Brewery opens in the cellar of award-winning pub

3 Non Beards has been set up by three friends, Andy Aspin, Paul Marshall and Jason Simpson, and will officially launch next week.

The brewery is located in the basement of The Rook & Gaskill in Lawrence Street, making it the only brew pub in York. The three friends said customers will now be able to enjoy beer produced right below their feet.

Mr Marshall is the landlord of the pub, which will host the launch party next Wednesday evening. Four of the brewery’s first beers will be available at the bar and there will also be competitions and giveaways.

Mr Marshall and his wife Mandy have run the pub since 2013 and they ran The Waggon and Horses across the road for five years before that. The pair have won York Camra’s Pub Of The Year Award three times - once at the Waggon and twice at The Rook and Gaskill.

Mr Marshall said he had long wanted to open a brewery.

“I have spent days with some of the fantastic brewers who supply the pub and it became an ambition to be able to have beer on the bar that we had made ourselves right here," he said.

"Beer has advanced so much in the last 10 years and people always want different things. This will now be the only brew pub in York.”

The brewery will supply some beer festivals, but the beers will not be available in other pubs in the city.

Mr Simpson works for a software company and Mr Aspin is a microbiologist at FERA at Sand Hutton. They began home-brewing together five years ago and wanted to progress further.

The pair said the opportunity to team up with Mr Marshall and go commercial was ideal.

“To be able to produce beer that we like and have it available in a pub that we like is fantastic,” said Mr Simpson.

“When we put the first pilot beer on the bar and it flew out in three hours, it was a phenomenal feeling.”

Mr Aspin said he wanted to thank the companies that have helped the trio to establish the brewery, including local breweries Bad Seed, Brass Castle, Brew York and Turning Point. He also thanked ES Fabrications, which made the brewing equipment.

The brewery launch event is in the pub from 7pm on December 18. The first beers include a pale ale called Misty Mountain Hop, a vanilla porter called Trade Winds, a cherry beer called Serendipity and a grapefruit IPA called Forbidden Fruit.

Mr Marshall said: “Come along for a unique evening, to try brand new beers from the smallest commercial brewery in York.”