James Campbell, formerly head brewer at Cloudwater and ex Leeds Brewery head Venkatesh Iyer have joined the SSV Limited to form a new team of commissioning brewers.

Campbell, who played an integral role in the rise of Cloudwater, left the brewery in September.

He did so with the view to helping small breweries grow and expand, with plans to eventually fund a brewery of his own.

Iyer spent 11 years as the award winning head brewer at Leeds Brewery growing and developing a range of highly praised and much loved beers.

SSV Limited, UK importers of brewing vessels and brewhouses, celebrated their 1200th tank installation in July and have recently completed brewhouse projects for Salt Beer Factory, By The River Brewing, and already have a healthy order book for 2019 including installing the new Verdant brewhouse and cold bloc.

According to Sam Lawson, founder of SSV Limited, it was time to bring a team on board that could “match our current technical knowledge with brewing pedigree!”

He added: “The addition of James and Venkatesh, means we now have an award winning team of skilled brewers to ensure we can offer clients solid brewing know how to back-up our technical expertise .

“Both brewers will work with our commissioning team to ensure the installation of our brewhouses runs smoothly and bolster our after sales service by providing optimisations and recipe development. They will also be on hand to offer consultancy work to clients, while James will be helping to expand and develop our Brew-bloc Brewhouses.”

Campbell signed an 18 month contract with the manufacturing company and plans to develop their brewhouse offering with the view to funding his own brewery project in 2020.

Commenting on his new role, Campbell said: “Working with SSV Limited gives me the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting new brewery projects that are coming up in the UK. It also give me the chance to work with the high standard of plant that I’d like to become accustomed to.

With that in mind, at the end of the contract, there’ll be the opportunity to design and buy my own plant, helping me towards my long term goal”

Lawson added: “Bringing James and Venkatesh into the team is an investment in our company.  We’ve been long known for our quality products and engineering  but their addition means we have insider knowledge and can work closer with brewers to help them create and build their business.”

Iyer said: “I made the move to SSV Limited as they are becoming a dominant supplier in the brewing equipment market and it presented an opportunity to work on some great projects, alongside some of the most talented individuals in the industry.”

The new brewing team will not only work with customers but will advise the current SSV Limited engineering team on projects from the start ensuring the company is focused on the whole brewing process.

“We’re not just supplying a product,” Lawson said. “Brewing is at the heart of our business and knowing we have two highly-respected brewers on the team gives me peace of mind that we can continue to offer our clients industry leading service”