Meisters of purity

Michele Tieghi (above) is a King’s Business & Management alumnus. He reflects on the challenges he and his co-founders had to overcome when starting their business – a brewery that enables Londoners to enjoy the taste of pure German craft beer.

hroughout my degree, I developed a strong interest in how businesses are run and became fascinated by the many entrepreneurs who reject the nine-to-five rat race to start their own ventures. Being my own boss and doing something I’m passionate about was the biggest motivation for starting German Kraft Beer (GK).

My co-founders Anton Borkmann and Felix Bollen and I met in high school, and we’ve been best friends since. They are two Germans who love a good honest beer, and are also the brains behind GK. Felix worked in Steinbach Brau (now our partner brewery) in Erlangen, Germany, and was adamant that you couldn’t find fresh beer like theirs in London – he was right. Exporting fresh German brews to the UK was out of the question; fresh beer doesn’t travel well and it wasn’t sustainable.

So, we thought, ‘F**k it, let’s make our own fresh German brews in the heart of the capital, and we opened our own London brewery!’

A big challenge was it not being possible to recreate such pure and balanced beers in London due to the difference in the quality of water between London and Germany. This was a problem, as beer is made of 95 per cent water!

We figured the only way to overcome this was to recreate the water quality found in Germany. Fortunately, Felix’s father was running a charity

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which provides fresh, clean drinking water to countries in the developing world. This is achieved by utilising a unique distillation machine, which runs on waste heat. So, we applied that tech to our brewing process, and to our amazement it worked!

Thanks to this water tech, we get mineralised water for our beers from waste heat, thereby making us environmentally-friendly. It also means that GK isn’t restricted to one specific location meaning we can recreate our fresh tasty brews anywhere, no matter what the conditions are. We currently operate from Mercato Metropolitano in Elephant and Castle where the public can enjoy a beer the way German tradition wants us to: fresh and local, and with a wonderful selection of German foods. Soon we’ll be producing mineralised water in reusable glass bottles, helping fight the war against plastic. We have rapidly expanded to 15 employees, which comes with a different set of challenges. We are constantly striving to operate efficiently by optimising our operations and planning ahead to keep up with demand. We don’t want to run out of beer!

A major takeaway from this journey is learning how to build a company structure within a start-up, where each person’s responsibilities are defined and clear, and delegating tasks to stick to the structure. As an entrepreneur, we always want to do everything, but as co-founders we need to learn to focus on the most crucial tasks we are best for. The rest can be delegated to others, to avoid wasting time or burning out.

Based on my experience, I would say if you have an idea, go for it! Build a business plan and execute it. Don’t just look at it and think how it would have been if you opened your own company. Get out and do it.

Prost!

‘F**K IT, LET’S MAKE OUR OWN FRESH GERMAN BREWS IN THE HEART OF THE CAPITAL’

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

You can taste German Kraft Beer yourself at Mercato Metropolitano, 42 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6DR

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