I Am A Brewer Issue 2 by Don't Look Down Media

P I O N E E R I N G

T O G E T H E R

SINCE 1869 WE ARE A SIXTH GENERATION GROWER-OWNED NETWORK OF FAMILY HOP FARMS PARTNERING WITH THE WORLD’S FINEST BREWERS TO CONTINUE THE TRADITION OF CREATING WHAT’S NEXT IN BEER. For more information or to order, contact us at yakimagold@yakimachief.com.

YAKIMACHIEF.COM @YAKIMACHIEF

Issue 2- Travel the World Inside Inside the calm of a Japanese sake brewery. Everything you need to know about the beer world. Why more breweries are slow souring. The myth of old hops, and negotiating hop contracts. How you should be managing your social media. Your people matter more than anything. How to break into the Canadian market. What your taproom needs to be.

Portfolio News Brewing Ingredients Marketing People Sales Owning

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Portfolio

Tanaka Shuzo Sake Brewery was founded in 1899, in the Hokkaido town of Otaru. On a recent winter trip, we got to see the similarities between sake brewing and beer brewing. The vibe is different, however. Instead of loud music, sake brewing is generally quiet and complentative.

Traditional sacks of sake rice.

Spores of the aspergillus oryzae mould (koji-kin) are added to the steamed rice, and incubated to produce koji.

Portfolio

Brewer walking among fermenters and sake lees.

The finished product of sake.

IAAB News

News

Curious Brewery unveil new brewery centre • The Curious Brewery has opened a state-of-the-art, multi-million pound ‘cathedral of brewing’ in the heart of Ashford, Kent. It’s a 50HL 5-vessel brewhouse.

Welcome to the second print edition of I Am A Brewer • I Am A Brewer is a community that is rooted in the generous and sharing spirit of beer. It’s about friends in the industry imparting their learnings, sharing their experiences, inspiring each other, and all for free. I Am A Brewer is for everyone who is linked with the beer industry, whether it’s managing social media accounts, working in packaging, sales or marketing, owning breweries or managing the late shift on the brewery floor. It’s more than just a print publication however, we also have a weekly newsletter, the ‘7 essential things you need to know about brewing this week’ (sign up at iamabrewer. com) and a weekly podcast called the 10-Minute Masterclass, an inspirational and informative short burst from a world-class expert, whether that is lager making or barrelageing, taproom design or keg dispensing. Find it on iTunes and Spotify. In this issue, we’re travelling around the world to discover what we can learn from abroad. We’ve dispatches from Canada and Japan, America and Belgium. We learn how British brewers are taking souring techniques and making a beer inspired in the countryside, we hear about the challenges, and great opportunities, for brewers selling into Canada and we learn how to manage social media without it managaing you. But really, it’s all about one thing: people. Daniel Neilson

UK craft beer expands • According to SIBA’s British Craft Beer Report 2019, brewers in the country brewed 0.8% more in 2018 than 2017, and the overall beer market grew by 2.6%. Other headline statistics include 890 more jobs expected in 2019, but warned that the traditional pub market is increasingly difficult. Small breweries will have to find alternative ways to market, including taprooms. Challenges to consider include a 5% decline in people drinking beer more than once a week (26% down to 21%), especially among 25-34 year olds (26% down to 16%). However, 45% of respondents stated they would pay more for genuine craft beer. Innovation, it is clear, will become important as traditional means to markets continue to be disrupted.

New report into woman and beer launched • “Women are engaged with the UK beer scene; brewing, selling, serving, drinking and enjoying beer. They are proud to be interested in, and associated with one of the most diverse, exciting and inclusive sectors in the world. But perhaps this opening statement should be prefaced with the word, ‘some’ because sadly, this is not the case for a large proportion of adult women in the UK who feel uninterested, disenfranchised and even repulsed by beer.” So starts ‘The Beer Agender: A further study into female attitudes and behaviours towards beer 2019’ by Dea Latis. The 2018 report The Gender Pint Gap found that the women of beer and its advertising were often associated with ‘beer-swilling men in pubs’ and that the ‘bloat factor’ is a major consideration, among other challenges. However, it struck a note of optimism with opportunities, especially in terms of glassware, food matching – but not beer aimed only at women. The full report can be read at dealatis.org.uk and offers a wealth of information about the current market.

Clever kegs & casks, great beer, happy drinkers.

Stainless steel keg & cask rental

0800 534 5000 kegstar.com renteurope@kegstar.com

travel the world

Beer has no borders. Its influence is global. Its ingredients are shipped across the planet. All in the pursuit of a quality glass of beer.

