If you’re a beer drinker, the only thing better than a good bike ride, is a good bike ride that finishes with a great beer. And the only thing better than a great beer? Well… a great Stroud Brewery x Stolen Goat beer, of course!
Stolen Goat was established out of the dream that you should live your life the way you want to. The company was founded as a route for Tim Bland (CEO) to get out of the 9 to 5 corporate pressures that trap so many people this day and age.
Freedom is getting out and doing what you love. Freedom is riding with your buddies, freedom is running full tilt for an hour, freedom is exploring the local trails.
It's fair to say, they've made some eccentric designs in the past, and that's what caught our eye at Stroud Brewery.
We wanted our jerseys to be eye catching, but also highly functioning. Stolen Goat absolutely nailed it! The cut of the garment allow you to be free in your movement, literally enabling you to be less restricted as you pursue your goals.
Here's the story of the design from the wonderful team at Stolen Goat...
"And so, early one fine June morning, Mark and I strapped bags to our bikes, threw in some spare clothes and set off to pedal the 75 odd miles over to Gloucestershire. With the scent of adventure in the air and the promise of a good beer upon arrival in our minds.
Bike-packing is definitely one of my favourite things to do on a bike and I’m fairly used to touring. But, for Mark, it was a fairly new experience and his excitement was infectious. Aside from a brief section dodging traffic and roadworks in Thatcham, most of our route took us down winding country roads and beautiful countryside. It was glorious and we even had time to stop midway at a lovely hotel for a coffee before setting off on the final run into Stroud. Here, our desire to avoid the main roads proved to be our slight undoing. We could easily have stayed on the main road to the Brewery but it transpired our route, which we believed we had planned perfectly in advance, actually finished with a final 12% climb. Followed by immediately descending to the main road again. I have no idea how we got that so wrong!
When we finally arrived at Stroud Brewery, we met up with our colleagues Jim and Dug who had made their way up from Poole. We were treated to the warmest of welcomes from Greg Pilley himself. Greg had founded the Brewery 15 years ago and is the driving force behind their mission to make great beer, without damaging the planet. Greg gave us the full brewery tour, explaining the processes and allowing us to sample some brand-new production. It was clear that the Stroud crew are a close-knit bunch, cheerily but busily working around us as we tried not to get in the way! We learned, amongst other things, that the Brewery is really a big part of the local community. They work with artists (such as the wonderfully talented Imogen Harvey-Lewis) and colleges to use the space and bring the building to life. Seeing them in action really cemented with us the belief that our ideals and theirs were a perfect match. Our enthusiasm for the project was well and truly back on track.
The rest of the evening went by in a blur of great food and drink at the Stroud Tap Room, in wonderful company. If you ever get the opportunity to visit, then you definitely should. The beer, pizza and atmosphere were all as excellent as we had anticipated. As we said our farewells the following morning, we vowed to repeat the visit soon. Mark and I jumped back on our bikes for the long ride home, enjoying the summer sun, the stunning rural scenery and looking forward to the fun ahead.
No more Kidding around…
Now, after all the hard work and the delays, we are finally able to usher our new collaboration with Stroud Brewery into the light of day. A fabulous new cycling jersey and the Kidding Pale Ale in a specially designed beer can, featuring art from our friend Mal at Pye Candy."
