Utopian

Utopian Brewing arrived in Crediton, Devon in 2019 with a clear and unfashionable ambition: to make proper continental-style lager using only British-grown ingredients. Founded by Richard Archer, Steve Cox, and Steve Hanlon after crowdfunding around £400,000 from roughly 200 backers, the brewery took its name from William Morris's 1896 utopian novel *News from Nowhere*. The connection to Morris wasn't incidental. His ideas about craft, care for the natural world, and the dignity of work informed how Utopian wanted to operate from the start.

The brewing is led by Jeremy Swainson, who trained in Germany before stints at Camden Town Brewery. He runs a deliberately labour-intensive operation: double decoction mashing, 15-hour brew days, and a minimum 30-day lagering period for most beers. No finings. No enzymes. The entire grain and hop bill comes from British farms, using varieties like Fuggle, Golding, and Jester. In a country with thousands of breweries, very few work this way.

Until late 2024 Utopian made only alcoholic lagers. Their debut AF Pilsner at 0.5% changed that. It uses the same British-grown barley and hops as the rest of the range, cold-fermented with authentic lager yeast and left unfiltered. The result sits in 440ml cans, vegan-friendly, and available direct from the brewery in mixed pack sizes.

For an AF beer from a brewery that spent years building a reputation on traditional process, it carries some credibility. The range is currently limited to a single product, which is either a sign of restraint or early days in a longer programme. Available direct via the Utopian website and through a small number of specialist AF retailers.

The Collection

AF Pilsner