The Brewers Journal Jan-Feb 2016, iss 1 vol 2

the magazine for the professional brewing industry

Brewers T H E

J O U R N A L

january~february 2016 ISSN 2059-6669

thornbridge

Head BREWER ROB LOVATT AND BROOKLYN BREWERY’S GARRETT OLIVER TAKE US BEHIND THE SCENES OF THEIR ‘PROJECT SERPENT’ COLLABORATION

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five points: why local is key

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BEER: WHO DRANK WHAT IN 2015

P.46

OAKHAM ALES TALK EXPANSION

Muntons Seminars and Innovation 2016 During 2016, Muntons will be hosting a series of seminars aimed at breweries who wish to gain a greater understanding of brewing. We have teamed up with industry specialists to ensure delegates are given a complete overview providing technical insights and of course we encourage delegate participation.

You may attend one seminar or all of them, the choice is yours. There are limited spaces on the day. You can register your interest to the seminars via www.muntons.com/seminars

The topics include: 1: Raw Materials with Sophie DeRonde of Muntons andguest speakers from Simply Hops and Openfield Friday 29th Janurary 2016 Raw materials covered will include: • Brewing liquour • Malt - Overview of malting and malt for the brewing process • Hops - Overview of hops with a technical insight to their use in the brew house

For those who seek perfection, we can help.

Where? Muntons Centre for Excellence, Cedars Maltings, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 2AG When? dates as listed above What’s included? Tour of the Maltings, Lunch, Goody Bag How much? £50 + VAT per person

If you would like to attend please email events@muntons.com or register online via www.muntons.com/seminars Closing dates per seminar will be listed on our website or call Joanna Perry on 01449 618300 for more information.

2: Fermentation and Yeast Management with Sophie DeRonde of Muntons and guest speaker from Lallemand Friday 11th March 2016 • Cover yeast management • Styles/types of yeast • Fermentation and metabolic pathways • Flavour influences 3: Beer stability, consistency and packaging with Sophie DeRonde of Muntons and guest speaker John Bexon (ex-head brewer of Green King, Freelance Consultant).

Friday 10th June 2016 • Beer stability • Consistency within a final product • Packaging types and techniques 4: Compliance and Quality Control with David Mugglestone of Muntons and guest speaker Nigel Sadler 9th September 2016 • Food compliances for the brewing/food industry including HACCP • Waste and auditing and any other relevant regulations 5: Innovation Day with Dr Nigel Davies and Andrew Fuller of Muntons 14th October 2016 • Product Innovation • Ingredient Innovation • Products currently in use within the food and beer industry • Product Crossover 2015 | GOLDEN CATEGORY : MALTSTERS

Muntons, Cedars Maltings, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 2AG 01449 618300 info@muntons.com www.muntons.com

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nyone expecting the UK brewing scene to see 2015 out quietly were, quite frankly, mistaken. Confirmation that Camden Town Brewery had become the latest member of the AB InBev stable, in a deal worth £85m, caused consternation in drinkers and fans of the company.

Not least from investors, some of the 2,173, that had put their hands in their collective pockets less than six months earlier to help fund the brewery’s expansion through the Crowdcube platform.

BrewDog co-founder James Watt was swift to confirm that the Scottish business would maintain its “no compromise” stance on AB InBev, and therefore refuse to stock Camden Town beers. Elsewhere on the spectrum, beer writer and Total Ales founder Matt Curtis excellently conveyed his disappointment in a precis of events, from a drinker, and commentator’s perspective.

Either way, the move has ruffled feathers, and it’s evidently unlikely to be the last of its kind. In Camden Town Brewery’s situation, they are rumoured to be welcomed into AB InBev’s ‘Disruptive Growth’ division (thanks to Glynn Davis for the pointer). The acquisitive giant set up the division in 2015. Since then, it has been contacting individuals across the globe that they consider clued up enough in beer so to improve their knowledge base and, you assume, aid their relentless march in the M&A craft arena.

As The Craft Beer Insider points out in a recent blog, they received such a proposition through a recruitment firm in the latter’s hunt for ‘A Certified Cicerone or HomeBrewer’ for a highly visible Global Training and Education Manager within their newly formed “Disruptive Growth Organization” in NYC’.

However, for Chris Creech, aka The Craft Beer Insider, he believes that it says a lot about “the ability of a huge company such as AB-InBev to react and change their organization to survive in the ever-changing landscape around them”. I can’t really argue with that particular point.

In this issue, we have an exclusive look at the brand new collaboration between Thornbridge and Brooklyn Brewery, ‘Project Serpent’. Due for release this year, the idea came to Brooklyn’s Brewmaster Garrett Oliver more than two years ago while producing their ‘Ghost Bottle’ series.

“We had used wild lees from natural wines to produce some of these beers, and I wanted to build on this by using lees from cider making. Thornbridge, as one of my best friends in brewing and one that is technically adept, were my obvious choice as a part-

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Editor's choice The Five Points Brewing Company has always taken a considered approach to business. From developing a core range of excellent beers, to the impact its brewing activities might have on the local community.

This ethos has helped it grow to become one of the most respected breweries in London. With significant expansion taking place, we went to meet the team to find out what drives them. - Page 40 ner,” he says.

Elsewhere this issue, we look at why Ontario’s premier Kathleen Wynne is currently a very popular individual in the eyes of breweries and beer buyers across the province. On the 15th December last year, she made history by simply buying a six-pack of beer at a grocery store. Commonplace for most, but for Ontarians, she was indulging in a simple pleasure that had been denied consumers for too long.

And finally, we’ve hit issue three of The Brewers Journal. Being welcomed to visit to so many breweries has been a privilege, and the feedback on what we’ve been doing had been appreciated. But obviously, we want to improve and make the magazine as relevant, interesting and engaging as possible. Your feedback, as always, is incredibly valuable and it would great to hear your thoughts. To get in touch, please email on tim@brewersjournal.info or call on +44 (0)7815 574830.

Tim Sheahan Editor

January~February 2016 | The Brewers Journal 3

C o n tac t s

Brewing Services

& Consultancy Ltd

contacts Tim Sheahan Editor tim@brewersjournal.info +44 (0)7815 574 830 Jim Robertson Head of sales jim@rebymedia.com +44 (0)1442 780 593 Frank Du Plessis Account manager tom@rebymedia.com +44 (0)1442 780 594

Brewery performance audits Quality assurance audits Microbiological and analytical sampling Production and product development New brewery start-ups Troubleshooting Training

The Fundamentals of Mini-Brewing The brewing course designed by Brewers for Brewers

Courses running in March and November 2016

www.brewingservices.co.uk david@brewingservices.co.uk +44 (0)1904 706778 | +44 (0)7970 629552

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Richard Piotrowski North America sales richard@rebymedia.com Rhian Owen Head of content rhian@rebymedia.com Jack Young Publisher jack@rebymedia.com Reby Media 42 Crouchfield, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP1 1PA, UK

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The Brewers Journal ISSN 2059-6650 is published bimonthly by Reby Media, 42 Crouchfield, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP1 1PA. Subscription records are maintained at Reby Media, 42 Crouchfield, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP1 1PA. The Brewers Journal accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of statements or opinion given within the Journal that is not the expressly designated opinion of the Journal or its publishers. Those opinions expressed in areas other than editorial comment may not be taken as being the opinion of the Journal or its staff, and the aforementioned accept no responsibility or liability for actions that arise therefrom.

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c o n t en t s

c ontent s

20

40 30

50 Cover story

34 - Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver and Thornbridge head brewer Rob Lovatt talk us through their ‘Project Serpent’ collaboration, a strong Belgian ale fermented in Four Roses Bourbon casks with cider lees.

news 6 - Industry news 10 - Beer news Comments 12 - The Brewers of Europe discuss job creation and beer’s economic contribution 14 - Hardknott’s Dave Bailey talks about the place of cask beer in 2016 16 - DC Employment Solicitors on workplace harassment 18 - David Harris reviews ‘Craft Beer Revolution’

by Brooklyn’s Steve Hindy DISTRIBUTION: BEER TRENDS 20 - We speak to some of the UK’s leading bottle shops and distributors to find out what drinkers are buying, their beers of the year, and where they next expect to see beer going next.

Packaging: design 30 - Designer Sorrel Rivers, responsible for helping revamp Pig & Porter’s identity, talks about the inspiration behind her work and how a strong identity is key to quality beer design.

MEET THE BREWER 40 - The Five Points Brewing Company has always taken a

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considered approach to business. This ethos has helped it grow to become one of the most respected breweries in London. With significant expansion taking place, we went to meet the team to find out what drives them.

BREWERy tour 46 - Oakham Ales marketing manager Nigel Wattam talks us through some of the brewery’s highlights to date, and the exciting expansion plans it has for the coming years.

SHOW PREVIEW 48 - The fourth Alltech Craft Brews and Food Fair is set to take place in Dublin this year. Ahead of the February event, Alltech has released the findings of its inaugural Global Craft Beer Survey. fOREign Focus: canada 50 - With new legislation permitting the sale of craft beer in grocery stores across Ontario, Canada, we look at how the impact this is likely to have on brewers across the province. sCIENCE 64 - Goose Island on yeast mutation and malt modification 67 - BDAS & DatColSol discuss sensory training 70 - Pura Diagnostics talk preventing beer spoilage

January~February 2016 | The Brewers Journal 5

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Krones launches new can filler for small-to medium volumes

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rones has launched a new can filler that is capable of filling between 6,000 and 18,000 cans per hour.

Craftmate is a modularised volumetric model with 24 filling valves, and as a stand-alone machine in ‘its own right’.

It features a pitch circle diameter of 1,080 millimetres and is claimed

to be suitable for a number of brewery sizes.

The machine has been designed for filling cans in the standard 211/202 format, but can also be equipped to handle the 204/202 to 300/209 formats.

Depending on volume and product parameters involved, the Craftmate's output lies between 6,000

and 18,000 cans per hour.

According to Krones, the new machine means a filler can now, for the first time, be operated without a lifting cam, which reduces the number of components while facilitating access to the machine.

They added: “In order to minimise the transportation costs, the development people at Krones have also made sure that the Craftmate, together with the seamer, can be shipped in a sea container.

“The user thus receives a machine that is “out of the box” for firsttime brewers. For more extensive requirements in the higher output range, the familiar Krones can fillers from the existing families are available.”

Eight craft breweries have already ordered a Craftmate from Krones, three of them in the USA, two in Canada and three in Europe.

Highland Brewing rebrands as Swannay Brewery

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rkney-based Highland Brewing Company has rebranded as Swannay Brewery and is aiming to treble production following significant investment at the company.

The Swannay based brewery has experienced an average of 30% year-on-year growth in sales since the company’s formation in 2005 and is now targeting the export market with a new plant up-andrunning.

A new plant and additions to its team have been complemented with the investment in four new 20-barrel fermenting vessels that boost production capacity to 100 brewer’s barrels-a-week, the equivalent of 28,800 pints, while new staff bring

the total headcount to seven.

The expansion, backed by Highland and Islands Enterprise, will enable Swanky to drive exports in both its bottled range and keg beers to North America, Japan and Scandinavia, while keg beers will be offered to pubs and bars in the UK. Swannay has also rebranded, complete with a ‘reversible’ company logo thatcombines the brewery’s focus on classic and modern styles.

Lewis Hill, son of the brewery’s founder, explained: “After ten years successfully building business we are investing for the future in our plant and our people. With this distinctive new identity we should raise our profile very effectively in an increasingly crowded, exciting

6 | The Brewers Journal | January~February 2016

market place’.

“Previously the two names led to some ambiguity of identity, so the Swannay banner should now eradicate this and help build a strong brand following.

“But this is very much evolution not revolution. We have built up a terrific amount of support over ten years so the beer names stay the same but with a fresh, modern look that remains sympathetic so we have a true family of beers.

“Our 100 and more awards show that we are brewing some of the best beer in Britain. Now we are investing to reach a much wider audience and look forward to an exciting future with beer lovers in both the UK and internationally.”

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New spoilage bacteria detection kits come to UK

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K specialist beer testing laboratory Pura Diagnostics has expanded its capabilities by joining with the German beer testing laboratory PIKA Weihenstephan.

PIKA, based in the Hallertau hop growing region, has been a major driving force in the modernisation of the beer testing industry in Europe.

It has developed a number of key products and services that will now be distributed by Pura Diagnostics, including liquid yeast that is guaranteed to have >95% vitality while also being 100% spoilage bacteria free.

One of its most interesting new products, according to technical director Pura Diagnostics, is the FastOrange range of on-site spoilage bacteria detection kits.

This allows brewers to conduct on-site testing without the need for any training or equipment. The FastOrange range detects all beer spoilage yeast and bacteria and comes in a number of formats including ready to use tubes (RTU).

When using the RTU format all the brewer needs to do is add an equal volume of beer/wort to the liquid already present in the tube and incubate at 25C for 2-3 days.

If, for instance, Lactic Acid Bacteria

are present the colour of the liquid changes from a purple to orange/ yellow.

He explained: “Given that traditional culture methods can take around 5-7 days, the use of FastOrange can cut the time it takes to get a result by at least half.

"If the brewer wants to know the strain of bacteria present, they can then send the tube to the Pura Diagnostics PCR lab for species identification.

“The other major benefit of FastOrange is the price; at a few pounds per test it allows the brewer to take control of their testing regime without breaking the bank.”

Ilkley Brewery becomes living wage employer and plans expansion

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lkley Brewery has registered as a Living Wage Employer, several months after being acquired by the Half Full Beer Company.

The move will see the minimum wage for both permanent employees and third-party contractors increase from £6.50 to £7.85, with a further rise to £8.25 this year.

Luke Raven, Co-Director at Ilkley Brewery explained: “We are proud to be raising our voice amongst a growing number of businesses across the UK who support their staff by paying the Living Wage.

“Our beer is made by people, by hand, and we rely on their passion and commitment. By recognising their hard work in this way, we hope to be able to foster a greater sense of shared ownership in the long term project here at Ilkley Brewery.”

Living Wage Foundation director, Rhys Moore added: “We are delighted to welcome Ilkley Brewery

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to the Living Wage movement as an accredited employer.

“The best employers are voluntarily signing up to pay the Living Wage now. The Living Wage is a robust calculation that reflects the real cost of living, rewarding a hard day’s work with a fair day’s pay.

The shift is part of wider plans for the brewery that involves significant job creation, resulting in a 60% increase in staff by the end of this year, as well as further expansion.

Raven said: “As well as our ongoing commitment to the local

community and to our employees, which are the building blocks for solid business, we are looking to capitalise on the current interest and energy within the beer sector.

“We have already invested over £140,000 in the infrastructure at Ilkley Brewery since August this year, including taking on an additional storage facility, and with additional expansion in the pipeline.

“I think this emphasises our commitment to grow Ilkley Brewery into one of the top independent breweries in the UK.”

January~February 2016 | The Brewers Journal 7

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hALL & Woodhouse boosts keg and cask line operations

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he Hall & Woodhouse brewery has commissioned forklift truck attachments firm B&B Attachments to help improve the efficiency of its mobile operations.

It called on B&B Attachments, which supply forklift attachments and is exclusive distributor of KAUP equipment, to provide the brewer with keg clamp forklift attachments.

The Keg Clamp attachments supplied from B&B Attachments were fitted to the company’s Still RX-2020 forklift trucks, which enabled a secure grip of kegs and casks, while providing ease of movement of both full and empty barrels around the yard and production facility.

The new Keg Clamp attachment allows for up to 18 barrels to be

handled in a single lift. It provides the driver with excellent visibility when approaching the load, whilst also increasing driver confidence and ensuring safe and secure handling on site.

According to the manufacturer, it is the “ultimate solution" for improving product handling, while standard features of the Keg Clamp include low profile stabilisers with long lasting rubber pad, wear indicators on tines, solenoid valve and end of stroke cushioning on side shift movement.

Mark Davis, Logistics Supervisor for Hall & Woodhouse explained “We are delighted with the attachments provided and the dedicated service provided by both B&B Attachments and Locators.

“The attachments have saved significant time in many areas of the process of moving both full and empty barrels around site. These attachments are used every day and are now an integral part of our operation.”

MD Engineering ties with CNG on equipment development

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D Engineering Solutions has tied with CNG Engineering to collaborate on bringing a rafr of new products to the brewing industry.

The agreement is expected to bore fruit with the first products expected to come to market in early 2016.

Matthew Horsey, director at Leeds-based MD, explained: “We believe in providing our customers with equipment that is of the highest quality and where possible

sourced from local markets therefore when the opportunity to work with CNG came along it really was the obvious solution.

Pontefract-based CNG Engineering recently delivered successful tank projects to Atom Beers in Hull and a complete Brewhouse to Wakefield based start-up Tarn 51, as well as several orders pending for their hop-back & Dual Purpose Vessels (DPV’s).

CNG head of commercial engineering Kevin Reynolds, added that the company had seen steady

8 | The Brewers Journal | January~February 2016

growth in demand for its brewery equipment in recent years, with a particularly emphasis on tanks and hop backs.

“The collaboration with MD Engineering Solutions means that we have strengthen our expertise in the brewing sector and provide our customers with expert advice as well as high quality British engineered products.

“We operate an open door policy, which means our customers can come to see the products being made at any time of the process”.

