2025 Recap

Hi Thirsty Moose drinkers, I’m Sam. I started looking after sales and customer relations in July. I’m also Max’s brother in law, the head brewer and owner for those who don’t know.

I’ve sat down to write about what 2025 has meant for our family-run business. Admittedly, I’m not going to be able to give the fullest possible account of the year, given that I’ve only been around fully for the last half of it. Plus, this might have the feel of talking about our first year, as I’m coming at this from a total newbie’s perspective, and we’ve not documented our journey before. I shall certainly try my best.

I got the idea for writing this from Warren Buffet, whose annual letter is read and revered by millions. In a book about his career, I read that he sees the number one priority for a given business’s management team as maximising shareholder value. When I first took in that sentence, nothing felt out of the ordinary; rewarding to those who bore the initial risks of setting up a business felt like a perfectly rational perspective. 

And yet ‘shareholder value’ did not feature when I came to write my list of the most important things for our business this year. Let’s be clear, the business has to wash its face. We’ve proven we can do that this year, and that has the number one objective so that we can sustainably fulfill our most basic human needs of food, shelter etc. It’s the ‘maximising’ bit that doesn’t land with me.

So if you’re reading this, Warren, I won’t be offended if you drag this email into your delete folder at this point. Here’s what’s mattered most to us this past year:

First things first, working alongside your family is fantastic. It feels like we’ve all got each other’s best interests at heart, which is wildly different to anywhere else I’ve worked. We all care whole-heartedly about our craft, and never intentionally wish to encumber each other from getting shit done. Long may this always be the case. I’ll be cognisant of us all descending into a Succession-style shoot out, where we all display the very worst of the human condition in pursuit of the billions of pounds worth of Thirsty Moose shares, if and when the time comes.

As I write this today, however, we all support each other greatly. This support extends to our friends too, who’ve continued to choose us over supermarket beers, and spread the good word of Geordie brewers with Canadian heritage. There's been so many of you, plus mutual friends, that have been kind enough to buy your Christmas presents from us this year; thanks for backing us!

I didn’t have a scooby about the North East craft beer scene at the start of this year. I didn’t know the difference between cask and keg, so the credibility of my opinion prior to working here could not have been lower. Crudely, my idea of what this consisted of was a handful of bearded men in the Ouseburn making ‘beer’ that homogeneously tasted overly funky. This intuition turned out to be not 100% wrong; I just needed to broaden my horizons and see, in fact, that an excellent array of beer was being made all over the North East. 

As well as learning of the sheer number of high quality breweries spread across the region, I now know there are sooo many brilliant pubs which prioritise locally-made beer which is craft in the truest sense of the word. In a world of globalisation, I think it’s really important to recognise what local people are able to create, and have a varying degree of personal connection to them; be it a friendship, or simply knowing that your shared environment and culture shaped those people to create the product or service that gives you joy. It feels like Thirsty Moose is merely a small tree within a vast forest representing the North East's beer scene, all sharing the same soil of rich culture and community.

We’ve come across a lot of people this year that play their part in our beer scene. We wouldn’t be in business, of course, without pubs. It’s been surprisingly fun for me calling round a lot of the North East’s pubs and seeing if Thirsty Moose would be a good fit for their customers, and then beginning to form working relationships with those who are fans of our drinks. Some notable mentions of pubs who’ve been great to work with and have consistently supported us throughout 2025 are: Callum at the County, Gosforth; Mick and Jaz at Platform 2, Tynemouth; Liam at the Melton Constable, Seaton Sluice; Emily & Ben at the Last Resort, Heaton; and Gary at the Microbus, Gateshead. 