Brewing > Feature

Feature < Brewing

Circling planet beer

There isn’t a more collaborative industry on the planet. It’s often surprising to people outside brewing to comprehend when brewers swap recipes, borrow a few kilos of Cascade, or emergency kegs are hot-trotted across Bermondsey. This doesn’t happen in biscuit manufacturing or scissor making (I think) and the idea of a ‘closely guarded secret’ doesn’t appear on advertising campaigns. At industry events, stories are shared over beers, stories of calamities or successes, recipe development and sales ‘ins’. This doesn’t happen in watchmaking. No, the beer industry is one where the flow of information is as important as the liquid itself. In a time where walls seem to be built across the world, beer pours through the cracks. Beer doesn’t have borders.

Photo by Gareth Dobson

The photograph shows left is of a bar in Munich by the cathedral call Augustiner am Dom, a place where Augustiner Helles arrives in a paper thin glass, with a foaming head. It’s a bog traditional restaurant (order the sausage platter!), but the stand-up part of the bar is pretty much in a stairwell. There’s a bell above the bar and unwitting visitors ring it for attention, but if you do, a cheer goes up: you’ve just agreed to buy a round for everyone. The spirit of beer is of that bell – lets’ buy a round for everyone, let’s share our knowledge, across the planet. DN

Brewing > Sour beers

Time is also the fifth element for a small but influential group of British sour beer producers who have turned their backs on the quick fix of kettle souring. For them time and barrels that have been home to all kinds of beverages, along with the company of Brettanomyces and friends, are a recipe for beers that pulsate with complexity, depth and the kind of muscular character that could stop Conor McGregor.

Illustration: @adamonsea

Slow souring

The small East Anglian village of Edwardstone is a sleepy backwater of sturdy barns converted into rustic hideaways and surrounding fields that feels like a part of England time forgot. However, time is well remembered in a timber barn at the back of the pub, where the beers of Little Earth Project slumber away within wood. Tom Norton bosses the Project, who with his father originally started a traditional cask beer brewery here in 2008. ‘We were called Mill Green,’ he says on a benevolently sunny spring day, ‘and over the course of seven years learnt a lot about the industry. In late 2015 we decided to close Mill Green and open this. The reasoning behind the move was that we had always had an interest in historical beers such as Baltic Porters and stock ales and love sour beers. ‘We don’t kettle sour. All our beers are either completely or partially fermented with a mixed culture taken from the lees of our homemade cider. We regulate the sourness by the hopping rates and the time of year. We make a stock ale that we want to be relatively dry and funky but not sour so we brew it in October and heavily hop it.’

Time is the fifth element for a growing number of British breweries, says Adrian Tierney-Jones. British beer has always had time stitched into its fabric. Victorian porters spent time within wooden vats before being blended with their younger selves; barrels of IPA destined for the Raj enjoyed months of rest aboard ocean-going sailing ships; contemporary cask-conditioned ales still take time in the pub cellar before being served.

He grabs a bottle of Organic Harvest Ale and pours. It is dark orange in the glass, lambic-still. The aromatics are tart grapefruit mingled with a juicy citrusiness and a hint of earthy Brett in the background. In the mouth there are further swirls of tartness alongside a cider-like acidity before a dry finish. It is refreshing, frighteningly so as its ABV is 6.7%. Maybe it’s the rhythms of the seasons in the countryside that encourages brewers to slow sour their beers, for its seems that most of breweries taking this route all have rustic backgrounds.

The brewery (and blenders) Burning Sky is based in Firle, in the Sussex Downs, where its founder and head brewer Mark Tranter makes saisons, IPAs and pale

Sour beers < Brewing

Maybe it’s the rhythms of the seasons in the countryside that encourages brewers to slow sour their beers

‘We either do spontaneous fermentation or use our house culture, which we have built from the surrounding area’s yeast. The wort goes into barrels with a dose of our house culture and is left for a year. We do our own packaging, mostly into corked bottles. Bottles then sit around for three months.’ On a previous visit to the Salutation I’d tried Sat on Rhubarb, an exceptional wild beer which had been aged on local rhubarb. It was stunning, grapefruity, tart, earthy and refreshing, with a real kinship with lambic.

‘Kettle sours are not bad,’ he tells me, ‘it’s just a different approach and from my point of view we wouldn’t get the depth and breadth of flavours we get from ageing in a barrel.’

Previously Mills was head brewer at Bristol Beer Factory, which is where Brett Ellis, co-founder of Wild Beer, also worked before Mills joined. Like Burning Sky, Wild Beer, located in the rural wilds of eastern Somerset, set their intentions crystal clear when they started — time, mixed fermentation and blending were going to dictate their approach.

Tranter recently generated great interest among British sour aficionados with the release of Coolship No 1, a beer left overnight to spontaneously ferment before being aged in barrels. Bottles were snapped up almost immediately.

‘We don’t do any quick souring,’ says Los Angeles exile Ellis, ‘I find complexity and flavour go amazingly together with Brett and sourness — you could say that those who drink well-made kettle sour beers are entry level drinkers who tomorrow will drink more complex beers — here at Wild we are not doing entry level beers.’ Modus Operandi was one of Wild’s first beers, a blending of three differently aged beers that spent time in wood in the company of Brett. ‘When we started,’ says Ellis, ‘we said we would do clean beer such as pale ales as well as wild beer, and joked if I wasn’t able to keep them apart then we would be only be wild. But this approach has worked for us.’

