January 2021 - Tap Yard Update

With that in mind, we wanted to lay out all that’s coming up for the Tap Yard, because guess what …. We’re three years old! We may not be able to invite you all down for a big party, but that’s not to say we can’t try to have fun. Read on to find out about delicious meals at home, awesome mixed cases with exclusive online party access, charitable endeavours and some exciting future plans. 

Makan Malaysia

We’re really missing restaurants. There’s something truly lovely about heading down to a local eating spot, whether it’s a fancy meal out to celebrate or just catching up with friends. With that in mind, we got in touch with our friends at Makan Malaysia to come up with a meal kit so you can recreate a night out in the comfort of your own home. 

If you’ve not heard of Makan Malaysia before, where have you been? The company was started by two lifelong best friends Kat & Sue. The duo grew up in Malaysia, but have been Berkshire residents for a long time. Having worked other less satisfying jobs, they set upon the task of introducing Malaysian cuisine to the UK. 

Only a few years later, they are a staple of the local food scene. Having started out providing street food at events, pop ups and of course the Siren Tap Yard. Excitingly, they now have their own kitchen and deliver fresh meal kits nationwide.

They’ve put together two meal kits - one meat and one vegan. We’ve paired them with two 4.2% Session IPA, Lumina and two 3.6% Session Pale Ale, Yu Lu. Each kit has two beautiful curries, coconut rice for two and four fritters. Head here to see the full details and place an order. Food will be cooked fresh, and ready for collection on the 21st, 22nd or 23rd January, which is then simply reheated at home. 

Click through here to pre-order yours! 

3rd Birthday Celebrations

And with that weekend of the 23rd in mind, we’ll be celebrating the Tap Yard’s third birthday! We can’t quite believe the Tap Yard is now three, what a roller coaster ride, especially of late! As we all know, we’re all stuck in lockdown, so it’s onto Zooms, Skypes, Facetime and the like to see our friends. And that includes this year’s Tap Yard birthday party! 

Introducing the Tap Yard 3rd Birthday Mixed Case, which includes exclusive access to our online party! We’ll be hitting zoom with cold cans in hand to celebrate, chat and catch up. We’d absolutely love to see you on the call, whether you’re a local regular, a one time visitor or even if you’ve never taken the plunge. Come and join the fun! 

Even if you can’t make the zoom, don’t miss out on the box, which has a great mix of beers, including our highlight of 2020 - Death By Caribbean Chocolate Cake. 

Click here to order the box and join in!

Reading Red Kitchen 

Whilst we do our best to keep spirits high, lockdown is not an easy time. A lot of the talk recently has revolved around food, and worryingly, the lack of it. We’ve all looked on admiringly at Marcus Rashford and his truly inspiring efforts, so the Tap Yard staff held a meeting recently to see whatever small bit we can do to help. 

With that in mind, we’re excited to team up with Reading Red Kitchen, a grassroots project focused on food poverty. Erik, who works in our pack team, has used some of his time on furlough being one of 12 coordinators sourcing and distributing things like hot meals, toiletries and clothing for those most in need. The project has fed 40+ people hot meals every evening since its origins in April 2020, which is an amazing thing. It aims to make sure everyone has basic necessities, from nappies to mobile phones. It’s a solidarity project, aiming to bring people together, asking the community for resources and support in any way they can.

The Tap Yard will now become a drop off venue for goods that will go to Reading Red Kitchen to distribute where most needed. These include long life packaged food, toiletries, clothing and such, depending on what is most needed at the time.

In the coming weeks, we’ll also be hosting a raffle, with all proceeds going towards the cause, as well as looking at other ways to immerse ourselves in the project. 

If you’d like to help, you can visit this page to read more, and to become a regular donator: https://opencollective.com/readingredkitchen

The Future of the Tap Yard

Those of you who have been by to collect web orders, browse the fridges or get a growler fill may have seen the new development in the yard. Recently, we took ownership of 2 shipping containers. Since then, we’ve (and by we, we mean paid professionals) have been turning two old shipping containers into something for the future. 

For starters, we’ve removed the sides of both containers, and created a roof overhead. This space will become our brand new seating area for the Tap Yard. Once we’re done, it will be covid compliant, undercover, well lit and warm. Whatever the next few months brings, regulation and weather wise, we’ll be ready to go as soon as we can. 

At the moment, the space is making some pretty handy day-in-day-out storage space, but none of us can wait until it’s repurposed until it’s true purpose. 

Watch this space! 

Tryanuary x Lockdown

We’ve always been big advocates of #tryanauary and using what can be a solemn winter month to try something a little bit different. This year we’ve got a few different initiatives that we hope might take your fancy.

Firstly, we’re running a pretty cool prize draw on our webshop. Any order placed in January with a value of more than £20 will grant you one entry into a draw to win an exclusive Siren branded mini fridge, full to the brim with fresh cans. As a local, any click-and-collect orders will also apply to this draw. You’ve gotta be in it to win it!

Secondly, look out for Lockdown with Siren. We’re now taking pre-orders for what some people have already dubbed the "Sadvent Calendar" or “Fabvent Calendar”. Our warehouse manager thought they'd seen the back of these boxes for another year, but no such luck as we're getting back in the paper cut game to give you some mystery beer action this February.

Countdown to (hopefully) better days with 24 fresh cans. A heady mix of 330s and 440s. If you picked up the original calendar for December, a whopping 15 of these will be different beers! Those that are repeating, you'll be grateful for another go.

We'll be shipping these out to start on February 4th and working our way through to the end of the month, but how you do it is entirely up to you. Start at 1, start at 24, start at 11 if you want... But gather your mates, get on a video chat and let's enjoy a cold lockdown as best as we can!

Finally, look out for a bunch of promos in the Tap Yard, too. Every week a poll will decide on a beer to be discounted by 10% for 7 days, so keep an eye out to pick what you fancy! For the whole of January we’ll also be offering a free growler fill of Yu Lu with every new growler purchased. So if you haven’t already, now’s a great time to get on board with growlers! 

Click here to pre-order your Lockdown Calendar!

As for now…

At the moment, we’re open as a bottleshop. This a move we made back in Lockdown 2, in November, and decided to stay that way for the foreseeable. All the normal rules apply, with face masks a must, limited numbers and social distancing. However, we can welcome you in to collect orders, browse the fridges for takeaways or grab a growler fill. We’ll also have a select few Mini Kegs available with a lineup changing weekly.

So come on down anytime between 12 - 6pm on Tuesday - Saturday. 

Make sure you’re in the Tap Yard Facebook group, and following the Twitter and Instagram accounts for the latest updates.