Growing up in Banbury near the Hook Norton Brewery in Oxfordshire – a steam-powered affair where beer is still delivered by shire horse – Gweilo Beer co-founder Ian Jebbitt developed an early interest in ale. The entrepreneur was always keen to try the home brew he watched his father make using malt extract kits from the local pharmacy. Ian and his elder brother once flooded the family garage after trying to sample a home brew batch (at the ages of 9 and 11) and being unable to turn the tap off.
Jebbitt’s love of real ale continued as a law student at Durham University, where he met wife and co-founder Emily. “I started homebrewing at uni as I had no money, and having the freedom [to brew] in my own student digs was where it really all started.” And his brewing days were far from over once he took a job at global law firm DLA Piper in Leeds.
Ian and Emily lived in a two-bedroom townhouse in York, and the couple turned the ground floor into a brewery. “We had a mini mash tub, a boiler, cooler and even sold the beer to friends. At Christmas, we’d do festive ales, and once we picked some elderberries at Ampleforth monastery and used them to make an elderberry pilsner,” he recalls.
When his boss got promoted to head of Asia, there was a chance for Ian to join him in Hong Kong, and the couple made the move in 2012. Soon after arriving, Jebbitt was already saying to his wife that they should start a brewery one day given the scarcity of local ale. But then they got sucked into Hong Kong life, Ian frequently working 14-hour days and Emily teaching at Kellett School.
The idea to start a craft beer brand didn’t completely go away, though. “I dreamed I was having a pint of Gweilo, and remember rolling over in bed and writing down, ‘Gweilo beer’ on my old iPhone 3 on 23 February 2015 because a day later I filed the trademark.”
Rekindling the recipes they’d used back in the UK, the idea was to make English-style session beers that incorporated hops with a tropical aroma and flavour to reflect that they had been brewed in Hong Kong. The brand currently brews three beers: a pale ale, an IPA and wheat beer Wit. There are plans to double the range by the end of the year with a stout, pilsner and double IPA.
The trademark registry initially rejected the name Gweilo because of the word’s historical negative connotations, so Emily spent three months researching its usage in Hong Kong and found it wasn’t being used derogatorily, and that even members of LegCo and the Hong Kong Police Force were using the term in public print. “I then put together a 70-page legal submission and that won the registry over, proving that Gweilo has undergone a redefinition over the last 30 years – hence the Gweilo tagline ‘a redefining beer’ – and it was accepted within two weeks,” says Jebbitt, who recently left his job at the law firm to concentrate on rolling out the brand globally.
Since launching in 2015, the brand has established itself as the city’s most visible craft beer brand and the Jebbitts, co-founder and designer Joseph Gould and two staff work out of an office in Sai Ying Pun, having started out in the Jebbitt’s spare bedroom.
Gweilo beer is currently available everywhere from dai pai dongs to the MO Bar at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, and its bottles share shelf space with global beer brands in ParknShop and Wellcome. Jebbitt is keen to expand the distribution network still further. “There’s still loads of places we’re not available – there are 12,000 restaurants in Hong Kong, and we’re in 300. That’s a lot compared to most craft beer brands, but a seriously small percentage overall,” he points out.
The ambitious entrepreneur talks about creating a craft beer that represents everyday value, something shoppers will automatically reach for in the supermarket. “We’re not trying to be the most artisanal [craft beer]. It’s a decent pint to enjoy at the end of the day, not something to be drunk in a wine glass with people talking about notes of chocolate and aromas of cigar smoke.”
Now that the day-to-day running of the company is going relatively smoothly, Jebbitt views his biggest challenge as scaling the brand. “I had the energy to get it going, but it scares me slightly, getting bigger … I’m not quite sure how we get the infrastructure in place. At some stage, we’ll need a HR team, a sales department… how does that work? With 20 staff, say, how do we know they’re earning their salary, and that we’ve got the right people? We might find that we get to a certain size and say, ‘any bigger than this and we’re not going to enjoy it.’”
While he may have some concerns about managing a larger business, Jebbitt has no regrets, and urges anyone harbouring an entrepreneurial dream to take the plunge. “So many people told us, ‘focus on your day job, knuckle down and save for the future.’ Some friends in the UK said, ‘do you really want to risk your life savings on this?’ But if you believe in something, you have to go for it.”
Despite the 90-hour weeks he endured working as a lawyer by day and entrepreneur by night persuading bar owners to sample his beer, it’s clear that Jebbitt is passionate about running his own business.
Jebbitt is now gearing up to export the brand across Asia – he has set his sights on China and Singapore first – and is also planning to open a Gweilo beer bar in Hong Kong by the end of the year.
This article appeared in the Classified Post print edition as Craft Work.