It is important to state that those who are slow souring have not declared war on kettle souring. Take Johnny Mills of Mills Brewery, whose beers are all mixed fermentation and barrel aged. ‘On the flavour side you can make perfectly clean beers with kettle souring, but they are not as complex as long term souring, which is what we focus on. We make wort at the Salutation brewpub, with a turbid mash, 50/50 fresh hops/old hops and

then pump it into a tank in the van and drive down the road to pump it out into our cool ship.

Other breweries going for time include BrewDog, who recently opened their standalone sour beer facility Overworks, and Thornbridge (who embrace both souring disciplines). Meanwhile, back at Little Earth, there is birdsong in the air, the sun is shining and in the dark recess of the barn, the beers are slumbering. ‘I used to brew golden ales and best bitters,’ says Norton, ‘and I was proud of some of those beers but this is a lot more exciting.’ Adrian Tierney-Jones

ales alongside a range of wood-aged beers, all of which sleep in an adjoining barn. Here there are approximately 200 barrels, four foeders, as well as a cool ship, the first one to be commissioned by a British brewery for decades.

Lesson < Brewing

Carl Heron

Respect your enzymes

Amylases work at 62 to 73°C. The temperature you choose for a single infusion system helps determine fermentability. For lower gravity beers with cleaner, crisper finishes, stick with temperatures around 62°C. To achieve higher gravity, more body and mouthfeel, try at least 68°C. Bear in mind that a more complex malt grist may require a little more time for full conversion. Ensure sparge temperatures of 77 to 80°C to deactivate the amylases during run-off. Important too are the crushed malt grist fractions. Go for grists of 50% coarse, 40% medium and 10% fine for a mash tun, and 40%, 50% and 10% respectively for a lauter tun. The finer the crush, the higher the extract efficiency – but of course you need the coarse material to act as a filter bed.

Good beers start with great mashes. Understand the variables, and you can shape the final flavour, colour, body and texture with precision and accuracy. Crucial to all this is the mash and sparge temperatures. For amylase enzymes to break starch into fermentable sugars, the starch needs to gelatinise. The tight structures of most cereal grains need temperatures above 60°C to unfold and make the starch accessible. If you want to add rice or maize at normal mash temperatures, they must be torrefied.

Liquor to grist ratio makes a huge difference. The reaction rate of amylases is affected by the mash’s temperature, thickness and pH. Go for a liquor to grist ratio of 2.5 : 1 in mash tuns and 3 : 1 in lauter tuns. It’s worth correcting alkalinity and pH. Try adding food grade acids to hard brewing liquor to reduce alkalinity. Use brewing salts to help create the levels of minerals that will achieve the optimal pH of 5.2. To reiterate, utterly respect the enzymes: they are the key to unlocking your mash mastery.

Carl Heron, Craft Brewing Sales Manager at Crisp Malt and Master Brewer, explains why brewers should be obsessing about enzymes.

Ingredients > Feature

Illustration: @adamonsea

When hop contracts go bad Hop contracts can run years ahead, but in a world of uncertainty, not everything goes according to plan. It’s good to talk, says John Willetts of Simply Hops

Even with the very best will in the world, it is not always easy for a brewery to accurately forecast what’s going to happen in the next 12, 24 or 36 months. This means that while contracts with hop suppliers are always entered into with the best intentions, things don’t always go as planned. The IPA you were in love with and were expecting to dominate your sales just doesn’t perform, and the wit you did as a seasonal suddenly takes on a life of its own until suddenly everyone wants some! Anything can happen, good or bad, which means that the contract you signed may no longer fit your needs. What happens then?

Well I can’t speak for all hop merchants, but I can speak for Simply Hops. First: never sit on an issue. The sooner you inform us of a problem, the more likely we are able to do something about it. If you wait until 2018 crop is being picked before you tell us about a problem with your 2016 crop, then the potential for us to re-use those hops, and therefore release you of your unwanted obligation, is severely diminished. We write to all our contracted customers to update them on the state of their contracts, and ask to help formulate a plan together in order to ensure that there are no major problems at a later date. Invariably, the only big issues arise when those letters are ignored. Once a certain amount of time has passed, it becomes difficult, or indeed in some cases impossible to be as flexible as we would like to be, so responding at the first available opportunity is vital. Rebalancing is the easiest way to proceed with your hop contracts in a healthy way. Regular meetings with your merchants to discuss what’s working and what’s not can often allow them to release some volumes of hops in preference for others. This ensures your brewery has what it needs when it needs it, rather than building up issues for future headaches. Also, remember that although some years you may feel your contracted price is higher than the current market price, there will also be years where you are buying at lower than the current price. Considering this, buying from alternative sources whilst tempting, is not always the best strategy in the long term, as it may not aid you in future negotiations with the contracted supplier. When is comes to renegotiating, it is important for both parties to consider all options. Longer term storage, rebalancing into future years, maybe extended payment terms to avoid a big hit to cash flow, or even in extreme cases an agreed settlement figure to ensure costs and losses are kept to a minimum. As a company, we see flexibility and communication as the key to a successful partnership between ourselves and the excellent breweries we supply. While we cannot always help in every situation, and sadly we have had to pursue legal channels in the past to get a contract settled, we will always try our best to find a mutually beneficial solution first. Afterall, as lovers of good beer in this wonderful industry we share, it is vital to keep the pumps flowing. / simplyhops.com

