Nazerbier

Our latest release is an incredibly poignant one.

It’s a celebration of a warm, kind-hearted and much-loved colleague but, ultimately, it’s also a beer tinged with sadness.

Nazerbier was brewed in collaboration with the wonderful team from our London tap room, 73 Enid Street, in remembrance of George Nazer, one of their own who passed away in November last year.

George was a member of the original Enid Street team that worked so incredibly hard to whip the bar into shape and ensure the opening was a major success.

News of his passing hit everyone within the brewery hard, but especially the staff in London, who showed remarkable resilience and commitment to hold everything together while coping with the shock and grief of his tragic and sudden passing.

The team there felt it would be a fitting tribute for a beer to be created in George’s name, so Nazerbier was born. All proceeds from this 6% Coffee Porter will be donated to SUDEP Action and we really hope you’ll help us in raising a glass to a hugely-respected friend and colleague. You can pick the beer up from our online shop now.

You can also donate to the fundraising campaign for SUDEP Action set up in George’s memory.

Please take a few moments to read the below tribute to George written by Alice, one of our managers at 73 Enid Street.

A TRIBUTE TO HELPFUL GEORGE

November 2018 should have been a triumphant month for us at 73 Enid Street. It followed months of hard work, getting everything in order, painting toilet walls and vacuuming a seemingly endless amount of dust, accompanied only by 80s Spotify playlists, cans of Helles Tettnanger and the camaraderie of our fellow team members. Two weeks prior to opening on November 14th, we began a period of team-building like no other, culminating with the elation of the first beer served to the very first customers who were duly waiting outside for the grand opening.

November 23rd that year changed the lives of so many people, including our own, when George Nazer passed away at the age of 25. George was a member of our team - a larger-than-life character, full of wit and charm, who possessed a kindness and warmth that was infectious. The lasting impact he left on us in the deficiently short time we knew him is testament to his character.

Helpful George - a name he was given by the team in Manchester on his very first day at Cloudwater - will forever be synonymous with his matte black reusable coffee cup, with which he would shame the rest of us with our single-use cups on our frequent coffee trips to Secret Goldmine Cafe, a coffee shop behind our unit on Enid Street. In a sea of flat whites, George would order an Americano - no milk, no sugar.

Nazerbier aims to capture George’s character by imitating his coffee order and has been brewed using the very same espresso coffee blend from Brewtal Coffee London that we all drank together.

George always wanted a beer named after him, and wrote “Nazerbier 6.7%” on a pump clip while working at the Great Northern Railway Tavern in North London, a pub which George loved immensely, and one he will always be a part of. His handwriting from this has been superimposed onto the artwork for his beer. The beautiful illustration of George by himHallows was inspired by a photo taken outside the 73 Enid Street, triumphantly standing on top of the bins that had finally been delivered that day.

George’s sudden passing was a devastating loss to us all. Outpourings of clichéd sayings are all too common at times of grieving and remembrance, but George Nazer truly was one of life’s great humans. He initially trained as a paramedic because he wanted to be able to help people, only to have his goals shot down in his final year of study upon having a seizure, making him unable to gain a license to drive an ambulance. But he didn’t waste time finding a new passion: craft beer. After a long stint at various Fuller’s pubs, that passion led him to apply for a job at Cloudwater and he became one of us.

As a legacy to George, we will be donating proceeds of Nazerbier to SUDEP Action, a charity that works on providing information and sponsoring research on the risks associated with epilepsy and supporting bereaved families and loved ones. Further donations can be made here.

This is for George. And for the team, past and present, of 73 Enid Street: Dani Furness, Lauren Canham, James Lorimer, Jessy Parker Humphreys, Sadie O’Callaghan, and Bojan Nikolic. As well as El Warren, Jess Trerise and the team at Great Northern Railway Tavern; Bea Taylor-Searle; brothers Simon, Chris, Joe and family; and the countless, endless number of people who loved him. He is missed tremendously.

“Express yourself, you can’t be wrong. When something’s good, it’s never gone”

George Paul Nazer

8/4/93 - 23/11/18