About Us
We are Bini Brew, crafting small-batch artisan modern craft beers in the heart of Leeds.
Who are we?
Over the last few years, we have together discovered the joys of true craft beer. Small batch, lovingly imagined and crafted. Bini Brew is owned and run by father and son team Nick & James Rudge. James had been brewing for several years on a small, home fabricated 10-litre kit in their home town of Ilkley. The finished beers tasted fantastic with a common theme. Hop-forward, bone dry, easy-drinking, hazy beers, which our friends and family loved.
So… what happened in 2020?
James was working as a web designer for a marketing agency. He was furloughed in May. Nick had taken early retirement the previous year. So we had the time. Plus passion. Plus a love of the craft beer culture.
We took some bold decisions. Upgrade the kit to a 1 barrel brewhouse producing 100 litres a batch, 10x what James had been doing. Get a license to brew from HMRC and the certification to sell beer in the wholesale market. Set up a limited company and register for VAT. Suddenly we were brewing professionally.
Based on one of James’ favourite recipes, we took it to another level. Code-named left moon/right moon - Essentially two versions of the same brew, with the same grain bill and mash temperature, but with different hops added hot side and cold side. We selected the best combination, and it became our very first commercial beer – Under the Manhole Cover!
As well as brewing we love design and branding, and we’re passionate right from the start about giving each of our beers its own personality with stand-out artwork and names. We’ll tell you how the ‘Under the Manhole Cover’ name came about another time – but we briefed James’ colleague and friend at his agency to create a truly memorable can design – and boy, did he succeed.
In 2021 We took on a larger premises in Ilkley, bought a much larger brewing set up and opened a pop-up tap room in the attic upstairs which became a local legend! Things just went from strength to strength.
Why the Bini Brew Co. name?
For as long as we can remember Nick and James have been taking holidays in their favourite place in the world: Binibeca, Menorca. So when James and his sister Ellie persuaded Nick and Tina to get two cats to join the family we naturally called them Bini and Beca. Jet-black Beca (Bini’s kitten) sadly passed away a few years ago, but black & white Bini is still happily part of the family.
So we felt it was totally the right thing to do to name the brewery after her, and we continue to get inspiration from her (hence our IPA ‘Chairman Miaow’). You’ll also be pleased to know we brewed a beautiful Espresso Martini Stout in Beca’s memory too.
So you can see that all of our beers mean something to us, and have a special story and personality. James designs many of our labels himself so the passion really is ‘soup to nuts’ – no big-agency anonymous corporate branding for us!
2023 and beyond
A lot happened in 2023 for us! As demand grew, we out-grew our premises in Ilkley, and moved to a 3,500 sq ft warehouse in the Sheepscar area of Leeds, enabling us to increase our capacity significantly. We opened a tap room there.
And we grew our team. Georgie is our apprentice brewer, but so much more than that. When not brewing she brings a touch of glam and class to the brewing floor and keeps us all in check!
Ian is our head of sales – not only managing our business relationships, but pulling pints at the tap room too!
And of course, we continue to extend our range of beers – not only Pales, but lagers, sours, DIPAs and stouts too!
Check out our beer pages for more insight into our inspirations!