One of the team behind a Kendal brewery is enjoying embracing a life in beer after formally playing drums in a highly regarded band which also began life in the town.

Gan Yam Brew Co was founded by seven school friends while they were all living in London.

Jonny Le Mare and Chris Talbot work full time on the site on the Shap Road Industrial Estate, while Christopher Gibbons, Jonathan Rigg, Nicolas Graves, William Burgess, and William Wilkinson are also directors and play an active part in running the business.

They all became friends at Queen Katherine School.

Prior to moving into the world of brewing Chris was the drummer in the band Wild Beasts while Jonny was an operations manager for Thames Water.

The brewery regularly opens to the public to have its own tap nights with live DJs and food provided by local producers.

Chris said: “Kendal has become a beer town.

“It's such a fertile ground and an amazing scene to be part of. There are great venues to drink at and they're not afraid to put some pretty modern, progressive beer through the taps.

“Then you've got a crowd of people who go to these places and really appreciate the variation they offer. Then you've got breweries like Fell and Lakes Brew Co putting out great beer and we are still pinching ourselves that we are now part of that scene.

“Among the breweries everybody helps each other out and is happy to share ideas. It’s less of a competition than a community really.”

Jonny said: "The origins of the brewery was really as a way for us to hang out as a group of friends.

"Then in 2020 Chris and I decided the time was right to take on the brewery on a full-time basis and return to our roots in Cumbria.

“We called it Gan Yam because it’s Cumbrian dialect for ‘going home’ and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

"We're using interesting hops from around the world - North America, Australia and New Zealand. So those are the sort of hops that bring forward quite a tropical flavour but still with a respect for beer’s origins.”