Drop Bear Beer Co

Drop Bear Beer Co. was founded in 2019 by wife-and-wife team Joelle and Sarah Drummond. Both were craft beer drinkers but had become frustrated by the alcohol-free options available to them, feeling that they lacked the depth, personality and excitement of the full-strength beers they enjoyed. Starting with a large saucepan in their one-bedroom apartment in Mumbles, they began developing beers of their own, with Drop Bear launching around six months later.

From the beginning, Drop Bear was built specifically around alcohol-free beer rather than treating it as an extension of a conventional full-strength range. Joelle and Sarah set out to challenge perceptions of non-alcoholic beer by putting flavour first, developing distinctive, hop-forward beers from high-quality natural ingredients and aiming to provide the character of modern craft beer without the alcohol. The company has remained independent and female-founded as it has grown.

For its first few years, Drop Bear produced its beers using other breweries' equipment. Millions of cans were brewed through production partnerships while the business developed its recipes, customer base and national distribution. That changed in 2023 when Joelle and Sarah acquired a purpose-built brewery in Swansea, giving Drop Bear its own production home for the first time and marking a significant transition from contract brewing to operating a dedicated alcohol-free brewery.

The Swansea site itself has a brewing history extending beyond Drop Bear. Purpose-built as a brewery in 2000, it had operated as a real ale brewery for more than two decades before Joelle and Sarah acquired it. Drop Bear transformed the site around its specialist production requirements and now describes it as the UK's largest non-alcoholic brewery, combining the building's traditional brewing heritage with equipment and processes focused specifically on modern alcohol-free beer.

Environmental impact has developed alongside the brewery's growth. In 2022 Drop Bear worked with ClimatePartner to analyse the carbon footprint of the business and its beers from the company's beginning. Historical emissions were offset and a longer-term reduction strategy was developed, while the Swansea brewery incorporates measures including an electrically powered brewplant and structural changes intended to reduce energy consumption. Drop Bear describes the site as the world's first carbon-neutral alcohol-free brewery.

Since its beginnings in a Mumbles apartment, Drop Bear has grown into an award-winning specialist producer whose beers are stocked nationally and internationally. The brewery reports receiving more than 40 awards, but its original objective remains central to the business: making alcohol-free beers capable of standing alongside full-strength craft beer for flavour, variety and character while continuing to push the low-and-no category forward.

Drop Bear's Swansea brewery is also open to visitors in a limited capacity. Its brewery shop operates Monday to Friday, allowing customers to buy beer directly from the source, while brewery tours can be arranged on request for groups of ten or more. Visitors can learn more about the specialist alcohol-free brewing operation and the site that has given Drop Bear its permanent production home since 2023.