HEATHEN TURNS 10!

It all began in 2014. We’ve always been (and remain to this day) a cask focused brewery, but our ethos is to ensure we never stand still, and the times they were a’changing, with fizzy beer becoming something we couldn’t – and didn’t want to – ignore.

Keen to crack on, we invested in our first pressurised vessels and a new washer/filler and set about creating a series of one-off beers designed for keg – imaginatively named ‘Pale Ale #1’, ‘Pale Ale #2, and so on.  Our favourite recipe was ‘Pale Ale #6’, which was later renamed Mosaic, after the hop it was brewed with. The initial artwork for Mosaic was originally intended to be a stop gap and the long-term plan had always been to rebrand and rename the beer to bring it into our range of permanently available brews. So, we set about the task of coming up with a new name for this wonderful beer. We wanted something that was worthy of shouting about – something that recognised our past and fitted in with our existing core beers, but that could also help to drive the image of the brewery forward in this excitingly fast paced and ever-changing industry. 

And so it was that back in 2016, we enlisted the talents of an artist called James Murphy, who was asked to create a contemporary design for this new release. One of three ideas he came up with was the now well-known ‘praying hands’ design we have come to love, with the name coming with it… the crossed fingers were felt to be very befitting of a beer named Heathen! Here, too, the ubiquitous rays were introduced – with a bright red alongside a complementary amber to represent the beer colour. On 23^rd May 2016, the first kegs of Heathen went on sale… and would you believe that the very first place in Sheffield to have it on tap was none other than Turners – valued customers for many years, and as of this month the venue which has become our very own brewery taproom! Serendipity or what?!

Ten years down the line, Heathen is now our third biggest seller, behind only Moonshine and (rather more closely) Deception. It was effectively the kickstarter for our now very popular Brewers Emporium range, from which new beers emerge almost weekly, and James now works for us full time as our in house designer, creating all of the artistic output across our many varied series’ of beers. We’ve seen a number of fresh interpretations on our American Pale Ale – Cryo Heathen, Fresh Hop Heathen, and UK Hop Heathen to name just three – and it is a beer we’re as proud of today as we were a decade ago.

Happy birthday, Heathen! We hope you will join us in enjoying a pint, or can, this Bank Holiday weekend.

Cheers!