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Called To The Bar Adrian Tierney-Jones
Are taprooms - and mild - the way to go?
I’m not very good at forecasting. Many years ago when I wrote about music, I recommended three bands to look out for in City Limits, a London magazine I contributed to. My wife, who I didn’t know then worked for the magazine and, having read my predictions, went off and bought a single from one of the bands. To this day she recalls her disappointment. I’m not surprised as none of those I had tipped for the top really made it.
I tell this tale because in the last couple of months I have had several discussions with various people in the industry regarding the future of British brewing and pubs. These have been casual, the sort of thing you discuss in the pub or in one case standing around waiting to start judging at a beer competition. The general mood seems to be pessimistic but prepared, especially with the rising cost of raw materials, energy, fuel and packaging (oh and I nearly forgot the bountiful benefits of Brexit…), all of which will be passed onto the consumer in the shape of increased beer prices. If people decide to cut back on drinking beer or buy cheaper beer from the supermarkets, then this will affect pubs and breweries, the latter especially as there are up to 2,000 of them trying to sell their beers up and down the country. I can already think of a couple of closures.
For instance as my new book, United Kingdom of Beer, was going to press in late February I read on Twitter that Cheshire Brewhouse seemed to have closed. Even before it was confirmed I made last minute replacements for the two of the brewery’s excellent beers that were included in the book. Then after United Kingdom of Beer was published in March, I read in April (once again on Twitter) that Fallen Brewery had closed. That is a couple of beers in the book that you won’t be able to try and to be honest I don’t know if that will be the last (just before the magazine went to press news came of Kelham Island also closing). On the other hand, in the 25 years I have been writing about beer, breweries have come and gone, so why am I surprised — I think of Bridgwater Brewing Company, Butterknowle, Cain’s and more recently Wood’s and Cotleigh, who all bit the dust. Moving on, this is where I stick my predictive neck out for the metaphorical axe of Jack Ketch and write that whatever the ebb and flow of brewery lives, one thing I am quite certain about
is that we have seen the end of the global corporations buying up well-established craft breweries for vast sums. London Fields was closed by its owners Carlsberg-Marston in December 2021, put up for sale and might or might not open under a new owner in the future. Meanwhile Fourpure and Magic Rock, both of them owned by Australian food and drinks behemoth Lion, are also on the market, even though their beers are common occupants on the shelves of the supermarkets (usually accompanied by buy four and pay for three deals). Call me cynical but it doesn’t seem like the global breweries entries into the ‘craft’ world has paid off, though Camden and Beavertown tell a different story.
Then there are the supermarkets, which whether you like them or not, offer beers to cash-strapped consumers at an affordable price (you could say the same thing about Wetherspoon’s, despite its owner’s peculiar political views). Supermarkets might not appeal to those people who have well-paid jobs and can afford to stock up at their local bottle shop and brewery, but they remain a vital conduit for other beer-lovers and breweries. However, I would add a caveat — having recently done a not very scientific survey of what is available, it does seem that BrewDog has the lion’s share of shelf space. To paraphrase Mr White about SPECTRE to James Bond, they are everywhere. Whatever I think of the recent revelation of alleged misbehaviour at the top levels of the company, there are obviously still people who buy their beer. I don’t buy their beers, but there is an irony in their products hogging shelf after shelf when their original ethos was to strike a blow for choice and originality. When I look at four shelves of BrewDog beers in Sainsbury’s I am reminded of the Bruce Springsteen song, Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on. Amid this low level sense of doom and gloom, one of the more hopeful areas of
the beer business is the growth and sustainability of taprooms that anchor themselves in the local community. My Exeter local is one such place, which has a small brewery producing juicy, hazy pales as well as the odd Dubbel or Saison. It also sells beers from brewing superstars such as Thornbridge, Utopian and DEYA, has its own pizza van and organises events such as home-brew competitions. Other taprooms I have recently visited include Orbit, BrewYork and Lost and Grounded and also seem to place themselves at the heart of their community.
There is one other prediction that many in the rarefied world of Beer Twitter seem to be making with growing confidence: the resurgence of traditional beer styles. I am talking about Bitter and — more surprisingly — Mild. Given that Elusive, Left-Handed Giant and Boxcar have all made a Mild (and let us not forget diehards such as Batham’s and Holt’s), perhaps there is something in the online hype, but before we all get too excited, in the midst of researching this column I found a story on the BBC website about the resurgence of Mild: from 2012.
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, Pellicle, Good Beer Hunting, Daily Star and Beer Magazine 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), The Seven Moods of Craft Beer and his latest, United Kingdom of Beer. He is also 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 for several other competitions.
Beer Writer Of The Year 2017 • Best Beer Writer, National Media 2019
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