Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of The Brewers Journal! First, and foremost, we thrilled to announce that awardwinning beer & food writer Melissa Cole is joining the team as contributing editor.
Melissa’s passion in life is getting people to learn as little, or as much, as they want about what she considers the finest social lubricant known to humankind –beer.
Respected the world over for her fine palate, she is invited to judge at competitions in New Zealand, the US and Brazil, as well as closer to home in the UK and across Europe.
In recent years, Melissa has been a key part of our Brewers Congress and Brewers Choice Awards. Going forward she remains an integral part of these events, as well as helping curate our regional Brewers Lectures series while also contributing editorial to the magazine, too.
Long before we were putting together those early ideas for The Brewers Journal, Melissa was someone I hugely admired and respected. So to welcome her as part of the team is a real pleasure, and I’m very much looking forward to working with her on a more regular basis this year.”
Commenting, Melissa said: “Working with an independent editorial team is something I have always loved throughout my career and being offered the opportunity to be involved in both the magazine and the events was just
too good not to accept. “I genuinely look forward to working with such a passionate and driven team to create great events and editorial.”
And here at The Brewers Journal, our raison d’être continues to be sharing stories and playing our own small part in connecting this fantastic industry. Since starting out in 2015, the way we’ve done that continues to change and evolve. Launching as a print magazine before moving into the wonderful world of live events and podcasts, too.
As we continue to develop what we can bring to this industry, we expect our online offering to grow further. We love print, and feel privileged to be able to reach the sector via this medium. In 2023, we become a quarterly publication. But in doing so, we are going to be telling more incredible stories than ever before.
As our podcast programme continues to grow, we are also on the verge of launching our video series, too. Each month, we’ll take you on a journey of breweries in the UK and beyond, centred on interviews with leading figures in the brilliant beer world. We can’t wait to share them with you.
And finally, we are thrilled that our Brewers Congress event returns to London this October 18th and 19th at The Business Design Centre. For up-to-date information, please visit: brewersjournal. info/congress
We hope to see you there.
Tim Sheahan EditorRunning a successful brewery involves a combination of factors, but we exist in challenging times. So how can we not only survive, but thrive?
In the first of a new series, leading figures from the world of ingredients, sales and distribution, share their insights and expertise on industry trends.
A decorated brewer with more than 50 years’ experience in the industry, Derek Prentice has made an indelible mark on countless breweries, beers and people along the way.
Last year’s release of Prize Old Ale was a real highlight for many fans of excellent beer. John Keeling counts himself as one such fan, but his role in the story of this beer goes back somewhat further, too.
When it comes to no-and-low, that no longer means no choice, no quality, no variety. Thanks to outfits like Mash Gang and their peers, there is something for everyone.
Donegal-based SynerChi Kombucha recently commissioned a new automatic bottling line “to be proud of”. This is how, and why, they did it.
This month we look back at the early days of Andy Parker’s brewing career and he also shares his recipe for the recently-released Brave Noise Beer.
The industry reacts to a review of the Northern Irish alcohol licensing system.
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Great Beyond Brewing Company Meet one of London’s newest breweries, Hoxton-based Great Beyond Brewing Company.
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Crossing Continents | Belgium Paul Davies, founder of AleHunters Brewery Tours takes us to Brouwerij ‘t Verzet for the inaugural Oud Bruin Fest.
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Technology | Nitrogen
An increasing number of breweries are turning to nitrogen for their brewing needs. This is why.
Tim Sheahan Editor tim@reby.media
+44 (0)1442 780 592
Tim O’Rourke Technical Editor
John Keeling Contributor
Josh Henderson Head of sales josh@reby.media
+44 (0)1442 780 594
Jon Young Publisher jon@reby.media
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RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL BREWERY INVOLVES A COMBINATION OF FACTORS, INCLUDING CREATING HIGHQUALITY BEER, BUILDING A LOYAL CUSTOMER BASE, AND EFFECTIVELY MANAGING YOUR BUSINESS OPERATIONS. BUT WE EXIST IN CHALLENGING TIMES, SO HOW CAN WE NOT ONLY SURVIVE, BUT THRIVE?
As the brewing industry, and wider hospitality, continues to rebound from the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been faced by another economic storm. Though figures released in February possibly point to the UK avoid a much-tipped recession.
According to research firm Growth for Knowledge’s index, which has been running since the 1970s, consumer confidence climbed faster than forecast. As reported by CityAM, it grew to minus 38 points in February, up seven points from minus 45 points in January.
And in February, JP Morgan raised its projection for gross domestic output growth in 2023 to 0.4% from a previous estimate of 0.1%. As Reuters report, this compares with the Bank of England’s (BoE) forecast, made in early February, for a contraction of 0.5%. However there is much we can, and need, do to navigate these choppy waters. But there is also need for assistance from the government, too. Andy Slee, chief executive of the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) has called for government to introduce vital support for small brewing businesses in response to further brewery closures.
“The brewing industry is the most taxed in the UK and is facing steeply rising costs, and a fall in consumer spending due to the cost of living crisis. For many breweries the battle to stay afloat is proving a real challenge,” he says. “It is now vital that the Government introduce a number of measures to help businesses survive, starting with the introduction of Draught Relief at 20%, which would encourage sales in pubs –driving money back into the economy and helping the breweries that supply them.”
And ahead of the Spring Budget, the The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) is calling on the Chancellor to deliver a plan for sustainable growth for an industry that supports local economies and communities everywhere in the UK They say that fair, modernised tax rates and a focus on skills and training are needed to ensure pubs and breweries can thrive in every single part of the country, something the BBPA has noted in its submission ahead of the Spring Budget.
“After almost three years of extremely tough trading conditions due to lockdowns, an energy crisis, supply chain disruption, ongoing strikes and a dramatic drop in consumer confidence and discretionary spending, the BBPA has outlined why now is a makeor-break moment to save pubs and breweries from failure in the coming months and years,” they explain.
The BBPA has outlined the following measures to support the industry:
u Long-term changes to beer duty rates including:
u No increase in the headline rate of beer duty this year reducing the damaging impact of record inflation.
u A significant increase in the discount for draft beer in pubs and implementation of the previously announced reduced rate for lower-strength beers from 1 August 2023 to support public health objectives.
u A reformed business rates system that commits to saving high streets and community assets such as pubs from decimation in the coming years
u Implementation of training, development and in-work incentives to contribute to resolving the industry’s recruitment challenges.
Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association adds: “Our pubs and breweries need a break. We need fair and modern tax rates to enable growth rather than putting them at a disadvantage to digital businesses, and skills and development incentives that work for real people and innovative businesses. Given the chance, our pubs and brewers can continue to support jobs and communities up and down the country by investing in people and places.”
Away from much-needed government support, there are measures we can implement ourselves. Ekos creates software for craft beverage businesses and below they’ve shared their own advice on how the current market could affect breweries.
They explain: “Folks in our industry often say that beer sales are “recession-proof,” and with good reason. Beer is cheaper than other alcoholic beverages, and it’s also an important feature of socializing for many people, making consumers loath to give it up, even during times of financial difficulty. It’s true that beer is one of the alcoholic beverages that is most resilient to economic fluctuation. But with many breweries forced to raise costs due to inflation, and consumers simultaneously cutting back on their discretionary spending, even beer producers could see modest drops in sales over the coming months.”
There’s a good chance wineries and breweries will see a modest drop in onpremise sales over the coming months. Breweries in particular should prepare to pivot to to-go sales and/or beef up retail distribution efforts. If your business operates in a state that allows it, prepare for a potential increase in direct-toconsumer sales of packaged goods by creating or improving your e-commerce presence.