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Ingredients > Feature

Feature < Ingredients

The myth of old hops

Yakima Chief Hops is on the hunt for some of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading industry myths, starting with the rumour that hops from prior crop years are of poorer, lesser quality. Alex Rumbolz conducted a round table interview with Yakima Chief Hops experts on the topic of product production, quality, brewing and trends to dig deeper into industry assumptions and behaviours that detour brewers from hop products with older crop years. On the panel were; Chad Roberts, Production Planning Manager, Missy Raver, Director of Quality Control, Tommy Yancone, Technical Brewer and Bryan Pierce, Director of North American Sales.

Ingredients > Feature

Alex: There seems to be some hesitation from breweries when it comes to brewing with hops from older crop years. From your perspective, can you explain why brewers feel like hops from prior crop years are of poorer quality? Bryan: Every year hop fields see different conditions. As everyone knows, some years have cooler springs, hotter summers, drought, floods and all sorts of different pest pressures. All of this can have a huge effect on hops, and sometimes the most recent crop can have seen more adverse conditions than one that’s two or three years older than it. Some brewers are very attuned to this and can tell you, “Yes, 2017 was a great year for Centennial,” or “2015 was an awesome year for Citra®!” Tommy: As with any agricultural crop, nothing is ever as fresh as when it’s harvested. Brewers

Missy: Yes, as soon as the bines are cut, the hop cones start to dry out. And as they dry, it causes them to open—exposing the lupulin glands to oxygen. Because of this, growers harvest the fields and immediately transport to picking machines to remove the cones from the bine. The cones are laid into the kiln to dry. Kiln drying takes 8-10 hours, then the hops are cooled in piles with a moisture range of 8.5-10.5. After cooling, the hops get pressed into bales. The baling process flattens the cones and protects the lupulin glands from oxygen. If the hops are over dried, the cones will shatter during baling, exposing the lupulin. Tommy: During harvest, we receive more than 35 million pounds of baled hops during a six-week period. Our biggest concern during this time is getting the hops into our cooling warehouses. Since

The key to quality hops are good practices at the farm, the right storage conditions, timely processing and strict processing parameters. believe the more recent their hops were on the farm, the better the quality they receive. That’s not untrue. However, Yakima Chief Hops is an expert in processing and sustaining quality, from farm to kettle, no matter what year the hops were harvested.

Photo by Babatuel

Alex: So, from the moment hops are harvested, they’re immediately at risk for oxidation? What does the timeline look like during harvest?

Alex: What happens once all hop bales get into cold storage? Tommy: For each lot that is delivered to our warehouse during harvest, we calculate the hop

Alex: Over time, what factors cause the degradation of hops? Tommy: As hops age, if they are exposed to oxygen and high temperatures, the alpha acids will begin to oxidize, which both lowers the bittering potential of a hop and creates compounds such as isovaleric acid—making hops smell “cheesy.” Luckily, we have multiple safeguards in place to ensure that our hops from previous crop years are still going to be excellent. Missy: The key to quality hops are good practices at the farm, the right storage conditions, timely processing and strict processing parameters. Once stored in a controlled temperature zone, Yakima Chief Hops products can last more than three years without fluctuation in alpha, beta or HSI.

the hops are baled in plastic and kept cold on the day of arrival, we severely inhibit oxidation.

Feature < Ingredients

Alex: Can you elaborate on that? What does YCH do to ensure continual stability? Missy: All our pellets are sealed in an oxygenimpermeable Mylar bag, which is thoroughly flushed with nitrogen gas. At that point, the pelleted hops are put back into our temperaturecontrolled warehouses before being shipped out to customers. If brewers continue to store the hops between 33-41 degrees, they should continue to produce great beer for years to come.

