If you’re into your pop punk or hardcore genres of music, the Slam Dunk festival has been something of a saviour in recent years. As gig venues disappear, grimly replaced by luxury apartments, the cost of entry to events such as Reading and Leeds also move out of sight to many young music fans. Slam Dunk has combined great bands and accessibility with aplomb.

And, it’s at the Leeds leg of that festival last year that Sam McGregor, co-founder of London’s Signature Brew, knew the brewery had made it.

“Those events are great. They’re hard work, but great fun,” he explains.

During the event McGregor was pouring from the brewery bar and clocked someone in the distance.

They stopped. Dead.

They proceeded to lash their cup of generic lager to the ground and celebrated wildly after coming to the swift realisation that they were able to drink a pale ale while listening to some of their favourite bands.

“It was hilarious. It was wasteful, but very satisfying at the same time!” he says.

McGregor has every right to be thrilled. He founded Leyton’s Signature Brew alongside cousin Tom Bott with one goal in mind. To bring decent beer to live music venues. And seven years into their journey, that’s exactly what they’re doing. But they know this is only just this the start.

It’s a time of transition for the team, and if everything goes to plan, 2018 will be defined as one of expansion, of stability and of growth.

“We’ve set ourselves a difficult brief of trying to straddle two ends of the market. We are trying to create approachable beers for the uninitiated gig goer. While also trying to stay in the craft beer world and be respected for that,” says Bott. “Sometimes they compete with each other, but we want the person on the street to drink our Roadie beer, enjoy it and then want to try more craft beers.

“For want of a better word, we think of ourselves as a gateway from bad beer to good. But we also sell a good volume of beer into craft beer bars in London and the UK, too. That’s our bread and butter and it makes sense to try and grow those permanent accounts. That gives us confidence to feed into other creative projects.”

Bott is articulate and pensive. His passion for brewing, and the business of brewing, comes through at every turn. Qualities no doubt refined during his early years working at Stoke’s Titanic Brewery, a business run by his father Dave and uncle Keith.

The Signature Brew started over a pint in the Strongroom bar in Shoreditch, London in the summer of 2011.

“We were fed up that every time you’d go to a gig and wanted a beer, you’d have no other choice than a pint of monolithic lager. But it didn’t take long for us to decide we wanted to test the water and try and change that situation. It was a question of how,” he says.  “So we decided what better mouthpiece for the cause than the people on stage with the audience. We set about to try and use our connections to enlist bands that liked beer, agreed their was an issue with choice, and agreed that fans deserved better.”

The first fruits of their labour was The General, a 3.8% pale ale contract brewed at Titanic Brewery in collaboration with London band The Rifles.

“We produced 1,000 bottles. It was solid, but there was plenty of room to improve on!” says Bott.

Others followed at breweries across the UK. Collaborations with Craig Finn from US group The Hold Steady, British rapper Professor Green, singer-songwriter Frank Turner and US metal band Mastodon resulted in exposure both sides of the pond and Signature Brew had become synonymous with the sector.

“The music world has almost infinite parallels with the independent beer world. Everyone knows each other in beer and it’s the same in music,” says Bott. “It seems like it’s never too hard to find the right person. So it was a case of going for the right audience, or someone with the right audience, which is what we did. Well, apart from Professor Green who had neither! However, that was a great opportunity and one we probably wouldn’t turn down again.”

Despite the growing popularity of such beers, Bott and the team were acutely aware of the limitations such a business model presents, too.

“Working with artists has been great and we’ve made friends for life thank to such projects. But ultimately, you are at the whim of them also. So if the album they are promoting is pushed back six months, so too is the beer. It made us realise something had to change,” he says.

That realisation happened fairly early in the company’s life. Team Signature Brew started life above an old Hoxton pub called the Marie Lloyd. While the pub itself was closed, the main room was left as is, while businesses such as Signature Brew utilised office space upstairs. They were fun times, Bott recalls.

“The Marie Lloyd was an old Enterprise Inns pub. We shared with four other businesses including Soulshakers. They are a bar consultancy so the shelved and fridges were stocked with each and every drink you could think of. They told us to help ourselves. I’m pretty sure we lost a year of Signature Brew thanks to that!”