Consumers are weary of growing prices in every industry. But raising your prices may still be necessary to
compensate for the increasing cost of labor and ingredients. If you do need to increase your prices, consider making an understated, transparent announcement to that effect on your website or social media. It doesn’t need to be a production — in fact, it really shouldn’t be. Just be honest with your customers about why the price increase is necessary. They may not be happy about it, but chances are they’ll understand, and honesty goes a long way.
You may not need to raise your prices in order to maintain profit margins. You could promote the beers or wines that are least expensive to manufacture, which can increase profits without requiring an increase in sales. Use your brewery software to run COGS reports or other cost analyses to see which beverages are the most cost effective to produce, and divert your marketing efforts to focus on those areas. Promoting your most affordable beverages may also help to ease the sting of any price increases that may be necessary.
Now is a good time to strengthen distributor and retailer relationships. Consider trying to negotiate better prices from your vendors. It can’t hurt to reach out to new suppliers to connect, either. Though supply chain issues have begun to ease in recent months, remember the recent keg and can shortages when planning your orders and working with vendors.
An increase in bottle/can sales will require more packaging supplies, and many vendors have raised their minimum order quantities recently, making it difficult for craft producers to get the supplies they need. Consider looking for new suppliers if you’re not locked into a contract, and reach out to other producers to see if you can pool your resources to come up with creative packaging solutions.
Surviving a recession as a brewery can be a challenging task, but there are several steps you can take to increase your chances of weathering the storm. Here are some tips to consider:
u Diversify your offerings: During a recession, consumers may be more price-sensitive, so it may be beneficial to offer a range of products at different price points. Consider adding lower-priced options or introducing new products that appeal to a broader audience.
u Focus on local customers: In times of economic uncertainty, people may be more inclined to support local businesses. Consider partnering with other local businesses and hosting events to attract customers.
3. Streamline your operations: Look for areas where you can reduce costs without sacrificing quality. This could include optimizing your brewing process, negotiating better prices with suppliers, or reducing waste.
u Expand your distribution channels: Consider selling your beer in new markets, such as grocery stores, restaurants, and bars. You may also want to consider selling online and offering delivery services.
u Build relationships with your customers: Invest in marketing efforts that build brand loyalty and engage customers. Use social media, email marketing, and other channels to communicate with customers and keep them informed about new products, events, and promotions.
u Plan for the long term: While it’s important to focus on short-term survival, it’s also important to think about the long-term health of your business. Consider investing in capital improvements, developing new products, and building relationships with suppliers and customers that can help your brewery thrive over the long term.
We are the leading UK manufacturers of micro canning lines. At Micro Can we pride ourselves on our ability to supply a full turnkey package; the canning line plus all ancillary equipment and this is what sets us apart from any of the competition. Our range of canning equipment is capable of producing from 720 up to 4000 cans per hour, all backed up with UK service and 24/7 online support.
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The Institute of Brewing & Distilling (IBD) has launched its first technical self- assessed and on-demand short course –Beer Recipe Development.
The course provides essential knowledge for recipe development for experienced commercial brewers with a sound understanding of the basics of brewing, and it will also benefit more serious home brewers. The course includes expert advice and guidance from brewers who have developed some of the world’s most iconic beer brands.
“Our first short course is the one we have had the most requests for over the years, beer recipe development. It is available on-demand and is based on established science and best practice so if you want to master recipe development, we have the course for you!”, said Tracy Adie, IBD head of education and professional development.
White Labs has launched a new dry yeast format that gives brewers another convenient option to add to their brewing toolbox.
WLP001- California Ale Yeast in an active dry format, providing brewers anywhere in the world access to one of the brewing industry’s most popular strains “without compromising on the quality brewers expect from White Labs yeast”.
The launch of WLP001 dry yeast ensures brewers have the reliability of White Labs yeast, regardless of preference. With an extensive shelf-life, White Labs Dry Yeast offers a proven backup plan that keeps brew days on schedule.
“While liquid yeast will always be our leading product for the best-quality beer, we wanted to ensure that brewers around the world had access to White Labs quality yeast, and specifically WLP001,” said Chris White, founder and CEO of White Labs.
Simpsons Malt Limited has been granted planning permission in principle from Moray Council to build a state-of-theart maltings with malting barley storage facilities on the outskirts of Rothes.
The decision was made at a special meeting of Moray Council’s Planning & Regulatory Services Committee, with the application receiving majority approval from representatives in attendance.
Up to 40 jobs are set to be created at the fifth-generation, family business when the site is operational. By having a maltings in Rothes, it will expand the company’s number of malting sites in the United Kingdom to three, with its other malting sites in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland – where the company’s headquarters is located – and Tivetshall St Margaret, Norfolk.
The maltings will have an annual production capacity of 85,000 tonnes and, with most of this tonnage earmarked for major distilling customers located in Speyside, it will also assist the company – which achieved Certified B Corporation status in 2021 – in operating more efficiently and sustainably, with its goal to be net zero by 2030.
NZ Hops has launched new hop variety that is the culmination of more than 10 years of breeding work. Superdelic is the brand-new hop cultivar released into market this 2023 season by leading co-operative NZ Hops Ltd. After more than 10 years of breeding work, the early brewer trials suggest it will deliver like no other.
“This exceptional hop is a playful number, with red fruit, candy, citrus and tropical fruit characteristics, offering brewers something totally different to use in their craft. We’re excited to release this unique hop and expect it will create a frenzy,” said Blair Stewart of NZ Hops.
Naomi and Dave Hayward, the co-owners of Windsor and Maidenhead’s multi-award winning craft beer business A Hoppy Place have announce the launch of a new brewery in the heart of Windsor, Berkshire – Indie Rabble Brewing Co.
Working with Alex Rowlands as head brewer and Alison Steele on operations and scheduling, Naomi will be joining the new startup as the creative lead and Dave as sales, marketing and technical lead.
Rowlands brings 10 years of brewing experience at Windsor & Eton, Thornbridge Brewery and Phantom Brewing Co to the project, in what is quickly becoming the “West Windsor Beer Mile”.
The brewery will use a brand new Elite Stainless Fabrications Electric Powered 20HL brewhouse paired with Gravity Systems fermenting vessels to produce a range of beer, with special attention paid to German-influenced Lager, both hazy and bright pale ales, kettle sours and stouts.
PakTech, a major producer of secondary packaging handles and handle applicators for the FMCG sector, has introduced the latest in its line of handle applicator machines – the CCA MicroPak. They said it designs each and every one of its applicators to meet the needs of businesses of every size. From its largest and most complex handle applicator machines to its smallest and most convenient, every detail is set in place with clients on topof-mind. The CCA MicroPak is designed as a scalable solution for emerging brands and startups, ideal for microbreweries, mobile canning operations, and beyond. It is capable of applying up to 60 can handles per minute and is able to accommodate both 12oz and 16oz standard can sizes. This allows business owners to keep their labour costs low and operational effectiveness high.
WE FACE A PERFECT STORM. THERE ARE RISING BREWING MATERIAL AND ENERGY PRICES, WHILE YOU ALSO HAVE CUSTOMERS CUTTING BACK DUE TO RUNAWAY INFLATION, LEAVING BREWERS STUCK IN THE MIDDLE. SO WHAT CAN WE DO? TIM O’ ROURKE, TECHNICAL EDITOR AT THE BREWERS JOURNAL, SHARES HIS THOUGHTS.
Things are tough at the moment, that much we know. But there is action we can take. And in doing so, every brewer can make savings through prudent processing and improved efficiency without having to use capital to make investment. Many of these improvements also contribute to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, helping us achieve sustainability goals.
