Intro

Well, here it goes.

This has been a long time in the making—one of those journeys that, when you look back on it, feels inevitable, but at the time was anything but clear. Coldframe didn’t begin with a a grand launch strategy or even a clear plan. It started with a restlessness. A need to reconnect.

I spent the best part of a decade working in architecture—designing some of the most incredible homes, with a huge amount of creative freedom and budgets that would make me shudder. On paper, it was a dream career, especially after working towards it for years. But slowly, without ever realising it, the spark faded. I still loved the design, the problem-solving, the act of making something—but the meaning behind it wasn’t there for me anymore. I wasn’t creating anything I truly connected with.

So, in 2019, I left. Or tried to. Architecture followed me back for a while in the form of freelance work (I needed to pay the bills), but that shift gave me the space to explore something that had quietly been part of my life since I was a teenager—brewing.

It all started in the kitchen. I was in my late teens making wines and beers from the things that surrounded me, more often than not they weren’t the best, but it was all about the process not really the end result. From there, the fermenting never really stopped: brewing, pickling, baking—I was drawn to the transformational effects of yeast fermentation.

After leaving full-time work, I went all in. We spent some time travelling, hoping for inspiration, I volunteered at breweries, studied for my General Certificate in Brewing, and then—somewhat naively—decided to take on a small traditionally focused brewery in Lostwithiel, Castle Brewery.

Castle was where things began to come together. It gave me a place to test ideas, to fail, to try again, and—thankfully—to make some really great beer which has led us to where we are now. Over three years, the beers we made picked up three national gold medals and more than a few regional awards. These beers have formed the inspiration for what we are building.

Through Castle, I discovered what mattered to me most: connection. Connection to ingredients, to growers, to my surroundings. It galvanised in my mind that what I really wanted to create was beer that spoke of place.

And so, Coldframe was born.

We are a small, brewery on the banks of the River Fowey. The brewhouse, a 5.5 BBL wooden clad, traditional ale brewery, a bit worn around the edges and entirely installed and adapted by hand—my hands. There’s a lot of DIY here. It’s not about polish or perfection. It’s about process and place.

Over the last year, we began working with a small, family-run farm on the Roseland Peninsula in South Cornwall. They are connected with the land and are custodians of it, nurturing it and allowing it to thrive for generations. They just felt like the right fit from the start.

We then began trialling something I wasn’t sure would even work: brewing with 100% raw, unmalted barley, grown just a few miles from the brewery. There’s no template for this. I spent months trawling through academic papers, testing, refining techniques, and trying to make something not just functional, but beautifully simple and full of flavour, a flavour reflective of our time and place in Cornish brewing.

The result? I can honestly say they are some of the best beers I’ve ever made. The story, the heritage and the flavour all play into my complete and utter love of what we are creating here.

For me, this is about more than just beer. It’s about creating something honest. Something grounded. A kind of brewing that brings people closer to what they’re drinking—where it came from, who grew it, and how it was made. We’re not trying to be the next big thing. We’re just trying to do what we love, well. With care and connection.

The brewery is run day to day by me, Simon with emotional support from our spaniel Scruffy. I would never have been able to do any of this without the support of my partner Sarah. She keeps me grounded when I feel like everything is falling apart, she champions everything we are trying to achieve at the brewery and she’s always there to help around the brewery and pop-up bars, even though she works full time and is studying for a masters degree! She’s an absolute superhero and Coldframe would never exist without her.

So this is the beginning. We’ve got a lot we want to share in the months and years ahead—more about the farm, the brewery, the process, the beers and the people. But that’s enough for now, thanks for reading. And if you find a can or pint of Coldframe somewhere down the line, I hope it brings you a little closer to the land from which it was created.

Cheers
Simon, Sarah and Scruffy