A move to Hackney followed at the end of 2012. Utilising contract capacity alongside Braumeister and Brew-Magic kit, it wasn’t long before the team had grown out of the new space. Hard work building the brand and establishing core beers such as Backstage IPA allowed the company to establish stability away from the transient nature of artist collaborations.

Bott says that beer then was stronger and more piney than it is now – something that has coincided with the growth in the UK developing its own drinking identity.

“Historically beer commentators have said that that the UK will mimic what’s happening in the US a year later. But as we mature, we’re carving out our own patch,” he says. “The key difference is that we are 100% a pint drinking culture. Sure, I love finding unusual strong beers and have a few thirds. But I’m also a big fan of enjoying four or five pints of low abv pales, and I have a great time doing do. As an industry we’re trying to find a happy medium in the UK.”

Signature Brew found its current home in the third quarter of 2014, moving in that September. A crowdfunding campaign raised funds before “being lost in the noise” of Camden Town’s campaign that followed a week after. But, it enabled the company to purchase a 20hl kit and four FVs from Five Points, also in Hackney.

“It gave us chance to start in earnest to go ahead with our own beers. But even then, having fun remained incredibly important for us. We like to engage with the audience and show people that craft beer shouldn’t be something to get too hung up about.”

In the three or so years since moving to Leyton, Signature Brew has established its range of beers without losing sight of its commitment to live music and collaboration. This summer alone sees the brewery run its own stage at the aforementioned Slam Dunk festival while collaborations with two major alternative UK bands will bring such projects right back into the spotlight.

They’ve grown, too. Riina Lääts joined Signature Brew as head brewer from Estonia’s Sori Brewing as in 2016. And last year, she was responsible for the launch of a 10% imperial stout, Anthology.

The well-received beer features six different malts, healthy additions of Chinook hops and the addition of cacao nibs adding profoundly bittersweet chocolate notes. The beer is set to become an annually release beer with future releases including barrel-aged versions, with some of the first iteration currently maturing in oak.

Lääts is busy producing new recipes as well as overseeing any tweaks in the core range. She’s also enthused about upcoming expansion at the business. Such is the level of growth, Signature Brew were looking at the possibility of upping sticks from Leyton within the next year. But the demise of a neighbouring business presented the brewery with the perfect opportunity.

“We need to fulfil our aim, and that’s to grow while maintaining our values. We can’t affect change in live music venues without growth and that’s what we plan to do,” says Bott. “We needed to increase production and had done all we reasonably could here. Unfortunately the business next door had to shut but in doing so, allowed us to stay, and we’re thankful for that. Otherwise it looked like a move outside the M25 was the only eventuality, and we know the disruption that would have caused the team.”

He adds: “We can now extend our stay in Leyton. In addition, we are investing in a new brewhouse from Gravity Systems, extra capacity, a keg washer/filler, Cask canning line, isobaric hop injector. Mobile CIP and steam boiler. The works.”

“I’ve just been ticking off the shopping list,” laughs Lääts.

The new brewhouse, which will be housed in the extra unit, means Signature Brew move from a maximum current capacity of 4,800hl up to a initial limit to 13,500hl on its new setup. And the team are rightfully optimistic about what the future holds.

“If we can get this new setup up and running, with all the cracks ironed out by end of 2018 then this year is very much a success,” says Bott. You need to have faith in what you do. If you make something the market wants, the market will find the way to access your product. If you do it right, you’ll find a way. So for us, Roadie can work in music venues, while our 9.4% Treble IPA probably wouldn’t. You have to know your market, respect it and work out what works where.”

Lääts adds: “I’m looking forward to it. We’ve been through a cycle during previous expansion where we’d be hitting capacity time and time again, forcing us to rethink things on a regular basis. This changes that.”

“We have spent an awful long time banging the drum and making headway,” says Bott. “But now we’re getting settled, we have a fantastic team that’s making great beers. The foundations are there and we’re ready to crack on and ready to walk the walk.”