Tartarus Beers was founded in 2020 by Jack Roberts and Jordan Orpen with the shared vision of wanting to produce a range of high quality craft beers. They wanted to enter the market with a style of beers that they felt were underrepresented in the craft beer scene, particularly in the current UK market. And they did just that, the launch of their first 3 beers being a Belgian Saison, a Belgian Triple & a Russian Imperial Stout.
Their decision to release two Belgian beers was an obvious one, with their love of Belgian beer and the fact that not many UK breweries produce these styles. The imperial stout they released is 17% and was in fact at the time, the strongest imperial stout floating around the UK market. These beers were intended to hit the market hard and make the craft beer scene look up and pay attention. And they did just that, with the first 3 beers selling out immediately and their imperial stout ‘Abaddon’ becoming well known in the industry amongst craft beer drinkers and other breweries.
Their focus is on brewing Imperial & European beers but they also produce a wide range of styles from clean crisp lagers, easy drinking saisons to full bodied stouts. Traditional styles of beers are usually met with a Tartarus Twist, with their latest invention being a Squid Ink, Seaweed & Yuzu Imperial Gose which was released to celebrate their second birthday. And if that wasn’t enough, all their beers are named after mythical creatures and legends, with each beer getting its own tale which you can read whilst you sip the creation.
2022 saw Tartarus move into their own 5000 sq ft brewery which will also be home to their very first taproom. The taproom will showcase their wide range of beers on offer, including special and one-off releases. 2023 will see the taproom host tap takeovers, events & food vendors in the hope to place the taproom on the map as a great drinking venue in Leeds. We can also expect a barrel project from Tartarus over the next coming months which will see a variety of complex barrel aged beers.
Tartarus on Brewser.
The first beers brewed under
Little Earth Project were produced in autumn 2015 and released in late summer 2016. At this time, brewer Tom Norton was brewing primarily clean cask beer under Mill Green Brewery in the village of Edwardstone, Suffolk, and was looking for a new challenge. Growing up locally with a family who made natural East Anglian cider for most of his life, fermentation had always been of interest, and the idea of blending those ideas led Tom to experiment with using cider lees/yeast to ferment his beers.
The resulting beers are styled similarly to wild, sour and barrel aged beers found in Belgium and vary from golden sours to dark sour porters, Flanders reds as well as blends of ciders and saisons. Many are aged for at least a year in a variety of oak barrels, with some reaching 2 to 3 years before blending or foraged fruits, flowers or herbs are added – all of which are sourced or foraged locally.
Brewing is led by the seasons, with most being done in winter with the occasional aid of coolships for spontaneous fermentation. A small patch of land local to the brewery yields a hop crop of 300 organic plants over 13 varieties – including classic English hops such as Fuggles, Boadicea and Goldings.
The team remains small, being run by Tom with help from his Dad and Sister. Tom’s girlfriend, Dani Mountain joined in 2018, managing both the operations and admin of the brewing and pub business since.
With a specific focus on renewable and sustainable practices, the brewery was built with low embodied energy materials such as lyme plaster/foundations, sheep wool insulation and local bricks. A combination of solar panels and a wood boiler work together to heat the water used to brew and the wood used comes from locally coppiced trees. A borehole 60m under the brewery provides water for both the brewery and onsite pub, the Edwardstone White Horse Inn, which was taken under lease by LEP in 2021. With 5 draught LEP lines, alongside 11 keg lines featuring indie breweries from around the UK as well as a handful of cask lines and both still and sparkling ciders on offer, it’s a little drinks oasis off the beaten track.