Malt costs have increased by between 15 to 20% as a result of higher grain prices and increases in energy costs for barley drying and malt kilning.
u Improving extract efficiency through better grist particle size optimisation, mash temperature control and balancing mashing and sparging ratios will increase the volume of wort recovered from the same malt bill.
u Coloured malts are generally 30%
more expensive than standard malts as they have higher energy requirement for roasting. By substituting higher coloured dark malts for lower coloured malts and replacing the extract with pale malts will reduce the cost of the malt bill.
u Reducing the % alcohol and amount of malt used can show significant savings. Current excise costs are £19.08 per hl % abv (equivalent to 8 degrees OG and 2.0 kg malt per hectolitre). It is possible to reformulate a beer, reducing the amount of malt and alcoholic strength without resulting in a major change in the beer flavour and character. (Note brewers producing under 5000 hl pa pay half duty rates and beers with alcoholic strength below 2.8% pay £8.42 per hl %).
Hop prices have not increased as much as malt, although hop growers have suffered huge increases in fertiliser costs (up by around five times) and drying costs, a significant stock carry over from previous years has helped to stabilise
prices. However, not all hops cost the same with aroma hops commanding a premium. Many brewers use aroma hops for bittering (added at the start of the boil). One option is that these can be replaced by cheaper bittering hops reserving more costly aroma hops for late and dry-hop additions with savings of up to £25.0 per kilo.
Cleaning products and CO2 – both are collateral damage of closures of UK manufacturing. CO2 is a by-product of fertiliser production and caustic soda from production of chlorine. Plant closure in the UK has resulted in shortages and more than a doubling of costs.
u Cask beers do not require additional CO2 and so remain the greenest option. Other packages rely on CO2 for carbonation and for maintaining tank top pressure (eliminating oxygen) which can be replaced by nitrogen both in the brewery and in trade dispense. Careful control of fermentation allows the build up of natural CO2, which can reduce or negate the need to buy external CO2.
u With caustic prices going through the roof, detergent suppliers have been looking at reducing the caustic concentration and increasing surfactants (previously more expensive) reducing the costs and improving the efficiency of cleaning. There is also renewed interest in enzyme based detergents which are not only cheaper, but are better for the environment and for health and safety.
Dried yeast is very convenient but can be expensive. Many brewers use a fresh batch of yeast to pitch every brew. It is relatively easy to collect and repitch yeast up to four to six times before replacing with a new batch of yeast which can save the need to use packet yeast on each brew. (This will be the subject of a Back to Basics article on Yeast Propagation and Pitching coming soon in the Brewers Journal).
Energy is the biggest cost in the brewing process with natural gas often used for heating liquor and wort boiling and electricity used for refrigeration and pumps, conveyors and control systems.
Careful management can reduce usage:
u Turn off electricity when not in use, lights, pumps and conveyors are often left on as well as refrigeration plant running when not required. It is easy to recover heat from the refrigeration plant which can then be used to heat service water for central heating or supply hand washing basins
u When using steam make sure to recover all heat condensate.
u Recover as much heat as possible by slowing down wort cooling, plan the brewing programme to take full advantage of recovered heat, recover condensate from boiling which can be used for cask or keg cleaning. Make sure heating surfaces are thoroughly cleaned between brews to maximise heat transfer.
u Energy from boiling can by reduced by changing the boiling profile. A typical profile used in Germany has 20 minutes vigorous boil followed by 20 minutes simmering and 20 minutes vigorous boiling to finish.
u Using high gravity wort collection before boiling followed by post boil dilution reduces the total volume to be boiled and the total energy required.
u Kettle finings should be regularly optimised (particularly with new season malt) to give the most compact trub and maximise the amount of wort recovered for cooling.
Processing & Fermentation times and temperatures must be accurately controlled with effective yeast removal to maximise yield.
u Instruments should calibrated for accuracy.
u Review process times, temperature and stock control to avoid unnecessary cooling load.
u In cold weather it may be possible to turn off some areas of refrigeration such as fermentation and cellar cooling.
u Effective yeast handling can be used to reduce beer losses and increase yield.
u All cask beer is unfiltered and unpasteurised which benefits in processing costs and beer losses. Some brewers also package unfiltered and unpasteurised keg and small pack beers with resultant savings.
Packaging choices affect costs and influence margins. Reviewing the product mix and selling directly to consumers through the internet and brewery tap room give the best margins. Selling beer in bulk such as cask and keg or in reusable containers such as growlers and returnable bottles represents the lower costs and most sustainable option.
Small pack (bottles & cans) have higher unit cost which is not always recoverable through higher prices and generally involves additional costs in materials and manufacture. Careful consideration of unit costs will show the most profitable way of selling your beer.
Along with everything else the costs of storing and delivering beer have rocketed. Supplying local is the best option and careful route planning and use of electric vehicles can help to control costs.
There is no easy way to completely offset the rising costs and it is inevitable that most of these charges will have to be passed on as price increases to the customers. Brewers should take every opportunity to reduce waste and to work with suppliers to find ways of limiting the size of increase.
It should be remembered that beer is luxury purchase and is a discretionary spend, and we will have to work hard not to price beer out of the market and find ways of adding value to retain our loyal customers.
To start, let us consider the beer styles that might be popular in 2023. Lallemand recently put this very question to contributors to its quarterly newsletter. The answer was unanimous, from Mitch Steele to Mark Dredge, IPA was the reply. From the beginning of the Craft Beer revolution IPA has been the ubiquitous constant, sure, it has changed over the years, but it has always been there.
Whether sparkling bright, crisp and bitter as a West Coast IPA; pale, hazy and intensely hoppy as a NEIPA or, shudder; thin and fizzy as a Brut IPA. So, we can take it as a given that IPA is not going to go away, but might it mutate and become something else, a related style of IPA perhaps?
Already the BJCP lists over eleven different styles of IPA, so evolution seems likely. If this is the case, what will the role of yeast be in this development?
Early contenders for a new substyle are Thiolised IPA, more on that later, and Cold IPA.
Both spin out of the wider IPA category. Will either last the test of time and take their place among the beer style royalty? Or will they go the way of the Brut IPA, mostly forgotten, and occasionally joked about when discussing ideas for a collaboration.
Beyond IPA, what else could be coming down the track in 2023? It has long been the opinion of the author that lager is overdue a craft renaissance, and I am glad to say the contributors to our current newsletter agree. In recent years, lager-focussed breweries such as Utopian, Braybrooke and Lost and Grounded have started an underground craft lager movement which seems to be gathering momentum, even spawning its own internet lexicon among craft beer aficionados.
The so called ‘crispy boi’, is here to stay, even if I will personally struggle to call it that. Apart from being a truly excellent
and varied style in its own right, long overlooked by craft breweries in the UK, the Covid epidemic has driven a necessary drift away from continuous specials and, ‘no core range’ policies, to a need for brand loyalty from the consumer. The core range has returned with a bang, and Lager and IPA make up the backbone, no range is complete without at least one of each.
So, we have a good idea of the beer styles likely to take the craft beer market by storm this year - but what are the specific trends in yeast, and how do these trends apply to the production of these styles? Long the forgotten ingredient in brewing, yeast is having something of a renaissance these days, which is borne of two broad biotechnologies.
The first is more of a classical genetics approach, whole organism strain selection, either by Adapted Laboratory Evolution (ALE), or by Selective Breeding. In the former technique yeast are forced to reproduce for many thousands of generations in a stressful environment, with the aim of introducing protective mutations, which confer advantageous characteristics in the newly generated strain.
