BUSINESS NEWS
to double capacity. David, aged 75, runs the Erdington micro-
Ex-teacher brews up new future R
BY JON GRIFFIN
etired schoolteacher David Woodhead is toasting a new dawn for his Froth Blowers Brewing Company – with plans
brewery along with stepsons Andrew and Neil, and has been selling quality beers from the Wood Lane industrial unit since October 2013. Now the tiny brewery is on the verge of a
major expansion by moving into new premises just 50 yards away with the aim of doubling output.
‘The job keeps me active and it has gone well enough to set up another brewery’
David, a keen real ale enthusiast since his days as a promising cricketer with Warwickshire Seconds in the 1960s, decided to set up the brewery after his wife Joyce – a highly talented pianist and music teacher who worked for years with the Conservatoire and Birmingham University – died and he was left on his own in a seven-bedroomed house in Four Oaks. “I was a retired teacher on a pension and just
running the house was an unnecessary expense. It made common sense to sell it.” The house sale enabled David to found Froth
Blowers, which is currently selling 30 barrels a week. He said: “We are novices but we have
Cheers! (L-R): David Woodhead, Neil Williams (sales director) and Andrew Williams (brewing director)
made a good start and if we can double our output in the next 12 months, it will be worth doing. We decided that we might as well use some of the money from the house sale to build a bigger brewery. “I have always been a ‘pub collector’ and am
interested in old pubs, those which have not been spoilt, although there are very few left. Once CAMRA took off in the late 70s and early 80s, I started getting interested in beer from small breweries.
“The job keeps me active and it has gone well
enough to set up another brewery.” David, a former Head of English at Castle Vale
School, retired from full-time teaching in 1990 at the age of 50 and later worked for more than 10 years as a supply teacher. He also said his drinking habits had changed
down the decades. “I drank indiscriminately as a sportsman but from 1990 I did not drink beers from bigger breweries which had bought other breweries and closed them.”
10 CHAMBERLINK APRIL 2016
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