Azvex Brewing Company – From Neon Raptor to Liverpool

Azvex Brewing Company in Liverpool is one of the most exciting new craft beer projects to emerge from the UK in recent years. Behind the brewery stands Adam Henderson – long known to craft beer insiders as founder of the Nottingham brewery Neon Raptor. After nearly five years leading Neon Raptor, Henderson left the brewery in the middle of the pandemic in summer 2020 to do his own thing in Liverpool: Azvex – uncompromising craft beer built on the accumulated experience of one of Britain's most respected craft brewers.

The brewery and taproom occupy roughly 6,700 sq ft in the King Edward Industrial Estate at Liverpool Waters, close to Princes Dock. Trade sales to the local bar and restaurant scene began in October 2021; the public taproom opened in spring 2022. Head brewer Jack Walker is in charge of the recipes; together with a small team he has helped establish Azvex within just a few years as one of the top-rated craft breweries in the UK.

On Untappd, Azvex holds an outstanding average of 4.02 across more than 340 beers and nearly 400,000 ratings – a level only a handful of craft breweries reach. The range is ambitious: hop-loaded hazy IPAs, thick „ice cream smoothie sours" and pastry sours, full-bodied imperial stouts, alongside precisely brewed lager and pilsner interpretations. Beer names like „Black Hole Starships", „Tennis Racket Theorem", „Crabcore Overlords", „Radioactive Worms" or „Recamin's Sequence" play with physics, mathematics, sci-fi and metal subculture – the signature of a team with a strong sense of pop culture. The flagship „Dockers Umbrella" Helles lager, meanwhile, is a fond tribute to the Liverpool Overhead Railway, dismantled in 1957, which literally served as an „umbrella" for dockers for decades.

Key facts at a glance

• Location: Unit 16 King Edward Rise, Gibraltar Row, Liverpool, L3 7HJ (England)
• Founded: 2020 by Adam Henderson (previously founder of Neon Raptor, Nottingham)
• Head brewer: Jack Walker
• Brewery & taproom: approx. 6,700 sq ft at the King Edward Industrial Estate, Liverpool Waters
• Awards: 4 Gold, 3 Silver, 7 Bronze in Untappd's Trophy Community Awards
• Untappd stats: over 340 beers brewed, around 400,000 ratings, average 4.02 – one of the top-rated UK craft breweries
• International: distributed via KeyKeg to more than 21 craft beer shops across Europe
• Signature: playfully scientific and pop-culture-driven beer names; focus on freshness and cold-storage

The range at a glance

• Hazy IPAs & NEIPAs – the brewery's core specialty with brews like „Tennis Racket Theorem", „Kami's Lookout", „Surfing Snails" or „Recamin's Sequence"
• Double & Imperial IPAs – hop-forward heavyweights like „Distortion 2" (8% ABV) or editions from the „Operation Genome" series
• Smoothie sours & pastry sours – thick, fruit-forward sours such as „Mana" (peach, apricot & coconut) and the Operation Genome sour editions
• Imperial stouts & pastry stouts – rich, complex brews like „Crabcore Overlords" (tonka & coconut stout, 6%) and rotating barrel-aged editions
• Lagers & classic styles – cleanly crafted everyday beers like „Dockers Umbrella" (4.8% Helles), „Diamond Vortex" (5.2% hoppy pilsner) and „Doomsday Fish" (4.5% pale ale)

Azvex Brewing Company stands for one of the most authentic and stylistically confident names in today's British craft beer scene. In our shop, you'll find a curated selection of the latest Azvex releases – fresh from Liverpool, cold-stored, and usually in strictly limited quantities.