no. 037 | The Three Legs

Winemakers turned brewers, co-founders Ben and Sam have spent a decade growing The Three Legs into a cult brewery making beer that’s anything but “brown”.

Whether folklore or gospel, there is a fantastic story that is widely circulated on how the pub chain J. D. Wetherspoon got its name.  A young English pupil that found himself growing up in New Zealand — Tim Martin — was told that he would never amount to anything by a frustrated teacher called Mr. Wetherspoon. His teacher’s name now sits above the name of every location of the chain pub across the country. Say what you will about the business and its owner, this is a strong way of proving a point, and whilst not as flamboyant as Martin’s move, The Three Legs also take their name from a disgruntled teacher. 

“At University me and a couple of my mates [which includes co-founder Sam Chamier] were perhaps less than studious”, explains co-founder Ben Murray. “This led to one of our lecturers referring to us as the ‘The Three Legs of Evil’. We didn’t feel like this was necessarily deserved and so chose to own it for ourselves, turning it to our advantage”.

Ben and Sam originally studied and trained as winemakers at Plumpton College in East Sussex. This was 2014 and the duo needed a good supplier of good quality beer to fuel the grain harvest. “We started brewing and bottling in the winery for the harvesting team”, says Murray. “People really enjoyed the beer and started to ask us about buying it, so we started brewing more!”. 

That eventually led to a requirement for more space, which they discovered on a drive home from the winery. “I saw a sign on a farm gate saying ‘Units to Let’ and that led to us setting up a nano brewery in a shipping container”. That got The Three Legs up to 160 litres of beer per week, and they’ve not looked back.

Ten years on, things have changed. co-founder Sam remains a Director but has since moved to France to pursue a winemaking career. The remaining team of 10 have moved through three brewery locations and now have roots laid down in Bexhill on Sea. “We caught wind of an arts based initiative happening in Bexhill called The Beeching Road Studios which involved the renovation of an old industrial building by the council into artist studios, a gallery and some commercial spaces were available to support the project and it felt like a good fit so we moved our entire operation in August 2023 just in time for our 10th Birthday”.

The larger space allows for up to 4,440 litres of beer to be brewed each week, which sounds like a lot. However, the team still struggle to keep up with demand; we had to pre-order batch’s selections a couple of months out to ensure we had them ready for you for the beginning of September. The finite nature of their beers also speaks to Ben and the team’s dedication to high quality ingredients, which aren’t endless. “That’s the difference between a great pint and boring brown beer as far as we’re concerned”.

Given the current craft beer landscape, I’ve recently taken to asking founders what they consider to be their biggest current challenge. I don’t expect it’ll be winning me a Pulitzer Prize, but I do enjoy asking it as it helps to cut through the veneer of the polished founding story. Murray’s answer is as direct as the question: “The biggest threat for all craft breweries at the moment is the mega breweries passing off as ‘craft’. They are doing an amazing job of duping consumers through branding and the use of buzzwords into believing that their mega factory beer is in fact craft. We believe that good beer is made by people who understand and react to the ingredients available, not through industrial processes and additives to achieve a predetermined end result”. 

And that’s what we have here; three beers that have been carefully and confidently created using exceptionally fresh hops and high quality malts. “We’re not looking to reinvent any wheels”, Ben assures, “but to improve and put our own spin on all the good stuff that has come before us”.

I ask him if he has any final tips for enjoying our chosen beers. “A frozen glass for pale ales”, he quickly and pithily replies, and so we’re off to place a glass between our frozen peas and Ben & Jerry’s.