CALLED TO THE BAR

Crisis could mean a stronger industry

As I write these words I haven’t been in a pub for over three months. I have passed many, all shuttered and closed, silent and almost resentful, it seems, at those who would usually come in, now passing on by, eyes fixed firmly on the ground. When you read this I would hope that these same pubs will have - to some degree or other - opened their doors, or at least the gates to their beer gardens.

As for breweries, I have been heartened and made to feel hopeful as many of them have turned to off-sale and mail order — I recall being moved when I read one brewer defiantly tweeting back in March that he wouldn’t let a business he’d spent several years building go under. Off-sales might not be as profitable as when linked with the on-trade, but these actions will hopefully manage to keep our fantastic brewing industry from capsizing like a beery Titanic in the ale-soaked waters of the North Atlantic.

There’s always a caveat though. Whatever happens, I don’t believe the pub and the beer industry are going to be the same again for a long time, if ever. However, this might be a bag of mixed blessings. The lockdown might enable both pubs and breweries to reset thoughts on how they present themselves to the public and what place they will have in our society.

For one thing, I believe that the enforced long sleep of the pub has made a lot of people, especially those who rarely enter its confines, realise its importance (something CAMRA discovered in 2016 when commissioning a report on the role of pubs in their communities). It’s not all been plain sailing, admittedly, with instances of pub companies demanding rents from establishments whose revenue stream has completely dried up, but a lot of licensees have adapted to the lockdown by selling takeaways, both food and drink. Standing in a socially distanced line with a growler ready to be filled might not be on a par with a night out at the local, but even a queue can engender its own sense of community.

Award-winning licensee Pete Tiley of the Salutation Inn, just outside Berkeley in Gloucestershire, was one of those licensees who continued to serve his community when the lockdown began. ‘We certainly saw a huge amount of goodwill and support from our local community when the lockdown first started,’ he told me by email. ‘I think people were genuinely terrified that they might lose their local pub and the opportunities it provided to socialise with friends. Online sales for our home delivery service at the beginning of lockdown were tremendous and can no doubt be attributed in part to people wanting to get behind and support the local pub.’

However, here comes the caveat I mentioned.

’We wondered at the time therefore how sustainable the home delivery model was and, as we expected, things have definitely quietened down. I think people saw products flying off the online shelves and perhaps now feel the job is done and the Sally is safe. Obviously other factors will be at play — more people have gone back to work or lost their jobs and the “drink every night” honeymoon is over. We’ve learnt however that goodwill can only go so far.’

Sobering thoughts, but Tiley was also positive in the changes needed: ‘There are opportunities for the hospitality sector to evaluate and change the current business model and if we can communicate those effectively, we have a chance to change things for the better in the long run.’

Amongst his positive action points he highlighted a fair price for products and services, a chance to reset the ‘historical imbalance’ between landlord and tenant and lobbying the government for a more sympathetic tax regime.

Turning to the brewing industry, my first thoughts on its future would hopefully be a continuation of what could be seen as transferring the nimble and flexible response to the lockdown to other aspects of breweries’ operations. We have seen breweries donate a share of profits to various charities, offer discounts to key workers and seemingly

become even more part of their communities through tap-rooms and home deliveries. For Miranda Hudson of Duration Brewing, the lockdown has shaken up practices across the supply chain and for her, ‘products, services and relationships will, I suspect, become more robust or fall by the way. Bend before you break mindsets will have brought with it deep thinking to adapt to survive as a business. And a little reinvention to stay relevant will lead to more creative end results. I believe the craft offering will be “sharpened” as a result of questioning your existence, your values and what you stand for.

‘The support for good beer seems pretty imbedded into today’s beer drinker and while I suspect there could well be a long slow death for many really valued and valid businesses based on simple economics, my hunch is being a stand up company with good transparency, a strong company culture and decent ethics will become as essential as putting out a damn fine product.’

I could be hopelessly optimistic, but talking with both Tiley and Hudson and hearing their well-argued thoughts on the future gives me hope that our beer and pub industry will come out of this crisis stronger and even more embedded in our communities.

Adrian Tierney-Jones

Voted ‘Beer Writer of the Year 2017’ by the British Guild of Beer Writers, Adrian Tierney-Jones is a freelance journalist whose work also appears in the Daily Telegraph, Original Gravity, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, Daily Star and Imbibe amongst many others.

He’s been writing books since 2002 and they include West Country Ales, Great British Pubs, Britain’s Beer Revolution (co-written with Roger Protz) and his latest The Seven Moods of Craft Beer; general editor of 1001 Beers To Try Before You Die and contributor to The Oxford Companion to Beer, World Beer and 1001 Restaurants You Must Experience Before You Die.

Chair of Judges at the World Beer Awards and also on the jury at the Brussels Beer Challenge, Occasionally blogs at http://maltworms.blogspot.co.uk