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January~February 2016 | The Brewers Journal 9

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Purity marks 10th birthday with limited Rye IPA launch

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urity Brewing Company has launched a new Rye IPA, ‘X’, to celebrate the brewery’s 10th birthday.

The bourbon cask-aged Rye IPA comes in at 6.2% and is hopped with Pilgrim, Chinook, Galaxy & Simcoe.

Champion malts used in the brew, which is limited to 800 bottles, include Maris Otter, Rye, Crystal Rye and Cara.

Purity managing director Paul Halsey, explained: “X is really special for us as it marks a massive milestone for the company, having reached ten fantastic years and still growing.

“That is why we are dedicating it to all of the people who have supported us over the years and helped to make us who we are today.

“We love presenting X in a 750ml bottle as it gives a real sense of

Fuller’s expands keg portfolio with ‘Montana Red’ Fuller’s has broadened its keg portfolio with the launch Montana Red, an American-style red ale featuring a “hop-driven” flavour profile.

Rye crystal offers a red hue and complex breadcrumb flavours, while imperial malt brings a depth to the flavour, better head retention and a natural fresh finish to the beer.

The 4.5% beer also features Australian Galaxy hops for a heightened passion fruit palate, bitterness as well as a strong aroma owing to its late addition into the brew. The new beer complements Fuller’s existing ‘Frontier’ and ‘Wild River’ keg beers.

Fuller’s brewing director John Keeling explained: “We always want to brew exciting beers full of flavour.

“Today’s popular beers are packed with flavour and I am very happy with the depth of flavour our keg portfolio offers, Montana Red is a perfect addition that combines styles and ingredients from all over the world.”

celebration when you pop the cork on a fine barrel aged beer.

“We were delighted by how well last year’s limited edition beer Gnarly sold and the feedback we received.”

The brewery’s 10th year marks the latest stage in the company’s journey, which has seen the firm broaden its cask and keg offering, as well as into cans.

Halsey added: “A major part of

our development over the last ten years has focused on how to achieve absolute consistency and pure quality, and X is a great way of showcasing the skill of our brew team.

“It’s a stunning beer for our fans and a real testament to the quality coming out of our brew house. It shows just how far we have come as a brewery and how far we want to keep on pushing, not only our own beers but the beer market too.”

Fourpure lifts lid on ‘Northern Latitude’ and ‘Southern Latitude’

intense hop character without being overly bitter. As a result this beer is very balanced and drinkable.”

London’s Fourpure has introduced its latest season beers in the form of ‘Northern Latitude’ and ‘Southern Latitude’ The former is a 6.4%, 55 IBU Red Rye American Winter Ale brewed with brown sugar, and uses eight different malts.

‘Southern Latitude’ is a light coloured, hoppy pale ale that calls on Galaxy, Topaz and ‘Centennial hops, offering passion fruit, mango and lychee aromas.

The brewery explained: “Light, neutral malt character with a hint of toast and honey, dry finish. The hop flavour is very assertive and similar to the aroma, but with slightly more pineapple and other citrus fruits.

“Because we only used flavour, aroma, and dry hop additions in this beer and no bittering addition (a technique sometimes called ‘hopbursting’), the beer has a very

Harviestoun Brewery broadens range with two new beers

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Harviestoun Brewery has launched two new beers, ‘Raspy Engine’ and ‘Harviestoun IPA’.

The former is a raspberry infused black ale created by head brewer Amy Cockburn, which uses the brewery’s popular ‘Old Engine Oil’ as a base.

It is described as a grown-up dark chocolate and raspberry pudding with elegant red fruit notes and forms part of the brewery’s Wee Beastie experimental collection.

The company’s other new beer, ‘Harviestoun IPA’ is brewed with American citrus hops that include Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo.

According to Harviestoun, the IPA is a true, authentic, American style IPA with plenty of long-lasting flavour.

Both beers are available now.

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January~February 2016 | The Brewers Journal 11

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Europe’s brewers as major economic actors The Brewers of Europe represent the interests of over 6,000 brewers in 29 European countries, which are a key contributor to Europe’s economy, boosting job creation and investing and trading globally, explains Pierre-Olivier Bergeron, secretary general of the trade organisation.

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he recent figures from the 2015 Beer Statistics demonstrate more than ever the premier contribution made by beer and its value chain to Europe’s economic landscape and to Europeans’ well-being.

Being a major economic actor, Europe’s brewers take their responsibility seriously and are involved in many positive initiatives to promote responsible drinking across the continent.

positive story of beer

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here are a number of facets to this “Positive Story of Beer”, ranging from the blossoming of new breweries to fast developing exports, innovative approaches to consumer information, partnerships with a wide variety of stakeholders in promoting responsible beer consumption, and better recognition by decisionmakers and opinion formers that the beer value chain can and does engineer economic growth.

The statistics show clearly that in 2015 the brewing

12 | The Brewers Journal | January~February 2016

sector is now firmly on the road to recovery following the 2008/9 economic crisis. They also confirm the trends observed since 2010, with consumption and production remaining stable and an impressive number of new breweries opening across Europe.

Employment is a key pillar of the Europe 2020 Growth Strategy, as part of which the EU aims to have 75% of 20-64 year-olds employed by 2020. It is therefore fitting that the beer sector remains a key actor for job creation and the economy across Europe.

Indeed, in 2014 direct employment increased by 3.4% on 2013, with this also being a catalyst for jobs across the entire value chain from grain to glass.

Europe’s brewing sector is also making its mark on the world stage, both investing and trading globally.

In 2014, European exports rose to 8 billion litres, an increase of 15% since 2008, both within the EU internal market and to the far corners of the planet.

confidence and trust

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he interest which many consumers have in the diversity and variety of Europe’s beers has also probably never been higher, and this has led to more than 700 new breweries opening in 2014. This represents a 12% increase since 2013 and nearly a doubling since 2008.

The opening of so many new breweries is a sure sign of confidence and trust in the sector, and is a strong indicator that brewing will be a motor for Europe’s economic development in the years to come.

However, sustained growth must be accompanied by supportive policies to enable brewers to continue contributing to the overall competitiveness of the European economy.

For example, although some high taxing countries such as the UK have decreased the beer tax, there are

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KEY FIGURES 2014

EUROPEAN UNION

390,814,000

388,895,000

383,187,000

384,270,000

362,107,000

356,075,000

385,034,000

355,829,000

350,372,000

352,536,000

63,691,000

65,565,000

69,227,000

76,659,000

76,718,000

77,423,000

EXPORTS (HECTOLITRES)

386,725,000

CONSUMPTION (HECTOLITRES)

392,636,000

PRODUCTION (HECTOLITRES)

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

CONSUMPTION ON-TRADE VS OFF-TRADE

DIRECT EMPLOYMENT

44,852,000

48,243,000

44,622,000

46,013,000

65 LITRES / YEAR

43,593,000

CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA

67%

39,319,000

33%

IMPORTS (HECTOLITRES)

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

81,200

128,000

107,530

125,930

124,930

129,830

NUMBER OF ACTIVE BREWERIES

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

6517

still many governments who overload the tax burden on beer consumers and the brewing sector when compared to other national sectors.

responsible drinking

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he Brewers are calling for appropriate policy frameworks to support their commitment to promoting responsible beer consumption.

Our European Beer Pledge, launched in 2012 and focusing on consumer information, marketing selfregulation as well as campaigns against drink-driving, underage drinking, alcohol in pregnancy and binge drinking, includes actions involving partnerships with government authorities and NGOs that concretely address alcohol-related harm at the local level. Many of these are continuous activities, and we take the time to assess and amend them according to whether their objectives have been met.

There is clear evidence across Europe that alcoholrelated harm is coming down in high profile areas such as underage drinking, excessive consumption and drink driving. Indeed drink driving fatalities have

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The Brewers of Europe

been more than halved in the last ten years in the EU. While the European Commission is still deliberating on the added value that the EU can bring in terms of supporting Member States to tackle alcohol-related harm, The Brewers of Europe filed its voluntary commitment on Consumer Information in November to the EU Alcohol and Health Forum.

It builds on the decision to voluntarily commit to increasing consumers’ knowledge of beer ingredients and nutritional values made in March earlier this year, and is the 112th commitment we have filed to the Forum to date. For us this is a very clear example of where stakeholders and partners across society agree that our voluntary actions can make a difference.

Europe’s beer landscape provides a vivid example of the extent to which the right mix of entrepreneurship, attention to consumers’ expectations, and active involvement in communities can deliver a model that is synchronised with the EU agenda for growth and jobs.

The Brewers are proud to be playing their part in supporting the European economy and providing responsible enjoyment, and this will be continued into 2016. www.brewersofeurope.org

January~February 2016 | The Brewers Journal 13

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C a sk

Beer

The Cask Chore

Cask is becoming more and more of a chore, and makes less and less business sense, according to Dave Bailey, owner of Cumbria-Based Hardknott Brewery. Here, he explains how a number of factors have resulted in cask playing an increasingly smaller part in the Hardknott equation.

W

ay back in 2005, when we first started brewing, 100% of our beer was cask. In the first 5 years of the life of Hardknott the percentage remained in the high 90% range. We had a tiny amount contract bottled and hand bottled a little bit ourselves. We experimented with the odd keg.

When we moved to our current location in 2010 we knew we wanted to explore other formats. Bottle was a high priority (1) and keg was a very close second.

However, the vast majority was cask beer, and that was the way it stayed until we finally bought our bottling line.

I'm doing some fairly intensive business development thinking right now. We've built a great team, made huge progress, but the financial success of Hardknott in any sort of meaningful way needs a good move forward.

I've been looking at some sales statistics. Sales of cask is standing just about steady. Stagnating, in fact.

Cask is dominated by a plethora of breweries many of whom are competing on price alone. This means turning the stuff around with little time in tank, no dry hopping, minimal hops in any case. And to some extent if that is their thing, turn it out cheap, 'cause

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actually, cheap low-taste beer is what the majority of pubs can sell easily.

We don't want to make low-taste beer. We don't want to make stuff to the lowest budget we can. We want to make stuff that makes a statement, makers a difference, turns heads. We use more hops, dry hop most beers, and it stays in tank a little longer, because Scott refuses to claim it to be ready until he is happy (2). It costs a little more to do and we unashamedly charge a little more than many breweries.

What we've found is that our bottle and keg production has been our solid growth area. We now produce less than 25% cask. It isn't that we put less beer in cask, we have just grown the other areas.

Most of what we package is in bottle. This is a good situation from a business point of view. To justify the space the bottling line occupies, to pay down the loan we still have on the machine, we need to make it work hard.

Putting beer into keg at the same time we bottle is easy. We like doing that and is generally what we do for Azimuth for sure, which sells very well in both formats.

Cask is becoming more and more of a chore, and makes less and less business sense. There is frankly a huge surplus of rubbish cask producers, and equally a good number of great cask producers. Competing on price, maintaining quality, in an area that is becoming

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The Hardknott Way 1) And if we started again today it would be cans, all the way, but we are where we are for the time being. a marginal activity, isn't going to replace my shoe leather. Running so many different beers in several different packaging is becoming difficult to manage and something might have to give.

But, I'm happy to sell beer in whatever format makes commercial sense. If I can empty a full tank into cask and sell it in a week, then I will (3) . But more and more now we're trying to shoehorn cask production into what space we can find in the schedule, exacerbated by the fact that we are very close to absolute maximum production we can achieve with the equipment we've got.

I noticed a blogpost by Tandleman back in August regarding a brewery that announced the cessation of cask production. I can understand his frustration at the brewery's announcement. Stopping cask production does then result in a failure of the beers to appear in cask-only outlets. But it might be obvious to the reader that I can see the point of view - every business owner has a primary responsibility to make decisions for the good of the business.

I was however a bit taken aback by Tandleman's "that raises two fingers to those that have loyally supped Buxton beers on handpump these last years" comment. That one has sort of lingered in the back of my mind. Surely, if cask were supported with enough strength, breweries would not make such decisions?

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2) Which in itself causes us problems. We try to guess when beer will be ready to rack. We send out availability lists to pubs and distributors at the beginning of the week, and to provide the range we want to show, sometimes beers might not be quite there. Ann then makes sales and issues racking orders. "[So and so] want it by Friday, and we need to send out Wednesday, which is tomorrow, is it ready to rack?"

The sale might not be made until Tuesday, but it is still in tank, it is brewday and the mashtun is still to dig out. A look at the beer shows it isn't quite ready, and then a tank for today's brew needs to be cleaned. The beer might get racked tomorrow, if we get enough casks cleaned, but then there will be the pallet to build, and we might miss the window to call in the haulier.

It could go out Thursday, but then we'd have to pay for next day delivery, putting up the delivery cost, which we absorb. Besides, the beer will be ready when it is ready "Ask them if Monday is OK" and generally the reply is that no, they need it this week or not at all.

3) A full tank is more than two full pallets of casks.

Most of our distributors only take one pallet at a time, and that is generally a mixed pallet. It means to carry on making sense, and for us to carry on making cask, we need you, the cask fan, to drink Hardknott, demand Hardknott, that way we'll get more demand this end, and everyone will be happy.

January~February 2016 | The Brewers Journal 15

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harra s s m e n t

The Festive Headache Can a ‘Merry’ Christmas leave employers with an employment law headache? Darren Tibble, director at DC Employment Solicitors considers this tricky problem and what breweries can do to minimise the risk.

A

s the holiday season draws to an end, the brewery sector has been at its busiest with an increased level of deliveries and visits to brewery shops. And when the dust has settled, brewery staff want to relax and enjoy each other’s company and have a good

old party.

However, how many brewery owners understand the extent to which their business can be held accountable and responsible for harassment against their employees over the Christmas period?

liability for employees' actions

I

t is common knowledge nowadays that it’s unlawful for an employer to discriminate against their employees on grounds of their age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy, maternity, marriage, civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

However, did you know that under UK employment law, employers can also be he held liable for the discriminatory acts carried out by and against their own employees?

That’s right, under the Equality Act 2010 (the piece of legislation that now encapsulates the more familiar older laws such as the Sex Discrimination Act and the Race Relations Act) any discriminatory act that’s done by an employee in the course of their employment is treated as having also been done by the employer. This is regardless of whether the employee's acts were done with the employer's knowledge or approval.

banter

P

icture the scene, the run up to the Christmas period is going well; business is frenetic and spirits are high. One of your delivery drivers has taken a bit of a shine to your new office administrator. Every morning, as he collects his delivery list, he makes one or two ‘comments’ about how nice she is looking and what she is wearing. This culminates in the driver asking her out on a date, coupled with some sexual innuendos.

The new office administrator is very embarrassed

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and feels uncomfortable with the driver’s attention, so she raises her concerns with the boss. The boss has a ‘quiet word’ with the driver.

“But it’s only a bit of banter! I didn’t mean anything by it…” says the driver.

As an employment lawyer, this sort of scenario (or a variation of it) is a common situation that our clients encounter.

The reality is that one person’s ‘banter’ is another person’s sexual harassment. The Equality Act says that sexual harassment happens when an employee engages in unwanted conduct which has the purpose or effect of either violating another employee’s dignity, or it creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the other employee.

“But surely”, asks my brewery owner client, “if my driver didn’t mean to be offensive, he was only having a bit of banter – it can’t be harassment, can it?”

According to the law, it can. Harassment is judged by the perception of the person who alleges the harassment and not by the intention or motives of the alleged harasser.

As long as the harassed employee can show that a reasonable person would have considered the comments offensive then they are likely to be able to succeed with a claim for harassment.

And as I have already said, the employer can be held liable for their driver’s discriminatory acts.

Don’t forget, harassment isn’t just limited to sexual harassment; if an employee engages in unwanted conduct relating to race, sexual orientation, disability and any of the other characteristics covered by the Equality Act, the law still applies.

the christmas party

B

eing the generous brewery owner that you are, you have decided to throw a Christmas party for the staff on the last working day before the Christmas break. The party will take place after business hours at the local pub and the food and drink are all paid for by you.

The evening is going well and your employees are enjoying ‘rehydrating’ after a busy final day at work. After a couple of hours in the pub, one of your employees starts to mock your head brewer because of his religious views on Christmas.

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After a couple more pints, the religious mockery of the head brewer becomes more offensive and escalates, to the extent that a fight breaks out. Later that night, you receive a text from your head brewer who says that he will be bringing a claim for religious discrimination against the brewery after the holiday break.

“But wait a second” pleads the generous brewery owner to his employment lawyer, “How I can be held responsible for what happened? This didn’t even happen at work – we were in the pub!”

We have already established that an employer can be liable for one employee’s discriminatory conduct towards another employee, but surely this liability can’t extend to social events?

Well, the answer is ‘yes’, sometimes it can. You will remember from earlier in this article, when I said that anything that’s done by an employee ‘in the course of their employment’ is treated as having also been done by the employer. Therefore, the key issue is whether a Christmas party would be considered as being ‘in the course of their employment’.

Unsurprisingly, there have been a number of cases on this point over the years. In simple terms, the law is clear that some social events can be considered to be an ‘extension’ of employment.

More often than not, a Christmas party organised and paid for by the employer will be considered to be sufficiently linked to work. Therefore, an employer can still be found liable for the for he discriminatory acts of their employees, even during a social event.

reducing risk

F

irstly, it’s important to know that an employer can potentially avoid the risk of liability for the discriminatory acts of their employees, if it can show that it took ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent the harassment from happening.

