Be Curious, Build Connection: Nick Hunt on Brewing With Purpose

Ten years ago, Nick Hunt had a home-brewing habit and an idea: build a purpose-driven business from scratch, and let beer be the excuse for people to actually talk to each other. That became Cotswold Lakes Brew Co. — a taproom-turned-community-hub near Cirencester with a tagline that does all the explaining: beer with purpose.

In this episode, Nick talks to Becks and Erica about naming a brewery after a place he'd lived in for a decade, why a beetroot beer happens (celeriac too), the People Planet Pint group he inherited almost by accident, and what it actually costs — in trial, error, and a lot of very absorbent bread — to brew a genuinely good 0.5% beer.

Nick built Cotswold Lakes Brew Co. around a hyper-local identity on purpose — they still don't sell beyond 20 miles of the brewery — and around a partnership with the local conservation trust that started before the trust had even settled on its new name. He talks about how that kind of alignment — a partner who's genuinely in it, not just ticking a box — is something you can feel within minutes of meeting them: "There's not the sparkle, is there?" as Becks puts it.

He's candid about what hasn't worked: a themed club night that never found its footing, and a low-alcohol beer that took far longer and cost far more to get right than he'd planned, because the demand for it was obvious long before the brewing problem was solved. Both are folded into a wider point about storytelling — Nick's view is that people don't follow a brand because it's polished, they follow it because they got to watch it become something, mistakes included.

Asked what one thing a listener should take from the conversation, his answer is two words: be curious. Build connection first, and let the rest follow.