Includes information for Clarence & Fredericks.
Brewery, beer firm, brewing currently suspended
Original site: 35 Neville Road, Croydon CR0 2DS (Croydon)
Planned future site: 72 Malham Road SE23 1AG (Lewisham)
volden.co.uk
First sold beer: 11 October 2012 (as Clarence & Fredericks), May 2015 (as Volden)
Brewing suspended: March 2020
Clarence & Fredericks was founded in 2012 by Victoria Barlow and Duncan Woodhead as the second contemporary brewery in Croydon (after Cronx), with a 16 hl kit from Oban Ales in a small backstreet industrial unit. Three years later, finding themselves unable to commit the time and money needed to expand the business further, Victoria and Duncan decided to sell the physical brewery, though not the brands.
Meanwhile, the Antic pub group had been working on its own plans to produce house beers for its pubs. By 2014 it already had a brewhouse on order, intended for a site in Camberwell, but when this fell through, it bought up the Clarence & Fredericks site as a stopgap, taking it over in April 2015.
Operations were overseen by Antic’s head brewer and trade quality manager Stephen Lawson, a London brewing veteran who worked at the old Pitfield brewery in the 1980s and then at the Firkin chain. He’s likely the only 20th century London microbrewer who is still brewing at micro scale in the 21st, though with a gap when he worked at other jobs before being introduced to Antic at the relaunch event for Truman’s in 2013.
Antic’s founder Anthony Thomas is a fan of vintage vehicles and the brewery name and logo are an homage to the 1950s Vulcan lorry.
Antic still had the original 32 hl brewery ordered for the Camberwell project in storage and planned to upgrade once a suitable site was found. With brewing suspended during the 2020-21 lockdowns, the company found a site in Forest Hill, adjacent to its offices and warehouse, and installed equipment in July 2020, also planning to open a taproom. Meanwhile, Volden beers were contract-brewed at locations including Portobello and Wimbledon to supply the pubs as they reopened.
Commissioning of the new facility has since stalled and no launch date has yet been announced, with the brands still cuckoo-brewed at Wimbledon. Antic was forced to sell off 13 pubs in July 2024 due to financial difficulties, which will likely further delay the completion of the project.
Beers made almost entirely with English ingredients and a house yeast strain were previously in cask only and sold exclusively in the pubs. Distribution may broaden once brewing is revived.
Updated 21 October 2024.
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