In order to demonstrate that you have taken all reasonable steps, here are a few things that you should do: Ensure that you have a specific bullying and harassment policy. This will tell employees what you consider is acceptable behaviour at work.

Ensure that all employees are aware of the policy and its implications. Keep a record to show that they have read the policy.

Train your managers about how to deal with harassment and keep a record to show that they have received the training.

Take steps to deal with complaints properly, including taking appropriate disciplinary action.

Before the Christmas party, circulate a reminder to all employees about the standards of conduct required and the disciplinary sanctions which could result from breaches of these standards.

Understandably, many businesses in this sector might think that these steps are unnecessary because bullying and harassment is not a problem. But don’t

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forget, the scenarios described in this article involve interactions between your employees at work or sometimes in a social context.

Unlike many aspects of your business, ultimately you can’t control what your employees do and say (sometimes in the heat of the moment or after a couple of drinks at the Christmas party) but you will often still remain liable for their actions. For the sake of a policy, a bit of training and the occasional memo to remind your employees about what standards of conduct you expect from them, isn’t it worth it?

harrassment by third parties

F

inally, what if one of your employees is sexually harassed by a customer who visits your brewery shop or your delivery driver is harassed because of his nationality when he drops off at a pub – are you liable for this?

The Equality Act used to say that employers could sometimes be liable for harassment of their employees by third parties. However, this part of the law was repealed on 1 October 2013.

However, offensive and discriminatory conduct by third parties towards your employees should still not be ignored, not least because it shows a lack of support and protection for your members of staff.

From a legal perspective, if an employer does not take any action to try to deal with a situation involving harassment by a third party, there is still the possibility that they could be liable anyway.

Let’s imagine a situation where you employ a foreign driver and he is regularly humiliated because of his ‘foreign accent’ by one particular pub owner every time he delivers there. Your driver complains about this treatment, but you choose to ignore it.

Strictly speaking, the driver in question could allege that your inaction was in itself unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act. Although you could not be held directly liable for the pub owner’s comments, if you failed to act on your employee’s complaint you could be creating an offensive environment at work which is linked to your driver’s foreign nationality.

Additionally, the driver could also allege that your lack of action in dealing with the problem amounted to a fundamental breach of his employment contract and it could lead to a constructive unfair dismissal claim.

So, the moral of the story is that brewery operators should still take the risk of harassment by customers seriously. If you have a brewery shop (or if you operate a pub) and you are concerned that harassment might be a potential problem, you could consider displaying a sign highlighting what you expect regarding customer behaviour.

With regards to potential harassment by customers off site, it is important that you take appropriate action to support your employees by challenging any inappropriate behaviour.

January~February 2016 | The Brewers Journal 17

BOO K

r EVIEW

T he

C raft

Beer

R e v ol u t i o n

Spreading the word The Craft Beer Revolution. How a Band of Microbrewers is Transforming the World’s Favourite Drink by Steve Hindy. Palgrave Macmillan. 2015. 252 pp. pbk. £8.80. (First published in USA in hbk. in 2014)

S

teve Hindy is co-founder and chairman of Brooklyn Brewery, New York, USA which he founded in 1984.

He was one of the pioneers of the craft brewing revolution which swept across America and has been highly influential in the UK. Many small UK brewers now brew US style beers using American hops. Hindy is a former journalist and has written one of the few business histories of craft brewing in the USA. The book begins with accounts of the pioneers of US craft brewing such as Fritz Maytag (whose family had owned a domestic appliance company) who bought the flagging Anchor Brewery in San Francisco because he really liked the beer. He was followed by people such as Jack McAuliffe who founded New Albion Brewing in 1976 in California.

Jack had served in the US Navy in Scotland and was influenced by the beers he had sampled when traveling around the UK. He is credited as being the first person to build and operate a microbrewery in the USA in modern times. Ultimately New Albion was not successful and closed in 1982.

The Reviewer David Harris is a freelance writer/book reviewer and member of the British Guild of Beer Writers.

He writes a beer column for a local paper and has had articles published in What’s Brewing, New Imbiber, All About Beer (USA) and Celebrator Beer News (USA). He also writes about radio and is a presenter for a rock music heritage radio station.

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An important development in the USA was the legalisation of home brewing which occurred as recently as 1979. In the UK home brewing has always been legal but a licence was required up until 1963.

In the US as in the UK many microbreweries have been started by people who were enthusiastic home brewers.

It did not take the Americans too long to get moving into craft brewing as there are now 3464 breweries in the USA (2014 Brewers Association) compared with only 89 in 1978.

Hindy credits the British beer writer Michael Jackson (1942 - 2007) and his 1977 book, World Guide to Beer as being very influential on US microbrewers. Jackson showed people that there were a vast number of styles of beer and many US craft brewers went down the road of creating their own versions of classic European beers.

Although American IPA is the most widely brewed beer by US craft brewers many US microbreweries offer a very broad range of styles and strengths of beer.

The real boom in US craft brewing took place from 1984 -1994 when the number of small breweries rose from 18 to 537. Hindy includes some case studies of small brewers and has a very useful chapter on beer and the media.

The role of beer magazines and beer rating websites such as RateBeer and BeerAdvocate in the promotion of small breweries is seen as having been very important in the USA. Although US breweries brew almost exclusively keg and bottled beers, there are some parallels in the growth of micro-brewing in both countries and some lessons to be learnt.

This is a very detailed business history of craft brewing in the USA over the last 50 years and would be of interest to those working for larger brewers or running their own small brewery.

www.brewersjournal.info

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January~February 2016 | The Brewers Journal 19

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Power to the people 2015 was a fantastic year for beer. Pale ales and IPAs remain incredibly popular, while an increasing number of breweries are putting out great sour beers and big, heavyhitting stouts, among others. We speak to some of the UK’s leading bottle shops and distributors to find out what drinkers are buying, their beers of the year, and where they next expect to see beer going next.

T

he last 12 months bore witness to yet more exciting growth in brewing across the UK and Ireland.

And as the number of breweries opening continues to soar, innovative, forward-thinking beer lovers are giving drinkers an increasing number of ways to enjoy their beer. While many pubs, regrettably struggle, quality-driven bottle shops and beer distributors are flying high. We speak to some of the UK’s best to get their insights on the sector.

Hop Hideout, based in Sheffield, recently celebrated its second birthday and has also expanded to cater for demand. Jules Gray talks us through their year.

Hop Hideout: “2015’s been an incredible year, we won a national award 'North Retailer of the Year' from trade publication Off Licence News - going down to the Houses of Parliament in January to collect the award. Four months later, in April, we moved to a new location, just next door, to a bigger space.

“We've two beers on draught now too, which you can sit in our new space to enjoy, or take out on growler fills. We've had beers such as Omnipollo and Buxton's collaboration Ice Cream Pale Ale to Seattle brewery - Two Beers' Jive Espresso Stout and more.

“We try to put on interesting beers, ones that excite

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us and hopefully our customers too! Another highlight was our Pete Brown hosted event as part of Sheffield literature festival Off The Shelf - we had 50 people captivated by Pete's beery stories for an evening back in October. It was wonderful to watch and be a part of; can't wait for his new book to be published - it's all about the ingredients of beer. Oh and brewing a beer with neighbours Abbeydale Brewery was a laugh! Marshmallow Meltdown Stout a big stout with chestnut, cacao nibs and coffee.”

Jonny Garrett from Cave Direct and its online retail arm Beer Merchants explains that 2015 has been a really great year for the business. “We’ve expanded the sales team, created a marketing team and seen strong turnover growth. Our top memory has to be our launch of Kona Big Wave on tap in the UK. We had a huge Hawaiian party at the Duke of Edinburgh in Brixton and about hundreds of people came along.

“On that note, the other highlights though have been the events we’ve attended. Every year the British pub and beer scene gets more exciting, so Indy Man, London Craft Beer Festival and Craft Beer Rising were incredible. We were more involved with all of them this time around, running stands offering cases on our consumer site Beermerchants.com and exhibiting at many of them with our breweries. There’s never been a better time to work in beer!”

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For Caps and Taps duo Phill Elliott and Steph Palgrave-Brown, 2015 has literally been the year for the Kentish Town, London-based business. “Having been in planning since August 2014, we finally opened our doors early April this year. More recently, getting our growler station installed has been great. It lets us offer some beers not available in packaged form or popular beers that people can now buy in larger quantities. We've also started hosting events in the shop, such as Meet the Brewers, that have been very popular with our customers.”

Hopology is another company celebrating its second year and Nick Johnson’s West Bridgford firm has been adorned with accolades for the work it has been doing. “We’ve been to some fab festivals including the excellent IndyMan in Manchester for the first time. Another highlight: Hardly any customers call the Belgian beer “lager” any more!”

And for online retailer BeerHawk, 2015 has been “simply outstanding,” says Mark Robert, with its core business sales up significantly, a re-launched monthly Beer Club, as well as a new partnership with the Telegraph to bring its beers to a wider audience.

Finally, for Bottle Apostle, and its beer arm The Brew Testament, 2015 has been a year of expansion, explains Miranda Fong. They opened up two additional locations, in east London’s former Olympic

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Athlete’s Village in May, and north London’s Primrose Hill neighbourhood in July.

Have you noticed any changes in what people are drinking over the last 12 months? Have there been trends in what you are selling more of?

Cave Direct/Beer Merchants: We’ve seen the market shift in all kinds of directions. One of our main brands, Paulaner, had a really good year because people are starting to look for quality lagers rather than the dull, mass-market ones. Little can touch German Helles, so we’re really lucky to have them in our portfolio along with Hacker-Pschorr. The biggest success though has been Kona Big Wave, which we think has benefitted from the trend for hoppy beer going mainstream. It’s got that huge hoppy aroma of an IPA, but is so crisp and light that anyone can enjoy it. It’s a brilliant beer that’s being drunk nearly as fast as we can ship it. This trend is great news for other hoppy beer brewers.

Caps and Taps: Sour beers have noticeably increased in sales this year, especially at the end of the summer. We've also been getting requests for lower ABV dark beers, perhaps in response to the super strong imperial stouts.

BeerHawk: “We’ve seen plenty of evidence that the migration to “craft beer” continues, with many

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customers discovering new breweries by sampling their hoppier IPA’s as a start-point. We’ve also seen a significant increase in sour beer sales, driven by some great new beers and what seems to be a slightly different demographic starting to enjoy these.”

Hop Hideout: “I think people are definitely more open to trying new beers and new styles, the increase in UK breweries (and their experimentation and research of historic styles) and the more available nature of imported beers from across the globe have helped peak beer drinkers' appetites and interest. I always remember when we opened in November 2013 we stocked Siren beers and no-one really picked them up in Sheffield. Fast forward six months later and people couldn't get enough of their beer!

“This year has been big and juicy double IPAs, rye IPAs, barrel-aged stouts and sour beers from Berliner Weisse to Gose, to classic Belgian gueuzes and saisons.

Collaboration beers have been some of the quickest selling beers in Hop Hideout (e.g. Siren's - Rainbow Project) and I can see this continuing, with potentially more traditional/classic breweries partnering with innovative set-ups - just look at the Mikkeller/ Lindemans and Mikkeller/Boon collabs. I'd kind of like to see Sam Smith's Yorkshire squares get some use from Buxton or Magic Rock but who knows if that could ever happen! I can only but dream."

Hopology: “Sour & barrel aged beer are selling well. People are trying and enjoying some of the more challenging Belgian beers now: Lindemans Cuvee Rene and Saison Dupont converted a lot of people."

The Brew Testament: “For us, the demand is weighted towards pale ales with a serious hop focus.

In the last 12 months, we’ve seen our customers maturing and trying other styles they may not have tried a year ago. This includes seasonal styles like saisons and sours, and particular growth in different finishes and ageing vessels. Overall, we’ve also seen a confidence in customers looking for lower alcohol beers.”

Has there been one standout beer style that has sold more than others in 2015? If so, why do you think this is?

Caps and Taps (bottom right): “Safe and steady Pale Ale still dominates in the beers that people want to drink. It's a style that is accessible to people new to craft beer and offers different flavours from the mass market beers."

Hop Hideout: “I'd say Berliner Weisse has been the beer style of 2015 - from Buxton's Far Skyline to their collaboration with Omnipollo Stolen Fruit; Evil Twin's canned version - Nomader Weisse, to Siren's multiple different hopped versions of Calypso, The Kernel's London Sour and Mad Hatter's Club Tropicana. It kind of defined a starting shift in peoples' palates here, I think, and opened up the idea that 'refreshment factor' could come from something other than a lager or a pale ale.

“Who'd of thought this historic sour wheat beer

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originating from Germany would have become the most appealing style....? Maybe all the sunshine we had this year helped! I reckon the increase in independent UK beer festivals such as the Independent Manchester Beer Con, London Craft Beer Festival and Leeds International all helped too - as they've enabled people to try lots of different styles of beer and from lots of different breweries, helping them discover beer.

If I'm honest though I would say day in day out and the most popular style for us are India Pale Ales they've become the go to beer.

Hopology: “We all seem to love IPA. People have realised it doesn’t have to come from California & that it’s something a lot of British brewers can do very well.

Marble Dobber, Kernel IPA or Axe Edge from Buxton are great examples and are bottle conditioned/live which many from the US aren’t."

Cave Direct/Beer Merchants: “American Pales and IPAs continue their march, and lager is always going to be the big volume style which is great. But there’s also been expansion in all kinds of areas that surprises everyone but us! Sour beers have been doing really well and we’ve expanded our portfolio of Belgian lambic brewers as a result. At festivals, more modern sours have also done very well, we work with Lervig who product some fantastic variations of Berliner weiss which go down a storm. The reasons are that people’s palates have expanded as they search for something new. Where beer used to only taste mildly of malt and water, drinkers now understand the range that beer offers and want to push those boundaries."

BeerHawk: “Pale Ales, and particularly IPA, continues to be our biggest selling beer style. Across 2015, we’ve also started to see beers and breweries from both Italy and Spain getting more traction.

There’s a really interesting craft beer scene developing in both of these markets, and the breweries seem to be doing a great job of putting a local twist on to global trends."

The Brew Testament: “Our top selling beer is The Kernel Table Beer (50cl). I think this is attributed to a combination of a few things. Firstly, there’s no doubt that there is some solid brewing to back up this beer – it’s simply delicious. Secondly, it’s been a standout leader in the production of ales with lower ABV without any compromise on flavour, and our customers recognise that. Finally, as a company we take food just as seriously as alcohol. The lower ABV and flavour profile makes this very much a “food beer” that customers can enjoy in an entirely different environment."

Following on from that, what breweries are proving popular with your customers?

Hop Hideout (upper right): “We always sell a good amount of local beer - so lots of Yorkshire breweries such as Mallinsons, Ilkley, Saltaire, Summer Wine, Northern Monk, Magic Rock (especially with their new cans now available) and more. Outside of that, Kernel and Buxton are mainstays, Siren, Weird Beard, Brew

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By Numbers and Wild Beer Co are regularly requested.

Newer breweries that have gained drinkers' interest are Wiper & True from Bristol and Mad Hatter from Liverpool.

“We're also known for having a good import section and Mikkeller, To Ol and anything Omnipollo related really don't sit on our shelves for long. It's only recently there's been a good/regular supply of Alesmith and New Zealand beers such as Epic.

Alesmith's Speedway Stout and Epic's Hop Zombie (double IPA) have such a great reputation and are beers everyone has to try at least once!

Hopology: “Thornbridge and Beavertown are very popular. For some reason Bristol seems to have some amazing small breweries at the moment too.

Innovative local craft brewers like Shiny & Totally Brewed sell well as do rarities from more distant micros like Padstow & Poppyland when I can get them!"

BeerHawk: “The Spanish brewery, Edge, have become very popular with our customers and their American IPA (Hoptimista) has sold exceptionally well this year. For the UK breweries, we’re seeing a lot of demand for Siren beers, alongside both BrewDog and Ilkley brewery."

Cave Direct/Beer Merchants: “Paulaner has grown by around 30% year on year and is proving to people that lager can be full-flavoured. Kona has done extremely well since the launch of Big Wave on keg, as people enjoy the brewery’s sessionable approach very hoppy beer. As ever, our British breweries are doing very well too – Beavertown won Supreme Champion Brewer at the International Beer Challenge and Tiny Rebel won Champion Beer of Britain for their red ale, Cwtch. Both breweries are at capacity and growing very fast as demand grows."

Caps and Taps: “We are based around the corner from Camden Town Brewery so they are always popular with people looking for local beers.

Beavertown and the Kernel are also firm favourites.

From the US, Brooklyn and Anchor have a strong enough reputation to move consistently off our shelves."

The Brew Testament: “The Kernel Brewery, Beavertown Brewery, Five Points Brewery, Siren Brewery, Camden Town Brewery, Partizan Brewing, Brixton Brewery."

An increasing number of breweries are moving small pack sales into cans. Has this had a noticeable impact on what you are buying in, and selling?

BeerHawk: “We took a while to bring cans into our range as a regular line, primarily because we needed to be convinced that the consistent quality was there.

Since we listed a range of cans they have sold very well indeed, and I think more breweries will continue this trend, as long as they can overcome these potential quality issues."

Hopology: “On the whole it seems the beer tastes as good from a can. There have been some

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technological advances I’m sure but I suspect the biggest change is that nobody canned decent beer in the UK until recently. However I don’t expect Rochefort 10 in cans yet."