I have some hops from 2013 I use regularly in my beers today and will continue to for the next few years. I find if the packaging is sealed and they are kept out of light, in cold storage, the quality won’t disappoint

Chad: During our processing of T-90 pellets and Cryo Hops®, we do everything we can to keep the hops as cool as possible, to prevent the oxidation reaction from occurring. In addition to the numerous times hops are sampled during receipt and processing, in 2016 we instituted an aggressive annual sampling regimen to check previous crop year analytical and sensory stability and conditions. An overwhelming amount of product we checked was in excellent condition, with a standout 2010 Cluster lot having only lost 1% alpha in six years and I personally brewed with it and it tasted amazing. Alex: As brewers, what is your experience brewing with various crop years? Chad: Personally, I have some hops from 2013 I use regularly in my beers today and will continue to for the next few years. I find if the packaging is sealed and they are kept out of light, in cold storage, the quality won’t disappoint. Tackling our prior year’s crop hop inventory is one of my primary goals as a Product Manager. Of the many granular minutiae that ultimately help determine a hop lot’s quality, crop year is one of the most unimportant if you deal with a processor you can trust. Tommy: If ever a brewer receives a lot from a hop supplier that they’re not happy with, it is always important to provide that feedback and why. A good hop supplier will always work on finding a solution that meets their needs. Alex: Thank you. Does anyone have any final thoughts? Bryan: As Missy mentioned prior, it is always important to remember that hops are always at their best quality at the farm. As a supplier, it is our job to ensure we capture that quality the best we can as we process into other products so it can arrive at the brewery the same way. That is why being a growerowned company is so meaningful. Also, programmes like Green Chief® are so impactful on what a brewer is going to use in their brewhouse. It’s important to know that if hops do not meet our high standards, we will not accept them from growers. After all, the shelf life begins when the hops come off the bine. / yakimachief.com

storage index (HSI). This is an analysis that estimates the rate of hop degradation. There are a lot of factors that can affect the HSI of a given lot, but much of it is variety-dependent. Missy: When calculating HSI, we also analyze samples through our on-site lab. The ability to provide documented quality assurance to our brewing customers allows us to maintain our position as the leading hop supplier in both quality and sustainability. Chad: When it comes time to process the raw hops into T-90 pellets or Cryo Hops®, my team will try to process hops with a higher HSI first. Once the hops have been processed into pellets, they are extremely stable.

Marketing > Feature

How to manage social media (so it doesn’t manage you) The problems with social media are well documented: it’s a minefield, and a drain on time. But it’s also an essential tool of and brewery’s arsenal. Nick Law of Hop Forward explains how best to manage your social media engagement, and still be efficient with your time.

didn’t understand why. Many assume that having an account is enough, and - by merely taking a photo of hops going into the kettle every so often, the ‘Likes’ will come flooding in. Err… no!

Remember the days when you had to go down to the pub to air opinions with strangers, crack out photo albums to share pictures of loved ones, or go on a date to show another human being what you were eating? Not so these days! Social media has revolutionised how we interact with others. Whereas, once, businesses relied on extensive marketing campaigns, now anyone can advertise their wares to the masse.

Understanding what social media does and why it benefits your beer business is imperative to getting the best out of it. Social media is your communications department, digital marketing tool, consumer sales device, and human research and development group. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity. THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT Social media is driven by one thing: engagement. The more the customers engage with your posts, the higher up their feed they will appear.

Anyone with creative ideas can grow their influence organically through grassroots marketing as much as a macro-brewer Different platforms demand different approaches; it’s not enough to post the same content at the same time to three or four different accounts.

Social media has provided a level playing field for brewers of all sizes. Anyone with creative ideas can grow their influence organically through grassroots marketing as much as a macro-brewer can be ‘reassuring expensive’ through big budget, cinematic ads.

Facebook is great for information, group discussion, promoting events, and engaging with your audience through video. Twitter is short and snappy, topical, and great for sharing your opinions directly with consumers or through links to articles and websites.

However, if it were that easy, even those riding the crest of the craft beer wave wouldn’t need employees whose sole responsibility is to manage their social media accounts.

Instagram is really where it’s at for many in today’s marketplace. It’s visual and allows brewers to showcase their breweries, beers, brands and events, often creating a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out), which can drive sales. Used properly, marketing across the different platforms of social media can bring huge rewards. However, to drive sales forwards and increase followers, you’ll need two things: consistency and a call to action.

So, what about the rest of us mere mortals, those who can’t afford such ‘luxuries’? How should we manage our online profiles while trying to mash in?

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA IS IMPORTANT Recently, I spoke to a self-confessed novice; nobody in their brewery knew the first thing about social media. They knew it was important but they

Feature < Marketing

Ask them to do something with what you’re posting: Like it, share it, read it, visit it, buy tickets for it, drink it

trying to create and deliver engaging posts on multiple platforms (believe me, I know!). Batch creating content and scheduling using apps like Hootsuite are fantastic for kick-starting engagement with minimal effort. Obviously, you’ll still need to respond with your followers, hence the term ‘social’ media. However, with some creativity and little foresight, you can stay on top of your social media so it doesn’t stay on top of you.

CONSISTENCY & CALL TO ACTION It’s no good sporadically posting on platforms as and when you feel like it. Posts have to be consistent to be noticed.

