After a career of over 30 years in the NHS as an anaesthetist, Bryn decided to apply his scientific knowledge and expertise to the art and craft of brewing. Under the appropriately named “Gasman Brews” he set up a small batch nanobrewery in late 2024, with a planned production capacity of around 2,000 litres per year. Even the logo you see above, designed by his contacts at Sheffield Hallam University, has a hidden connection. If you look closely at the G in the centre, its shape is based on an old Victorian anaesthetic mask and the plunger of a syringe.
Explaining his journey from the operating theatre, Bryn said, “I retired around 2 years ago following a clinical career in a very demanding and pressured environment. The need to occupy my brain and make use of the luxury of suddenly having so much free time made me think hard about things I have always been really passionate to explore further. My interest in cooking and experimenting with flavours was an obvious choice, but I realised my lifelong enthusiasm for different styles of beer was not backed up by any credible knowledge or skill in brewing. The opportunity to channel my enthusiasm for both was too tempting to ignore! However, the question was how and where to start?”
Sometimes social media algorithms are beneficial, as Bryn’s eye was caught by an invitation to attend an open day with Nottingham’s renowned home brew club, “Place to Brew” based in Daybrook. Signing up for membership followed immediately, and this led to the opportunity to learn the basic skills of brewing with patient mentoring from experienced members. Bryn commented, “Having been an expert in my profession for so long, starting out again as a genuine “novice” was quite daunting, but compared to the pressure and risk in my previous career I decided what’s the worst that could happen, I brew something undrinkable!”
Bryn’s experience at Place to Brew was really positive, saying “the people I met were so supportive, enthusiastic and knowledgeable, it was an ideal environment for me to gain first hand brewing experience. I learned so much in a short period of time. In my NHS career you were always part of a team that you could rely on for support, advice and assistance, and it was evident that the people involved in brewing share the same communal approach”.
His next step was enrolling on a Wine & Spirit Education Trust course to gain more formal knowledge and confidence with key ingredients, production processes and the flavour profile and quality of beer. As well as providing a recognised Beer qualification, future steps in this programme can lead to membership of the Guild of Beer Sommeliers, which brings us back to combining beer tasting and pairing with food flavours!
Bryn invested in the essential equipment, initially starting out with a Grainfather G30 and a BrewZilla Gen4 kit, and embarked on his first production batches. He definitely had some interesting initial experiences, stating “sampling some of my first hand-bottled beers was an incredibly exciting moment, unfortunately with mixed results. Whilst I didn’t brew anything “undrinkable”, a couple of my early brews were definitely an acquired taste, however a network of keen volunteer samplers quickly identified several were good enough to produce in volume”.
Some further brewing training, this time with Brew Lab, helped steer Bryn onto firmer ground with gaining consistency in his core beer styles and confidence to add to this range.
So fast forward to the present and everything is going well. Brewing from an outbuilding at home, Bryn now promotes a range of medically themed bottle beers, including Bedside Manner, a traditional 4.1%abv amber bitter, Key Worker, a Red hoppy 4.5%abv IPA, Under the Weather, a honey & spice 5.7%abv pale ale and Nightingale, a 5.4%abv IPA named to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of the NHS during the COVID pandemic. A dedicated website provides his ‘shop window’, where there are even a couple of items of merchandise available!
He has already enjoyed a first collaboration brew with Jack from Lenton Lane. He said “I was really excited to get involved in a larger scale local brewery and I know that Lenton Lane have built up a great reputation in our area for their quality and range of beers. It was such a great opportunity and I had my first brew day with them in late September. We worked on the basis of a blueberry porter, targeting a 4.5%abv, that will be available for the Nottingham Robin Hood Beer & Cider Festival and then hopefully appearing in a number of local pubs during the Stout & Porter stroll in November.”
As you’ll be reading this article after the beer festival, we hope you got the opportunity to sample it. Bryn’s plans for 2026 look to provide his beers in cask or pins in selected local pubs and micropubs, backed up by some beer tasting and food pairing events to bring his original retirement ambitions to fruition!
Bryn pictured above with an early anaesthetic machine displaying a range of his beers and the products of his labour!
For more information on Gasman Brews and Place to Brew, please see links to their websites below:
https://www.gasmanbrews.com/