The Brew Testament: “Absolutely. This is a trend that we don’t see slowing down. From a retailers point of view, we’re able to easily stack and create presentable displays with these beers. Our customers also love being able to carrying more away with them.

Hop Hideout: “Two years ago there was very little UK beer from the indie breweries in cans. I remember Beavertown's shift from bottles to cans and it took a good six months plus really for people to accept the change - especially for some of the darker beers like Smog Rocket.

“I think once the ball started rolling and other UK breweries began canning, especially with the help of social media, it capture people's imagination and slowly attitudes changed. Drinker's realised the beer tasted as good! Let's be honest a number of US breweries have been canning for a decade or more (Oskar Blues), and in the UK too, but it's just been big macro lager producers rather than a diverse range that you see now. I'm glad the technology has become available and more accessible for smaller breweries in the UK. “We have a dedicated can fridge which features Moor, Beavertown (Gamma Ray is probably the biggest seller!), Northern Monk Brew Co, Fourpure, Magic Rock, Wild Beer, Dark Star, plus overseas breweries like Anchor, Sierra Nevada, Firestone Walker, Nebraska, Oskar Blues, Pine Street, Devils Canyon, Two Beers, Mikkeller and more!). I can see more breweries continue but potentially via seasonal or one off releases using mobile canning operations. Or even contract packing with an existing set up locally.

“However I can't see ALL breweries going down the canning route, why would you if you have an existing bottle line that's performing well. Also I'd hate to have a shop full of cans, bottles of classic Belgian gueuzes are just too beautiful (and practical for the secondary fermentation)! One good thing though, from a Sheffield perspective, cans are great to take beer out to the countryside - if you're walking or cycling in the Peak District a can of beer is perfect to suit that

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lifestyle."

Caps and Taps: “Canning is definitely on trend at the moment and, for the most part, we are very pro cans - they are lighter and smaller, so great for storing and transporting, they can also keep beer fresher for longer. However, cans are new to the industry and we have seen a few badly done ones.. We tend to only buy cans from breweries with their own canning lines, which they have had time to learn to use correctly for their beers. We also prefer printed cans. From the point of the consumer a plain can with a label just doesn't look as good."

Cave Direct/Beer Merchants: “Cans are a fantastic way to serve beer, blocking light and cooling quickly to protect the beer. We’ve seen quite a few of our breweries go into can and the response from pubs has been great. Many restaurants are still hesitant but we really hope that will change.

On Beer Merchants we’re buying a lot more cans than we used to – partly we seek them out because they are harder to damage in transit, but it’s more a case that the best breweries see the benefit and are buying canning lines. And we only work with the best. With mobile canning lines and the obvious benefits for haulage and beer protection, there’s no doubt cans will grow – helped by the fact most of them look awesome."

In your opinion, in recent months and years, what is the UK doing well in beer and are there areas we can learn from other countries?

The Brew Testament: The UK has been great at changing beer from a product to an experience. London’s Beer Mile is a perfect example of how beer novices and experts alike have the same access to some incredible breweries.

We’ve also been lucky enough to see some stellar pubs opening up with a real focus on their beer selection.

I think there’s real potential to showcase beer in the on-trade with more comprehensive selections in restaurants and greater use of pairings."

Hop Hideout: “The UK's seems to be growing in number of breweries at a fast pace, hundreds in the last two years alone - which is phenomenal for the beer drinker - the range and choice, the ability to drink really fresh local beer (even direct from the brewery taproom/ taphouse). I think the things we can learn from other countries is to have more of a synergy with their surroundings - use local ingredients, be inspired by local chefs and

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restaurants, really explore beer and food matching - as the US and Italy seem to be doing.

“I'd love UK breweries to find a happy balance between experimentation/innovation and good solid go to beers - I find it can be one way or the other.

Hawkshead and Fyne have managed this balance perfectly brewing a classic Lakeland Gold or Jarl next to Key Lime Tau and Mills & Hills Imperial Stout (both collaborations too!).

“I think UK breweries, especially new wave indies (circa start up 2005) generally do a really good job of engaging with their beer drinkers - no doubt the proliferation of smart phones has helped this. I love the idea of tap rooms being more prevalent - who wouldn't want to go and drink beer at their favourite brewery!?!

“At times, I think, UK breweries put constraints on themselves - I can't do keg or I can't do cask or I can't work with that brewery or I can't be seen to constantly use US hops or I can't brew a sour as that's just 'fashionable' or I can only brew pale ales as that's what people want.

“Stop thinking about it, rip up the rule book, bin off the constraints and just do it! Id like to see breweries carving out their personalities more and saying this is who we are and this is what we love. Denmark seems to be a country really going for it in this way and I love it! I don't mean it has to be crazy beers and constant experimentation - just look at Cloudwater, they've launched with a considered, seasonal ethos.

Caps and Taps: “There is a constant stream of new breweries opening up in the UK, from tiny operations to ones that make a big splash like Cloudwater.

It's hard to find diversity in many pubs due to the number of tied lines even in freeholds. I think we are still miles behind USA in terms of diversity outside of craft beer pubs. You see places that advertise craft beer but that just means they have Brooklyn Lager on."

Hopology: “The innovation of some of the UK brewers has been astonishing. They are experimenting with beer styles we never used to see in the UK. From Samphire Gose and Elderflower Saison to Smoked Dopplebock and Grenadine Berlinerweisse. On the other hand we have large numbers of breweries producing outstanding indigenous “traditional British style” beers . I think the new craft brewers have given a shot in the arm to the revival of Porter and Stout too."

BeerHawk: “I think that UK breweries have been getting much better at experimentation, especially

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with some very interesting collab beers, although in my opinion there’s still a way to go when we compare this to some of the experimentation going on in the US. We’ve seen “interesting” packaging presented to us recently, and I think that we could still learn a lot from overseas breweries on this."

Cave Direct/Beer Merchants: “We could definitely do beer and food better though. In Belgium and America they love sharing 750ml bottles over dinner, and in Czech Republic beer is the drink of choice come mealtimes. We can learn from these countries with more beer and food matching at home or in restaurants, and a more casual approach to drinking beer.

“I think that we’re holding on to our heritage very well indeed. Cask beer has seen a great boom as a result of the rise of craft beer, and we need to remember that we are the only country in the world serving this special drink so we need to champion it when it’s good.

“We’ve also really taken the American brewers’ sense of adventure to heart and are producing some fantastic experimental beers, especially people like Beavertown, Siren and Wild Beer. The thing I think we’re really good at though – better even than America – is 4-5% pale ales and session IPAs with huge tropical fruit flavours. I’m thinking of Tiny Rebel One Inch Punch, Pressure Drop Pale Fire and Beavertown Neck Oil." On a personal front, what has been your beer(s) of 2015?

Hop Hideout: “This is always a hard question! I might have to mention three at least. Often my beers are tied in with a memory or occasion such as drinking Saison Dupont (and Monk's Stout) at Brasserie Dupont in August whilst walking round the brewery with Gust Simons, the Commercial Director.

“It's a beautiful, classic saison I could drink day in day out and it has inspired so many breweries and it felt like such a special moment sharing that beer at source. Interesting that the inspiration flows back the

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other way too - as their Monk's stout is a head nod to English stouts. It's been a year of sour styles for me from gueuzes to gose, Berliner weisse to Flanders Brown and more - highlight trying Gueuzerie Tilquin's Oude Mure Tilquin a L'Ancienne at Indy Man Beer Con as Pierre shared stories about his brewery.

“I hugely enjoyed sitting in The Kernel's tap room one quiet Saturday morning in January with a glass of their Table Beer - it's such a shame that by the end of 2015, for reasons I completely understand, you can't do this anymore. The other half of Hop Hideout, my partner Will would say - Buxton's Double Axe and Omnipollo's Noa - he's a sucker for DIPAs and big rich Imperial stouts."

Hopology: “Vicaris Triple/Gueuze by the newish Brouwerij Dilweyns in Belgium."

BeerHawk (above): “The two beers that I’ve really enjoyed drinking this year have been Cloudwater Vienna Lager and also Beavertown Gamma Ray. They’re very different beers, but both have hit the spot in equal measure!"

Cave Direct/Beer Merchants: “Crikey what a question! Lindemans' Spontanbasil is unlike any beer ever made, and Lervig’s Lords of Acid was an absolute stunner. Brewdog Born to Die was the best IPA I tasted, and Buxton’s Yellow Belly Sundae has to be tasted to be believed. It would be impossible to pick between all those different styles though.

It’s been a fantastic year for consistent beers and experimentation."

Caps and Taps Phill: “Camden's IHL was launched in November 2014 and I think has grown into a great beer for them and it's now hard to think of the brewery without it in their core range. It's either that or something from Cloudwater."

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Caps and Taps Steph: “Pressure Drop Alligator Tugboat. I love a big juicy IPA and this was the biggest and juiciest I've had all year. Felt like drinking a rainbow. Suffice to say we sold out of that pretty quickly."

The Brew Testament: “This summer’s influx of Bavaria Mandarina hops was delicious! Partizan’s Pale Ale made with this was a particular favourite.

“What styles do you think will be the “next big thing” next year and/or which styles do you think will continue to prove popular with drinkers?"

Hop Hideout: “I think they'll be a continued Belgian influence/head nod - I can't wait to see what's going to develop from Burning Sky for example on this tip. I'd like to see where UK breweries are going to go with barrel aging and sours. Not just using the barrels to age but as part of the drinker's experience I love the idea of Portland brewery Cascade who invite customers round to tap barrels in their tap room every week. I'm not sure there's a next big thing, I'm just happy the UK beer landscape is much more diverse, innovative, accessible and fun."

Hopology: “It’s a great time for UK beer. The global giants and the big British breweries will want a slice of this pie: I expect more takeovers and more “craft branding”. In the meantime enjoy the choice of beer styles.

Caps and Taps: “Maybe not a BIG thing, but I

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think we'll certainly see cider-beer hybrids coming on to the market next year. We saw several of these "cybrids" whilst in New York recently and it's a style that many people feel passionately about, it's always worth experimenting.

As we said earlier, you can't beat pale ale as the style that will remain popular for drinkers."

Cave Direct/Beer Merchants: “I think we’ll hit peak sour somewhere early in the year and we’ll find people gasping for a well made craft lager.

I know lots of breweries are working on recipes for one, and quite a few have already had a stab. Siren did a range of them, Howling Hops do a great Bohemian Pilsner and Thornbridge Bayern is brilliant.

I’m hoping for more because it’s a style initially ignored by brewers as they strived to create something unique. Drinkers love lager though, and it’s time this country produced some good ones!"

The Brew Testament: “We’ve been seeing a lot of demand for Belgian-styled beers, although the demand for pale ales doesn’t show any sign of slowing down."

BeerHawk: “I think Pale Ales will continue their dominance for a good while yet, but we do get the sense that Milds are something that brewers are starting to play with more and more.

We’d expect the rise in interest for sour beers to continue too."

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January~February 2016 | The Brewers Journal 29

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Making a mark When Tunbridge Wells-based brewery Pig & Porter made the decision to rebrand they, turned to designer Sorrel Rivers to work her magic. Here, she talks about the inspiration behind her work and why identity is key to quality beer branding.

What is your design background and were you a fan of beer packaging and design before now?

I studied Fine Art for over eight years before completing my masters in graphic design. I was taking a break from the rather unfriendly nature of the Fine art world following my degree, while I thought about what to do next. It was at this point that when I first began working in Fuggles Beer CafĂŠ in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

This was my first introduction to Craft Beer and everything that it encompassed. I became really interested in beer and its production and I was lucky enough to receive a great education from my managers and Alex Greig the owner of Fuggles. It was an exciting introduction.

I found that I met lots of great people. I really liked the individuals that came in to Fuggles; as well as the beer enthusiasts and brewers that were regular visitors, there would often be those that were interested in trying something a bit different.

This was actually the start of everything for me; I was educated in all things craft, and introduced to brilliant brewers.

I discovered that Craft beer people were happy people.

Alex was the first person to champion my illustrative skills. He asked me to create something for the purposes of advertising - for what was then his new business. I found that I loved the design work and that my technical skills suited the process. I was inspired to look

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into completing a Masters in Graphic Design and fortunate to be accepted into the Florence Institute of Design International.

How did you into get into illustration and how did your relationship with Fuggles, and subsequently, Pig & Porter, come about?

I am lucky because art has always had a strong presence within my life, my parents are both very artistic and music and art have both played an important role in my upbringing and education. Prior to focusing on Illustration and Graphic Design I worked as a painter and a sculptor so I have always been interested in all things artistic.

During my time in Florence I stayed in contact with Alex and continued to create design work for Fuggles Beer CafĂŠ. For the final project of my Masters I designed my own brief, which I knew I wanted to be focused on Craft Beer. Alex put me in touch with Robin and Sean and it just so happened that at this time they were planning on re-branding Pig and Porter.

The guys were interested in the work I was producing and so were kind enough to meet with me and allow me to interview them about the things that they wanted for their branding.

When it came to your work for Pig & Porter, what was the inspiration for the designs?

Did you draw on the work of anyone you admire in the industry, or outside of it, at all?

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I wanted to create something that I felt reflected Robin and Sean, something professional and identifiable but without creating something too ‘corporate’ or serious, as their story is a very ‘craft’ one and they are two of the nicest people you could hope to meet.

There are so many people I admire within the industry; it was the designers working specifically within the Craft beer industry that inspired me to want to develop my own skills.

For the Pig and Porter rebrand I would say I was inspired namely by the Designs of Beavertown - Nick Dwyer whom I know you have already spoken with, as well as, The Wild Beer Company and Brew By Numbers.

My intention was to capture the elements that I greatly admired from the designs of these great brewers - the illustrative element of Beavertown, the clean and apparent simplicity of Wild Beer and the system behind Brew By Numbers.

The designs for many of Pig & Porter’s beers have changed and developed over time. How does this process take place? What were the key changes the team at the brewery wanted when working with you?

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Pig and Porter have actually always been making really good beer, the only problem was that the branding did not reflect this; I wanted to create a design that showed just how exciting the beer was.

There was no identifiable branding or unity amongst the different elements of the branding and the name Pig and Porter often led people to believe that the style of the beer was a Porter, because there was a lack of distinction between the Logo and the rest of the information displayed on the Pump Clips, Badges and bottles.

In an attempt to rectify this problem there were two logos being used on all of their badges, which was creating further confusion. We identified that there needed to be a clear logo, and that there should be a unity amongst all elements of the branding.

Do you work with Sean and Robin when new beers are being developed to put together ideas for the design, or is that something you work on once the name and style of beer are settled on?

Unfortunately I can’t take credit for any of the names that they think of. The design I created follows a system, each beer has a colour and illustration which is created, based on the name and or style of the beer. This colour is then used against black for the beer clips and badges and a solid colour is used for

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collaboration beers.

Robin and Sean create the beer, decide upon the name and then I decide on the colour and when necessary the illustration that will accompany it; for example Red Spider’s illustration is the red spiders web, the same colour red is then used for the Style and title of the beer against black for the Pump clip and badge.

When it came to the first collaboration brew that I designed for with Weird beard – the ‘Runaway Pig’, I decided to introduce the solid background colour. The idea was that I wanted to create a system for customers so that as soon as they came across a Pig and Porter badge, they would be able to understand immediately what beer is available, if it is a collaboration beer, if it is their favourite or if it is a beer that they haven’t tried yet.

What has been the greatest challenge in working for Pig & Porter and equally, what has been the area in which you've got the greatest satisfaction from?

Which design is your favourite?

The biggest challenge I think was probably the logo development, once I had created a logo that I was happy with everything else seemed to follow. The

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logo was hand drawn and then digitalised. I wanted the logo to have a feature, which could be applied to different areas of the branding.

For this reason there is a pig’s tail on the letter G, which is ready to be used on things like glassware, the hope being that with brand recognition it will become instantly recognisable as Pig and Porter without the necessity of always using the full logo.

I don’t know what I would say has given me the most satisfaction, possibly seeing my first bottle, Red Spider Rye, that was really exciting and then again recently as Whispering Bob has just been bottle and I am really pleased with the way it stands against its peers in the beer fridges.

On a broader beer packaging note, what do you think makes an effective, standout design in 2016? What qualities do you identify as means to help the brand in question stand out?

Probably an understanding of the product and the people that will be buying the product. My previous knowledge of working in a craft beer bar and the process people go through when deciding what they

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would like to drink, helped a great deal. Luckily for those of us that love delicious beer, there is such a great variety available now so it’s about getting that message across.

Great products, great packaging and inspired designs ensure that the brand stands out.

The design should capture the essence and character of the product.

For a brewery looking into its first label designs or looking to rebrand them, what advice would you give them? Where do you start and what are the key elements should they focus on?

Although I think there are many more beer and product designers more qualified than myself to be giving out advice, I would say the same as above really, if you are lucky enough to be in a position where you are designing for a beer company you will need product knowledge and inspiration...and beer.

If the beer doesn’t bring the inspiration...your drinking the wrong stuff.

To see more of Sorrel’s work, check out www.sorrelrivers-art.com or email sorrelnoblerivers@gmail.com

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January~February 2016 | The Brewers Journal 33

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Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver and Thornbridge head brewer Rob Lovatt have made indelible marks on the brewing landscape during their distinguished careers. They have now collaborated on ‘Project Serpent’, a strong Belgian ale fermented in Four Roses Bourbon casks with cider lees. Ahead of its public release, they gave us an exclusive look at the process.