One example of this is IONYSwf™ from our colleagues in Lallemand Oenology, a yeast designed to counteract the ever higher sugar levels in grape musts caused by climate change. This yeast naturally produces less alcohol and diverts more carbon towards the production of glycerol and organic acid. The latter technique of selective breeding has been used to great effect by Lallemand Brewing, in conjunction with our partners at Renaissance Bioscience in Vancouver, to create a unique lager strain. Lalbrew Novalager™ posseses a lower proportion of the cryotolerant Saccharomyces eubayanus
HELLO READER, AND WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSE OF BREWERS YEAST. I’M ANDREW PATERSON TECHNICAL SALES MANAGER UK, IRELAND AND SCANDINAVIA AT LALLEMAND BREWING, AND IT IS MY JOB TODAY TO FOCUS THE MICROSCOPE ON THIS WORLD, TO INVESTIGATE ITS TRENDS, TO RESOLVE MISCONCEPTIONS, TO DECONSTRUCT ARGUMENTS, AND TO EXPLAIN INTRICACIES, ALL WITH THE END GOAL OF UNEARTHING FOR YOU, THE BREWER, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BREWING YEAST IN 2023.
parent genome, the upshot being that one can create lager at warmer temperatures with no adverse flavour implications, saving both time, energy and of course money.
The second technology contributing to the renaissance in brewing yeast is Genetic Engineering. There are even GMO specific yeast labs, such as Berkeley Yeast in the United States, which only produce genetically modified strains. Genetic Engineering offers are more targeted approach to strain creation than Selective Breeding, or Adapted Laboratory Evolution. Characteristics based on single genes, or even whole metabolic pathways can be introduced into existing strains, to create desirable phenotypes for the brewer. In recent years Lallemand has worked with Mascoma, a Lallemand company in the United States, to create the now wellknown Sourvisiae® product. This yeast has been created using a genetic technique called homologous recombination, to insert a gene coding for the production of the lactate dehydrogenase enzyme. This allows the yeast to create lactic acid as it ferments. Another GMO strain, Mascoma BerryvisiaeTM will soon be launched in the United States, which produces the natural ketone [4-(4-hydroxyphenyl) butan-2-one] responsible for the raspberry aroma in fruit. With the rush towards new strain creation, the subject of intellectual property protection has risen to the fore. Strains produced using modern biotechnology such as Genetic Engineering, and Advanced Breeding Techniques are expensive and time consuming to produce, and so the majority of these strains are patent or IP protected in some way. This prevents their production by companies other than the creator. As seen in the hop world, this could lead to an arms race among yeast producers to create the most exciting proprietary yeasts, leading to a healthy variety of new and innovative strains for the brewer.
Any article on brewers yeast in 2023, wouldn’t be complete without a
discussion of the previously mentioned thiolysed yeast strains. These strains first started to appear on the market back in 2020. The strains take their name from their ability to release bound, polyfunctional volatile thiols from both hops and malt by way of an enzyme called beta lysase. These are the chemicals responsible for the positive blackcurrant, passionfruit and sauvignion blanc notes in hoppy beer, but also for the more negative catty, onion and garlic flavours. The infamous light struck character is also a thiol, albeit derived from a different mechanism. While there are some naturally occurring wine yeasts which purport thiol release characteristics, the pathway is more or less inactive in the high nutrient environment of a brewers wort. Available thiolysed strains are exclusively laboratory bred or genetically modified to enhance this effect. Some brewers are even using these strains in conjunction with a precursor rich extract of Sauvignon Blanc grape skins called Phantasm Powder, in order to further amplify the concentration of thiols in the final product.
At the moment the argument seems to be that more thiols are inherently a better thing, but I would add caution and nuance. Yes, you can probably create more thiols in your product, but are these good thiols, or bad thiols? Current yeasts do not differentiate the good from the bad. Are certain hop varieties, or even malts more prone to the creation of positive flavours over negative ones. The answers to these questions are currently unanswered, and will likely remain so for some time.
I think we would all agree that 2023 is likely to remain a challenging trading environment. The causes are well known, supply chains are still hit by the long hangover from Covid-19, and war in Ukraine has caused huge spikes in energy costs and associated worldwide inflation. Understandably, and perhaps inevitably, this has driven brewers to look at their input costs in greater detail.
From my own experience of the market, it is evident that some brewers are
turning to suppliers of bargain basement raw materials. Again, I would add caution here, the old moniker of, “you get what you pay for” exists for a reason. I am old enough to remember the beginnings of the Craft Beer movement in the UK. Then, in a bid to differentiate themselves from the global brewers, craft beers were advertised as ‘brewed with the choicest hops, malts and yeasts’. In my opinion, it will truly be a dangerous moment for the craft beer market if this ceases to be the case.
The above is just my educated opinion of what might drive the beer and yeast market in 2023. No doubt there will be some surprises and trends that I didn’t see coming. However, if there was one thing I would take away, it is that if you take your time, and brew the highest quality IPA and Lager that you can, you won’t go far wrong.
Lager-focussed breweries such as Utopian, Braybrooke and Lost and Grounded have started an underground craft lager movement which seems to be gathering momentum,”
Andrew Paterson, Lallemand
At Barth Haas we are in the process of collecting data for 2022, but we reckon there was further recovery in the beer market with an increase in output of some 1-2% vs. 2021,” explains Thomas Raiser, sales and marketing director at Barth Haas.
He adds: “It seems that mid-tier economy brands are having a bit of a comeback in the current inflationary environment while premium brands continue to do well.
We are also seeing a continued trend towards low and non-alcoholic beers in many mature markets. High ABV craft style beers seem to struggle a bit and have reached a plateau.
“Looking at crop performance and outlook, there is no significant update at this point. The 2022 hop crop was one of the worst in terms of yield per hectare as well as alpha acid content compared to the long-term average.
“We have to go back to 2003 to find comparably poor yields. The hop and brewing industry is managing the situation with the help of inventories from the 2021 crop, which was above average.
“As far as crop 2023 is concerned, growers will have to make up their minds by March to decide how many hectares they will be stringing. We expect only minor correction in Europe but more significant adjustments in the US. Final numbers on hectares strung will be available in June 2023.”
Paul Corbett, managing director at Charles Faram says: “Business is steady; and slightly up on last year but below the pre-pandemic figures. Overall we are cautiously optimistic.
“When it comes to demand, we have seen an increase in brewers looking for locally grown hops and in particular the more fruity characteristics of our new varieties. So much so, we will be planting more this year which is very pleasing.
“We think that brewers are looking for more environmentally-friendly hops and
as long as they can replicate the flavours from new world hops they are very happy to consider the local option. Let’s face it, this has to make sense!
“On crop outlook, there is a big overproduction anticipated in the US this year unless acreage is reduced. It is estimated that 10,000 acres need to come out. We are not sure how growers will respond but over the next few years we expect acreage to reduce significantly.
GREEN CONE-SHAPED FLOWERS, OR “INFLORESCENCE,” OF THE HUMULUS LUPULUS PLANT.
SIERRA NEVADA CALL HOPS “A CLIMBING PERENNIAL WITH A DISTINCT JACKPOT” FOR CRAFT BREWERS. AND HERE, BARTH HAAS AND CHARLES FARAM ENLIGHTEN US TO THE LATEST MOVEMENT IN THIS SECTOR.
We have to go back to 2003 to find comparably poor yields.
The hop and brewing industry is managing the situation with the help of inventories from the 2021 crop, which was above average,” Thomas Raiser, Baath Haas
Following disappointing
Autumn sales, from the beginning of January orders have definitely picked up. From a phone around we have learnt that a number of craft breweries have closed their doors for January/February, with some using the break for refurbishment. There are also a few who have just given up, and some who have sadly slipped into administration. But there are still ‘new builds’ all around, and at Warminster, we continue to receive these new enquiries most weeks.
All this on the back of one of the biggest hikes in the price of malt over recent years. It would ap-pear some maltsters were obliged to pass on price increases of up to 30% on the previous year. This can be attributed to the barley price up, year on year, by circa £100/tonne, which equates to £125/tonne on the malt price. Then increases in energy costs equating up to a further £75/tonne. But this should be put into perspective - every £100/ tonne of the malt price is just 1p per pint on the price of beer (1 tonne of malt delivers circa 15,000 pints of beer)!
