Birling Place Farm, Birling, Kent

Website: Kent Brewery

About the brewery

Kent Brewery was established in 2010 as the result of a chance meeting between former digital marketing specialist and real ale enthusiast Paul Herbert and ex-Dark Star brewer Toby Simmonds in the garden of Paul’s local.

The two formed a partnership and produced their initial brews in the Autumn of 2010 at Larkins in Chiddingstone, before premises were secured in former farm buildings in Birling in 2011.  

The brewery presently supplies over 400 pubs throughout the UK and northern Europe on a regular basis, producing the house beer for The Craft Beer Company pubs in London and Brighton, the largest outlet for Craft Beer in the UK.

Regular beers

Black Gold (4% ABV) is a dark golden ale, described as dark and hoppy.

Brewers Reserve (5.0% ABV)  is a pale ale that has a strong citrusy and resin hop flavour balanced with delicate malts.

Cobnut (4.1% ABV) a ruby ale that is generously hopped, with dark and nutty flavours.

Kent Golding Bitter or KGB (4.1% ABV) is a bitter ale that uses Golding and Fuggles hops.

Pale (4% ABV) is a golden ale with a full flavour that uses aromatic hops. This was Kent Brewery’s original brew.

Prohibition (4.8% ABV) is an American pale ale (APA) that has a citrusy flavour and is highly hopped with US hops.

Session Pale (3.7% ABV) is a pale ale that is light and hoppy with hints of citrus and elderflower.

Regular seasonal beers and specials

Citra (4.5% ABV) is a single-hopped pale ale that has citrus flavours and aromas. It’s #2 in Kent Brewery’s single hop series.  

The New Black (4.8% ABV) is a dark ale that has been brewed using American Pale Ale (APA) hops to deliver the light and citrus flavours of an APA combined with a subtle dark malt body.

Orange Crush (4.5% ABV) is pale ale that uses citrusy hops and is infused with a blend of sweet and bitter oranges to create a mellow and easy-drinking pale ale.

Porter (5.5% ABV) a dark ale that is well-hopped, producing a dark, malty beer with hints of coffee and chocolate.  

The Quiet American (4.2% ABV) is an American Pale Ale (APA) that is light and fresh with both floral and citrus flavours and a hint of grapefruit.

Raspberry Beret (4.8% ABV) is a stout that is infused with raspberries for extra richness, delivering a dark, fruity sweet beer.

Tropic Ale (4.9% ABV) is an India Pale Ale IPA that offers a mouth-watering taste of the tropics in a hotbed of fruit and citrusy hops.

Zingiber (4.1% ABV) is a golden ale that uses American hops and ginger that delivers a fruit and warming taste.  

Fancy a pint?

Kent Brewery serves a large number of free houses in the Malling and Maidstone area, in particular the Malling Jug, a micropub just off the High Street in West Malling, and the Brickmakers Arms, Perryfield Street, Maidstone.

Tours and Take Aways

The brewery conducts tours with post-tour sampling taking place in an ante room furnished with seats and pews once used by local hostelries. For more information, or to book a tour, please contact the brewery directly.

A changing range of beers is available in 5 litre minikegs from the website.