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n one of Garrett Oliver's earlier visits to Thornbridge back in 2007 he was, well, nowhere to be seen. At this point, the brewery existed in the confines of the grounds of the ethereal Thornbridge Hall near Bakewell, Derbyshire. As Alex Buchanan, the brewery’s marketing manager recollects, the team were meeting early to brew their first collaboration ‘Alliance’ alongside then Thornbridge brewer and latterly BrewDog co-founder Martin Dickie.

“We came in but Garrett was nowhere, I was baffled,” explains Buchanan. “But then, out of nowhere, there he was, armed with dozens of freshlylaid eggs laid by chickens from the nearby farm. He made us the most amazing salmon omelette and off we went for the day. That’s just how he is.”

It’s early November, and while Thornbridge Brewery, steered by head brewer Rob Lovatt, is now a far bigger and modern operation than it was back then, the infectious Oliver is back in town surveying his kingdom as if it’s a home from home for the illustrious brewmaster from New York. Oliver is in town for a collaboration between Thornbridge and Brooklyn Brewery, where he has spent the last 21 years of his brewing career. The beer is currently known as ‘Project Serpent’, a 10% Belgian beer aged in Four Roses Bourbon casks and fermented with cider lees.

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he Serpent story started nearly two years ago when Oliver and Lovatt were put in touch with Tom Oliver at Oliver’s Cider and Perry, who produces some of the most complex ciders and perries in England, which rely on natural yeast and bacteria present on the fruit for fermentation.

“This type of project is based on some of the stuff we have been doing at Brooklyn in a whole range of beers where we’ve done secondary ageing in barrels on sets of yeasts from other wild fermentations,” explains

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Oliver. “Through natural lees, it is possible to take the fermentative “terroir” of a piece of countryside and concentrate it into a relatively small amount of liquid, and then have that terroir proliferate through a beer. If someone didn’t tell you that Serpent was a beer, you might at first think that it was a cider, or perhaps an Arbois wine. The apple-like aromatics are apparent, along with a hint of oak, expansive fruit and a long bone-dry finish. ” Oliver, who has Molly Browning, Brooklyn’s Barrel Program Manager with, started this type of brewing process initially on a very small scale in the US, owing to the fact that there were very few producers that were doing the purely natural fermentation that he required. “We were looking at five or six barrels at a time, nothing more.”

“So that’s why I turned to scrumpy and to England.

I’m into natural fermentation in wines, and cider. But at first, when I was offered cider lees, I must admit I wondered what on earth I was expected to be doing with those!” he explains. But after conversations with Lovatt and his team who, according to Oliver were probably the only ones crazy enough to want to do this too, they went ahead with it. "In order to do it, we all had to learn a lot of new things to ensure that our collaboration with cider producer Tom Oliver would enable all the elements we want to come together. I hope when people taste it, they'll agree that it’s on the edge of a beer and a cider, despite only have a small cider element in it."

Oliver is a renowned orator, travelling the world exalting the virtues of the marriage of good food and good beer with unnerving ease. While Lovatt leans on the more introverted side, they share, among other things, a perfectionist attitude to their brewing craft.

A considerable space in Thornbridge HQ has been turned into the barrel store and bottling plant for Project Serpent, with more than a hundred barrels lining the wall.

“We looked at all the gravities of each barrel, we tasted every one and mapped out the gravity of them, so we could put together blends, exactly the same as you would have with a cuvee with wine,” explains Oliver. He points to a map of the barrels, which have

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a small range of around one plato. “We set ranges, and by doing that we look at the size of the tank and set a cuvee. The flavours are pretty even across all, but we want the blend to be set across them so we can randomise them rather than having to go and taste each individually and mentally put together the flavour notes to ensure they work with each other.”

He adds: “You are setting a blend and want consistency across all bottles. Lots of people are into brett, they are into sours but bringing these things into a nice balance, and also a natural thing that springs out of the environment for me is more interesting. What I love here is the balance of a little acidity, ripe freshness, the barrel comes together and a nice pop of fruit.

“You can just imagine a nice piece of pork in front of you with a glass of this, some gorgonzola sauce and boom, you would lose your mind!”.

Pointing to one barrel that has a heart next to me, I ask of its significance. “Well, that one had a ‘Boy that is really nice’ effect on me, maybe that will make it as some director’s cut!” he enthuses.

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liver is keen to point out that this beer is a true collaboration.

“It is a perfect blend as neither Brooklyn or Thornbridge could have done this without the other. Many collaborations are something of a photo opportunity, but Rob and I have known each other for years, and I know the family, so we are really

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part of each other’s families in that sense,” he explains.

“For me, we were the first brewery in the world to do collaborations, back in 1996 with Brakespear. Brooklyn Bridge Bitter and from there, we had done around eight before another brewery had done one. And what’s my favourite? So far, this one!

He adds: “Probably the most well-known one we have done was with Schneider, which was called ‘Schneider & Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse’ in the US but in the UK and elsewhere but in the US was called Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse, where both breweries chose hops for each version so again, it was a true collaboration. We don’t just do them with anybody, but with our friends.

“Yes this collaboration is a risk and it could have turned out like vinegar but I’m liking the balance we are getting, and when this lands on the table with food, it will be able to do stuff that no other beer that I’ve had anyway, has done before. The food pairing was one of those things that always sticks in my mind, and it’s the same with here, and it’s the same with our Ghost bottles in the US. It’s a special occasion beer, it’s handled with care and it’s something truly special.”

Lovatt agrees, who believes that collaborations are often an exercise in marketing, whereby one party is “standing on the shoulder of giants”.

“For us it is a discussion and a relationship. Look at our barrel ageing setup, it’s something we want to grow. We want to grow that and do it the right way.

Too many people are doing it cynically and doing it to sell their beer for more money, the beer needs to be better than when it went in but so many actually taste worse,” he says. “It is labour intensive and should be

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that way. Too many are not doing that, and of course, storage is important too. It is justified that you charge more but many others are doing that and the product is far from special and can frankly taste awful, woody and sour, which is not good at all.”

Though Lovatt is a man of few words in public, his brewing career, the beers he has helped create, brew, and develop have reached drinkers far and wide.

Starting his career at London’s Meantime back in 2001, Lovatt found himself brewing predominantly Germanic beers, popular with the company’s founder Alastair Hook. “But the conversations we had early on were that people were ready for big US beers. At first I thought maybe that some of those flavours from the States were maybe a bit too much, too over the top, but I found myself wanting more.”

taking charge

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ovatt played an important role in the creation of some of Meantime’s core beers, though he be loathed to take credit, such is his humble nature. But his career eventually saw him commissioned by the Camden Town team to put together their brewery, a project that has elevated that particular concern to a near £100m business in a few years. However, like many others, he found that London life was no longer for him, and when the Thornbridge opportunity came calling, it was hard to turn down.

“I had a relationship with Thornbridge and respected them. I knew they were well capitalised and

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so I moved there five years ago. I went back to basics, reviewed brew dates, ingredients, the tea and the setup. You have to be thorough and as a result, you can’t always be everyone’s friend. But we want to do things properly here, that’s what we are respected for,” he says.

And the Thornbridge operation has changed and developed greatly in those years. The brewery outputs around 15,000 litres a week. Between 20-30% of this goes into cask, while the rest is an even split between keg and its bottle output. 30% of what Thornbridge produce is exported across the globe. Going forward, Lovatt is happy with the team he has in place, and expects and new bottling line and centrifuge to come in this year. He’s a firm believer in quality equipment and doing things the right way.

“You can’t let the bean counters get in the way of quality. All we have is our reputation,” he says.

It’s that positive reputation that has helped drive Brooklyn Brewery’s growth in recent decades. And while Oliver is well versed with the US scene that Brooklyn has long been part of, he has a great deal of interest in the “chaotic” UK brewing sector, too.

“There are some great beers being made, and there are some bad beers being made. I remember speaking alongside beer writer Michael Jackson at the CAMRA AGM in 1998, telling the brewers to do something new. Don’t get me wrong, I love cask beer and it’s what made me fall in love with beer in the first place but please, when judging competitions, I was seeing something like six varieties in the UK, when we had around 90 in the US,” he laments. “You would go down the pub and see people at the time selling beer

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like Hoegaarden for around three or four quid and you pint is two quid. What is wrong with this equation….

It’s like ‘why is this guy coming across the water and selling their beer for more than yours?’. And their beer isn’t even better than yours, you could do that.

“We've done that!

We’ve beaten Hoegaarden in the World Beer Cup in the Witbier category, you can brew those beers if you want to. You have to think of it more like food, take in ideas from everywhere. Look at ‘Project Serpent’ for instance. This has inspiration from everywhere. From wine, from spirits, barrels. I love ciders and this ties those in together with friends. As I said, this is a true collaboration. It shouldn’t be something you can do by yourself, it should need the other person otherwise it is pointless.”

The UK, says Oliver, had much better beer in its supermarkets long before the US, with Chimay and Dupont propping up shop shelves. “These are fantastic beers that we didn’t have in ours but the difference was we were making those types of beers, and you guys were not. Now, we have almost no British beers in the States and that’s a shame.”

sound advice

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or the chaotic UK scene to continue its upwards trajectory, Oliver believes that to do new things, you need the science and you need the creativity. You need something to say, and the ability to say it. And if you only have one side

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of that, then you can’t do it well.

“But that’s business, and it’s natural, but some of these breweries opening aren’t going to make it if what they’re producing just doesn't cut it as people wise up. You have this movement, where local is everything, the same as in the US, but you need to get out there and get inspiration and influence from the world, not just what’s down the road from you,” he says. “You should be brewing a good Pilsner or a Pale Ale consistently before you start putting stuff in wine barrels. Our name and that of Thornbridge is a promise that the beer is worth the money you spent and time spent drinking it. A good pint of Timothy Taylor’s is pretty much as good as anything you’ll find on earth, and that’s because they have perfected their art.”

And his advice to new breweries?

“People are not going to like this but piece of advice number one is go work for somebody else first.

Why should you make all of your mistakes, which you will make, on the back of paying customers at your own brewery, go learn under somebody that knows what they are doing, soak up that knowledge and then go out on your own once you actually know something,” says Oliver. “People want to be cool right now, but if you can’t put the beer in the bottle tasting brilliant every time then well, there is something very uncool about that in my opinion. I’ve done it myself, for five years and I am so glad I did that. I learned professional brewing before moving to Brooklyn Brewery. Yes you may know about things such as mash chemistry but I’m afraid that a professional

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brewery runs nothing like a home brewery and for a home brew setup there are no consequences, and if something goes wrong then so what, hopefully you had fun anyway.”

Oliver likens it to being a chef, or a musician. If you are a great one of those, you will bring it every night.

It doesn’t matter if you are in a bad mood, or you have a cold, you will still perform and nail that.

“Look, I’m not saying it’s not fun, but it’s really hard work too.

To stay relevant, you need to stay fresh, and keep up with those new ideas, and to do it for the right reasons. and I believe people will continue to do that.”

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to the point

The Five Points Brewing Company has always taken a considered approach to business.

From developing a core range of excellent beers, to the impact its brewing activities might have on the local community, this ethos has helped it grow to become one of the most respected breweries in London. With significant expansion taking place, we went to meet the team to find out what drives them, and where its next steps will take them.

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e thought we going to be ‘Johnny come lately’, we really did. So to be here now, doing what we’re doing is something we truly appreciate,” explains a humble Ed Mason, the owner and director of The Five Points Brewing Company. The business, which started brewing commercially in March of 2013 under the shadows of Hackney Downs station, is a sign of how rapidly the London, and wider UK brewing community has come in the last few years.

“The UK beer scene has grown due to a number of factors. There has something of a parallel move with food, an emphasis and desire for provenance, quality, and that drive to recognise independent producers,” he believes.

It is late November and the week before the latest London Brewers’ Market, a successful event held in London’s Old Spitalfields Market, organised by The Five Points Brewing Company to showcase beers from the breweries that call the capital home. For a brewery so committed to its community and camaraderie ethos, it’s somehow fitting that they are regularly

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called on to help promote its peers.

localised growth

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nd Mason believes that the local focus as evidenced at such events is key to the sector’s growth.

“There are these ‘pioneers’ you see in food and then you’ve seen this mirrored in brewing, too.

There is a rallying against mass market in both food and drink, it started with food and replicated in beer.

Equally, look at the US, we’ve taken a great deal of inspiration from them, and a lot of those guys, they were inspired but Europe and now we are, in turn, taking influence from them. So it’s a very exciting time to be involved in beer,” he explains.

Add to this, the progressive duties introduced by Gordon Brown reduced the barriers to entry. “It’s fascinating, we have an ecosystem of breweries and other industries that support each other, people have camaraderie, they opened their doors to us in the early days, rather than being a closed shop. And we obviously try and reciprocate that now, too,” he says.

For Mason and his team, it has also only been a

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ALL PHOTOS GEORGE FISHER

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matter of weeks since the company moved into its new office and warehousing space up the road from its brewing site, meaning the team no longer have to shimmy their seats under their desks each time kegs and casks are passing through the brewery floor.

It is a frenetic period for the Five Points, but you get the impression they wouldn’t have it any other way. And like many of its peers, their tale is one of a company that has come a long way, in the short amount of time since they starting brewing less than three years ago.

“Greg and I had spent many years selling other people’s beers and we both harboured aspirations to move beyond that, to have our own brewery,” explains Mason.

community ethos

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reg Hobbs is the company’s cofounder and head brewer. The duo met when Mason took over and relaunched the Duke of Wellington pub in Hackney in 2008, a time in which there were only a handful of London breweries, namely Fuller’s, Meantime and Sambrook’s.

Even then, the local ethos was key for Mason, with a conscious decisions being made to stock the latter as the pub’s house bitter owing to the fact that the company was local, and it was a start-up. “It’s

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something I wanted to support, simple as that,” says Mason.

He and Hobbs continued to harbour their goals of opening a brewery, but one in Hackney, something the former believes was deemed counterintuitive, considering perceptions of the area at the time.

In the proceeding years, the London brewing sector grew at pace and Hobbs took on an assistant brewing role at ELB, while Mason opened a craft beer bar in Shoreditch called Mason & Taylor, premises that is now home to BrewDog Shoreditch on Bethnal Green Road. But there plans were still in motion and several years later, “the time was right”.

Mason sold one of his businesses, and the available capital made it possible make the move into brewing.

Joining forces once again with Hobbs, they found a suitable premises in Hackney, a location that was integral to their search. “We were, and are, local and we wanted to pursue that idea of a local brewery, a community brewery,” he adds.

And in 2016, the team have just that. Producing unfiltered, unpasteurized beer, Five Points is undertaking the latest stage of its expansion. Not bad for a company that Mason considered as a latecomer to the proverbial party.

“We are really happy and proud of how are beers were received back then, and continue to be now. We couldn’t ask for more, and that’s why were are still here and looking at our next step,” he says.

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core range

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ccording to Hobbs, it was always their intention to start and do a core range well, then to build on that. They have stayed true to their word, offering five beers, which comprise the 4.4% ’Five Points Pale’, 4.8% Railway Porter’ the 7.8% ’London Smoke’, its 6% ’Hook Island Red’ and the 7.1% ’Five Points IPA’ which was launched in 2014. The Pale accounts for two thirds of their output, with 10% spread across each of the rest of the range, though this is likely to change with the anticipated launch of a brown ale this year.

“The core side was always part of our vision,” says Mason. Look at how breweries such as Brooklyn Brewery have a solid lager, as does Sierra Nevada with its Pale, it’s important and helps your reputation. We didn’t want to have a kids in a candy shop approach of trying anything and everything, as that wasn’t for us. We have always gone for a clean, strong identity.”

Hobbs adds: “Our approach isn’t what I would call subtle, but it’s more about using flavours but using them wisely, rather than using them for the sake of it. Consistency is important to us. We take pride in our commitment to that, but that doesn’t mean they won’t evolve. We are constantly tweaking them, but we don’t want people to have that recognition. It’s a considered fashion, and one we are always evaluating.”

During our visit last November, Five Points had brewed 660HL the previous month, and was on course to have produced 6000HL (105,000 UK pints) in 2015, a sum split across keg, which is its most popular format, accounting for around 50%. The other half is split between cask, cans and bottles.

increased capacity

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ut this figure will rise next year. A move from electric heating elements to steam has brought the brew time of its popular ‘Pale’ down from 8.5 hours to six. A lack of space at its Hackney Downs railway arches has resulted in three new 60BBL tanks being installed in the grounds outside, a move Hobbs proudly says that they managed to win the council around on. But doubling capacity is not without its hurdles, explains Hobbs, pointing to a new fence of bamboo surrounding its site. The consideration for the aesthetic impact such an installation could have on nearby residential properties has seen Five Points ‘green up’ their site, while also installing noise reduction systems outside, too. A nice touch.

The focus on community, and giving back to it, is not something the Five Points team over-analyse.

“We are part of this community, and is part of our ethos. Being a living wage employer, and giving back to the community is important. Being in business isn’t only about the bottom line,” says Mason. So much so, that in addition to paying the living wage, the

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Mason: "Being a living wage employer, and to be able to give back to the community from business is very important to us".

business runs an apprenticeship scheme for 18-24 year olds in Hackney, sources its electricity from 100% renewable sources, and is committed to reinvesting 5% of our profits in local charities and community projects. “There should be an emphasis on welfare, projects, and other elements that are the right thing to do,” he adds.

