Tom Knox
Truman’s beer is brewed by Tom Knox.
Tom was born an East Londoner, to a family that all came from around the Docklands (not far from the old brewery). In the 70s, they moved to the London overspill town of Haverhill, returning to the capital for their holidays. As a family, they drank Truman’s.
Tom has been a brewer all his working life. He had planned to go to art college, but he got a job at Nethergate first and decided beer was his calling.
His love of brewing was so great that he is largely self-taught. He learnt on the job first, then through apprenticeships at some of the country’s biggest breweries. In 2001, he became head brewer and ever since he was won a hatful of awards for his beers.
When we decided to bring Truman’s back, he was the first person we went to. We needed to get back to basics and Tom brews very good beer.
Late in 2011, Tom set up his own brewery with two friends – Colchester Brewery is in Wakes Colne, Essex and is now in full flow. We are big fans.
Nethergate, Everards and Our Own Brewery
In an ideal world, we would like nothing more than to have started with our own brewery in the heart of East London. Beer is local and always should be.
However, the reality is that Truman’s re-established as a two-man band with no brewery. The aim has always been a new home for Truman’s, but we needed to sell some beer first. Now that we’ve sold a lot of beer, we’re in a position to build a new brewery back in East London – something that we are working on right now.
In 2010, Nethergate agreed to help us get going again and played a big part in our revival. By late 2011, we had grown at such a pace that we needed to move elsewhere and Everards very kindly agreed to help us out until our new brewery is ready.
