Meet the Oxford based brewery giving ex-prisoners a second chance making Criminally Good Beer

TAP Social is providing ex-offenders with stable working opportunities to try and help those who are released from re-offending.

Tap Social
Author: Fraser DayPublished 20th Feb 2024
Last updated 20th Feb 2024

In 2016 company director Matt Elliot along with several other co-directors and founders set up Tap Social with the purpose of providing employment to those needing it most whilst making great tasting beer.

A number of Matt's colleagues had previously worked as part of the justice system and whilst doing so, found that a lot of prisoners approaching the end of their sentences were struggling to find stable employment upon release.

This week I went to meet Matt down at the Kidlington brewery, which is one of six Tap Social sights dotted around Oxfordshire.

Speaking about Tap Social Matt said: "We wanted to use the business as an opportunity to provide training and employment for people coming out of prison, to get them re-engaged with society for better outcomes.

"We take the view that anyone coming towards the end of their sentence should be given the same opportunity as anyone else, because if they aren't they're much more likely to re-offend in the first 12 months.

"The more we can expand our operations the more opportunities we can create, we've already created more than 80,000 hours of employment.

"All cans come with key stats about issues prisoners face and those stats are then linked to the names of the different beers and the artwork on the cans is designed by prisoners from a prisoner art programme.

"It's all about more cans in hands."

"It's a conversation starter that makes people think about an issue they haven't previously thought about and it raises awareness as to perhaps how we should treat these people."

The Tap Social brewery in Kidlington

Matt was kind enough to let me sample a few of their delicious beers and it has to be said the taste is very much aligned with their 'Criminally good beer' slogan.

I tried the Time Better Spent IPA, False Economy Lager and the Jobsworth Session Pale Ale, but there's plenty of others to try, including their Inside Out Oatmeal Stout which recently won best in category for the south east of England.

If you are looking to try a Tap Social beer Matt told us where to find them: " We've got a pub on the Abingdon road in South Oxford, two central bars, one in the covered market and one up in Banbury and we've also got a bakery and café down in Kennington."

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.