New brewery The 3 Non Beards set to open in York pub cellar

The 3 Non Beards brewery has been set up by three friends, Andy Aspin, Paul Marshall and Jason Simpson.

The brewery is in the basement of The Rook & Gaskill in Lawrence Street, making it, they say, the only brew pub in York, meaning customers can now purchase beer produced right below their feet.

Mr Marshall, who has been the landlord of the pub since 2013, will host a launch party there on Wednesday.

He said: “Since we came here, I’ve known I wanted to do this.

“I have spent days with some of the fantastic brewers who supply the pub and it became an ambition to be able to have beer that we had made ourselves.”

During the launch event, there will be four of the brewery’s beers available on the bar.

Mr Marshall runs the pub with his wife, Mandy. Before moving to The Rook and Gaskill, they spent five years running The Waggon and Horses.

The couple have won three York CAMRA’s Pub Of The Year Awards.

The brewery will supply some beer festivals, but the beers will not be available in other pubs in the city.

Mr Simpson works for a software company that he founded and then sold. Mr Aspin is a microbiologist at FERA at Sand Hutton.

They began home-brewing together five years ago and wanted to progress. They said the opportunity to team up with Mr Marshall and go commercial was “ideal”.

Mr Simpson said: “To be able to produce beer that we like and have it available in a pub that we like is fantastic. When we put the first pilot beer on the bar and it flew out in three hours, it was a phenomenal feeling.”

Mr Aspin thanked companies that had helped them to establish, including local breweries Bad Seed, Brass Castle, Brew York and Turning Point, and ES Fabrications, who made the brewing equipment.

The brewery launch event is in the pub from 7pm on Wednesday.

The first beers include a pale ale called Misty Mountain Hop, a vanilla porter called Trade Winds, a cherry beer called Serendipity and a grapefruit IPA called Forbidden Fruit.