In August, we decided to begin a complete rebrand of our cans and pump clip designs for every one of our beers. The old ones were canny enough, but didn’t convey to our customers who we are and what’s important to us. Being a small business in our infancy, we had a very limited budget to work with. Fortunately, our paths crossed with Kate’s (my partner & Max’s sister’s) close friend Eve, who’d recently graduated in graphic design (or something of that ilk) and was looking for work. One at a time, often consisting of many iterations, Eve churned out beautiful design after beautiful design. They celebrate the best of the North East and Canada and convey to the world that we care deeply about everything that goes into our product. We’re so grateful to Eve for her work, and hope that she takes at least half as much joy as we do seeing our pump clips on taps all over the country, and cans being enjoyed by an ever growing number of people.

Undoubtedly, our new designs gave our can sales in particular a big boost in the second half of the year. In addition to our website sales, we’ve had the privilege of working alongside some brilliant purveyors of craft beer in the region, two of which stand out especially. Izaz and the staff at Rehills in Jesmond couldn’t be better to work with. They took over this iconic shop a couple of years back and it remains a craft beer institution, of which we’re very proud to be a part of. Secondly, the team at Enjoy Beer in Morpeth have been excellent customers of ours for years and run a wonderful looking shop in Sanderson Arcade, Morpeth.

While we’re in this neck of the woods, I have to give a special mention to the folks at Morpeth Golf Club. Naturally when I began working at Thirsty Moose I knew bugger all about selling beer. I did, however, spend a lot of my early twenties consuming copious quantities of beer at Tynemouth Golf Club. So with this blatant bias towards sticking with what I knew, I emailed every golf course in the North East; asking if they wanted to introduce a bit of quality to their clubhouse drinks offerings. Aside from the club I’m a member of - Bamburgh - one place replied to me; Morpeth. Cheryl and Adam expressed their interest in finding out whether their membership would be happy to have some of our real ales and stouts on the bar, and have been a pleasure to work with from that day forward. 

It was their idea to host a craft beer tasting night; mainly as a way of gauging how our beers landed with their members. We hadn’t done anything like this before, so the anticipation of this was a little nerve racking for me and Max. It turned out to be one of our favourite memories of the year. After introducing ourselves and telling our story, we tried running a blind taste test by encouraging people to guess which beer was which, and what flavours came through for them. After the second round of tasting we learned it was near impossible to keep the test ‘blind’, but by that point neither of us cared as conversations were flowing round the room and so many people gave praise to our beers. It’s this type of thing that comes before maximising shareholder value for us. The event led to more doors opening for us, and we’re excited to see where these will take us.

If I had one regret from the night, it was that I should have done a better job documenting the whole experience on social media, as tough as that was for a #content novice like me. At the other end of the spectrum, there are some guys on Instagram who showcase our beers better than I could ever dream of. A special thanks goes to @cowboydranks, @paul_about_beer, @northeastbeerreview, and @beerbayben for telling the world about what we do, and, as it just so happens, having some really nice things to say about our beers :) 

The praise doesn’t stop there though! Canny Canuck made it three years on the bounce and collected another regional award from SIBA. Then it was voted Bexhill-on-Sea Beer & Cider Festival’s best beer, which was a massive 2025 highlight in and of itself. But the cherry on the cake was Martin & Robin travelling up, in person, from the opposite end of the country, to hand deliver our certificate to us - priceless! We’ve not forgotten John on Untappd too, calling Canny Canuck his beer of the year. Additionally, it was a massive honour for us to have Cocoa Swirl to come in 1st place in the CAMRA Battle of the Beers at Newcastle Beer & Cider Festival.

It’s interesting, like in the case with Morpeth Golf Club, that rewarding experiences beget more rewarding experiences. Winning this award gave the folks over at Hadrian Border Brewery the idea of collaborating on a beer together with us. Working with these stalwarts of North East brewing; Andy, Shona, Lauren, and the rest of the team, was an amazing experience for Max. ‘Struck Gold’ was born for one brew only, and, given how popular it was, proved that Hadrian Border truly has the midas touch when it comes to making beer. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your success, and helping out a smaller brewery in the space. To that end, thanks too for being our reliable canner and keg filler for another year.

