Silchester-based Mysterious Brewing satisfies beer drinkers nationwide with its unique and exciting products

A Silchester-based brewing company that launched just six months ago has already created 14 different beers and is delivering them to satisfied customers throughout the country.

Mysterious Brewing is the brainchild of Adam Sculthorp, a film cameraman from Burghfield, and Ken Barker, a decorator from Yateley.

Operating out of Little London Brewery, in Ash Park Business Centre, Mysterious has an ethos of creating unique and exciting beers that are still accessible to a wide audience of beer drinkers and enthusiasts.

Mr Barker said: “We know that some of our beers appeal to all markets, but we are always going to try and push the envelope and do something a bit different as well.

“We didn’t want to get into it to just churn out the same beer.”

Mr Sculthorp added: “We’ve been really careful to try and produce a series of beers that show our diversity, from our Black IPA and our Spruce ESB to our American Pales which are really sessionable.”

The pair met through the home brew club Reading Amateur Brewers several years ago and, in early 2022, Mr Sculthorp got in contact with the Burghfield Santas, the organisers of the village’s annual charity beer festival Burghfest, and established a brew competition for the club.

The winning brew would become the festival’s official beer, and Andy Parker from Wokingham-based Elusive Brewing agreed to scale up and produce the winning entry commercially to be sold at Burghfest and at other local events.

Of the 20 entries, it was Mr Barker’s ‘Mystery Fox’ brew which was crowned victorious, sowing the seeds for what would eventually become Mysterious Brewing.

At Burghfest last September, the pair got speaking to the owner of Little London Brewery, Andy Watts, who invited them to cuckoo brew at his brewery.

It gave them the space and equipment to brew their beers, while providing Mr Watts with some extra income for when he isn’t brewing himself.

Mr Sculthorp and Mr Barker decided to embark on their commercial brewing journey last autumn, before officially launching Mysterious Brewing with four beer products on Thursday, May 25, at a special event at The Nags Head pub in Reading.

Over the launch weekend, Mysterious sold the equivalent of 1,700 pints across four days at five venues: The Nags Head, The Hive, Back of the Woods, A Hoppy Place and Bracknell Beer Festival.

Mr Barker said: “We know that the beer goes down well. The places in Reading that take it, they wouldn’t take it if it wasn’t getting drunk, so we’ve got that confidence behind us.”

Mysterious has brewed a wide variety of different beers since its launch in the spring, with its constant creativity stemming from its home brewing background.

Highlights include its Sitka Spruce ESB, flavoured with spruce tips handpicked in Scotland, Otto, a Mysterious twist on a classic German pilsner, and its popular easy drinking pale, Limbo.

Mr Sculthorp said: “We have two rules. The beers need to be approachable. They can’t be a sour strawberry marshmallow whatever that we would struggle to say.

“They also need to be within that 3.8 to 5.5 per cent margin.”

To find out more about Mysterious Brewing and view the different beers the company has on offer, visit its website at https://mysteriousbrewing.com/

The pair hope to grow Mysterious so that it can have its own brewery space and taproom and they can both become brewers full-time.

Mr Barker said: “We want to be profitable but we still want to have fun with it.”