feature | REAL ALE HEROES VERSION REPRO OP
Real Ale Heroes Number 38: Jaega Wise SUBS ART
Brewing superstar
PRODUCTION
As well as running Wild Card brewery in east London, Jaega Wise has also carved out a new career as a broadcaster while tackling racism and misogyny in the brewing industry, writes Roger Protz PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILL AMLOT Jaega Wise has burst through
CLIENT
not one but several glass ceilings. She is a leading female brewer in a male-dominated industry and she’s a woman of colour in an industry that is predominantly white. She has successfully challenged misogyny and racism, and has gone on to establish a multilayered career. As well as brewing beer that won her the Brewer of the Year award from the British Guild of Beer Writers in 2018, she is an accomplished radio and TV presenter, pub owner and author. Jaega has come a long way in a short time. She’s from Nottingham where she dabbled in home brewing with friends William Harris and Andrew Birkby. She moved to London to work as a chemical engineer – as well as her other accomplishments she has the impressive credentials BeEng (DIS) Hons on her CV – and she encouraged William and Andrew to join her. They launched their Wild Card brewery using other brewers’ kit until 24 BEER SUMMER 2022
BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN
2012, when they opened their own plant on an industrial estate in Walthamstow, east London. They were sufficiently successful to soon need bigger premises. In 2017, they organised a crowdfunding campaign that brought in enough funds to move to another industrial estate near Blackhorse Road. The new plant, with additional conical fermenters, enabled the beer range to grow at a rapid pace. Properly brewed lager was joined by pale ale, IPA, Belgian-style saison and German gose. A barrel-ageing programme was launched with imperial porter, while a saison made with the addition of fruit are aged in Rioja, rum and Speyside whisky casks. Monthly specials are added to the core range. And then two twists of fate arrived:
the lockdown created by Covid-19 and the opportunity for Jaega to develop a media career on top of brewing. Canning at first had been conducted off-site, but fortunately Jaega and her
