The Story of the Hogs Back Beer Machine

We will be taking the famous Hogs Back Beer Machine along with our beers to the Brew//LDN beer festival at the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane between Thursday 27th - Saturday 29th February. Here's some facts about this fascinating piece of machinery.

It's fair to say that the original owner of the Brewery, Martin Hunt, was a bit of a vehicle fanatic! On behalf of the Hogs Back, he bought and helped to restore some beautiful old delivery vans but his real passion lay in motorbikes. In particular he was a fan of big, cruising Harley Davidson, which coincidentally, nickname their bikes Hogs. From that an idea was born to create our own Hogs Back delivery bike.

Name: Hogs Back Beer Machine
Make: Harley Davidson
Model: Outfit (with sidecar)
Custom Built: Battistini
Engine: 1558 cc
Length: 93 Inches
Built: 2006

The bike project was commissioned in 2006 in collaboration with Battistinis custom motorbikes near Bournemouth. The brewery contacted the Discovery Channel's Biker Build Off to enter their Bike of the Year competition and the build was featured on the show. The original idea was to create a mini, mobile bar in place of the sidecar however this requires a far more technical build. On top of that Martin wanted it adapted so that a friend of his who didn't have an arm was able to operate it so the brakes, clutch and accelerator are all pedal-controlled. It may look like a traditional motorbike and sidecar but to improve the stability of the bike it required a complete new 1 piece chassis with a full air suspension system across all 3 tyres. This means that technically it is a trike but unfortunately the competition judges deemed the bike to have a sidecar and therefore ineligible for the award!

The mobile bar was replaced with the sidecar in 2007 and became a regular feature at the Great British Beer Festival and every year at our Hop Harvest Party.

You can see the bike in person at Brew//LDN and have your picture taken on it for a charitable donation to our 2020 Charitable partner, The Alzheimer's Society. Book your tickets to the festival here.