Craft Beer Meets Criminal Justice
By Tariq Sinnetamby
Ok Bimblers, here’s an unusual one for you. A craft beer venue run by ex-criminals and founded by a criminal barrister, a PhD student and a former counsellor for ex-offenders. Let me present to you: Tap Social
I met with co-founder Tess Taylor at their new pub, The White House, where she told us how Tap Social has been changing the face of prison reform one pint at a time.
Since the media coverage of offenders seems to stop at the moment of conviction, the founding trio hoped to give offenders a fair chance at rehabilitation and change public perception on the reality of prison sentences. For founders Tess, Amy and Paul, the heart of Tap Social was always the social initiative: “At the time we had much more experience in criminal justice than we did beer” Tess says.
Tap Social’s story begins in 2015 when Tess flew into London from her hometown Toronto to visit her sister Amy and her partner, Paul. They put their heads together (at a pub, incidentally) and within a few months they’d quit their jobs, taken out a lease on a unit just outside Oxford and added economist Matt and brewer Jason to the founding team. Six years later, the Tap Social movement has expanded to three new venues around Oxford alongside a state-of-the-art brewery in Kennington where they distribute cans and kegs across the country. They have employed over 40 ex-offenders from HMP Spring Hill (near Bicester) through every level of their operation from warehousing and distribution to sales, cooking and in-person hospitality.
Tap Social has ensured that the social initiative behind their business is central to their branding too. Their flagship beers bear witty names — False Economy, Jobsworth, Inside out, Cell Count, Unlocked — each highlighting a different issue within Britain’s criminal justice system. For each of these, Tap Social expose the staggering statistics that form the story behind each can.
Among the selection, co-founder Tess chooses their “Time Better Spent” IPA as her personal favourite, both for its fruity palette and its message that for ex-prisoners, time in training and employment is indeed time better spent. Each beer also sports unique artwork, designed by prisoners at HMP Huntercombe (near Henley), splashing vibrant colours over a backdrop of black and white prison stripes.
Tap Social’s latest venture, The White House, opened this April and stands just off Abingdon Road, a stone’s throw away from the Isis river. Don’t let the name fool you, The White House is a chameleon; contrasting the inn’s authentic Victorian furnishings, Persian carpets decorate polished hardwood floors and original HMP Huntercombe artwork adorns the walls . It transforms from a café in the day to a pub by night, staffed by sound hands and smiling faces. The venue offers a little something for all the community.
For the whole team at Tap Social, the new pub has proven to be an extremely rewarding venture: “It’s quite a humbling thing to look around and see people eating food at your venue or drinking your own beers,” Tess says, “We feel very excited and very proud of that. We have an incredible team here and we’re so lucky across the board to have them.”
As Tap Social continues to grow, so do their strong ties to Oxford’s community. Their mission, Tess says, “is to create inclusive spaces for all the community to use.” Tess tells me they’ve hosted everything from yoga workshops to live gigs, food festivals and even weddings and funerals at their venues.
In exciting news, Tess reveals that Tap Social will soon be opening a new space in Oxford’s historic Covered Market. The Market Tap, as it will be called, will bring their mission to the heart of Oxford. Opening up the space in the evenings for community events, Tap Social are bringing the energy for criminal justice reform to the city centre. For the more than eager punters, you can also head over to their original site in Botley for brewery tours and brew schools. Tap here for availability.
For all their own passion and expertise, the Tap Social team feels none of their success would have been possible without the support from the local community around them. “People have been incredibly supportive,” Tess says, “We’re really lucky that we’ve landed in Oxford. It’s a nice demographic of people that are interested in what we are doing and are supportive of the idea and recognise the need to support people through the system.” With their social message at their core, the way they uplift their staff and how they celebrate their community by establishing relationships with other local independents, I can’t think of a business more Bimbleworthy than this.
Tap here to find out more about Tap Social and the White House over at co-founder Tess’s Bimble list and check out my Bimble for more of Oxford’s pub greats.
If you have a story you’d like to share about a great little place or other bimbling experiences, get in touch with us at hello@bimble.com
