Nania's Wildbrew Kombucha: Barrel-Fermented, Can-Conditioned Kombucha from a Bristol Allotment Vineyard
Beneath the terraced streets of Montpelier in central Bristol sits one of the more unusual brewing operations in the UK: a nano-brewery wedged behind a Victorian home, sharing the same plot as a working urban allotment vineyard. From this unlikely setting, founder and head brewer James Bayliss-Smith produces Nania's Wildbrew Kombucha, a range of raw, barrel-fermented, can-conditioned kombuchas that have earned multiple Great Taste awards and a devoted following across the South West and beyond.
Although the business is named for the family home of James's partner Shelley - the brand taking inspiration from her Persian-Indian grandfather, Phiroze Nania, a Parsi from Mumbai who sailed to England in the 1950s - the operation is built around a very modern conviction: that kombucha, like wine, is a fermented beverage whose quality depends on ingredients, vessel, patience and place.
The Story Behind Nania's
The kombucha project began in 2019, the year James attended a fermentation workshop at Shambala music festival and was given his first SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast). The brewing bug bit hard. Within months, a corner of the Montpelier allotment vineyard was being given over to small-batch fermentation experiments, with the first oak barrels sourced through James's contacts in the English wine trade.
What followed was a steady refinement of process rather than a rush to scale. James and Shelley converted the space behind their terraced home into an intimate brewery, every vessel meticulously maintained, every batch tasted and adjusted. By the time cans began to ship, the house style had already crystallised: barrel fermented, can conditioned, cascade-hopped where appropriate, and unapologetically raw and alive.
An Urban Allotment Vineyard in the Heart of Bristol
Visitors to Nania's are often surprised to find that the brewery sits next to a real, working vineyard. The Montpelier allotment vineyard - small, urban, experimental - supplies both inspiration and a literal training ground for the brewing side of the business. James's background in viticulture and oenology informs everything from how he thinks about oak to how he selects and blends his tea base.
The Montpelier microclimate, the nutrient-rich urban soil, and the constant comparison with how the family's wine neighbours handle fermentation all feed into the kombucha's character. It's an unusual crossover: a vineyard whose best-known output isn't wine but a living, cultured tea drink.
A sister English wine brand has also been launched from the same Montpelier site, confirming that grapes, barrels and Bristol remain at the heart of the family business.
Barrel Fermentation: Two Prized Burgundy Casks
Of all the choices that distinguish Nania's from supermarket kombuchas, barrel fermentation is the most defining. Rather than fermenting in stainless steel tanks, James transfers the sweet-tea base into oak barrels where the SCOBY carries out primary fermentation. Two of those barrels came from Domaine Louis Latour in Burgundy, formerly used to age Chardonnay.
The porous oak provides a slow, gentle micro-oxygenation that interacts with the living culture, layering in complexity and a subtle wine-like structure. Every batch is unique; the barrels are seasoned with each brew, contributing their own evolving fingerprint.
Can Conditioning: Natural Effervescence in Aluminium
After the barrel stage, the young kombucha is racked into aluminium cans, where a second, gentle fermentation takes place. This in-can conditioning builds a delicate, natural carbonation - nothing like the aggressive fizz of force-carbonated soft drinks. Cans also happen to be the most sustainable format available: lightweight, infinitely recyclable, and 75% of all aluminium ever produced is still in use today.
Because the kombucha is genuinely alive, every can must be refrigerated. That requirement is, the brewery argues, the clearest sign of an authentic cultured product rather than a pasteurised soft drink pretending to be a ferment.
Cascade Hops and Green Tea
The flagship Hop Forward expression is bittered and flavoured with cascade hops, added during primary fermentation. The hops lend a citrus note that complements the underlying green-tea character without overpowering it. For the other expressions, fresh botanicals take over - mint and hibiscus, or lemongrass and ginger - but the base remains the same Rare Tea Company green tea blend.
The Kombucha Range
Nania's keeps the range deliberately small: three expressions, each available as a 12-can case of 330ml cans. Prices are identical across the line, with free postage on all UK orders.
- Nania's Live Kombucha - Hop Forward (Citrus Cascade) - the signature brew. Green tea, cascade hops, organic cane sugar and SCOBY. 12 x 330ml, £42.00 inc VAT.
- Nania's Live Kombucha - Hibiscus & Mint - the same barrel-fermented base layered with dried hibiscus and fresh mint for a gently floral finish. 12 x 330ml, £42.00 inc VAT.
- Nania's Live Kombucha - Lemongrass & Ginger - a fragrant, gently spiced take on the house ferment, with fresh lemongrass and ginger added during secondary fermentation. 12 x 330ml, £42.00 inc VAT.
The full range can be browsed and ordered online via the Nania's shop.
Pure Ingredients, Ethical Tea
Every can of Nania's contains just four ingredients: green tea, cascade hops (in the Hop Forward variant), organic cane sugar, and the living SCOBY. The tea itself is a bespoke blend sourced from the Rare Tea Company, whose values around ethical trade, organic farming and community reinvestment align closely with Nania's own.
