Neon Raptor brewery turns ten and opens a second bar at Sneinton Market

Neon Raptor Brewing Co. has turned ten, and the Sneinton Market brewery is marking the milestone in the best possible way: with a second bar. The new venue at 7 Gedling Street sits just over the road from the brewery and taproom, and directors Josh Mellor and Tom Ainsley told LeftLion it would open to the public in late October.

The brewery was originally set up a decade ago by two Scotsmen, Gavin and Adam, who both worked at Rolls Royce in Derby. Gavin left around 2016, which is when Josh and Tom got involved, and Adam left the business in 2020.

Before beer took over, the pair were postmen in Derby who took the same route to work and got to know each other properly in the pub. They went on to run a Derby bar called Suds and Soda, and when a space came up at Sneinton Market in 2018 they built the taproom and brewery themselves. Money was tight, and the first customers sat on £4 chairs from Ikea.

They have watched the market grow up around them. When Neon Raptor arrived there were still plenty of empty units. Now, as Josh puts it, the market is full of food makers, from coffee and chocolate to baked goods and street food.

The brewery's look, full of dinosaurs and retro video game references, comes from artist Heather Rudd, who is given plenty of creative freedom. The beer list is just as playful. Untappd lists nearly 600 different Neon Raptor beers, and before the core range settled the team were releasing as many as eight new beers a month. Tom's recent favourite is Joyfulness, a low-strength Belgian-style table beer made with Jester King, while Josh's is Only A Paper Moon, a witbier brewed for his mum's sixtieth birthday.

Ten years have also taken the team further afield, from Billie's festival in Antwerp to pouring beer in Tokyo and, later, Miami.

The new bar took three years to bring to life. After a year of planning, the team learned that a basement under the ground floor made a brewery on the site impossible, so the plans changed, and builder delays followed. Josh says he honestly cannot wait to open.

Meanwhile the original Rap Tap on Avenue A carries on as the brewery's spiritual home, with fresh beer from 12 taps alongside local gin, cider and cans to take away. It opens from 4pm on Thursdays and Fridays and from midday at weekends, with a Thursday happy hour from 6pm to 8pm.