IF 15 years ago Cheryl Ford had called tails and not heads, you'd never have heard of Quantock Brewery.
A baker by trade, she and partner Rob Rainey, a former nuclear engineer, were split on whether to start a brewery or a bakery.
To the delight of thousands of beer lovers, Cheryl lost the toss of the 2p coin and Quantock Bakery was consigned to history before it had baked a single cake.
Quantock Brewery was born in Wellington in 2007, before six years later moving to Broadgauge Business Park, close enough to Bishops Lydeard Station to catch passengers hopping off the steam train.
Cheryl said the location was chosen as beer and trains "go together like peas and carrots" - and the tipple will be fresher if you can get it from source.
Now almost a decade down the line, Quantock Brewery has added further space to its unit to keep up with thirsty beer drinkers' demands for ever more of its brews.
It's been a long journey, but there have been plenty of awards along the way and orders during lockdown rocketed.
Now two new partners have got on board and invested their faith in the company by investing in new brewing equipment so production capacity can by increased fourfold.
Cheryl admits there have been times when it looked as though the business could hit the buffers, but it has continued to roll down the track and the future is looking rosey.
She said: "We've been making good beer for years, but it was all about being able to showcase it, attracting more people to our products."
A breakthrough came when Flavourly put in an order for 100,000 units and a monthly contract for 50,000 units, with eight exclusive beers of a specific style.
Quantock took the decision to instal its own canning line, cutting out the expense of outsourcing that operation to a third party and enabling it to drop the price of its beers.
"The canning line made us more adventurous," said Cheryl.
"It attracted more people to our beers. By enabling us to reduce our costs, it made our beer more competitive, encouraging repeat customers.
"We were worried when lockdown came, but it actually gave us a chance to create something good out of something bad.
"Delivery and collection orders went through the roof and it gave us a chance to look at what we needed to do.
"We raised our social media presence, which helped raise our profile."
Quantock also increased its number of barrels from eight to 20, allowing it to brew far more of its "beautiful liquid".
Cheryl had previously referenced her favourite film when the company struggled to meet rising demand.
As frustrations were voiced that the brewery premises was too small to keep up with demand, the catchphrase taken from Jaws became, "We're gonna need a bigger boat".
Cue a beer with that same name that has sailed into Quantock's product line, winning the top accolade in the beer keg category at the recent Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) South West Independent Awards, the latest in a whole armada of prizes over the years.
The taproom on the premises has proved popular with its offer of eight cask beers and 15 taps, as well as wines and ciders and four-pint carry outs.
It opens Tuesday to Saturday, with later closing times on Friday and Saturday, when street food is served on both days from early evening.
The shop offers a full range of bottled and canned beers, mini casks, presentation cases and Quantock merchandise, which goes down a storm with train passengers.
Rob's fascination with beer began in the late 1970s after he bought a Boots home brew kit.
He was disappointed with the quality of the beer he produced from that kit, so he decided to build his own kit from scratch in his garage.
His obsession with producing the perfect beer led eventually to the setting up of Quantock Brewery.
The beer crew of three brewers are creating new beers and constantly improving the brewing process
As Cheryl says: "As the beer world has evolved so have we, adding all manner of beer styles to our bow, constantly pushing the boundaries of what we create.
"As a team we love beer in all its forms, commit ourselves to continually improving our skills and equipment to constantly evolve and make our beer the best it can be.
"We are never satisfied with okay. We seek amazing."
The new partners in the business, Naidene and Katalin Urquhart, have issued a statement explaining why they have become involved.
They said: “All the team at Quantock Brewery are very committed, which we feel is a vital component of any successful business. It’s one of the elements that attracted us to be part of its next phase of growth.
“New equipment has been installed, increasing capacity by a factor of four to meet the obvious demand and help secure the brewery’s future.”
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