Thieves steal vital BEER recipes in raid at micro-brewery
A micro-brewery was broken in to by thieves who took cash and laptops - containing vital beer recipes.
The offenders struck at the Green Duck Beer Company in Stourbridge in an early morning raid.
They smashed through the double glazed glass door of the brewery's office.
Inside, they took around £100 worth of takings and two laptops, one with the recipes stored on.
It took place on Friday morning at about 5am on the eve of the Gainsborough Trading Estate brewery's Oktoberfest beer festival.
The business brews five beers on the site, which also includes a real ale and keg bar.
Director Nathan Kiszka said: "We think this was opportunistic thieves - anyone who is offered laptops for cheap, please let us or the police know."
The brewery makes its own five cask ales - Duck & Dive, Duck & Cover, Duck Blonde, Duck Under and Duck Dastardly. They also run a monthly guest beer, which is this month Duck Dazzling Chocolate Stout.
Mr Kiszka said: "It's annoying that beer recipes which link up to our machines here were also on one of the laptops.
"There was no way to back them up, so they are gone with the laptops.
"We have the recipes in terms of what goes in the beers, but the computer provides the timings to control the brewing process.
"It is a complex mechanism and we are working hard on it.
"The beers will still be the same."
Mr Kiszka said he discovered the break-in on arriving at the business at 6am.
There was no CCTV - a situation the bosses have already changed to protect the site.
He said: "The offenders had kicked through the double glazed window of the door.
"It would have taken five minutes to smash through so they must have been determined.
"We've never been targeted before, it's frustrating on the eve of the beer festival."
Mr Kiszka said one of the laptops the offenders made off with had also contained a bar maid's university dissertation.
The three-day Oktoberfest started on Friday, ending yesterday. Around 500 people attended.
The brewery company was launched three years ago.
It took four months for the team to convert the former engineering unit.
It is split down the middle with a glass wall – with fermenting tanks to make the firm's speciality beers one side, and a lounge to cater for up to 120 people the other.
The lounge features a bar, a pub-styled corner with a sofa and table as well as about a dozen wooden tables in the centre of the room for drinkers to sit at.