Rare Tea Company only works with farmers using organic principles - no chemical pesticides or herbicides - and 1% of every Nania's sale goes to the Rare Charity, supporting education scholarships in tea-growing communities. The partnership is more a values alignment than a simple supplier relationship, and it shapes every batch that leaves the Bristol nano-brewery.
The SCOBY Guarantee: Brewing at Home from a Can
One of the more unusual promises attached to a UK kombucha is Nania's SCOBY guarantee: if you can't grow your own kombucha culture from one of their cans, they will refund the purchase. The guarantee is enabled by the can-conditioning process itself - because the kombucha is raw, live and unpasteurised, every sealed can contains an active culture capable of starting a fresh ferment.
The brewery publishes a detailed, step-by-step home-brewing guide written by James, covering:
- How to brew a starter batch of just over 1 litre using 50g sugar, loose-leaf green tea, and 200ml of Nania's as the starter.
- How to recognise a healthy new SCOBY disc forming on top of the brew (typically 5 - 10 days at around 24°C).
- The choice between batch brewing (more control, easier to experiment) and continuous brewing (less hands-on, more consistent flavour).
- Critical safety notes on bottling: glass bottles and cans can explode if over-sugared or mishandled, so the brewery recommends investing in proper champagne bottles and a crown capper, and experimenting only in small batches.
The full guide is available at naniasvineyard.co.uk/make-your-own-kombucha, and James encourages home brewers to share their ferments via the brand's Instagram, @nanias.wildbrew.
Nania's & Friends Fermentation Festival
Alongside the kombucha side of the business, Nania's runs a small programme of in-person fermentation experiences on the Montpelier allotment vineyard. The flagship event is the Nania's & Friends Fermentation Festival, a one-day, hands-on workshop covering kombucha, kefir, lacto-fermentation, kimchi and hot sauce.
The Saturday 11th July 2026 edition brought together four specialist fermenters in a relaxed, vineyard-side setting:
- James Bayliss-Smith (Nania's Wildbrew) - kombucha and barrel fermentation.
- Dr Caroline Gilmartin (Every Good Thing) - water kefir and milk kefir.
- Rikki (Easton Chilli) - hot sauce and chilli ferments.
- Matt (Muti) (Muti) - sauerkraut, kimchi and broader lacto-fermentation.
The day runs from a 10:00 arrival and welcome ferment, through two parallel workshop sessions in the morning and afternoon, with a sourdough pizza lunch cooked in the brewery's cob oven in between, and a wrap-up tasting and Q&A from 16:00. Every participant leaves with a kombucha mother culture and ferments they have made on the day, and is invited into an optional WhatsApp group to keep the conversation going.
Tickets are available online as either a single ticket at £99.00 inc VAT or a discounted pair at £178.00 inc VAT, booked via the Nania's shop.
Sustainability, Sourcing and Community
Sustainability runs through every operational choice at Nania's. Aluminium cans keep transport emissions low and are infinitely recyclable. The green tea is organic and ethically traded, with 1% of sales returned to farming communities via the Rare Charity. Even the oak barrels tell a sustainability story - former Chardonnay casks from a Burgundian domaine, given a second life fermenting tea rather than being chipped.
The brewery is also part of Bristol's wider fermentation community, collaborating with other small producers such as Easton Chilli, Muti and Every Good Thing on workshops, events and shared learning.
Press and Recognition
Nania's Wildbrew has built a strong media profile, particularly around its work to bring genuinely fermented, live kombucha to a UK audience that had become used to vinegar-based soft drinks. The brand has been featured by:
- Cosmopolitan UK - best canned wines
- The Guardian - canned picnic drinks
- The Telegraph - best canned wines for festivals, picnics, camping and trains
- The Daily Mail - vegan Prosecco and paper-bottle wines
- Decanter - the rise of English and Welsh orange wine
- Metro - tinnies are cool again
The signature Hop Forward expression has also been recognised with multiple Great Taste awards, awarded specifically for the can-conditioned kombucha method - a distinction Nania's describes as a first in the UK kombucha category.
Visiting and Contact
Nania's Wildbrew is not a visitor centre in the conventional vineyard-and-tasting-room sense. The brewery sits behind a terraced home in Montpelier, central Bristol, and access is primarily through the fermentation festival, pop-up collaborations, and direct enquiries via the brand's social channels.
General enquiries: wildbrew@nanias.co.uk
Telephone (event and festival enquiries): 07801 287 924
Instagram: @nanias.wildbrew
Facebook: facebook.com/naniasvineyard
Twitter / X: twitter.com/naniasvineyard
Shop: naniasvineyard.co.uk/our-kombucha
Why Nania's Matters for the UK Drinks Scene
What makes Nania's Wildbrew worth seeking out is the rigour of its fermentation thinking. The brewery takes techniques more often associated with craft wine and cider - small French oak, long fermentations, low-intervention winemaking - and applies them to a tea-based ferment. The result is a kombucha with genuine structure, a wine-adjacent complexity, and a flavour profile that doesn't lean on sweetness or fruit to carry it.
For drinkers who care about provenance, vessel, and fermentation as a craft, Nania's Wildbrew is one of the more interesting small producers operating in the UK today, and a reminder that the boundary between Bristol's wine growers, cider makers and cultured-drink brewers is increasingly porous.