At Warminster Maltings, selling purely into the craft beer market, our biggest seller by far remains ‘Maris Otter Pale Ale’. This continues to sell at a premium over ‘Spring Pale Ale’, and there do not appear to be any waverers! Our ‘Czech Malt’, equivalent to our competitors ‘Pilsner Malt’, and in-troduced just over a year ago, continues to attract a growing following.
Interest in more flavoursome malts continues unabated, from brewers as well as distillers. There is now scientific evidence that the flavour of modern barleys is being diluted by the constant drive for improved agronomic performance.
The “pool” of varieties from which new barleys are being bred is polarised around a relatively small collection of previous performers (the global cereal
seed trade is dominated by x3 major players: Bayer, who bought Monsanto; Du Pont; and Syngenta). To break out of this, the International Barley Hub (IBH) based in Edinburgh and Dundee, needs to come up with something. But based on current progress, probably not in my lifetime.
Instead, brewers are making ‘one off’ purchases of Heritage or Landrace barley malts, where, everybody agrees, flavour is more pronounced! From Warminster Maltings they choose our ‘Plumage Archer Malt’, Britain’s oldest Heritage Malt, the barley bred in Warminster in 1905. From Crisp Malting they would
MALT IS A BACKBONE OF OUR BEERS, BUT IT’S ALSO SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. HERE ROBIN APPEL, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF WARMINSTER MALTINGS COLIN JOHNSTON, THE SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR AT CRISP MALT AND DR. AXEL
GÖHLER, THE CEO OF BESTMALZ, SHARE THEIR OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE-OF-PLAY IN THE SECTOR.
No- and lowalcohol beers appear to be gaining ground, with more brewers taking on the challenge of producing them. It’s good to see brewers exploring the opportunities; experimenting and innovating in the brewhouse,” Colin Johnston, Crisp Malt
probably choose ‘Chevalier Malt’, a Landrace barley Malt. Both of these will be for Special or Seasonal beers.
N.B. The industry is now differentiating between Heritage barley varieties, and Landrace barley varieties. Heritage varieties are genetically true hybrids that range from 1905 to 1965, beginning princi-pally with Plumage Archer, then Spratt Archer, Earl, Pioneer, Proctor and Maris Otter. All barley varieties pre-1905, are termed Landrace varieties (selections from the wild), and these include Chevalier, and Goldthorpe from the 19th century, and hundreds of others, all the way back to Bere, which is at least 1,000 years old, if not a lot more.
The problem with Landrace varieties was that they really belonged where they were first discovered - Chevalier (East Suffolk); Goldthorpe (Yorkshire), i.e. they did not travel that well. Genetically true hybrids, on the other hand, can be grown anywhere, which is why when they came along, everything else was toast! When it comes to the crop, following on from the bumper harvest of 2022 (both yield and quality), looking ahead, Winter barleys have established particularly well. Some crops of Maris Otter and Craft barley which I monitor are quite outstanding, they appear to be bursting with new growth. Spring barleys are being planted now and this bodes particularly well. It is well known that the best window for planting Spring cereals is February 15th - March 15th, for optimum yield and earliness of ripening. Critical for all barley crops, Winter and Spring, is adequate rainfall in May. A big proportion of the English barley crop is grown on a soil type known as the Icknield Series, light loam over chalk. It stretches from East Yorkshire all the way down to the Jurassic Coast.
The chalk subsoil acts like blotting paper, soaking up the moisture in winter, and retaining it suffi-ciently to sustain barley crops through a long dry summer. It clearly worked it’s magic last year, but there are concerns that East Anglia, the source of much malting barley, is overall getting too dry. The bulk of the barley crop needs to migrate west.
“Many brewers had a better Christmas and New Year than expected, and we’re seeing a cautious sense of optimism among them. They are encouraged by the enthusiasm for craft beer - and there are quite a few who are planning expansions in the months to come.
“In the USA, it’s interesting to see wellmade lagers making a comeback, taking a bit of share from higher abv IPAs and hazy beers. This appetite for reliable, drinkable – and, most importantly, flavoursome - craft beers is reflected in the rediscovery in this country of beautifully produced British ales.
“In my view, malt-forward styles of beer, whether craft lager in the US or craft and cask ales in Britain, represent the pinnacle of brewing. There’s no hiding. Raw material quality and choices are paramount, and processes have to be spot on.
“It’s wonderful to see these malt-forward beers come into their own, testing the art of the brewer and bringing joy to the palate of drinkers.
“And culturally, no- and low-alcohol beers appear to be gaining ground, with more brewers taking on the challenge of producing them. It’s good to see brewers exploring the opportunities; experimenting and innovating in the brewhouse; and engaging drinkers. The fact is, there’s huge competition from other sectors of the drinks industry for this market segment - and unless beer fills the noand low- voids, some other drink will.”
“Following COVID-19, markets are coming back strongly. Those that are affected by inflation and still elevated freight cost, such as Germany and North America, are slower in their recovery. Looking at our products, currently we find organic demand rather strong while specialties are also in high demand. Other products are more or less “normal”. :When it comes to demand for 2023, as a result of supply shortages in 2022, large
breweries have been careful to ramp up their contracts in 2022. Therefore, many maltsters are sold out for 2023.
“For the 2022 crop, this is continuing to perform well but it’s still too early to comment on the 2023 crop. Dryness may become an issue due to lack of water in the soil, and should the “weather markets” start, prices will most likely rise. While most markets understand why these price increases occur, it’s sometimes harder to explain such increases in markets such as China and North America.”
EeBriaTrade is a nationwide drinks distributor offering beer, cider, wine, spirits and more directly from over 700 of the UK’s best drinks producers. All products are shipped directly from the producer, using their nationwide fulfilment network, offering quick, consolidated deliveries, at direct from the producer prices. David Jackson is the company’s CEO and says that when it comes to the last 12 months, Pale Ales and IPA remained at the top of the table, but that’s only part of the story. “These consistently form the bulk of our volume. Sours have continued their steady growth as a category, as the public become more accustomed to them and they become more widely available,” he explains. “The biggest drop was in the DIPAs and TIPAs which after years of steady growth dropped off a lot in both keg and can, as drinkers favoured lower alcohol hop bombs.”
Jackson adds: “More widely we saw a reigniting of interest in great cask beer, as that surged in sales on EeBriaTrade. Alongside this styles more normally associated with cask beer (Bitters, Milds etc.) saw growth, across both keg and packaged. No-and-Low continued its impressive growth, continuing to form an increasingly large share of our sales (now 6%), with a particularly impressive increase in keg where it grew by 155% compared to 2021.”
As above there has been a general shift to lower ABVs with the increase of No/ Low and the reduction of sales of big DIPAs and TIPAs, and we’ve seen a strong overall ABV drop across all styles and formats (other than cask which has stayed between 4.33% and 4.38% for the last 5 years!).
2022 saw the average ABV at 4.9% down from 5.2% in 2021 and 5.4% in 2020. Packaged beer has a higher average
ABV than keg (averaging around 5.6% in 2022, when excluding no/low beers), as brewers reserve the higher ABV “special” beers for packaged.
One of the largest trends over the past few years has been the growth of cans, from just 27% of beer volume in 2016 to 89% in 2022 (with a slight increase on 2020 and 2021, both at 87%). Within cans themselves it was initially all in 330ml cans, but now 73% of all can volume selling is in 440ml can.
Typically now the brewers that use 330ml cans are reserving them for the easy drinking, core beers that enable them to hit certain target prices across the bar, or on the shelves. Whereas 440ml is a preferred volume by drinkers who are a little less price-conscious.
So much has changed in the 10 years of EeBria, it’s hard to list them all! Without question the biggest shift is the growth of
DAVID JACKSON, THE CO-FOUNDER OF NATIONWIDE DRINKS DISTRIBUTOR EEBRIA, GIVES HIS INSIGHT ON WHAT PEOPLE ARE BUYING AND HOW THEY’RE BUYING IT, TOO.
