Fell Brewery, based in Flookburgh, celebrated turning ten years old in March.

Along with the brewery which produces more than 12,000 pints of beer a week, it also owns and runs three bars based in Kendal, Penrith and Chorlton, a pub, The Royal Oak in Cartmel, and a new events venue, Glisky in Kendal.

The brewery was set up by Tim Bloomer and Andrew Carter, friends from school who became disillusioned with corporate work life and decided to return to Cumbria, where they grew up, and start their own brewery.

Tim returned to university to undertake a Masters in Brewing before he and Andrew took the plunge and signed a lease on a premises in Flookburgh in 2013.

The pair wrote: "Looking back to then the memory that jumps out the most is just how ignorant and naïve we were to think things would be so easy.

"Truth is we were two lads who thought starting a brewery and taking the global brewing industry by storm would be easy.

"Predictably, we were very wrong indeed.

"Having been as confident as we were, it left us with no choice but to doggedly persevere until things did eventually start to come good or blew up spectacularly in our faces."

Luckily hard work and perseverance paid off.

Fell’s bars business changed the brand as finally they had a place to demonstrate to people what the company was all about.  

The Mail: The brewery makes over 12,000 pints every weekThe brewery makes over 12,000 pints every week (Image: Fell Brewery)

Fell Bar Kendal was the first bar to be opened in July 2017.

In 2021, the lease was signed on the Royal Oak, a different venture to the previous three bars but something they jumped at the chance to do.

Based in Cartmel, the pub is a stone’s throw away from the brewery and was a favourite haunt of both Tim and Andrew in their early days of beer drinking and when setting the brewery up.

Finally, to coincide with their tenth birthday, Glisky, an events venue on the Dockray Hall estate in Kendal, was opened.

READ MORE: Brewery bosses bring new music and event space to Kendal

They added: "To everyone who has supported us, embraced us, welcomed us, championed us, stuck up for us, defended us, helped us, thank you.

"This last decade has accidentally been the journey of a lifetime and I wouldn't change a thing.

"I hope you can join us at some point in celebrating what lies ahead."