Struck Gold was one of four new beers we brought out in 2025. The Full Mountie - our Canadian Style Pilsner - was released in September and was a bucket list beer that Max had always wanted to brew. We all had fun brainstorming what this was going to be called, and in the end was Max’s father in law Mark who chimed in with the winner. It turned out to be one of our best selling cans this year, but hasn’t landed like we hoped on keg. The guys over in the Czech Republic who invented and have brewed the Pilsner for centuries have, funnily enough, mastered the customer experience side of things too. Their taps are grandiose, and their superb-tasting beers come in hardy steins which look like they could easily be used themselves for another couple of centuries. Competing with an experience like that which has such an air of permanence and oozes quality is going to be a challenge that we look forward to grappling with next year. 

The following month - October - saw the birth of our new session pale North by North East; another addition to our core range. We were delighted with how this beer came out; light, easy-drinking, yet with a pleasant array of fruity flavours. Its colourful design featuring the Angel of the North sitting amongst the rolling Team Valley hills in the distance matches the vibe of the beer exactly. We received a lot of kind words on NBNE, so we’re hoping for a big year for this beer, perhaps even on the awards front too! Lastly, in November, we released a winter special 3.8% Best Bitter by the name of Once upon a Tyne. Again, I for sure should have done a better job of telling the world about this beer on social media, especially as our first brew sold out super quickly - it’s clear the world wants craft quality best bitter. Lucky for you, world, our second brew was completed the week before xmas, so we’ll make sure its story continues (pardon the pun) into 2026.

And of course, it would be remiss of me not to mention that, after long, long last, Thirsty Moose released its first merchandise items. It took us a sizable chunk of time to find t-shirts from a local supplier which could be both embroidered and screen printed with heavy cotton, and an affordable price. Fortunately, the guys over at Elite Embroidery were able to provide us with a t-shirt that we’ll be happy to sell year in year out. Our glasses took even longer to order, but eventually we found something that induced a lively pour, giving our beer plenty of head and allowing all of its aromas to skip around the beer’s surface, while also being able to fit nicely inside a gift set. Just like the t-shirts, we’ll be completely content selling this glass to pair up with our beers for years to come. And of course, the best place to get our new tumbler glass with our beers is the 4 can gift set, which has been our top selling item on our website since releasing it. Our top 3 selling beers of the year on cask were, somewhat unsurprisingly, the original triumvirate of Canny Canuck, Oot n’ Aboot, and Belta Blonde - in that order.

Alrighty, I think for everyone’s sake I should look to wrap this up soon. Just a couple of other things are definitely worth mentioning; firstly, the sheer number of festivals we’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of this year is phenomenal. A lot of these are down to Max’s mum Gill reaching out to places around the country who likely haven’t heard of us that fancy bringing in something new, and some are even kind enough to reach out to us first. We also have discovered via Untappd that we feature in a tonne of the CAMRA-run festivals; pretty much one or two each month! Undoubtedly, this is going to be something we lean into even more in 2026 through turning up to more ourselves and learning more about the whole festival experience for real ale fans. 

I’d like to give thanks to our suppliers; chiefly Charles Faram and Crisp Malt. Also to Sellar, for providing us with many serendipitous encounters with pubs around the country that we otherwise would never have met, and for persevering with providing shipping options during a year of turbulence. To Breww, for providing the complete software platform by which to operate every facet of a brewery. To the wholesalers we’ve worked alongside this year who gave us a chance and have allowed more people to try Thirsty Moose for the first time. We look forward to working with you all again. 

And a final collective thanks goes to each and every one of our customers throughout 2025. We sincerely hope that you got more than your money’s worth, and that you’d be happy recommending our beers to friends and family. If that isn’t the case, we’d be greatly appreciative of you letting us know where we fell short, and we’ll look into why this is the case and improve our product where at all possible.

Wishing you and your loved ones a fun and fulfilling year ahead. We'd love to play a small part in it.

Sincerely,

Sam, Max, & all the team at Thirsty Moose x