The operations manager at a brewery has revealed thousands of litres of beer were destroyed in a blaze.

A 17th century barn and brewery in Eridge, near Tunbridge Wells, was hit by lightning yesterday afternoon, with the building catching on fire and spreading throughout.

Owner Chris Drummond heartbroken after business ravaged by fire

The barn belonged to a business called The Good Things Brewing Co and its founder Chris Drummond said he and his team were "deeply saddened" by the event.

Now, operations manager Charlie Young, has revealed that they were due to bring out four new beers this week and had tasting events planned at the brewery over the next four weeks. The fire has also held up plans for more products to be released.

He said that they had lost about 8,000 litres of beer from the four tanks inside and the liquid in the two containers outside had been ruined, as the building had lost its power and couldn't regulate the heat of the drink.

About 3,000 litres of the new beer remains as it was prepared last week.

Firefighters battled the blaze for hours and stopped the flames spreading to other buildings belonging to the business, such as the office and a stock room where the beer is kept before deliveries.

Mr Young said: "It was about 12.50pm yesterday, I got a call from one of my friends who happened to be on the farm, he said he heard a big old bang. He saw this fire and almost knew instantly that there was nothing he could do about it.

"He phone the fire service and they got here within 10-15 minutes with one truck, then realised they needed a lot more than one, it's a 17th-century building with chemicals and gases."

"Inside we have got four tanks which have all just completely gone, one of the tops one of them has completely exploded off. We also had a canning line for the packaging, I think that's gone.

"It's really sad, we have lost everything. It's a building that has a lot of memories in it."

Mr Drummond got married there, Mr Young said.

The barn opened for brewing in April 2019 after work began on making it self sustainable in 2018.

A fundraiser for the company has so far raised nearly £4,000.

Mr Young said: "We will come back from this, it just might take a little bit of time."

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