Team Five Points currently comprises 14 fulltime staff, thanks to the new arrivals of delivery driver Simon and an addition to sales, Jessica. A new apprentice is also expected, too, which will still mean that the brewery runs a tight ship. While Mason and Hobbs founded the brewery, its first employee was Doreen Joy Barber, a popular figure in the London, and wider, beer scene, and a key cog in Five Points and London Brewers’ Market setup.

“Doreen, was employee number one, doing a day a week, then two days a week, then eventually fulltime, an integral part of the early days and now. Sales, marketing, everything!,” says Mason.

According to Barber, a US native who had a passion for beer long before moving to the UK in 2009, a drive and passion to be more closely involved in beer led her to her role, which is a cross between marketing, sales, communication, events management and social media manager.

“I enjoyed beer, I used to work in a café in the US, did beer buying but mostly as an enthusiast, I had the passion to be more closely involved. Working in pubs

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such as Islington’s Jolly Butchers, which has become something of a breeding ground, an incubator, for staff and breweries in recent years, only aided that,” she explains.

US INFLUENCE

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nd for Barber, who has experienced beer culture on both sides of the Atlantic, she finds the idea of possible saturation in the UK brewing sector as laughable.

“In the US, look how many breweries are there.

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And then for us, there are so many markets for us to look at in the export market that we haven’t touched.

Also, when we go out of certain places, they may have heard of Five Points, but in less urbanised areas, the beer is not out there so it means that there is scope to grow. And I know that a lot of other breweries are seeing that too, so there is a lot of room for good beer,” she says. It seems that there are a lot of breweries, but the market share independent breweries have is still very small. It’s under 10% of the overall beer market, which is still dominated by the mass market and the big players.

Mason adds: “On one level, it feels intuitive to

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think we will hit a saturation point at some point, but then on the other, looking at the states, the Brewers Association, had a target to claim 10% of the market, and now they are on 14%, with a 20% by 2020, and we are nowhere near that over hear, yet.

“So if we are following the path, it is clear that there is plenty of potential, I’m not saying that breweries should be immune from the normal laws of economics and some will fail for whatever number of reasons and some will close, but there is definitely scope to get bigger and better.”

And that’s exactly the plan for Five Points. Despite increasing capacity at their current facility, the

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trajectory the brewery is on means that a new site is looking like a case of when, not if.

“Out long-term aspiration is to move to a permanent home, we’ve been trying to make our current site work. But it’s difficult to find premises that area available and can work for us,” says Mason.

“But if we did move, we would want to keep our current one going, too. It’s important for us and wouldn’t want to lose that, and by doing that, it would allow us to experiment more, too, which is something we aren’t really able to do at the moment.”

But when the time does arrive, you can bet that the Five Points team will do things the right way.

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OAKHAM ALES Oakham Ales has been something of a byword for quality in UK brewing during the last 20 years. Here, marketing manager Nigel Wattam talks us through some of the brewery’s highlights to date, and the exciting expansion plans it has for the coming years.

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akham Ales was founded in 1993 in Oakham in Rutland.

Increased demand saw a move to Peterborough, with a brew pub (The Brewery Tap) resurrected from the old labour exchange opposite Peterborough Railway Station, and for a number of years this not only acted as The Brewery Tap for Oakham Ales but also the brewery itself.

Several successful beer launches later, coupled with growing demand, Oakham moved to a purpose-built brewery in 2005, in Woodston, Peterborough.

Now, in 2016, weekly production at the 44-staff company is around 108,000 pints per week. Depending on the time of year that figure can fluctuate, but around 65% of the business is cask with around 15% being bottles. Keg, wine and imported Krombacher form the remaining 20% of the business.

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dynamic growth

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he head-office team has grown over three-fold during the past five years, reflecting the success of the dynamic and expanding business, which has seen consistent year on year growth of around 25% throughout this period.

“We have an expansion plan in place which will involve a new office rebuild and an increase in tank space and brewing capacity. Plans are in place to double production in the next three to four years to 100,000 hectolitres,” he explains.

Wattam says: “Quality and consistency are at the forefront of our thoughts. All our beers are consistent and we certainly don’t skimp on the hops!!

We may not be the cheapest brewery but we pride ourselves on the quality of our products and hopefully the many national and international accolades are testament to this.”

For Wattam, this drive for quality and

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consistency is based on putting out a quality product, staying competitive, and ensuring the business remains healthy.

“The cask ale market continues to grow and the number of breweries but inevitably there may be a few casualties on the way. The number of pubs is still in decline and there just won’t be enough space on the bar for everyone. Hence our quest to produce the best beers we can, he adds.

And while the brewery puts a great deal of attention into brewing its beers, the same can be said for the branding, too.

“At the moment a number of people have input into branding and product development. It’s lead by the marketing department but also includes input from the brewing team and feedback from the sales team,” says Wattam.

He adds: “It’s important to get an idea of what’s happening in the market but we also need to know what hop availability will be. We work with a local freelance designer (Chris Turpin) who has worked for us for many years and is very good at interpreting our ideas and understands the Oakham Ales ethos and branding. We will focus more on the consumer as we grow to hopefully get more profile for the beers.”

ongoing expansion

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ecent expansion to the brewery’s team include the addition of Neil Galloway, operations manager, Dominic Leighton, national sales executive (North), Jonathan Shaw, area sales manager (London), Lindsey Faull,

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brewery administrator (part-time), Steve Corry, Drayman, Mike Simpson, off-trade and export (parttime) and Talia Karim who began as an apprentice and will now become a full-time Sales Support Assistant.

A further appointment of a national sales executive to cover the South is also expected to be made within the next few weeks.

The appointment of Jonathan Shaw as a dedicated area sales manager based in London, a new area to have direct supply from the Brewery, will further support Oakham’s current distribution routes into London in the wake of the buoyant market conditions and increasing demand for its multi award-winning range of ales, kegs and ciders there.

Adrian Posnett, managing director, Oakham Ales explains: "With the continuing success of our core range and plans to expand our keg line-up for 2016 we wanted to ensure that all areas of the business had the additional support necessary to ensure that we are able to continue to deliver the high level of service that our customers have come to expect from us.

“Despite tough competition with new breweries launching every week, I’m delighted to report that Oakham Ales has maintained steady growth in all areas and I’m confident that the new appointees will help us to continue to build on that success.”

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dublin party has global pull The fourth Alltech Craft Brews and Food Fair is set to take place in Dublin this year.

Ahead of the February event, Alltech has released the findings of its inaugural Global Craft Beer Survey.

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ith the next fair on the horizon, which will feature a host of local and international craft beers as well as local cuisine across the 5-7 February event, Alltech took a closer look at the spread of ‘craft’

breweries across the globe.

The study on the global craft brewing industry discovered that there are more than 10,000 craft breweries worldwide.

Of those, 86 percent are in North America and Europe, with Europe pipping North America to the post by only three craft breweries.

Even so, the U.S. has just surpassed 4,000 breweries, which represents a nearly 20 percent growth in the last year and far exceeds any other individual country’s count by thousands.

european dominance

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he survey, which polled 128 countries found that Ireland ranks 20th in global craft beer production with 67 microbreweries in 21 of 26 counties. Europe on a wider scale pips North America to the post with highest number of craft breweries and Oslo is the most expensive city in the world for a beer

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“The rise of craft beer as a beverage of choice is indicative of consumers’ demand for differentiated, interesting and quality products,” explains Aidan Connolly, chief innovation officer of Alltech. “Alltech’s history is rooted as a supplier of yeast not only to the animal nutrition industry but also to the beverage industry.

He adds: “Craft beer has two percent of the market share in Ireland today, and it is predicted to rise, with a year-over-year growth of approximately 25 percent, and new local breweries mushrooming all over the country.”

The Global Craft Beer Survey assessed the number of craft breweries through information obtained in partnership with local beverage associations and Alltech’s sales force, which operates in 128 countries.

swiss surprise

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he top 10 locations for craft breweries in the world are: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Russia, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Brazil and Japan.

Ireland ranks 20th in the locations for craft breweries globally. Irish craft beer is currently exported to 25 countries, with approximately 38 percent of Irish breweries in the business of exportation.

According to Connolly, one key point to note with this survey is in relation to each country’s population.

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He explains: “It is fascinating to compare the number of craft breweries in each country to that of its population.

“When it comes to craft breweries per head, Switzerland is 39th in terms of top craft beer producing nations yet it ranks number one by breweries/ population with close to five craft breweries per 100,000 people.

“In yet another twist, while it has more breweries per head, surprisingly beer is not cheap.

Zürich, its most populous city, is ranked number two as the most expensive city to buy beer.”

The Global Craft Beer Survey also raises some other questions in regard to other regions of the world and their uptake of craft brewing.

For example, China and India rank among the top ten countries for population and GDP yet neither country has more than 60 craft breweries.

Given that China rivals the U.S. as beer drinkers with close to a doubling in terms of consumption, will there be a brewery boom in the country’s future?

Overall, Connolly estimates the craft beer industry’s net worth at $50 billion.

This is Alltech’s first global survey of the craft brewing industry.

It was undertaken at the request of founder and president Dr. Pearse Lyons for the company’s own information because data assessing the international craft brewing market was not readily available.

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Take the power back December 15th will go down as a incredibly significant date for craft beer brewers in Ontario, Canada. The province witnessed its biggest step change for beer since prohibition, with new legislation now permitting the sale of alcohol outside of strict existing channels and into grocery stores across one of Canada’s most populous areas.

We speak to those involved with reaching this milestone, and how they hope to ride the crest of this wave.

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Chris Goddard and Mike Laba from Craft Brand Company and Brunswick Bierworks

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ntario’s premier Kathleen Wynne is currently a very popular individual in the eyes of breweries and beer buyers across the province. On the 15th December last year, she made history by simply buying a six-pack of beer at a grocery store. Commonplace for most, but for Ontarians, she was indulging in a simple pleasure that had been denied to consumers for too long.

“Today, the wait is over. Beer is here,” she announced at the Loblaws grocery store after procuring the Rhyme & Reason beers from Toronto's Collective Arts Brewing. For Wynne, she was marking a move away from purchasing beer controlled by the province’s strict Liquor Board of Ontario (LCBO) or the foreign-owned Beer Store. Loblaws immediately rolled out beer sales across 19 outlets, with grocery stores planning a swift acceleration, ensuring that nearly 500 stores offer beer by the end of 2017.

"We salute Loblaw's commitment to Ontario craft brewers and its exceptional efforts to provide us new retail opportunities," says John Hay, President, Ontario Craft Brewers. "The province has a vibrant community of craft brewers and we expect Loblaw's business to create new energy and new opportunities to connect Ontario customers with Ontario beer throughout the province."

"Our customers shop with us for all the flavours and ingredients of great meals, and today we can better serve that demand with the announcement that beer is here," said Grant Froese, CEO of Loblaw Companies.

He adds: "This is a historic first step for our company and for the Ontario government, giving customers the greater convenience of shopping for groceries and beer in one stop. We expect great demand and customer anticipation for more opportunity in our local stores throughout the province, consistent with the government's planned roll-out.”

While changes to the grocery setup will have a major positive impact on independent brewers, a new governance model at the Beer Store (TBS) outlets across Ontario, which involved increase visibility for craft breweries, is also considered ground-breaking and, according to Ontario Craft Brewers, brings it much closer to its roots where all brewers in Ontario benefitted equally from the system.

“We look forward to working with the independent directors on an ongoing basis and in particular during in the transition phases that will take place over the next year or so. We welcome the creation of an Ontario Craft Beer category/section in all TBS stores at the shelf level and in any permanent and ongoing consumer-facing displays, they said in a statement.

Greg Taylor knows a great deal about beer in Ontario. As co-founder of Steam Whistle Brewing, a company he co-founded at the end of the nineties, he has helped developed the brewery’s sole offering, a Pilsner, to ensure it has become a mainstay for

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Kathleen Wynne making history buying beer in Ontario last month.

drinkers.

“What Wynne is doing for those involved in beer is huge. It will take away some of the monopolised situation that the larger breweries that Molson coors and AB Inbev has with what The Beer Store offers.

They have carried craft beers it but their approach has not been conducive to promoting it. But now, there is a 20% merchandising opportunity to craft brewers, which will give them shelf space, and also for promotion, where three or four breweries can put their beers,” he explains.

Taylor adds that the same will apply for for groceries stores, dedicating around 20% space for craft beer. There are thousands of these, so the growth potential there is massive. “While the LCBO will still manage the sale of the beer, and the flow of the beer, the POs will go through the LCBO but we, or third party can bring them, and offer them to consumers.”

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But while Taylor has optimism about these changes, they are not without solid grounding, either. And he knows it.

“Larger breweries didn’t want it to happen. They have been able to sell it wholesale, and for also for retail, which is very rare. Controlling what people are drinking. They are controlling it and now, they are not happy. They tried to influence the situation, with the union of LCBO staying that these changes will allow young kids to buy beer and that only their employees could properly control the sale of beer, implying that there is a lack of responsibility,” he explains.

Taylor says that there has been an “incredible resistance” from beer lobbyists, lobbying in government, from liberals in power and conservatives, as well as other parties. “This has been an incredible force and it’s been unfortunate, lobbying at federal level is controlled but at a provincial level it happens.

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The only reason that it’s taken 60 years is that these people know their stuff,” he states.

But Taylor, and his company, know that people love craft beer, and he has figures to back it up.

“In the LCBO, growth in craft beer was around 32% up, while in The Beer Store, owned by the big multinationals, this figure was only 1% which is a telling factor. That is very, very significant, as they sell 75% of the beer in the province. So these changes will be a big positive for us. But we still need to fight the fight together and take the market share.

For us, it’s essential,” says Taylor. “If you look at a small craft brewery, is that you want to be in your neighbourhood, you can now be at LCBO, Beer Stores, and the groceries. It’s important for breweries, for the economy, and for the country. Profits are going back into the country, the community, creating jobs in the process.

For John Hay, president of Ontario Craft Brewers, the changes being made to the craft beer ecosystem across the province have been understandably welcomed.

Among these changes is the right to co-ship and to build joint distribution systems, which is considered essential to efficiently serving the new channels, and to make existing LCBO channel more efficient for the sector.

The organisation explains: “We have said over the years that some limited cross-selling would really help our smallest members and startups by creating secondary and tertiary markets that could very likely be needed as the larger systems run out of shelf space.

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In light of all of the changes, the cross-selling option did not make it through at this time. Our recommendation is simply to review it in a year or two, once we can fully assess the impact of this first round of changes.”

For Hay, the changes go a long way in unlocking their ability to achieve our goal of having a craft brewery in every city and town in the province.

“This new environment, is only a good thing for craft beer. These measures are all helpful. We have at least 130 independent craft breweries, and this will hit around 200 before long. We want a brewery in every town and city, so we are well on our way to getting there,” he enthuses.

Craft beer has come a long way in Ontario during the last decade. In around 2003, according to Hay, the province had around 20 breweries, with even fewer “making much money”.

“But tax incentives allowed people to change their fortunes, expand, and with provincial government input for promotion, combined with the local food movement and a desire for change, helped it get going. It took from about 2003-2010 for it to really germinate. But during the last couple of years it has really exploded. The consumer was really ready for it,” he says.

Hay is firm in his drive, and belief, to double or triple job creation through the opening and expansion of more breweries in Ontario. “We are about 5% of the sales but about 35-40% of the jobs, so this can only improve.

“One of our main objectives is to have a brewery

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Craft beer is a key contributor to the economy in Ontario.

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in each town or city. A few years ago it was in 40 communities, now 70. But we want that to change.

Once you put a small brewery in there is a huge economic boost from that.

“Our challenge is to keep a broad enough footprint, keep enough new entrants coming in, keep it local, keep it approachable. And we always want to improve quality each and every day, staying close to the community and maintaining that closeness.”

One such new entrant to the brewery market is Mike Laba, the co-founder of established drinks importers and agents The Craft Brand Company.

Alongside his co-founder, Chris Goddard, they have founded Brunswick Bierworks.

Pitched as a a partner brewing facility, located in the East York neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, the company is open concept brewery that will produce beers from local and global brewery partners.

“It provides our brewery partners an ability to access to National and International markets with fresh product brewed to their exact specifications under the supervision of their own Brewmaster. Our facility provides a variety of packaging options as well as the ability to distribute directly from our brewery.

Our model allows brewers to expand their distribution without the capital costs of building a new brewery and without the incremental costs of import freight,” explains Laba.

Goddard adds: “Our open concept brewery consists of a 50 HL brewhouse for larger production and a 20 HL pilot system for recipe development, one-off brews and smaller batch seasonal beers. The brew house and all production equipment has been manufactured NSI, one of the finest manufacturers of beer equipment in the world.

The company has already enlisted Christian Riemerschmid von der Heide as its brewmaster. Having worked in the brewery and beverage industry for more then 30 years, he is a master brewer by profession having brewed brands like Augustiner in Munich and

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Guinness in Dublin.

With full construction mode set for Spring this year, the changes in beer distribution have ensured that it’s an exciting time for the team behind the new brewery.

