Follow me on Instagram @aki_smashbeers
My name is Aki and I’m the brewer. I have long been a beer drinker but it took a long time to find out you can actually brew your own beers… This realization a couple of years ago changed my life.
It took a good few years after quitting my previous job in finance to actually get to a position to start Smash Beers. The time was used to drink beers for research, gain technical knowledge and practical skills, the fundamentals if you like, of becoming a brewer. In addition, I decided to volunteer at a few breweries to see if I could in fact enjoy what brewing would entail, namely a lot of cleaning!
“If you got time to lean, you got time to clean” was a helpful advice from a veteran brewer years before I even thought about actually becoming a brewer!
Now that we have finally started Smash Beers, I am most excited to brew easy drinking beers for people with an active lifestyle wanting to enjoy the social side of drinking but not miss out on next day’s workout.
Favourite Part of Brewing: Taking out the spent grain from the lauter tun (unlike in my previous job in finance, you can instantly start to see progress!)
Scariest Part of Brewing: Initial tasting and receiving feedback although I believe I am the harshest critic of our own beer
Favourite Beer Types/Styles: Pale Ale, IPA, Best Bitter, Irish Stout, Lager, Lambic/Gueuze, Fruit Sours
Some of My “Go To” Beers: Keeps changing but always enjoy Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Boon Oude Mariage Parfait, Tergernseer Hell, Schneider Weisse Tap 7, Guinness Stout, Orval
Fun Fact: I was born in Belgium so I like to say beer is in my blood. And I grew up in England so this only reinforced the beerness in my blood. I am technically Japanese though. So some appreciation of food with beer could also be in my blood??
Favourite Activity: Brazilian Jiujitsu (“BJJ”), a grappling martial arts/sports. Currently a Purple Belt, having been training for around 7.5 years
Dream: To run a brewpub with BJJ mats upstairs where I can train BJJ, come downstairs to brew beers, chat to customers and socialise with friends and training partners