Maker Spotlight: Rude Giant Brew Co

Rude Giant Brew Co are all about easy drinking and good times. Their beer is refreshingly simple, sticking to high-quality malts and hops to create drinks that everyone can enjoy.

We chatted to Lyall Dew, Director and Head of Brewing, to find out more about the Rude Giant philosophy and what’s next on the cards for the brewery. 

Rude Giant began as a bit of a collective of those in the hospitality industry – how did it all start for you? 

We set up in March 2023, so we’re actually just coming up to two years in business now. We’re a group who all grew up in Salisbury, we’ve all lived in Wiltshire for a long time and we felt that we had the opportunity to do something a bit different. 

Some of my business partners have worked in hospitality, so they’re bringing expertise from that side of things, while I’ve been passionate about brewing for years. I was working for another brewery in Dorset and unfortunately became redundant during the COVID lockdowns. So I took some time, did a lot of thinking and scratching things down on notepads, before approaching the guys to start a brewery together. We sat down, had a chat, and now here we are. Sometimes I can’t quite believe how it’s all come together. 

Rude Giant’s philosophy is all about staying away from beers with lots of frills and focusing on quality. So what makes a really good beer to you? 

I’m really into traditional beer, so I love a cask beer, such as a best bitter. For me, our Rude Best is the flagship beer in our range. And when it comes to beers like that, it’s about allowing the ingredients you’ve got to shine. 

That’s not to say that more modern hoppier styles of beers don’t do that as well, but we’ve found that actually, when it comes down to something that people would want to have on a regular basis, they want something that’s easy drinking and not a fad they’ll try once and move on. That’s why we focus on getting the best quality malt. 

Our malt comes from Warminster Maltings, just down the road, and we get hops from a range of suppliers across the UK and the US, but most of them come from just over the border in Gloucestershire. I focus on picking the right hops for the right style of beer and making sure it shines like it should. 

If you were to recommend a Rude Giant beer to someone who’d never tried your range before, which would you pick? 

Like I mentioned earlier, the Rude Best is the one to go for if you love a cask beer. It’s a proper, traditional best bitter that uses whole leaf UK hops, and that gives it a much more rounded character – the perfect beer for sitting by the fire in a pub with. 

If you’re not into a cask beer, then our Rude Lager is the one for you. It’s a premium, pilsner style lager that’s not too dry, not too frilly – just good and easy drinking like a lager should be. It’s clean, crisp and very drinkable. We won a gold award in the SIBA South West Independent Beer Awards for it and now we’re taking it through to the nationals with the hope of winning gold again so keep your fingers crossed for us! 

You have two pubs – the Rude Giant Beer House in Salisbury and the Royal Oak in Great Wishford. Are those the only place you can get hold of Rude Giant, or can you buy it elsewhere?

We do, of course, have each of our beers on tap at the Beer House and the Royal Oak, but you can also get a pint of Rude Giant in lots of other pubs in the area. There are about 50 or 60 pubs that we sell into regularly, as far down as Poole.

We’ll also be selling bottles on our website that are perfect for Christmas, and we also sell by the keg so just get in touch if you fancy some nice, easy drinking beers for the festive season! 

Do you have any new beers coming up?

We’ve actually been working on a brand-new nitro-stout, which we’re very proud of. Our first couple of kegs rolled out about a week ago. It’s the first time I’ve brewed a stout and first time I’ve nitrogenated it to get that really smooth, creamy mouth feel. We’re hoping to do some bottling of that one soon, but otherwise, you can find that pouring in our pubs now. 

It's been a bit of a whirlwind two years – how have other businesses in Wiltshire helped you along the way? 

Because we all grew up in Wiltshire, we’ve got quite a lot of connections with people who are involved in their own independent businesses and that’s been really helpful. When the Beer House first opened, we originally had a kitchen offering burgers, so we worked with a local butchers and farm which provided the meat. We felt it was really important to have the provenance of local produce in our own venue. 

In the same way, with the Royal Oak, we want to make sure we work with local brewers. We’re not trying to compete with other breweries – we want to be successful, of course, but we’re all here in the same situation so we want to support each other. We work closely with a couple of other breweries, and other suppliers in the Wiltshire Marque, to make sure we can stock and supply a wide range of Wiltshire products. 

We’re also looking into using more products from people in the Marque – so for example, we’ve had conversations about getting some of the local honey into our beers for next year. Some of the other Wiltshire Marque members are looking to stock our bottles, too, which is very exciting. 

What does being part of a scheme like the Wiltshire Marque mean to you?

It’s really important because for us, it’s all about provenance. We are Wiltshire, and it’s on our label – we’re very proud of that fact. The Marque has allowed us to start networking with people that we perhaps wouldn’t have done before and to me, that’s the whole point of the Wiltshire Marque – bringing together businesses that wouldn’t be showcased in the way they can be, and really showing off what Wiltshire’s got. 

I’m very proud to be part of it and to represent it, and hopefully be an ambassador for it and bring other businesses on board. 

To find out more about Rude Giant’s range and what’s going on at their pubs, visit https://www.rudegiantbeerhouse.co.uk/

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