If you would like advice on how to make the most of your marketing through social media platforms, visit www.hopforward.beer and reach out to us.

This includes regularly posting content, ensuring the text and visuals are always the same high quality, responding to those who engage with you, and adhering to social media etiquette (i.e: handles and hashtags on Twitter and Instagram, not on Facebook!). But what do you want people to do with what you’re posting?

Hop Forward is a brewery and branding consultancy aimed at getting you ahead in the brewing and beer business.

This is your Call to Action: Ask them to do something with what you’re posting: Like it, share it, read it, visit it, buy tickets for it, drink it, or have an opinion on it. Give them a clear reason to stay engaged. HOW TO STAY ON TOP OF IT, SO IT DOESN’T STAY ON TOP OF YOU You can see now why the most social media savvy breweries employ people to undertake such a task - it’s no small feat rehydrating yeast while

Nick Law

People > Feature

People and purpose Christian Barden, Europe’s Kegstarter & Global Brand Builder, argues that a successful sustainable business needs two things: good people and a clear purpose for everyone to get behind. Here’s why: “We are stuffed in life without good people around us and a clear purpose. Behind every personal or team success story, no matter how big or small, there’s always a bunch of people who indirectly or directly created the environment for it all to happen. It might be a word of wisdom, a random act of kindness, a moment of inspiration, an atmosphere of support and safety, or perhaps a true one-off ‘sliding doors’ situation (for those that remember the film). Whatever it may be, we never achieve anything in total isolation. Nearly all the environments that help us achieve something involve good people.

don’t know where to find these people” I hear very often. It’s actually pretty cool to be anxious about it; in fact, it’d be good to be. You don’t need to be whatever a ‘people person’ is; you just need to risk it a little, trust and make sure that to truly lead you need to serve first. Putting the effort ‘in’ and being clear, honest and trusting will undoubtedly get something back ‘out’ for everyone. As I said, none of us knows where these good people really are, they could be mashing in right now, or on the bus with you, or just walked past you before you sat down to read this. Being prepared to stick our neck out will help find them. After all, the turtle only ever makes progress when he sticks his neck out!

We never achieve anything in total isolation. Nearly all the environments that help us achieve something involve people We’ll never really know who all those people are, where they are and what they’re truly capable of until we stop, breathe, think, build and live that environment that attracts these good people to do what they’re great at every day for themselves, for each other and for your partners.

TRIBES AND VIBES I only heard the phrase ‘your vibe leads your tribe’ for the first time a few months ago from the owner of our local chippy as we dropped in for our counterproductive post-sport Friday evening dinner. She’s right, if you, your family, your friends, your team, your colleagues, your investors and your business bring the right vibe, and thats the energy that good people tend to bring to any situation, then you and your tribe will consistently have the best foundation to achieve most things that you put your mind to. “Yeah, but I’m not a people person, and I

BELIEF AND PURPOSE And it’s the same with having a clear purpose. Purpose drives a belief, belief drives a focus of energy and enthusiasm and that, backed up with the right leadership and the proper process and the right results, will get people and tribes where they’d like to be with a beaming grin. It’s important not to get purpose mixed up with achieving something at a specific time, that’s more about goals, objectives and key results, which are crucial, but a purpose drives you way beyond them. NEVER STOP LEARNING, EXECUTING AND HAVING FUN Most of the mistakes I’ve made are from losing sight of the purpose that’ll keep me in line to ‘be’ and ‘do’ the right stuff. Having a purpose, perhaps counterintuitively, makes life a little more chilled out. It creates patience (something I’m notoriously

Feature < People

Purpose drives a belief, belief drives a focus of energy and enthusiasm and that, backed up with the right leadership, will get people and tribes where they’d like to be poor at having) through a much bigger reason for doing stuff. A great example is what Garret Oliver pointed out at Scottish Beer Matters a few years back. He spoke brilliantly about making a great beer business. He said something along the lines of: “I know everyone here wants to do all kinds of cool stuff with their beers and everyone will want to make a long term profitable business. You’ll make money by selling more, so in addition to all that cool stuff, remember to make beers that are so moreish that people want another before they finish that first third of a pint.” That worked for him, it makes sense to me, but everyone should have their purpose and be ruthlessly clear about what that purpose is throughout their business. Mine is to help get more great beers to more happy drinkers.

money is at a premium. But I’m yet to meet a team smashing it every day and hating it over the long run, and I’m yet to meet a team having a blast day in day out but consistently failing miserably. I’ve been lucky to lead, start, turnaround, accelerate and mentor lots of different business, sports teams and people so far, and at the heart of the recipe for any success we’ve had together has been the focus on doing what it takes for everyone involved to have fun and measure the right stuff every single day, no matter how tough it gets, to deliver against that purpose. In short, it’s why I bang on about ‘smiling faces and great results’ being my recipe of how to get stuff done with the right balance of the hard work, enjoyment, health and wellness needed to keep doing it for the long run. / kegstar.com

