It’s hard to find a job that involves helping a company do purchasing in China nearly as exciting as being one of Asia’s most prominent craft beer producers. Maybe that’s why the Yardley brothers have it out for the conventional overly-corporate way of life, as hinted at by the names they’ve given their flagship beers, from the Quit Your Job! Saison to the Machine Man Pale Ale.

Luke and Duncan Yardley.

Even as teenagers, Luke and Duncan Yardley had been avid homebrewers. So when the Yardley brothers had gotten themselves to Hong Kong in 2010, ended up loving the city so much that they ended up settling down there, and then found themselves gifted a brewhouse in 2016, they knew it was time to turn their brewing dreams into a reality. Up till then they had simply been brewing beer for themselves and their friends, and the next thing they knew, they were housed in a borrowed kitchen of a Lamma Island restaurant, and were now handing out beers from a shack to the island's residents and day-trippers who were out for a hike. “We never had a business plan. But when the beer shack started earning more money two days a week than I made at my job five days a week, I was like, ‘Ah, this works.’” concedes Luke.

Their timing couldn't have been better - at the time the craft beer revolution had yet to reach the shores of Hong Kong, with the island primarily dominated by macro lagers. And thus when the Yardley brothers began leaning into their experimental streak - which today defines them as they push the boundaries of producing sour beers, barrel-aged beers and wild ales, as one of Asia's forerunning producers - things quickly took off.

From humble beginnings on Hong Kong's Lamma Island.

Further stoking that excitement and building quickly a dedicated fanbase were the numerous collaborations the brothers did with many other brewers from around the world - some of the wildest (yet most successful) being the Thai Chilli Getaway, a lacto-fermented sour made with Thai basil and bird's eye chilli to recreate Thailand's iconic tom yum goong, which came as a result of their brainstorming with several Thai brewers who even served jail time for homebrewing in Thailand, but is today a Parliament member who is vocal about liberalising Thailand's brewing laws.

Despite the speed bump that was Covid, the Yardley Brothers have managed to tide it out, and today have a sizeable fully fitted out brewery in Kwai Hing and another in Kwai Chung - no more operating out a kitchen! - and also operate two taprooms (one in Peel Street, and the other being the original beer shack on Lamma Island), with most of their beers available in bars and bottle shops across Hong Kong. Today the Yardley Brothers is but just one Yardley, that is Luke, and his wife, who has taken over the duties of Duncan, who has since moved to France.

Today the brewery is helmed by Luke Yardley and his wife.

Ultimately, whilst the Yardley Brothers have achieved significant success and recognition for their work in the past 7 years, the story is really only just starting. Luke Yardley continues to innovate - even being the first in Asia to brew with an open air coolship that allows for spontaneous wild yeast fermentation to occur, having done so with the Lamma Island's ambient yeast - and has also over 70 barrels tucked away with beers that have aged for several years in the likes of French oak, American Bourbon casks, Chardonnay wine barrels and some more exotic Vin du Jura barriques.

“If you keep banging out the same pale ale everyday, it’s boring – that’s not what gets me out of bed,... the point of good beer is to be curious.” says Luke Yardley.

And with all that said, today we're going to try one of the hottest collabs by the Yardley Brothers, this one with Manchester, UK's Cloudwater Brewing! This collab saw two beers, one batch fermented with Brettanomyces cultures, and the other with Saccharomyces cultures, which allowed for the comparison of how the two different wild cultures had developed the beers - you're even invited to scan a QR code and vote for which you liked more afters!

Today though we've only got one half of the collab and that's Who The F%#k is Brett? which is of course the half of the collab brewed with Brettanomyces cultures.

Aside from the Brett culture, Superdelic, Nelson Sauvin and Nectaron hops were used, along with Yakima 586, Citra and more Nelson Sauvin for bittering. A combo of Pilsner, Caramel Pils, Wheat, Caramel Aromatic and Oats were used as the base malts for this Hazy IPA. 

Let's go!

Beer Review: Who the F%#k Is Brett? Hazy IPA, Yardley Brothers x Cloudwater

Tasting Notes

Colour: Cloudy Apple Juice

Aroma: It's funky alright! It opens up with yeasty touches of kombucha, animal hide, barnyard, hay - all those classic brett characters. There's also some orchard fruits of pears and apples. Perhaps an apple or pear kombucha! It's raw and rustic, yet nothing overwhelming, with a rather clean base of isotonic water that keeps it rather light and not particularly strong or dense.

Taste: It hits with a cleaner and more neutral hit of isotonic water, rather similar to a saison or a farmhouse ale. There's also some dried tangerine peels that comes through with several sips, along with a more prominent hit of cut grass and gasoline. It's even alittle smoky and flinty.

Finish: That cleanness persists, with that lingering rustic and funky, raw brett notes of barnyard, hay, animal hide, and then somemore of that gasoline. It's a pretty clean finish.

My Thoughts

This felt like a supercharged saison or a farmhouse ale that's been given way more concentrated fruit flavours yet preserving that overall cleanness and neutral tone that comes with those styles, and then at the same time imbued with some touches of that IPA dankness with just alittle bit of cut grass and gasoline.

Whilst quite honestly not my personal style of beer that I'd typically enjoy - me being not a huge fan of saisons or farmhouse ales - this wasn't quite my favourite, though I will say that I did enjoy that raw, rustic and funky brett quality that came through, because I do enjoy wild ales very much. I find the beer rather aromatic, with a pretty firm body that was overall cohesive and whilst the flavours lean brighter and lighter, the body gave it more structure and presence with a good amount of moderate density.

If you're a saison or farmhouse ale fan though, I would definitely recommend this because it takes that style and concentrates it and gives it much richer and aromatic flavours that adds to the overall complexity.