4 | Beer Today Newsletter | July 22,
2016
Notes from the editor’s chair I’ll admit. My plan for this newsletter is, of course, to promote the website, beer today.co.uk, but also to give you a little light Friday reading: something for the weekend, as the barber has never said to me. Which is why ‘m so embarrassed to be getting thos out to you on a Monday morning, but the truth is that it’s just been one of those weeks. As well as editing and compiling Beer Today, I also do various bits of freelance writing and PR and sometimes there are just jobs which have to come first on the ‘to do’ list.
As some of you will know, I have my office within Cornwall Specialist Beer, a bottle shop and bar attached to Coastal I’m not just a web editor — Brewery, at Redruth, where I curate the there’s a bottle shop and bar to shop and look after the bar. Again, a busy look after and a weekly magazine Friday and you find yourself with more beer column to deliver time pumping beer than seated at a keyboard (not that I’m complaining — variety, the spice of life, and all that). This week, for example, my editor at So, once again, apologies for the lateWestern Morning News magazine, West, ness of the newsletter, but I hope you which comes with the paper on a Saturenjoy it and, as ever, I encourage feedday, wanted my column early as she was back. See you for the next one, hopefully going on holiday, so there was a bit of my delivered to your inbox on time this Friday chipped away. week!
Darren Norbury
July 22, 2016 Issue 3 website: beertoday.co.uk e-mail: darren@beertoday.co.uk
Big plans for Tiny Rebel Award-winning brewery Tiny Rebel has announced plans for a new brewery and community space in Newport. The premises mark the start of significant expansion that will increase capacity more than five-fold. Since the Welsh brewery was started four years ago by cofounders Brad Cummings and Gazz Williams, Tiny Rebel has rapidly grown in popularity and acclaim. As well as opening two Urban Tap House pubs, in Cardiff and Newport, the brewery has released an impressive list of limited-edition beers alongside a strongperforming core range, which includes their Welsh red ale, Cwtch, the Champion Beer of Britain 2015. Due to the success and popularity its beers, Tiny Rebel has found itself at full capacity, spurring on plans for larger brewing facilities to meet in increasing demand. Designed by architects Powell Dobson, and managed by WPM Planning and Development, the new site will cover nearly 30,000 square feet and will include a bar and event space as well capacity for bottling and canning lines. It will also have significantly increased storage which will allow for a large increase in production. In total, the new site allows for the business to expand capacity to 5 million
The Craft Beer Clan of Scotland has formed a new brewing venture with Williams Brothers, of Alloa with the release of a series of whisky barrel-aged beers which have already attracted strong orders both internationally and across the UK. Clan Brewing Company, under industry veteran Chris Miller, once of Harviestoun Brewery, has produced four new beers using barrels from four whisky regions — Speyside, Highlands, Lowland and Islay — and is already exporting to markets including Japan and Beijing. Full story at tinyurl.com/j7cj5f6
litres annually — nearly 9 million pints. Brad Cummings said: “Tiny Rebel Brewery started life in a garage, born out of our passion for flavoursome, drinkable beers. Four years later, the business is making dramatic progress. We’ve established ourselves with award-winning brews like Cwtch and built a growing community of Tiny Rebel fans. “This £2.6m relocation and expansion is a project that we’ve been looking at for the past 24 months and one that all of the
Tiny Rebel team have put their heart and soul in to making it happen. As we were desperate for additional capacity in both brewing and packaging, this will enable us to do even more to support the growing demand for Tiny Rebel beer both at home and abroad.” Chris Jefford, of Powell Dobson, added: “Tiny Rebel’s commitment to achieving a high quality piece of design and an exciting place for staff to work and for the public to visit is extremely rare.”
Merger looking expensive AB InBev’s acquisition of SABMiller is looking increasingly expensive, says a well-known academic, as the various competition authorities exact a heavy price to approve the deal. Professor John Colley, of Warwick Business School, thinks that instead of one in three beers worldwide being brewed by AB InBev post the deal, it is looking like one in four or even five. Prof Colley said: “The US Department of Justice has just approved the acquisition of SABMiller on the condition that all the US acquired business is disposed and smaller brewers are allowed unfettered access to distribution. The European
Competition authorities have been particularly demanding, similarly requiring all the European acquired businesses to be sold off. “Grolsch and Peroni have gone to Asahi, a Japanese Brewer for $2bn. Something of a surprise to AB InBev is that all the Eastern European assets, including Pilsner Urquell, have to be sold and are up for sale at a price tag of around $5bn. The EC has required all the Eastern European assets to be sold to one buyer. “In the US, all the acquired SABMiller businesses have had to be sold at a price of $12bn to Molson Coors in Canada, which included the Miller brand. While in
China, the joint venture which owned Snow, with around 20% market share, is being sold to the joint venture partner China Resources Enterprise for $1.6bn.” He added: “In effect, all the purchased assets of SABMiller in North America, Europe and China have had to be sold at a combined price of around $20bn. As AB InBev’s total outlay was $106bn for SABMiller, this means they have paid $86bn for the positions in the growth markets of Africa and Central and South America. The extent of divestments to gain competition clearance has come as a shock to AB InBev. This is starting to look like a very expensive purchase indeed.”