There’s never a dull moment for the trailblazing Tribe of environmental consultants at Tyler GrangeManchester.

As well as creating and honing innovation across their business for the four-day working week pilot, the Deansgate-based business has just launched two seasonal low-carbon and environmentally conscious beers – Bramble and Solstice.

The environmental planning firm has been busy brewing ale since 2017, and, in keeping with its very real and visible values, it’s committed to doing so with the smallest possible carbon impact.

For such a socially minded business, it was yet another step towards Tyler Grange’s very recent B Corp certification – along with the introduction of the three-day weekend – and the many benefits this brings.

Brewed for purpose and not for profit – the beer is mainly gifted to Tyler Grange clients and partners – this duo of beautifully modern ales has been curated in collaboration with award-winning Burning Soul Breweryusing new and exciting ingredients.

They take the Tyler Grange beer tally brewed with Burning Soul to three – with Phoenix being the first to be produced in partnership with the brewery. It uses the hop of the same name, which has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity and which, crucially, is locally sourced.
Tyler Grange is always steadfast to seek out collaborative opportunities that have a positive impact – both socially and economically – for smaller, local businesses such as Burning Soul. The craft brewery and tap room opened for business back in 2016 and was named Best New Brewery in the Midlands just six months later.

It’s a passion and pastime that are integral to the ethos of this leading firm of environmental consultants who’ve been nurturing nature, fostering talent and brewing beer, for fun, over the past decade. As are the beers’ names.

Bramble (5.5% abv) was chosen as the name of this late summer, farmhouse style pale ale due to the seasonality of blackberries growing in hedgerows. These, in turn, are very important from an ecology perspective – in terms of biodiversity, arboriculture and as a landscape feature to the natural world.

Tyler Grange’s dark Solstice beer (7.3% abv) is a coffee breakfast stout – with notes of espresso and dark chocolate and is named after the winter celebration of the sun in December. The year’s shortest day and longest night marks the symbolic death and rebirth of the sun. It’s when the gradual waning of daylight hours is reversed and the winter-spring seasonal transition – and its effect on ecology – begins.

Solstice has also been curated in collaboration with Tyler Grange Manchester’s favourite coffee bar and roasters Mancoco. 75 freshly brewed doubles of its signature Espresso Blend – made using fairly traded single origin beans from Sumatra, Brazil and Ethiopia – were immediately transported, by train, to Birmingham’s Burning Soul to be added straight into the beer.

All three beers are made from whole cone hops grown locally to the company’s Birmingham office – one of six located across the UK – along with British grown malt and British yeast, for reduced environmental impact of transport and food miles. These key ingredients are then lovingly combined during a brewing process that only uses renewable energy sources.

Tyler Grange is making strong progress in its carbon ambition, which includes its brews. In fact, it hopes to go beyond carbon neutral to become carbon negative – removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere rather than simply offsetting emissions – with the broader mission of inspiring more businesses to become more sustainable.

And they’re doing everything they can to determine the best way to achieve this, as soon as possible.

Tyler Grange’s Jon Berry said: “We started brewing back in 2017, from our Cotswolds office, and we’ve since gone on to produce eight beers, and thousands of cans each month. It’s a typically Tyler Grange thing to do, as we spotted an opportunity and ran with, to see what could happen, and it’s ended up pretty big. Next year we plan to brew four – one for each season and reflective of how seasonal environments shape ecological processes.

“We started off, many years ago, as a hobby for some of us has become an incredible success and, crucially, it brings many benefits to our business – including employee engagement, happiness and satisfaction.

“As well as being lots of fun, it’s yet another example of how diverse and innovative we are as a business. We’re not just about one thing. We have lots of interests to celebrate. It makes us better at our jobs and provides us with a terrific talking point.”

Burning Soul’s Chris Small said: “Tyler Grange came to us with the idea of creating a low carbon beer to gift to its clients and partners free of charge. It’s not often that we brew beer for no profit, which has made the collaboration even more interesting.

“Working with Tyler Grange has been a really enjoyable experience. The team is really passionate about brewing beer that aligns to their ethos and brand values, which has been educational and fun.”

“The very nature of beer brewing makes it difficult to stay completely environmentally friendly, and the challenge set by Tyler Grange to do as much as we can to offset any harmful impacts provided us with some creative license to experiment with new, carbon saving methods, whilst making excellent beer at the same time.”

To find out how Tyler Grange Beer is brewed, watch this.

Tyler Grange has offices located in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Exeter and Cirencester, in the Cotswolds. For further information visit https://tylergrange.co.uk.