“The LCBO has interest in beer and supporting Ontario crafts so any organisation producing products here is something they want to succeed, the LCBO has put things in place to give breweries a leg up, to improve network, distribution, says Laba, echoing Steam Whistle’s Taylor. “But they are restricted of selling 6-packs or smaller, but that said, they don’t get discounts unlike the beer store. Which is a massive disadvantage, so while the LCBO has grown, they haven’t been able to do everything.”

He adds: “The biggest change we have has been with the approval of grocery stores having their licences granted, so that gives us another channel but that’s growing. The majority of beer sales profits flow out of our country, and that’s not right.”

Focusing on the Brunswick proposition, Laba and Goddard expect the business to prove popular with breweries wanting to expand their offering, and as a route into the Ontario market.

He explains: “From speaking with our partners, it was clear this was something that interested them. To take it another step, we told our partners about the opportunities to collaborate with the other brewers in our network as well. The idea of a number of craft brewing characters all under one roof? The excitement snowballed. This is when we knew that we could play within the restrictions of Ontario while offering innovation too. It is a all under one roof experience and it gets them a better access to market. For our European partners, it also allows us to brew their product for the US market if needed.

"As an partner of us? It’s an interesting process. For us personally, we will look at their branding, sit down and see if we are on the same page with everything.

We require a strong relationship. We sit with the LCBO, and work out the best way to move forward with a brand. It’s about fitting and filling the gaps where the LCBO want to fill, so like seasonal etc.

"They would sample it after we fill in the forms, they give the feedback, pack size, then look at when in the calendar, then we look at compliance, with lab testing, design so the whole process takes 8 months to a year. As an import brewer you cannot sell in Ontario without an agent, so our job is to take brands to the LCBO and we do that work."

Laba and Goddard plan to offer a proposition that is as strong a collaboration process as possible, and from speaking with partners, this has been the way people want it to go, says the company.

“Quality is paramount for everyone, the recipes are.

This involved the yeast, yeast propagations the barley, the hops.

And for others, it’s about access to market, and doing things in a timely manner. brewing draught on market and getting to retail quickly is exciting, as well is the ability to minimise environmental impact, too.

It’s less of a logistical challenge,” says Laba.

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Building an Empire Empire Brewing Company started as the brain child of college roommates, long before brewpubs had gained any kind of foothold in the United States. When founder, and current owner, David Katleski opened shop in 1994, there was no way of knowing how successful, and respected the brewery would become.

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mpire Brewing Co has had an involvement in its community that has helped to establish the business as a cornerstone in Syracuse NY. Its modest brewpub has proved to be the perfect test market for it to develop new beer styles and refine signature brands. And now, the business has its eyes well and truly set on expansion with a new brewery.

“Given our distribution success, it seemed only natural that we would expand. We have staff that have been working with Empire for over 15 years and this new project will allow our professional family to continue to grow within the company. Maintaining

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our commitment to buy local, we challenged Feldmeir, a Syracuse based tank manufacturer, to build their very first brewhouse for our new brewery and they ambitiously accepted, explains Jon Phillips, brand manager at the company.

He says: “Eager for an archetype that could launch their introduction into the brewing industry, Feldmeir is building us a stainless steel system complete with a showcase mirror finish. The 60 BBL, state of the art brewery will give us the capacity to package our beer in bottles for the very first time and we anticipate launching our retail product this spring. The bottling line is coming from Prospero Equipment, another New York based company.

“The new plant will serve as a production facility

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as well as an agritourism destination. Situated on 22 acres of virgin farm land, the Empire Farmstead Brewery will produce hops, barley, herbs and spices for use in our brews as well as our kitchen. The tasting room and gift shop will have a projected carbon footprint of just 30 miles. Guests will be encouraged to take a tour and experience the craft beer process, from pasture to pint.”

Beer manufactured here will be packaged in kegs, bottles and cans for regional, national and international distribution. The agricultural component will include hops, lavender, vegetables, herbs, and fruits for use in the brewing process and to support the food production needed at both facilities.

Phillips is also eager to point out that the new brewery is partnering with SUNY Morrisville, a local ‘State University of New York”, to develop a Brewing Studies Program with the plan on hiring local hands for the Empire Farmstead Brewery.

transition

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hile Empire has developed, so has the market and people’s tastes. According to Phillips, the sector has seen a great deal of transition in the last 20 years.

“Craft beer styles were foreign to most people in

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NY. Even Empire was making very traditional beers at the time, like German styles that were brewed by the book. Lagers, Hefe Weeizen, Kolsh, Stout, and Pale Ales were consistently on the menu. As the craft beer scene emerged, American Brewers started making beers with bigger, bolder flavors. As our brewing styles changed, our customers palates changed along with us,” he says. “Today, IPA's dominate the American market. Session IPA's have become very popular as well. Session IPA's give the drinker the flavors of a nice hoppy IPA, but reduce the ABV to under 5% at times. This allows the consumer to have a few extra pints without the alcohol content of a traditional IPA, while still enjoying the flavors of a highly hopped beer. Seasonal brews have also become very popular.”

Phillips explains: “Fall beers and winter beers in particular have allowed brewers to become more creative with ingredients and spices, giving the drinker a different experience than what they may be used to. Sour beers have been making a recent surge to the forefront as well. Kettle Sours, Lambics, Gueze and Gose are all becoming very popular.

“Our distribution is currently limited to four styles in New York State (Amber Ale, Cream Ale (nitrogenated), IPA and White Aphro) and the best selling beer will change from region to region. White Aphro, short for aphrodisiac, is quickly becoming our flagship beer. This Belgian-Style unfiltered Wit

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Ale is brewed with wheat malt, lemon peel, ginger and lavender, and then fermented with a traditional Belgian yeast strain.”

export opportunities

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s luck would have it for Empire, the company is in the process of establishing one of our newest brands in China. Its owner David Katleski met Mr. Ji, founder of the Jing Wei Fu Tea Company, during a trip to China and both parties have decided to join forces and brew a beer made with black tea.

Their hope was that it would prove to be unlike anything on the Chinese or American market today.

Jing Wei Fu Tea, from the Shaanxi province in China, is full of rich, earthy flavours as well as an impressive range of health benefits, a combination that could make for a “truly original” craft beer.

Empire’s Master Brewer Tim Butler, and Assistant Brewer Nat TenEyck, incorporated the tea bricks into an original Empire brew, developing a truly unique east meets west ale. Tim Butler notes, “Combining American Craft brewing techniques with the history and precision of the Jing Wei Fu Tea producers, Empire Brewing Company has created a beer like no other. NYS grown Chinook hops and our house ale yeast start this beer off with fruity aroma. The flavours are then a blend of subtle malt, tartness and a full earthy tea flavour with a dry finish ( 6% ABV).

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“Two Dragons boasts more than just a great flavour profile and an original story. Our lead chemist has confirmed that many of the extraordinary health benefits associated with black tea are preserved throughout our brewing process. We have brought on a full time Chinese export specialist to help us explore the Chinese market, which we hope to get into next year.”

reputation counts

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ccording to Phillips, the last few years has seen breweries abroad making "American" styles, which wasn’t so much the case 5-10 years ago.

“Here, we have always brewed English-Styles, Belgian-Styles and Irish-Stouts. The US is now being recognized due to our dedication to making high quality, full flavored, and in some cases experimental beers. Our industry has grown rapidly due to the passion and skill of the brewers in our country. It is not unheard of for a brewery to have a full laboratory, staffed with well educated chemists ensuring that their beer tastes exactly how it’s intended to taste. Empire recently acquired our own full time PHD chemist, who helps to maintain the quality and consistency of every Empire pint,” he says.

Butler adds that he sees the sour beer and barrel aged beer continue to trend upwards. “I am not sure if it will ever take the crown away from IPA as the best selling craft style, but it may give it a good run.”

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Taking a Lead For more than 25 years, North American manufacturer Newlands Systems has been a leading, key, name in the brewing equipment sector. Here, the company talks about what drives the business, the craft beer community and its plans for the future.

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t Newlands, we’ve been building custom craft breweries for over a quarter century. Our headquarters are at the epicenter of the craft beer revolution – the west coast of North America,” explains Newlands’ Brian Bastien. “In that time, we’ve been part of the industry shift from a small community of pioneers to a movement that’s having a considerable impact on beer. This growth hasn’t gone unnoticed; many of the earliest craft beer brands have been acquired by the traditional beer conglomerates.”

According to the company, these acquisitions will serve to quicken the pace of craft beer’s expansion and create room for new local upstarts.

quality and innovation

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e explains: “There are two major elements that our customers are pursuing these days: quality and innovation. As brands grow beyond their local markets and start distributing more broadly, quality and consistency become top priority.

“Many of the systems we build today are fully automated to the recipe level, for consistent conditions in every brew. And when a brewer reaches a point where it’s no longer enough to send out for lab testing, they invest in equipment and develop the capabilities to monitor quality in-house.”

The other major area of growth for the business is innovation in beer styles. Newlands has been

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developing tools to help brewers explore different styles of beer, some new, some very old. Dry hopping has become commonplace in North American craft breweries, and Newlands designed a line of hop-backs to support these methods.

growth and evolution

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astion adds: “Craft brewers have always been innovators, and recently they have been exploring new takes on traditional Belgian techniques, creating lambics and other sours. We’ve developed new tools for getting great results in these styles like our coolship (koelschip in Dutch/Flemish), a broad, open-top, flat vessel in which wort cools.”

“The best part about craft is that it’s still a community of passionate people that don’t mind sharing what they’ve learned with each other, and beer drinkers of the world benefit the most. We’re brewers and beer drinkers too, and we’re excited about the growth and evolution of craft around the world.”

about newlands systems

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ince 1990, Newlands Systems has distinguished itself as the premiere North American brewing equipment manufacturer.

Led by Brad McQuhae, who has more than 25 years experience within the brewing industry, Newlands designs breweries from the brew master's perspective.

Newlands boasts a long history with every brew system and has the brewing experience, engineering and technical background, and skilled craftsmanship to build your custom stainless steel brewery.

From brewery design, to custom fabrication, to onsite installation and training; Newlands will be there with you step-by-step, throughout the entire process.

Newlands' manufacturing facilities are ASME certified and utilizes ISO 9001:2008 quality management system, along with proven project management systems, to ensure that every brewery is flawless. Furthermore, we will continue to help you grow with our diligent after sale support.

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Innovation in ingredients Tim Faith is the innovation brewer for Chicago’s Goose Island. In this piece, which forms part of Goose Island’s brewer education program, he offers an in-depth summary of the findings to questions posed to the team, and how they may be applicable to the US brewery, and the overall production of beer.

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im Faith is innovation brewer for Chicago’s Goose Island, he is also part of the brewery’s education program. Faith looks at number of questions posed to the team. These may cover areas we may or may not be familiar with, or have daily interactions with, so more often than not they kindle growth.

The first question asks specifically about yeast mutation on a more subtle level than massive genetic chromosomal drift – this is an area of interest as we begin to map the origins of our current yeast.

The second question ask about malt modification

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(or malting/kilning) process’ and how it effects our beer. This is important to us as we explore new malts both from macro-malting companies, but also the growing number of small maltsters, and how quality is a crucial aspect to the resultant beer.

question 1 Discuss modification in malting, include the difference between degrees of modification, chemically and practically in the brewing process and how the resulting malt(s) can affect beer and fermentation.

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alt modification has been a crucial topic of discussion among brewers over the last 20 years. More specifically, over the last half century large breweries have had their malt fashioned to their systems and process' in order to maximize efficiency. Malts were highly modified, representative chemically of having high diastatic power, high protein content/ modification, higher FAN content, increased mineral content and physically higher Friability.

All these factors culminated to boost efficiency and maximized extract when brewed with adjuncts.

By having higher diastatic power, this provided the necessary enzymes for conversion that were otherwise lacking in Corn or Rice adjuncts. Similarly, the Amino Acids and Peptides, often grouped together into the term “Free Amino Nitrogen” or FAN, is crucial to yeast health and performance, and is likewise not often found in Adjuncts.

But what does this all mean to craft brewers?

As the tendency shifted from adjunct brewing to all malt brewing there was a paralleled change in malt type and thus a required understanding of its parameters, performance and effects to finished beer.

Because many of the large breweries relied on their own in-house malts, smaller malt companies and changes in climate created some degree of variance in malt modification[i].

Knowing these parameters and acknowledging the methods that have been used to show modification, can help us produce the utmost quality beer. Thus, in its most general definition, malt modification can be defined by the process in which the composition of the barley endosperm is degraded through enzymatic action during malting.[ii] Apart from the key characteristics noted above, a few more factors have been measured to convey degrees of malt modification. Rheology, the study of the internal friction of a fluid or its tendency to resist flow, or Viscosity; this can give us incite into grain quality and its performance through the brewhouse and through fermentation.

Malt modification and mash performance are highly dependent. If malt comes into the brewery undermodified, one could expect to find more steely malt, which would be composed of smaller starch granules, a higher degree of Beta-glucans (carbohydrate modification) and un-hydrolized proteins – all to which have influence on higher viscosity, increase time and temp required for gelatenization.3[iii] This can ultimately reduce filterability of wort and hurt expected brewhouse yields. Corrective measures can be implemented by imparting a step mash program beginning with protein rests. At a temperature of 122, under modified malt is hydrated which activate glucanolytic, proteolytic and pentosan enzymes, thus aiding in both protein and Beta-glucan solubilization and starch conversion.

This rest specifically takes what malt that was under modified and finishes the necessary step of modification of both carbohydrate and protein

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Under Modification

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Soluble Carbohydrate (Extract)

Low

High

Soluble Protein (S/T Ratio)

Low

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Wort Viscosity (Beta Glucans)

High

Low

Turbidity

High

Low

FAN

Low

High

Color/Flavor

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High

Diastaic Power

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High

Friability

Low (Steely)

High (Mealy)

Mineral content

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High

Acrospire Length (During Malting)

Short

Long

modification, in house, a tool that can in the end allow better wort filtration and extract. If protein rests were used for already fully modified malts, this could affect body, leaving the resulting beer thin and watery.

Mineral content of malt and its concentration in wort are often overlooked because they don't affect yield or mash/lauter performance. However they do have profound effects on yeast performance and fermentation. Many brewers may not have the necessary tools to convey this information. Today, most malt is fully modified and delivers an adequate concentration for cellular metabolism. “[Specific] minerals activate or inhibit enzymes and influence the transport of carbohydrate and amino acids into cell[s]” 4[iv] Some metals in malt effect finished beer, leading to gushing, or oxidation catalysts in the case of Copper and Iron. It was discovered that many of these minerals and metals have a direct relationship with FAN levels. Protein precipitation also leads to metal and minerals to fall out of suspension leaving little for the yeast in fermentation. Thus, FAN carry-over and mineral content of wort is highly dependent on malt protein modification.

Craft brewers need to continue to be conscious of these factors when constructing new recipes or trouble shooting current beers. It isn't always the case that internal factors have changes, such as human error or pitching inconsistency, but could also be seasonal or yearly fluctuation in malt composition and modification.

Record keeping of both brewhouse and

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fermentation process indicators and interlocks can show the first signs that malts may have changed. Best recognized in frequently brewed flagships, if one sees RDF abruptly change from one week to another, this could be a sign that the enzymatic content or diastatic power of the malt too, changed.

Being aware that all these factors are a result of modification can help brewers improve all aspects of the beers. From mash times to lauter filtration and protein precipitation, on through fermentation, yeast health and performance and finishing beer, malt is the foundation of all beers, and should never be a subject be taken for granted. Control of malt composition along with communication from malt suppliers will better prepare brewers and their beer as new varietals are released, new brands are used and incremental climate affects crops. [i] Brewers Association. “Malting Barley Characteristics for Craft Brewers. [ii] MJ Wentz, RD Horsley, PB Schwarz “Relationships Among Common Malt Quality and Modification Parameters.” Department of Plant Sciences. Fargo University, 2004. [iii] Declan L. Goose, Lisa Rapp et al. “Development of a New Rheological Laboratory Method for Mash Systems – Its Application in the Characterization of Grain Modification Levels.” Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Cork, Ireland and The American Society of Brewing Chemists. 2005. [iv] Holzmann, A. Piendl, A. “Malt modification and Mashing Conditions as Factors Influencing the Minerals of Wort.” Institut Fuer Brauereitechnologie.

Universitaet Muenchen, Germany. 1976

question 2 Define/discuss petite mutants and their effect on yeast performance and beer flavor.

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omestic selection has been practiced with numerous organisms. It has lead to human control of live-stock, the selective breeding of dogs based on purpose or aesthetic, and most importantly it has brought about a wide variety of culturally distinguishable malt based beverages, beer. Until Pasteur, beer was typically given “boil” or fermentation by continued use of the same vessel, equipment, or by mixing in already finished beer – this went unknown to the brewers of the time.

The beverage was dictated primarily by local taste, which favored sweetness in environments where sugar was scarce. These yeast cultures were sporadic, contaminated and uncontrolled. With the advent of microbiology, we were able to hone in on yeast culture purity, viability, vitality, metabolism, growth and genetic and phenotypic qualities.

Like all living things, yeast is susceptible to mutation and at a great rate unless kept in check.

This is why it has been so important to the study

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of genetics, as it was the first Eukaryote to have its genome fully sequenced. These mutations lead to the selection of certain qualities desired by the brewer.

