SIBA Wales & West Region

Includes:
Wales
Eire
Gloucestershire
Herefordshire
Northern Ireland
Shropshire
Worcestershire

Representatives to SIBA Wales and West

Jim Kenyon
Jim was born in hereford. He joined the army at sixteen and served all around the world for 14 years with Airborne Forces. After a parachute accident he left the army and decided to buy a pub, The Victory. At the same time he built and opened a brewery “The Spinning Dog” initially with a four barrell brew length at the back of the pub. Four years later the demand outstipped the four barrell plant so an eleven barrell brewery was installed.
Jim’s interests are rugby, shooting and scuba diving. He is married to Helen and has three children ages range from twenty to eighteen months old.
Jim has been a SIBA Council member for the past year and a SIBA member for the last eight years. He is passionate about defending the progressive beer duty and promotes the ethos of breweries working together for the common good.

Don Burgess

Don Burgess

Don Burgess - Freeminer Brewery
After an Honours Degree in Microbiology at Manchester Polytechnic, and some time spent in medical research, Don briefly worked in Genetic Engineering, a short career terminated by his choice of drinking establishment and the managements ideas about where he should be drinking if in their employment!- He doesn’t “do” wine bars!
Returning to Manchester to follow a desired path in Microbrewing, he gained experience in many aspects of brewing packaging, distribution and promotion (like anyone else who has run a Microbrewery). Setting his sights higher, Don worked as a freelance brewer for a while training brewers and installing breweries, at a time when Micros were still very much in their infancy.
Eventually the opportunity came to set up back in his native Royal Forest of Dean, and he founded the Freeminer Brewery in 1991. The Brewery enabled Don to achieve two wins at the GBBF (Bottled and Speciality sections) and Awards from Beauty of Hops, Decanter, Siba Regional Championships, The Grocer, and local recognition for his work in the local area for food promotion from Cotswold Life and the Federation of Small Businesses. In 2008 his work with Warminster Maltings helping to develop the “Warranty of Origin” for barley sourcing was recognised by CAMRA in its GBG 2008 edition.
He has judged at GBBF, French Craft Brewers competition Nancy, World Beer Cup and American Craft Brewers Cups, and has forged technical brewing links in the UK and Europe. He also has worked on multinational development projects with some well known high street brands of beer and non beer fermented products.
Recently he has developed several beers for the major high street brands, winning recognition from “The Grocer” with an outright win and several top 3 placings for new products which he has developed. He continues to work with promoting local food and regional food quality.

News articles from SIBA Wales and West Region: