You describe yourselves as a “pioneering fine English sparkling beer” - can you explain why you are pioneering?
There was no category for this, so Chorus created one. We wanted to make a beer you could put on the table alongside a great bottle of wine and have it hold its own. We looked closely at other large-format beers, saisons and lambics among them, and felt none of them truly bridged beer and wine.
Beer but not as you now know it: Chorus' new fine English sparkling beer
Chorus is a genuinely new expression of what beer can be: sparkling, complex, with all the character of fine wine, while remaining true to itself as a beer. In our first year, it took Silver at the International Brewing Awards and Gold at the London Beer Competition.
As a beer company you are looking at the language of wine and appealing to wine drinkers. Why?
Because Chorus is made for the moments wine usually owns: the dinner table, the toast, the celebration. It comes in a 750 ml bottle, is served chilled in flutes, and is made for sharing. We're not asking beer drinkers to give anything up - we’re giving wine drinkers a beer they didn't know they were missing, and beer drinkers a bottle for the occasions that matter.
Why have you chosen to use Chardonnay grape for your yeast versus another grape variety?
Chardonnay yeast develops the character we wanted: fresh orchard fruit notes and complex flavours, with a delicacy that suits a fine sparkling style. We keep the specific strain we use to ourselves.
What characteristics does a wine-grape yeast have over traditional brewing yeasts?
Tom, Lawrence and Harry Baynham - founders of Chorus beer
It rewards patience. We ferment cool and slow for around three weeks, followed by six weeks of tank conditioning. That helps the Chardonnay yeast to develop delicate, complex, fruity flavours rather than the character you would get from a conventional beer fermentation.
It is also blended with light malts and fermented longer, the result is a smooth, delicate biscuity finish, lifted with fine, persistent bubbles.
What are your backgrounds in beer and brewing?
We are a family business. I am cousin to brothers Tom and Lawrence. All three of us studied engineering. Tom and Lawrence went into electronics manufacturing, and I went into safety equipment.
It all started at a family get-together in 2015 when I brought along some beer I had brewed. Tom and Lawrence started brewing for fun, and within a year we were planning the business.
Baynhams Brewery was founded in 2017 on an old farm in the New Forest. We converted a barn, bought our equipment, and began brewing commercially in 2020, creating our own Pig beer range and taproom in Brockenhurst.
Why did you want to expand and create the Chorus beer brand?
Chorus has been made to sit proudly on any dinner's table alongside any fine wine
It came from a determination to turn a shared passion into our day job and then a question we couldn't let go of. Our brewery was bottling sparkling wine for a neighbouring vineyard, and we kept asking why a beer couldn't be enjoyed and shared in the same way.
Chorus recipe development began in 2022, with several predecessor beers along the way, and after years of experimenting, refining and perfecting, Chorus was born.
What plans do you have to develop the business and the Chorus brand?
This has been Chorus's first full summer on shelves, so right now it's about getting the beer in front of people: growing direct sales at chorusbeer.com (single bottles and cases of six, free UK delivery over £50), building the on-trade and premium retail side and telling the story. Our founders' story and journal have just gone live on the site.
For trade partners, we offer 750 ml and 375 ml (on-trade only) formats, and support with tasting notes, POS and staff training materials.
As Jack Evans, head sommelier at The Pig hotel at Brockenhurst, puts it: "Incredibly generous and brilliantly complex. It's a beer and wine lover's beer.”
We intend to develop Chorus into a range of sparkling beers - there are so many possible combinations of malts and yeasts in the world that this is really the first step in an exciting exploration of a new drink category.
Do you see yourselves working with other wine variety yeasts to make different styles?
Chorus - a beer built for the table
Absolutely. During the development process we were constantly pleasantly surprised by the behaviour of different yeasts and the complex and unique flavours they can create. The world of wine yeasts is just as rich and varied as beer yeasts, so why limit ourselves?
How are you marketing the brand -to quality beer drinkers or wine drinkers?
Both. The audience is anyone who cares about what's in their glass. The positioning is occasion-led rather than tribe-led: the table, the toast, weddings, celebrations, gifting. In practice, that's digital and search marketing, PR, the awards, and storytelling on chorusbeer.com.
Anything else to say?
Chorus is a double award winner in its first year: Silver at the International Brewing Awards 2026 and Gold at the London Beer Competition 2026. It's 12% ABV, vegan, gluten-free (tested by a UKAS-accredited laboratory), best enjoyed chilled, in flutes. Beer, reimagined. Please raise a glass together and join the Chorus.
* To find out more about Chorus click here.