There has been a general shift to lower ABVs with the increase of No/Low and the reduction of sales of big DIPAs and TIPAs,” David Jackson, Eebria
can. When we started EeBria.com in 2013, there wasn’t a single can available on the site, and it was unthinkable that a good beer wouldn’t come in a bottle. Obviously this has completely switched around and can is the king.
When we started we also thought we were in the middle of the craft beer boom, and that the growth of breweries would slow. Nothing could be much further from the truth, and those breweries we worked with in 2013 have mostly gone from small operations to large national brands on all the bars and supermarket shelves in the country, or brewers internationally recognised as some of the best in the world.
We used to do predictions for the year ahead, only to be completely wrong! Every year a totally new/unexpected style will pop up that everybody ends up brewing over a couple of months, that we could never have predicted (like the summer of the Brut IPA) which quite
u Sours become mainstream (or at least much more mainstream).
u IPAs become big US style IPAs, then become hazy East Coast IPAs and now seemingly the start of the return to West Coast IPAs.
◦- Coinciding with this, the US craft beer scene is on less of a pedestal. Drinkers recognise that UK brewers can produce the same styles just as well, if not better.
u Craft lager has exploded and most craft breweries now brew a lager in their core
u “Pastry” has become a legitimate word to include in a beer style!
u There are a huge volume of new hops. Previously most craft beers used some combination of Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe, Centennial and Cascade, whereas now the list is endless all giving new and exciting flavour profiles to the beers.
often have a short lived life-cycle. On more broad predictions, we expect there to be a continued resurgence in cask beer, and more of the established craft brewers starting to add cask to their range. Alongside this we’ll see a resurgence of some of the more traditional styles that had been in decline:
Bitter, Mild, Amber, Red, Stout etc. and potentially alongside that some of the less fashionable British hops. No and Low Alcohol beer will continue to gain, and I think 2023 will be the year where draught no/low alcohol beer becomes commonplace.
DAVIES, THE FOUNDER OF ALEHUNTERS
BREWERY TOURS, MADE THE TRIP TO BROUWERIJ ‘T VERZET IN ANZEGEM, BELGIUM. WHY? FOR THE FIRST OUD BRUIN FEST OF COURSE. A TWO DAY CELEBRATION OF EVERYTHING ROODBRUIN, FLEMISH RED AND OUD BRUIN.
On a stunningly bright sunny Saturday morning my wife and I made our way via the Eurostar to Kortrijk (tip, travel via Lille, it’s quicker) 26 miles south west from Ghent. The largest city in south west Flanders Kortrijk has plenty of sites to occupy you for a day.
The medieval Grote Markt with its belfry, the Beguinage (listed as a world heritage site) and the amazing fortified Broeltorens. There is also the Kortrijk 1302 multimedia museum and Texture, the city’s textile museum. There are also a number of breweries in and around the outskirts of the city and walking along the beautiful River Leie I spied Brouwerij Ruimtegist on the opposite bank. However, we weren’t here for historical culture….
On the weekend of 7th and 8th October, Brouwerij ‘t Verzet hosted the first Oud Bruin Fest, a two day celebration of everything Roodbruin, Flemish Red and Oud Bruin. Thirty three brewers from Flanders, Brussels, Hungary, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark and Scotland showcased an amazing range of mixed fermentation, barrel-aged and wild ales.
Street food to soak up the tasty beers was provided by ROK and Potatolicious and a sound system cranked out anything from old school punk to krautrock, psychobilly and more. The bottle shop featured extremely affordable bottles of everyone’s beer with the obvious highlight the 2022 version of Oud Bruin Megablend.
What really made the festival memorable for me was the people that it attracted. Bumping into old friends and colleagues
all coming along for the same ride. Folks not only from Belgium but all over the world drawn to savour the tart, malty nuances of various interpretations of this oft-forlorn beer style. Standout modern versions of this ‘oud’ classic were savoured from Antidoot, La Source, De Ranke, SOSAB, Toye, Dok and Alvinne.
Then you had pure class in the heritage example from the likes of Cnudde, De la Senne, Beer Project, Vandewalle, l’Ermitage and Bourgogne des Flandres. And if that wasn’t enough to whet your appetite out poured super wild beers from Rolling Hills, Holy Goat, Loverbeer, Tanker and Brekeriet. So if you are expecting only BJCP style-specific beers, be prepared to open your mind to the creativity on show.
Both days featured sets of masterclasses with Friday including Luc from De Leite, Glenn from Alvinne and Rudi from Rodenbach. On Saturday I enjoyed Chris’ presentation from Vandewalle and we also had Valter from Loverbeer and Johnny from Holy Goat. Chris Vandewalle, archivist for the city of Diksmuide gave a presentation of Oud Bruin within the Westhoek of West Flanders and particularly highlighted the role that his family played in this.
Chris was also showcasing his wonderful beers from Seizonbrouwerij Vandewalle. He gave me a copy of his book ‘Oud Bruin – De bierlink tussen de verleden en toekomst in Reninge’ (the beer link between the past and future of Reninge, where is brewery is based). It was a surprise for me to learn that the style was being produced throughout the region with even a brewery situated on the dunes of the Belgian coast.
Photos credits: Caitlin Mackesy Davies and Ahmed Elamin
Eventually I had to admit that as much as I love this beer style and was still keen to taste more beers it was time to head back into the city for some food and retire for the evening. Kortrijk has plenty of great food options offering up numerous different cuisines. But after a long day enjoying Oud Bruin it just had to be a steak with frites, as classic a Belgian dish as you will find.
So Oud Bruin Fest will be back again in 2024. Be sure to keep an eye on the Brouwerij t’Verzet homepage and socials as I thoroughly recommend this friendly and exclusive beer festival. I’ll definitely be there. Cheers!
Want to learn more about Belgian beer and breweries? It’s easy. AleHunters 5 star rated Brewery Tours provides transportation by mini-bus to Belgium from our pick-up point in West London. For those based South of London we can collect from Stop 24 Folkestone Services. If you live far North of London or outside of the UK you can meet us at our base hotel for the trip. Repeat customers are entitled to a 10% discount off the tour price for each subsequent booking. Our tours are limited to a maximum of 10 people so that everyone has the full attention of your host, Paul. Brewery visits will all be arranged making use of our local knowledge and extensive contacts. Finally, we’ll book your accommodation in 3-4 star hotels to ensure your comfort throughout the trip.
On my journeys I have amassed a huge amount of knowledge of the country’s bars and breweries, and built up a network of contacts with the key people involved in Belgian’s vibrant beer scene. A resident of London for over 35 years I have developed an in depth knowledge of the capital’s most iconic pubs and bars. More recently I have spent the past 10 years exploring the most innovative and exciting craft breweries in the city. In a previous life, I was a member of the Quality team at Fuller’s, London’s oldest brewery. I also delivered brewery tours at its Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, welcoming visitors from the UK and overseas. I have hosted tutored beer tastings for many years, and have a thorough knowledge of beer – from grain to glass.
LAST DECEMBER, DEREK PRENTICE WAS THE RECIPIENT OF THE ‘LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT’ ACCOLADE AT OUR BREWERS CHOICE AWARDS. A DECORATED BREWER WITH MORE THAN 50 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE IN THE INDUSTRY, DEREK HAS MADE AN INDELIBLE MARK ON COUNTLESS BREWERIES, BEERS AND PEOPLE ALONG THE WAY. HERE, TWO OF THESE FIGURES, JOHN HATCH OF SAMBROOK’S AND JOHN KEELING, FORMERLY OF FULLER’S, SHARE THEIR OWN EXPERIENCES AND TRIBUTES TO THIS FANTASTIC INDIVIDUAL.
Ihave many thoughts and memories of the great man himself. Many of the facts will have been distorted with time and excess alcohol but the sentiment is true.