I know it’s tough to keep doing this kind of stuff, and everything else, day after day, month after month, year after year. It’s especially true in highly competitive and sometimes declining industries where everything is so immediate and where time and

Christian Barden

Sales > Feature

How to sell beer in Canada Toronto-based beer writer Stephen Beaumont explains how to open up the burgeoning Canadian beer market For exporters of anything, but particularly exporters of beer, wine and spirits, Canada is in some ways a decidedly difficult country. For one, it’s large, as in very, very large, with 37 million people scattered over an area the size of 40 United Kingdoms. Adding to the fun is that fact that each province – there are ten, plus three northern territories – has its own set of rules and regulations governing alcohol importation and retailing. Then there are federal alcohol labelling laws which require that certain words like ‘beer’ and ‘product of the United Kingdom,’ appear in both French and

Neighbouring Québec, meanwhile, has about 23% of the Canadian population, its own version of the LCBO called the SAQ, corner store beer sales (which disproportionally favour locally-brewed beers) and, of course, various French language requirements. As such, even for most Canadian breweries seeking to expand their national footprint, it is the last province of entry. Out west, British Columbia has about five million people and a combination of public-private retailing that has of late very much opened up the province to imports. Of course, its largest city, Vancouver, is also over 2,000 kilometers further from London than is Ontario’s largest metropolis, Toronto, and 3,000 kilometers further than Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Ontario is home to almost 40% of the country’s population and has only two main steams for the retailing of beer English. And, of course, taxation rates on alcohol that, in some provinces, border on usurious. But there is good news to go with the bad. To begin with, one province, Alberta, home to a population of 4.3 million, removed government control from alcohol retailing years ago and so operates very much as a free market. Secondly, if it’s bang for the buck you’re after, Ontario is home to almost 40% of the country’s population and has only two main steams for the retailing of beer: The Beer Store, which sells the majority and is, believe it or not, majority owned by Molson and Labatt, and the LCBO, a governmentowned network of 872 wholly-owned and agency stores selling beer, wine and spirits.

(Supermarket beer sales have also kicked off in Ontario over the last couple of years, but that remains a tricky market for new products that are not local and craft.)

Speaking of Atlantic Canada, the four provinces that make it up – Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador – together account for about 2.4 million people and so are, along with the Prairie provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba (about 2.5 million in combined population), often overlooked by exporters. It is worth noting, however, that the entire region retains strong cultural ties to the UK and that Nova Scotia in particular leads the way among Canadian provinces in the number of breweries relative to its population, thus showing itself to be a vibrant market for craft beer. Still, with half of the country’s largest cities within its borders and accounting for more than half of all UK beer imports to Canada, Ontario cannot be ignored. Dealing with the LCBO, however, means that more than likely any entry to the market will come via a

Illustration by @adamonsea

single, seasonal shipment of, on average, between 400 and 500 cases, advises the British Consulate’s North America Head of Sector for Consumer Goods, Dana Dickerson.

The navigation of the LCBO bureaucracy is best left to someone well familiar with it, which is why working with an experienced importer is recommended

“We will often compare the LCBO to Sweden’s Systembolaget,” says Dickerson, noting that the two government-run alcohol retailers operate in a somewhat similar fashion. “The LCBO tends to be rather tied to their internal procurement calendar,” she adds, which means that they only have product calls for specific types of beer at specific times, something that offers opportunity to breweries with strong seasonally-themed brands, but can make the listing of flagship beers difficult. Although it is possible for an exporting brewery to enter the Ontario market on its own, the navigation of the LCBO bureaucracy is best left to someone well familiar with it, which is why working with an experienced importer is highly recommended. Entry to The Beer Store system, on the other hand, comes via a simple listing fee, but such is the nature of its stores that tremendous promotion and marketing is required in order to make any impression at all.

space and energy to wine and spirits sales that it does beer. On the bright side, notes Dickerson, the province is currently very open to organic products and the SAQ tends to be much less restrictive in its beer purchasing decisions than is the LCBO. Out west, Alberta truly is the “land of opportunity” in that it is an open marketplace, says Dickerson, but it is also quite fragmented and so requires a considerable investment of resources if a brand wishes to become known. British Columbia, meanwhile, is open to imports, but remains far more fixated on its neighbours in the Pacific northwest of the United States than it is on anything else. So while Canada’s two westernmost provinces may on the surface present the most straight-forward entry points for British beer exporters, they are also each uniquely challenging markets. / beaumontdrinks.com

Canada’s next largest market, Québec, has its own challenges in that corner store, or dépanneur, sales are restricted to breweries with operations within the province, while the SAQ devotes much more time,

Stephen Beaumont

Taprooms > Feature

You can build the perfect taproom

when the perfect locally-sourced snack or meal is available to complement the brew? Restaurants have been pairing wine with their food for centuries, and most established vineyards have restaurants as part of their experience, so why not do the same and pair delicious meals with your blonde, IPA, or wheat rather than just a burger, even if there is a shaving of truffle on it?

