I find it incredible that a city such as Bangor (yes, it’s a city) in County Down did not, in recent times, have a fully operational, commercially successful microbrewery. Genuinely, I’m baffled. Sure, there are a few pubs in the area serving good beer and there seems to be a decent number of, let’s call them, “craft beer fans” who live in the Bangor area, but to not have a brewery of its own seems bizarre. That oddity was put right last year when Modest Beer moved into an industrial unit in the south of the city (yes, it’s a city.)

I first wrote about Modest in late 2019 when owner and brewer Chris Morris had just gone commercial in location #1 – his in-law’s residential garage in Holywood. Then came location #2, sharing space with Our Brewery near Randalstown, some 30 miles away. That space may have been big, initially, for Modest and Our Brewery but after a couple of years of growth for both breweries it became a bit of a squeeze.

That meant Chris was constantly on the lookout for a new place closer to his home in Holywood and that move finally came about in 2025. The former accountant was handed keys to a unit in Bangor in February but it took until the end of July to move all the brew kit, all the while still maintaining production of some kind in Randalstown to satisfy us selfish drinkers! That was painful, he tells me. When the move was completed there followed an age to wait for HMRC brewing approval before the green light was eventually given, but that green light now means Chris has cut his commuting time in half.

Now, in Bangor, Chris is producing and canning four beers at any one time. He acquired a small, mobile canning machine just before Christmas, and along the right hand wall there are six fermenters with core beers going through the bigger vessels and seasonal or new beers heading into the smaller tanks. He tells me it works for now but sees bigger batch sizes as the next way to grow and, importantly, save on labour to cut down on those dreaded double brew days.

Remember, Modest Beer is still mostly a one man operation. His wife Lauren helps out a couple of days a week and Chris is hopeful the business can get to the stage where she can be a full-time employee, in addition to hiring another person. He’s finding his feet but hopefully those feet will be dancing in the coming months.

And what of people’s reactions to a microbrewery in Bangor? Chris tells me initial interactions with publicans have been broadly positive – Jenny Watts pub immediately linked up for an event at the end of last year and there are Modest cans in other places such The King’s Quay and Fealty’s which are very supportive of local beer, but we all know it’s difficult to get a draught tap.

In the past few days, Chris obtained a producer’s license to sell onsite, which is critical for any brewery. On the day I visited, customer number 1, Raymond, popped in to buy beer over the counter and said he was delighted to have Modest “just round the corner.” Before the license acquisition, Chris was always having to point Bangor natives to a couple of off licences but he says it’s now lovely to give them his own brewery address as a place where they can buy their Modest Beer. It doesn’t get fresher than that.

With the inevitable questions coming next about a future taproom, the ex-Bangor RFC man says there’s barely room to swing a cat in the unit but the main challenge is that all the units in the area are leased primarily for manufacture rather than retail. A little bit of onsite sales through the webshop, tours and walk-in off-sales is ok but onsite consumption via a taproom is a different beast entirely. Chris hopes he can prove to the landlord that it could be a positive thing but, again, that’s down the line. I say baby steps, to which he laughs and says it’s been baby steps since 2019.

Well done to him for the incredibly hard work involving the move over the past year. Go grab some of his quality beers online at modestbeer.co.uk or if you’re in the Bangor area, pop into Unit 43 of Balloo Industrial Estate.

And remember to stay Modest.