Derek Prentice joined Truman’s straight from school opting to learn the business from the bottom up rather than idle away his years at university. Derek quickly became proficient as a Brewer and joined Young’s Brewery as a senior brewer in 1989 when he was appointed as Warehouse Manager.
Derek is not the sort of man to get confined to one department though and he was soon exploring Young’s, pointing out inadequacies, recommending improvements and putting one or two noses out of joint as he did so!
All of Derek’s advice though, when put into practice, turned out to be one hundred percent correct and the consistency, quality and shelf life of Young’s beer increased across all the departments. Derek quickly
earned profound respect from all his new colleagues at Young’s, even the Engineers!!
Derek’s love of hoppy beers came to the forefront when he was unleashed on an established brand known as Young’s Export. Under Derek’s guidance, Export was transformed into Special London Ale following his tweaking of the hop grist, dry hopping and then bottle conditioning it. SLA, as it became known, was later showered with an abundance of awards and became an international sensation. Derek finally decided to knuckle down and sit his Masters exams but, astonishingly, he failed to pass first time. We quickly found out that Derek knew more about brewing that those marking the papers which was his downfall.
A quiet word from Ken Don suggesting that Derek wrote down what the examiners expected to read rather than what Derek knew to be true would help and, sure enough, Derek got his Masters. Derek’s final role at Young’s was as
Brewhouse Manager, a position which he relished until Young’s sadly shut down its brewing operation in 2006.
Derek was quickly acquired by Fuller’s running their brewhouse during George’s maternity leave. Soon after, Derek was introduced to Mark Gordon and the two of them set up Wimbledon Brewery where Derek continues to inspire and influence.
So what sort of man is Derek? Certainly one who grasps life with both hands and gives it one hundred percent. There are no bounds to Derek’s passion, knowledge and enthusiasm for brewing and this extends to his eagerness to always make certain that everyone in the room has a beer as well as to impart his encyclopaedic knowledge onto any up and coming brewery worker. Derek has inspired and taught generations of brewers who have all gone on to achieve great things.
Out of work, Derek is equally as ebullient and eager to participate and has a number of sporting accolades under his belt. One of Derek’s passions was the luge and he went on to become the Captain of the British Olympic Luge Team. There seems to be little in life that Derek has not thrown himself into with his
resounding mantra of “Chickens Never Win!!” and the attitude of “what’s the worse that can happen?”.
The worst that could happen when he tried hang gliding was a failed battle against the forces of gravity resulting in a snapped femur. Many other sporting injuries over the years resulted in Derek having more titanium under his flesh than Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator! At one point, Derek’s long suffering doctor announced that Derek would be confined to a wheelchair by the age of forty, something which Derek has managed to defy the odds on.
Derek was a keen athlete excelling in the throwing field events, the high jump and badminton. Derek was a pivotal force in keeping the London Brewer’s Amateur Sports Association going by encouraging both funding and participation. At one LBASA fixture Derek had the opportunity to try his hand at the pole vault for the first time.
Derek’s “what’s the worst that can happen” was put to the test as he quickly acquired an astounding height before plummeting down and completely missing the crash mat.
Many people who know Derek will know of his affinity with his bicycle, possibly brought about to bypass the drunkdriving laws! His trusty steed has put Derek into a few tight scrapes though, not least of which was the event known as “Del Boy’s corner”. Each year Derek would encourage Young’s to enter a team to cycle from London to Brighton in aid of the British Heart Foundation.
So, every May, by way of preparation, Young’s would go out for a Bank Holiday bike ride covering some of the steepest hills in Surrey and taking in a plethora of pubs. On one such outing, Derek and Paul decided to race down a particularly steep and unknown hill without realising that there was an especially sharp corner at the bottom.
On just surviving the corner, Derek came up against an oncoming lorry which he managed to narrowly avoid going under
but, instead, he bounced and smeared himself and the bike along its side. The bike was pretty much a right-off and when the rest of the party found him, Derek was cut and bruised from head to toe and lying in a heap on the floor next to an ashen lorry driver who honestly believed that he had nearly killed a cyclist. On asking Derek what could be done for him he cheerfully expressed the need for a beer and that is what he had!
Derek is the most helpful person I know and also one of the friendliest. When Georgina Young had to leave Fuller’s on maternity leave the only person who could fit into a well established team, head it up, take it onward and not put noses out of joint was Derek Prentice. What was truly amazing is that he was a brewer a Fuller’s greatest rivals, Young’s.
Derek never thought a problem too big or needed much direction. Our frequent chats were the basis of how we took brewing forward. Not only did I feel the tiller only needed the lightest of touches he sometimes did not need any direction at all frequently anticipating my ideas. I would also be fairly big picture with my directions when I said to him in an airy fairy way “lets brew a stout”, he then came back with the great Black Cab Stout recipe, mind you he had done the same with several other beers, too.
Derek is a great team man, nobody has a bad word for him (except maybe a couple of accountants, but that’s a badge of honour for any brewer).
Wherever he has worked he was always the go-to brewer...
The worst that could happen when he tried hang gliding was a failed battle against the forces of gravity resulting in a snapped femur,” John Hatch
Alot of good words have been written about this remarkable beer. I have also been interviewed many times through the years about it and my part in its story. So now is the time for me to tell that story in my own words.
Firstly, so much new interest has been generated by the latest version of Prize Old Ale brewed at Dark Star by head brewer Henry Kirk. Henry has made a version of great character and personality - much like himself. Unfortunately, Dark Star is closing its site and being moved to Meantime. While I know that there were problems with the lease being up for renewal and the brewing plant was not the best, I hope that Dark Star and Henry both go on to greater things.
I first got involved in the story of Prize Old Ale when I was part of the Fuller’s team which took over Gales Brewery, way back in 2005. This was not an aggressive takeover and in fact we were not the first brewer to show interest in Gales. We were however their preferred buyer, and the deal was done. Believe me, Gales wanted to sell.
I then travelled to the brewery to have a look around and meet the brewers. It was obvious on an initial inspection that the brewery plant needed some major investment. The plant had not been invested in for several years and the largest project the head brewer Derek Lowe had done in his 25 years as a Gales brewer was £26,000. When I tasted their beers, it was obvious too that they suffered from inconsistency brought about by the worn-out equipment.
The brewers were all excellent and I had known them for some time, Derek was due to retire, and had already
worked a year over his retirement year, but he readily agreed to stay on for six months to help with the handover. Moira Williams, another excellent brewer, had just left Gales and was on her way to Australia. I also knew Malcolm Irvine from Heriot Watt and wanted him as a brewer at Fuller’s, but he had already decided to start in his own brewery which is still producing excellent beers to this day.
One brewer that I did meet for the first time was a junior brewer/lab technician Anthony Smith who was so impressive that I did offer him a job and he is still at Fuller’s brewing beer and has had a very successful career. The beers too could be very impressive when on form and Festival Mild became a firm favourite with me. HSB and Seafarers were also both great beers. However, they all suffered from a lack of consistency despite the hard work and excellence of the brewers. The beer I had most trouble with was Prize Old Ale. I had a couple of bottles of it before and had not particularly liked it. But then I took a couple of bottles home with me and drank them one evening. I had a change of mind; the beers were exceptional, and I immediately made up my mind to take it to Fuller’s.
Gales produced one brew of this beer every year and fermented it in old wooden fermenting vessels that were impossible to clean and therefore had a background of flora and fauna impossible to replicate. This gave POA its unique flavour. With the brewery due to close, the cost of updating it to match the standards at Fuller’s was just too much, so I had to ask myself how I could bring POA to Fuller’s without the wooden fermenters.