In part one of a series, restauranteur and brand builder Marcus Morgan-Etty explores why community not incandescent lightbulbs should be your first consideration

There are some craft brewers doing precisely that, and very successfully — for example, Richard Burhouse at Magic Rock Brewing in Huddersfield. I am biased as this is my neighbourhood brewery and tap room, but I genuinely think these guys have truly captured the essence of what a community tap room, supported by food, should be. Despite winning multiple global awards, they remain focussed on their local community by offering a lifestyle experience at their brewery. Fantastic beer, funky and contemporary styling, the best local street food talent, events, and more. And, believe me, Huddersfield is not Manchester, Edinburgh or Prague. To achieve what they have done in a town voted one of the top three worst places to live in the UK (it’s not by the way) shows a local brewery based taproom can be successful in any location if you have the drive and the passion.

There has been a paradigm shift in food and beverage culture over the last five years: an underlying disdain for ‘the brand’, or the buyout of market-leading trendsetters, transformed into homogeneous mass market chains. Discerning customers, and the masses, are now looking for a personal story, a narrative that they can connect to culturally, emotionally, and with all their senses. But, most important of all, more and more people want to feel connected to their neighbourhood. It started as us wanting to know the provenance and sustainability of the steak we were eating, or whether or not our asparagus had travelled from Istanbul when the farmer down the road grows asparagus twice as tasty and with no carbon footprint. But it has become more. It’s about putting back, connecting and supporting our communities. It’s about localisation. The rise of the neighbourhood establishment is here and now. And, not just in terms of restaurants. The same applies to the brewing industry. The public wants local taprooms. ‘Taprooms’ are popping up in all the major cities allowing beer lovers to connect to lesser-known brands and brewers. This is great but let’s be honest, wouldn’t most people who love all things beer prefer to drink from the source itself? Connect to the brewer, to the talent, feel their passion, and soak up the full sensory experience of trying craft brewers’ accomplishments on location. And, surely this pleasure is maximised

However, I can fully appreciate that, if you’re a guy with a couple of best mates as partners and no hospitality experience, putting your blood, sweat and tears into your brewery ‘baby’, the thought of creating a taproom (never mind a food-led taproom) in your garage/warehouse could be a thing of nightmares. Bringing a gourmet burger food truck to your brewery once a month is one thing, but investing into a fixed food and beverage unit, with a kitchen, toilets, licenses, etc. is another ball game altogether, especially when you have no experience.

I don’t believe it’s a lack of money, talent, or resources stopping the brewery-based food-led taproom concept from building. It’s a lack of support. Or, more specifically, a lack of crossindustry support between the craft brewers of the world and the food industry.

Feature < Taprooms

Despite this, it is 100% possible for craft brewers (no matter what the size) to expand their business, pair food and beer, and build a broader, more integrated, community around their brand. You can achieve this, and more, by coming together with other local like-minded brewers, and sharing the risk, financial outlay, and operational challenges that come with a business you don’t have experience in. One idea would be to set up a shared fixed neighbourhood taproom venue. Centrally located between multiple regional craft brewers, all working as a co-operative. This venue could act as an outlet for you too, not only showcase your beers and brand, but also to connect to the local community in a very personal way, bringing together multiple local networks you’d not be able to access individually. That, folks, is marketing and brand-building gold!

Photo by Sam Needham

Imagine, if you will, a timeshare property that you part own. It’s not a house in the Algarve, rather a bonafide, fully functioning, and very well managed, restaurant and tap room that you could (on multiple occasions over the year) do a full takeover of with your brands. Supported by the very best local food and beverage industry talent, you would be able to deliver a fully immersive experience, bringing together your incredible craft beer and perfectly paired foods that support your brand’s narrative. If you’d like to find out more about how to set up and run a shared food-led taproom keep your eyes peeled for I Am A Brewer’s next issue and my second article in this series.

Magic Rock’s taproom

About the author: For Marcus, food and beverage are intrinsically linked. But, then, his 25 years experience in the hospitality industry, including having launched 15 successful high-end restaurants and created, owned and run multiple successful brands in the UK and abroad, would make him a little biased.

Marcus Morgan-Etty

CONTACT daniel@originalgravitymag.com +44 (0) 1323 370430 ADVERTISING martha@originalgravitymag.com Website: iamabrewer.com Twitter: IAmABrewerMag Editor: Daniel Neilson Design & illustration: lindoneast.co.uk Publisher: Daniel Neilson Cover: Adam McNaught-Davis

ÂŠ 2019 I Am A Brewer is published by Original Gravity Media Ltd. All rights reserved. All material in this publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without the written permission of Original Gravity Media Ltd. Views expressed in I Am A Brewer are those of the respective contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publication nor its staff.

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