Two Fingers Brewing Co.

Two Fingers Brewing Co. is an award-winning craft beer brand and social enterprise, which gives all profits to the charity Prostate Cancer UK. Two Fingers Brewing Co. is based in Farringdon, London.^[1]

History

Two Fingers Brewing Co. was founded by seven friends, who met whilst working at an advertising agency in London.^[2]

In 2012, several of their colleagues were affected by prostate cancer and they were shocked to learn that prostate cancer kills roughly as many men as breast cancer does women,^[3] despite awareness and funding of it being significantly lower.^[4][5]

Around this time, the company where they worked was moving to a new building with its own bar, so they came up with the idea to produce their own craft beer to sell within it – and realised the opportunity for that beer to give back to the men that drank it, by donating all its profits to prostate cancer charities.^[6]

After a positive response to a small batch of beer sold to family and friends, the friends decided to launch the brand nationally. So they spent 2013 building a supply chain of partners who all agreed to work at, near or below cost in support of the cause, as well as forming an official partnership with Prostate Cancer UK.^[2]

Two Fingers Brewing Co.'s first beer, Aurelio, went on sale to the public in January 2014. Notable retailers have included Tesco, Ocado, Morrisons, Jamie’s Italian, and Club Gascon, the Michelin-starred restaurant.^[6]

Products

Two Fingers Brewing Co. currently sells one beer, called Aurelio, but have stated ambitions to expand their range, giving each beer a man’s name that describes the characteristics of the drink. Aurelio is a Latin man’s name meaning golden, due to that beer being a golden ale.^[7]

Aurelio is a 4.8% alcohol by volume golden ale, brewed with pale ale malt, crystal malt, goldings and admiral hops. Aurelio is brewed and bottled at cost for Two Fingers Brewing Co. by Hepworth & Co, the Sussex-based craft brewer.^[2]

Design and branding

Two Fingers Brewing Co.’s logo features a hand pointing with two fingers, which is designed to represent an oath to better beer, in reference to the brand’s commitment to great beer for a great cause, as well as a two-fingered salute to prostate cancer.^[8] The hand points into a black hole, in an irreverent reference to the digital rectal examination for prostate cancer, although this is performed with one finger instead of two.^[7]

Awards and honours

- Best Craft Beer Innovation, International Beer Awards, 2014^[9]

- Selected as Official Beer of the 2014 Empire Awards^[10]

- Contribution to the Community Award, Nectar Business Small Business Awards, 2014^[11]

- Named one of the UK’s 100 most resourceful, inspiring and disruptive small businesses in the Smarta 100 Awards, 2014^[12]

- Winner of a Business in the Community arc contest to win a London Underground advertising poster campaign, with an audience reach of over 2 million people and over 19 million opportunities to see^[13]

- Selected to run a pop up bar in Downing Street for a special Christmas market in honour of the UK's second Small Business Saturday, in December 2014^[14]

- Startup of the year 2014, The Guardian Small Business Showcase^[10]

- Winner of the UK Final of The Venture, Chivas Regal’s contest to find and celebrate the world's most innovative social enterprises^[15]

Partners

Two Fingers Brewing Co. works with a network of partners in order to run its social enterprise.^[2] By role, these partners include:

- The UK's largest men's health charity,^[16] Prostate Cancer UK^[17]

- Sussex craft brewery Hepworth & Co.^[2]

- Marston's for storage and distribution ^[2]

- Chesapeake for label printing,^[2] who have since merged to become Multi Packaging Solutions ^[18]

- Sales support from Cube Business Services ^[2]

- Insurance brokerage from Sutton Winson ^[2]

- PR by Persuasion ^[2]

- Corporate legal advice from Brabners^[17]

- Electronic Data Interchange support from GXS,^[2] who have since merged to become OpenText^[19]

- Social enterprise support from the Business in the Community arc scheme ^[13]

References

External links

• Official website