from booze – and identifies a lack of choice in low/no alcohol beers. Further research reveals a gap in the market for a craft brewery dedicated solely to great quality, full-flavoured low/no alcohol beer.
Rob establishes Big Drop Brewing Co in the UK, along with old school friend and acclaimed designer – James Kindred.
Johnny Clayton, former of Wild Beer and one of the finest experimental brewers in the business, embraces the Big Drop challenge of making 0.5% ABV beers without artificially extracting alcohol.
A 0.5% ABV Milk Stout is released to rave reviews.
“The most impressive no/low alcohol beer I have ever tried; no argument, it just is.” Melissa Cole, British Guild of Beer Writers.
“Hard to believe this is a non-alcoholic beer” – Morning Advertiser.
A Pale Ale is the hit follow up to the stout. It too draws parallels with full-strength beers.
Holding down two jobs, about to move house and with twins due any day, Rob resigns from his law firm to focus entirely on Big Drop.
Two more beers – a Lager and a seasonal Spiced Ale – are released in the UK. Working with local illustrator, Helen Maxfield, a new range of label designs are launched depicting the Suffolk countryside.
Big Drop’s Pale Ale is named the World’s Best Pale Beer (>2.8% ABV) at the World Beer Awards 2017. Its Stout wins a Gold Medal at the International Beer Challenge and a UK Silver Medal at the World Beer Awards, when judged against full-strength stouts and porters.
Big Drop’s export journey begins when the Stout is launched in Sweden via Systembolaget which, as the country’s monopoly alcohol retailer, is one of the world’s largest purchasers of beer.
Premium listings are obtained at Hakkasan, Fortnum & Mason, The Ivy Group and Barworks Pub Group.
MARCH 2018
Big Drop is announced as one of three ‘Best Drinks Producers’ in the BBC Food & Farming Awards and wins the Dragons’ Pantry award at the Farm Shop & Deli Show.
Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in The Netherlands starts stocking Big Drop.
New on-trade listings include: Draft House, Mitchells & Butlers, All Bar One and The Castles Groups – while the next seasonal beer, a Sour, is launched at an event at the Commercial Tavern in London.
Big Drop gains listings with Ocado and Tesco Extra stores.
A £500k seed funding round is closed.
Big Drop goes on draft for the first time – across the Barworks group.
Big Drop’s latest range addition – a Citra IPA – is crowned ‘King of Craft’ at the Casual Dining show, which was dominated by full-strength beers.
Big Drop wins the Business Innovation category at the Society of Independent Brewers Awards. The Citra IPA and Stout win Gold and Silver respectively at the International Brewing Awards.
Morrisons is the latest supermarket chain to stock Big Drop.
Holland & Barrett list our new format 330ml cans, which includes gluten-free Pale Ale and Stout, plus a vegan friendly Lager.
The LCBO launch the Pale Ale and Stout in stores across Ontario, Canada
Curated by Melissa Cole, Big Drop launch the first World Collab Series pack with the UK’s leading full-strength craft brewers.
Milk & More begin doorstep deliveries and Big Drop becomes one of its biggest sellers in the run-up to Christmas.
A Hazelnut Porter is added to the range. Total annual sales top 1 million bottles.
National media coverage for Dry January includes TV appearances for Big Drop on Saturday Kitchen and with Phil & Holly on This Morning.
Also on CTV and CBC in Canada.
Big Drop reveals a big, bright and bold design makeover to reflect its global expansion as a leading alcohol-free beer brand.
Fans are offered a slice of the business via a crowdfund campaign.
Big Drop exceeded its Crowdfunding target.
The Big Drop online shop launched.
James and Rhian created the first online pub quiz of lockdown, Living Room Pub Quiz
The Big Drop Amazon store went live.
Big Drop created a series of virtual gigs, featuring The Dunwells, Allman Brown and Russell Swallow.
Big Drop concluded its Living Room Pub Quiz with a combined total of 100k views from all over the globe.
Big Drop launched two limited edition Summer Specials – Poolside and Kodama.
Galactic Milk Stout and Paradiso Citra IPA became available at Waitrose.
Galactic Milk Stout became available at Sainsbury’s
Melissa Cole hosted a virtual live tasting of Poolside and Kodama.
To help those working from home Big Drop created an IGTV series with movement therapy and yoga teacher Wibbs Coulson.
Pine Trail Pale Ale became the alcohol-free beer listing at Nando’s nationwide.
To say thank you to the NHS staff Big Drop are driving to various hospitals in and around London to pour free pints for staff.
Big Drop celebrated the NHS’s 72nd Birthday by visiting Royal Free Hospital’s around London to pour pints for staff.
Big Drop launched in Australia.
We launched our UK 2020 Winter Season exclusives Firesider and Kinzig.
We launched our store in the USA and also launched our World Collab Series #2 in the UK.
Paria and Explorer Packs were launched.
We returned to the Festivals.
We won multiple awards including Britain’s/World’s Best in the World Beer Awards, making us one of the most awarded independent non-alcoholic breweries in the UK.
We launched our collaboration brew with Square Mile Coffee Roasters producing the Leafkicker Coffee Flavoured Amber Ale.
We launched our summer limited edition Poolside DDH IPA in Australia.