Over time, the population of the selected traits in yeast would drift favorably in a preferred direction. However, much of this selection was done on a chromosomal level, which was portrayed phenotypically in beer character. Together with cone cropping, cleaning, sanitation and microbiology, we no longer have to rely on continuous propagation and risking unchecked genetic mutational drift.

However, genetic mutation can also occur within Mitochondria, which was first identified by Ephrussi in 1949. This came to be known as 'petite' mutations, which are representative of DNA mutations within Mitochondria. These Mutations lead to the impaired ability of the Mitochondria to synthesize certain proteins, inhibited ATP transport in and out the Mitochondria, and the cells had deficient respiration on media lacking a carbon source. Morphologically, these colonies would generally be smaller in size, too.

On a macro level, this has several implications to the brewer. Fermentation trends exhibiting the petite mutation were more susceptible to stress, had a tendency to produce a flavor profile inconsistent with the brand (diacetyl production, acetaldehyde, and skewed flavor) and perform metabolically insufficient.

On top of this, flocculation impairment was another common characteristic Methods to control these petite mutations are similar to chromosomal. Banking yeast provides a sustainable source of a snap-shot culture.

Regenerating culture every several generations can help prevent any mutation development, as well as limiting storage time.

What implications does this have for us? Indeed, one could argue that over the years our house stain could have certainly well developed to some degree these mutations. Specifically, our yeast is highly flocculative in nature. The fact that it falls from suspension so quickly, may account for stalled fermentation and residual diacetyl production.

However, petite mutation could also account for these factors individually. Ideally we would be able to type this yeast against a culture that was prebanked. Discovering the original source of this yeast could further the potential in reviving, and, perhaps correcting any mutations that may have arisen over the years.

further reading MBAA Conference: Achieving Beer Characteristics Through Yeast. Parker, N. Ryder, D.S. Smart, KA: 06/06/2014 Boulton, C. Quain, D. “Brewing Yeast and Fermentation.” Blackwell Science. 2001.

Stewart, G.G. Russel, I. “An Introduction to Brewing Science and Technology: Series III, Brewer's Yeast.

Institute of Brewing (IBD). 1998.

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Taste the Difference Dr. Gary Spedding from Brewing and Distilling Analytical Services and Tony Aiken from data collection and analysis specialists DatColSol have recreated the Bamforth trial with a group of beer judges taking a sensory class. This article is an account of the session and its results.

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n his 2014 book, Flavor, the venerable Dr. Charles Bamforth from UC Davis describes a trial he conducted in the 1980s in which a group of beer tasters were given 2 beer samples that were identical except for the color.

This test was conducted with one group that was blindfolded and again with a different set of tasters who could see the beverage.

Dr. Bamforth explained that the blind group found no difference in the two beers they tasted while the “sighted” panel found several differences between the samples and described the darker beer as having more ale-like qualities.

Later in 2014, Dr. Gary Spedding from Brewing and Distilling Analytical Services and Tony Aiken from data collection and analysis specialists DatColSol conducted their own version of Bamforth’s trial with a group of beer judges taking a sensory class.This article is an account of the session and its results.

our test

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n the account presented in Flavor, Dr. Bamforth described Sample A as a Standard Lager and Sample B as the same, plus nine units of color. The Flavor account didn’t quantify a unit of color but clearly Sample B was darker than Sample A. When designing our version of the assay, it was decided that the exact difference in color was inconsequential to our interpretation.

We conducted the Bamforth color test with the following parameters:

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16 judges (all but 1 of which were BJCP Recognized or above) [BJCP: The US Beer Judge Certification Program.]

Assessments were done using a 40 attribute item paper ballot Each attribute was rated on a scale of 0 to 5 (0 = imperceptible, 5 = overwhelming) The beer was a well-made German Pilsner, brewed locally by Blue Stallion Brewing of Lexington, KY, USA (Color SRM: 3, IBU: 45, ABV: 4.9%) The B beer color was ~40 SRM (80 EBC – European Brewery Convention Color Units) Panelists were told to judge the samples as European Lagers Early in the training session participants were instructed not to consider color when judging any beers during the class, but this was not reiterated prior to beginning this particular assessment Samples could be tasted in any order but sample B was listed first on the ballot All samples were presented in clear, hard plastic cups No blind control test was conducted None of the panelists lived locally so none were familiar with the actual beer All of the panelists were unfamiliar with the ballot being used

the data

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he session’s results were exemplary of how a sensory panel functions. As Dr. Bamforth’s work predicts, most of the individual panelists varied greatly in their scores on several of the attributes.

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37.5% Astringent/Drying

The panelists’ findings were transcribed into a Microsoft Excel workbook for analysis. To illustrate the difference in panelists’ “perception” of the beers’ attributes, figure 1 presents the two samples - in adjacent columns (Pln & Drk).

Numbers highlighted in yellow indicate a score difference of 2 (33%) in the finding for the same attribute and the pink color shows a difference of 3 (50%) or more. A summary of the key noted differences are presented in Table 1, right.

At first glance (Figure 1) the results seemed chaotic and indiscriminate. Half of the judges found a large difference in the bitterness. 31% found a dissimilarity in the samples’ Burnt/Roasted characteristics (Table 1).

It seemed that the only takeaway from these results were that the panel lacked training and familiarity with the ballot.

37.5% Bitterness Lingers

the results

Table 1, Frequency of single judges rating the same attribute with a difference of 40% or more 50.0% Bitterness Impact 50.0% Overall Rating 43.8% Harsh-Smooth 37.5% Hop Intensity 37.5% Dry

31.3% Aroma 31.3% Grainy/Husk/Cereal 31.3% Spicy/Citrus/Floral 31.3% Malty 31.3% Burnt/Roasted 31.3% Phenolic/Medicinal

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hen the results were plotted on the same chart, however, things got interesting. Figure 2 shows an overlay of the data plotted as a spider/radar profile.

This simplifies comparisons of the two samples.

When examined in the aggregate, our assembled panel found the beers to be very similar (See Figure 2). While half of the judges found the differences in the bitterness impact to be two or more units (33%), the mean average of the values recorded for all of

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Normalised Comprehensive profile blue stallion pilsner

the judges only differed by 0.12 units (2%). So those panelists indicating Sample A had more bitterness were offset by those that found Sample B most bitter.

The mean values of the Burnt/Roasted attribute showed the greatest difference between the colored and non-colored samples. Almost 1/3 of panelists recorded a sizeable difference in the Burnt/Roasted value and the actual delta of the means was 0.82 units (14%). With a few exceptions (Burnt/Roasted and Astringent/Drying), the two samples line up very well.

conclusions

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n 1907, the journal Nature published Sir Francis Galton’s study of a contest at a fair where the objective was to guess the weight of an ox (http://wisdomofcrowds.blogspot.com/2009/12/ vox-populi-sir-francis-galton.html). Participants paid a fee to tender their guess as to the animal’s butchered and dressed weight in return for the chance to win prizes.

After the contest, Galton took the tickets where the individual estimates were recorded and ran a statistical

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analysis on them. He looked at the distribution of the estimates and discovered that the mid-point of the distribution was remarkably close to the actual weight.

In fact it was under by only 9lbs from the ox’s actual prepared weight of 1,198 lbs. So the participants looked at a live animal, estimated how much ready-to-cook meat it would yield, and collectively nailed it.

This is how panels work. Not everyone is an expert.

No one need be exactly right. Not every member is at the top of his or her game every session. The seed of our test came from Professor Bamforth’s work looking at the influence of color on taste perceptions.

Like him, we found that our panelists had likely been influenced by the beer’s appearance. Upon further consideration, however, we observed that in the aggregate our biased numbers created a fairly accurate model of the samples.

This is an example of what Sir Francis Galton dubbed the “wisdom of crowds”. It is why brewery quality control is best done by sensory teams and not by an individual like the head brewer or owner.

It is not mob rule. There needs to be a panel leader, procedures and training. But when properly applied this “crowd” can be a wonderful and powerful tool.

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Preventing beer spoilage

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eer is a very stable microbiological medium, the presence of ethanol, a high carbon dioxide content, a low pH, hop acids and finally the reduced availability of nutrients mean that few microorganisms have been able to establish an environmental niche.

Nevertheless, a few bacteria, including Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) of the genera Lactobacillus and Pediococcus and the anaerobic bacteria Pectinatus and Megasphaera can. Because of this these four species are responsible for most beer spoilage events.

Bacterial spoilage often leads to visible turbidity, sediment formation, acidification, off-flavors and ropiness. Paradoxically it is because of beers harsh environment that bacteria are forced to use alternate internal pathways to survive and in doing so produce some of the chemicals connected with spoilage e.g. acetoin and diacetyl.

As part of a brewery’s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan the aim should be to reduce the number of opportunities spoilage bacteria have. Therefore the brewer needs to look at the different sources of contamination within the brewery site and control the access bacteria have to the product.

Although LAB are responsible for approx. 80% of beer infections, recent improvements in filling technology has seen an increase in anaerobic microorganisms of the genus Pectinatus and Megasphaera. Due to their ability to form microbial biofilms that are present on the surfaces of pipelines, floors, machinery etc. these microorganisms pose a growing threat to brewers, especially as they are capable of infecting beer during the final packing phase (bottling/canning lines).

Although anaerobic bacteria can be present in

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biofilms around the brewery, LAB are found almost everywhere, and are part of the normal flora of the beers core ingredients. Even the cleanest brewery has spoilage bacteria, and at some point they will come into contact with your beer.

cleaning regime

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o it's a good idea for each brewery to develop its own cleaning regime, and audit its effectiveness on a regular basis. From this the brewer will be able to establish acceptable limits for their site. These limits can be based on experience, scientific literature, or industry and governmental guidelines.

The most important thing that that you document your reasoning and that the process is checked and audited on a regular basis. Its especially important to perform testing after a change in any process, be it new equipment, new ways or working, even new staff members.

Bacteria testing should always be proactive, not reactive. A brewer using a good HACCP plan will have looked at all the possible infection points and be able detect a low-grade bacterial infection before its had a chance to cause a serious problem. One of the best ways of doing this is by regular, on-going testing regimes.

To eliminate spoilage bacteria, you need to know at what stage of your brewing process it could be introduced. It might also be helpful to know what species of bacteria this might be, where it might live and how to deal with it.

Periodic testing covering each stage of the brewing process will give you an idea of how good your overall site sanitation is, on-site testing because its quick and easy is ideal for this. If you use a contract

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Beer is a stable microbiological medium, but even so, there there is still bacteria that can cause beer spoilage. As part of a brewery’s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan the aim should be to reduce the number of opportunities spoilage bacteria have. Therefore the brewer needs to look at the different sources of contamination within the brewery site and control the access bacteria have to the product, explains Timothy Woolley, technical director at beer spoilage testing specialists Pura Diagnostics.

lab, you can always send a sample from each area of your production facility over a set period, making sure you cover each identified control point. The use of an audit schedule can be invaluable. Of cause this can covered in your due diligence screen, however spreading testing over a period of time may give a better reflection of your breweries general hygiene than doing one or two full screens a year.

If you can see a potential issue before it becomes a problem, there will be no need to pour good money down the drain.

Evidence suggests that up to 20-25% of craft beer can be infected with spoilage bacteria, some very recent data even found detectable levels of spoilage organisms in pasteurized beers. As craft brewing companies grow, become more adventurous and produce greater volumes of beer, the finished product can become subject to increased storage and shipping times.

In addition increased frequency of production can put a strain on cleaning processes. To meet the growing demands of a very selective customer base, the need to check site hygiene and product quality is essential.

However many craft brewers do not have the benefit of having their own microbiology laboratory, either because of site restrictions, knowledge, or the because of the expense involved, but microbiological on-site testing isn’t beyond even the smallest brewery.

on-site testing

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asy to use on-site testing technologies have been around for some time; of the automated technologies ATP (luciferase) methods are now reasonably common and have proven their worth over decades. ATP relies on

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the detection of the organism’s metabolism, and therefore results are said to reflect the microbiolgical bourdon of the area tested.

Results are also produced very quickly, however the reagents used in ATP analysis can be sensitive to degradation in the presence of some cleaning agents, especially hypochlorite based cleaners (false negatives), in addition they are not selective and pick up any living organism, so can be responsible for false positive results.

Of the manual methods chromogenic liquid media is growing in popularity. This colour changing liquid media is economical, easy to use and selective for beer spoilers. Beer/wort is mixed with the liquid media, sealed and incubated, if bacteria are present the media changes colour.

This method has the advantage that the initial outlay is negligible compared to other methods, its easier than performing plate analysis, the user requires little or no training and its as quick if not quicker than culture, results are often available in 2-3 days, although it can take up to 5. It does not however tell the brewer exactly what spoilage organism is.

laboratory testing

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n general culture methods still predominate the spoilage testing market, however culture techniques are relatively slow and suffer from a lack of specificity and sensitivity. As such the array of new rapid technologies available to the brewing industry has exploded, new technologies include, Direct epifluorescence filter techniques, Direct antibody techniques, In-situ hybridization techniques, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Most of these sit in the realms of academia or industrial brewing operations, simply

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because of the expense and expertise required, however a few, especially PCR are now available to the craft brewer.

polymerase chain reaction

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olymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique that is used to amplify trace amounts of DNA. The key to PCR is that every human, animal, plant, or in our case bacteria contains unique genetic material (DNA) that is specific to that organism, and PCR not only picks these unique bits of DNA up it can also give you an approximation of how much of the DNA was in the sample in the first place, and therefore how many bacteria were present.

More importantly its quick, very specific, very sensitive and because of recent advances it now cost about the same as traditional culture techniques.

One of the main advantages of PCR is in the detection of Viable But Non-Culturable (VNC) bacteria. Culture does not identify bacteria in the VNC state, these bacteria are still alive and ticking over but they essentially downgrade their metabolism to survive in harsh conditions, as such they stop rapidly dividing, and do not grow on culture media. However as long as the bacteria are there they can spoil the product, but because there is bacterial DNA present PCR will pick it up.

So what’s the down side of PCR, well the technique is still quite complex, and the equipment still quite expensive, a basic model costs around £10-15K. Cheaper equipment is available but it’s usually a closed system where you have to buy specific reagents from the manufacturer, who makes a margin selling these. So although there are on-site options available, the use of a contract lab makes getting access to this technology easier and more economical (at present).

is pcr better than culture

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ou would expect me to say yes, obviously, but its horses for courses.

Traditional culture methods although relatively slow, are easy to perform and cheap.

The downside is they can pick up bacteria that don't spoil beer and can miss ones that do. The agar used although selective for spoilage doesn't mirror whats in your beer (it doesn't contain alcohol for instance).

However if used right culture its a great tool for the

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brewer, especially so if its done on-site and used as part of an on-going risk based quality management system.

So where does PCR fit in, well its much quicker (hours compared to days), it doesn’t miss VNC bacteria and it only picks up the bacteria of interest. It can be used as an alternative to culture, or in addition to culture, and certainly that's the trend we are seeing right now. Many of the larger US craft brewers as well as the much bigger multinational breweries now have a variety of testing set-ups, some use culture, but are looking at the easier to use colour changing liquid media.

The advantage here is that the brewer can test every relevant part of the brewing process very easily and cheaply, only using PCR for bacteria identification or as a sense check. However we are also seeing some brewers e.g. Avery, Victory, Stone, and Russian River to name but a few, opting to replace culture altogether and now have basic PCR systems on-site. We expect that over the next few years UK brewers to follow suit.

future trends

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raft brewers are by nature experimental, which comes with risks, so having better control over quality is essential. Better beer is good business, and more testing can only lead to better beer.

On-site testing ticks most of the boxes a brewer could want ticked. Its far more economical than using a contract lab, its as quick if not quicker in most cases, it can provide more or less the same information and if the brewer either has the skill base to use culture plates or opts for colour changing liquid media there is little in the way of initial outlay.

As a point of reference this is exactly what has happened in the clinical market place, where ‘point of care’ (on-site testing’) has become mainstream.

We have no doubt however that PCR will come to dominate the beer testing market, up until now the cost and expertise required have limited its use, but as PCR is now priced the same as laboratory culture methods, there is little stopping any craft brewer accessing this state of the art technology. For the more adventurous brewers having access to their own systems could well be the next move. By the time this article is published, we will have released a real time PCR analyser, costing £3K capable of performing beer spoilage bacteria detection is hours.

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dat e s

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Brighton’s first craft beer festival, Tap Takeover, will feature more than 80 beers from eight breweries this April.

2016 5 - 7 February Alltech Craft Brews and Food Fair The Convention Centre Dublin, Spencer Dock, North Wall Quay, Dublin www.eu.alltechbrewsandfood.com 13 February Beavertown Turns 4: Beer Festival Unit 17 and 18, Lockwood Industrial Park, Mill Mead Road, Tottenham Hale, N17 9QP www.beavertownbrewery.co.uk 26 - 27 February Craft Beer Rising London The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London www.craftbeerrising.co.uk

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8 - 10 April The Brighton Tap Takeover Various venues across Brighton www.taptakeover.co.uk 3 - 6 May Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America Philadelphia Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA www.craftbrewersconference.com 9 - 13 August Great British Beer Festival Olympia London, Hammersmith Road, Kensington, London W14 8UX www.gbbf.org.uk

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- ANDREW LEMAN, TIMOTHY TAYLOR’S

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