I asked Derek to produce two brews of POA. One for them to bottle and one to tanker over to Fuller’s. My intention was to
OLD
WAS A REAL HIGHLIGHT FOR MANY FANS OF EXCELLENT BEER. JOHN KEELING COUNTS HIMSELF AS ONE SUCH FAN, BUT HIS ROLE IN THE STORY OF THIS BEER GOES BACK SOMEWHAT FURTHER, TOO.
use the eighty barrels sent to Fullers with its unique infection to somehow keep the beer alive. The idea was to brew another eighty barrels at Fuller’s and blend them together, bottling half and keeping half for the next year. An additional challenge was to keep the infection out of any other beer!
The first bottling was in 2007 and I was really pleased with the flavour. By then, we had plenty of experience in bottle conditioned beers. We filtered first then re-added fresh yeast, and bottled it using a crown cork not the corks that Gales had used. If condition built up in the bottle this sometimes pushed the cork out of the bottle. We repeated the process in 2008 and I looked forward to this being a yearly event. Unfortunately, our sales team thought otherwise and that was the end for POA at Fuller’s.
We did however keep the beer in tank and despite many people advising me to dump the beer down the drain and sometimes even insisting it go down the drain, I merely pretended to be deaf. That
might have been the end, but James Kemp then head brewer of Marble, approached us to use the POA in some beers he wanted to make. Now, James had worked at Fuller’s and knew all about POA, so off I went to Manchester to brew a collaboration with Marble. I took a young brewer with me, Henry Kirk, to do all the hard work with James while I drank tea and advised. We blended some of the Fuller’s POA into this brew.
We made four different versions of this beer by aging them in Pinot Noir, Madeira, Bourbon and Barbera barrels. I enjoyed each one and I was pleased that both James and Henry had developed a love for this beer. That was to be my last active involvement as I retired shortly after. But for Henry this was merely the beginning, but that is his story not mine.
Long may the story of this great beer continue.
Sometimes they’d insist the beer go down the drain, I merely pretended to be deaf.”
The vast majority of breweries will either be set-up from the outset as a private company limited by shares or will become incorporated i.e., convert from a sole trader status into a corporate entity, as they grow and the benefits of a corporate structure become apparent.
A key benefit of becoming a company will be that the business will have its own legal status meaning it can enter into contracts (such as supply and distribution agreements), employ staff, acquire leasehold or freehold property and borrow money/take on third party investment all in its own name.
Crucially for the founders/shareholders, if the brewery runs into hard times and unfortunately has to close, their financial exposure is limited to any amount they had agreed to pay for their shares that has not yet been paid, which might well be £1 per share.
the rights attaching to the shares. Many companies (including breweries) opted to use the “model articles” on incorporation and only have one active director registered at Companies House i.e., the sole director.
The model articles are a template set of articles that were included in the Companies Act 2006 and whilst basic and unlikely to be suitable for companies with multiple shareholders, were generally designed to be functional for newly incorporated companies that did not require anything overly prescriptive or complicated. However, the 2022 High Court case of Hashmi v Lorimer-Wing has seriously undermined the suitability of the model articles for a sole director company.
If the brewery were instead being run as a sole tradership, in an insolvency situation the founder would instead likely be liable to fulfil all of the business’ financial commitments such as payingup the unexpired term on a lease, paying notice periods for staff, repaying loan amounts outstanding etc which could well cause personal bankruptcy. Therefore, there are some clear merits of running the brewery through a company structure but it is important to ensure that the company has the right constitution to meet the founder’s requirements and quite possibly, the intentions for the business moving forward, otherwise the brewery might well run into legal difficulties further down the line. The articles of association are effectively the rules agreed by the shareholders of the company to document how the company will be governed moving forward and typically cover matters such as who can be directors, when board meetings should be held, how board matters will be voted upon and also
As a very brief summary, model article 7.2 provides that “if (a) the company only has one director, and (b) no provision of the articles requires it to have more than one director, the general rule does not apply, and the director may take decisions without regard to any of the provisions of the articles relating to directors’ decisionmaking.”
Legal practitioners (and accountants who often set-up companies for clients) had always operated on the understanding that model article 7.2 took precedence over model articles 11.1 and 11.2 which provide as follows:
1. The quorum for directors’ meetings may be fixed from time to time by a decision of the directors, but it must never be less than two, and unless otherwise fixed it is two.
2. If the total number of directors for the time being is less than the quorum required, the directors must not take any decision other than a decision:
(a) to appoint further directors, or
(b) to call a general meeting so as to enable the shareholders to appoint further directors.
However, the High Court ruled that model article 11 served as an explicit caveat to model article 7.2 meaning a company set-up with model articles
FOR BREWERIES SET-UP WITH A SOLE DIRECTOR AND MODEL ARTICLES, IT WOULD BE PRUDENT TO AMEND THE ARTICLES AS A PRIORITY TO ENSURE THAT THE DECISIONS OF THE DIRECTOR RUNNING THE BUSINESS, BOTH MOVING FORWARD AND PREVIOUSLY, CANNOT BE OPEN TO CHALLENGE AND THE FOUNDERS MIGHT EVEN WANT TO USE THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE WHOLESALE CHANGES TO THE ARTICLES TO INTRODUCE SPECIFIC DIRECTOR OR SHAREHOLDER
which had a sole director could only hold a quorate meeting (i.e., a legally valid board meeting at which business can be voted on) for the purposes of appointing further directors or calling a shareholder meeting for the shareholders to appoint further directors.
In the case in question, the sole director company was being sued and sought to bring a counterclaim – the claimant argued the company had no authority to bring such a counterclaim as there could have been no valid board decision to approve such action. The judge interpreted model article 11 as expressly superseding 7.2 and on that basis the counterclaim was struck out.
The above begs the question which matters ought to be decided by “board meeting”, notwithstanding that the notion of a “meeting” of the board when there is only one director is somewhat farcical to lawyers and laypersons alike. As a loose guide, any and all-important decisions, such as entering into longterm or significant contracts, embarking
on litigation, taking on investment, borrowing monies, purchasing property etc, would ideally be approved by the board of directors and often the party on the other side of the arrangement will ask for sight of the board minutes documenting the decision.
Breweries with a sole director and model articles, therefore, need to consider either appointing a second director (which might not be ideal if there is not an obvious person to take on the role and does not fully resolve the issue as it will reoccur if that director subsequently leaves) or ideally, amending their articles to resolve the issue definitively. Furthermore, as an unwelcome knockon effect of the Hashmi ruling, there is a risk that important decisions taken by the brewery previously could be open to challenge. For instance, if a supplier or landlord wanted out of their contract or lease with the brewery, they might look to argue that the brewery never had the proper authority to enter into the agreement.
Whilst the writer hopes that the court would strike through such a claim for being a sham excuse to renege on the agreement for whatever reason, clearly no business owner wants to become embroiled in litigation that could have been avoided. Therefore, as part of the arrangements to amend the articles we would always suggest that the founder/ shareholders sign a resolution to ratify any previous decisions of the sole director which effectively covers off this risk.
For breweries set-up with a sole director and model articles, it would be prudent to amend the articles as a priority to ensure that the decisions of the director running the business, both moving forward and previously, cannot be open to challenge and the founders might even want to use the opportunity to make wholesale changes to the articles to introduce specific director or shareholder rights.
The event, which took place in Mexico City’s World Trade Center, featured the announcement of three winners of the Cerveza Cup 2022, a prize which recognizes achievements in innovation and quality excellence in Mexican craft beer. To decide the prize, 47 international judges evaluated some 709 craft beers from a total of 136 breweries across Mexico, with the beers classified in 43 categories.
Marking the culmination of Cerveza Mexico, the judges announced the winners of the Cerveza Cup 2022 in the Best Small, Medium and Large Breweries categories, which went to: Cervecería Capital Pecado (Small); Kaminari Brewing (Medium) and Buqui Bichi Brewing (Large).
In terms of numbers, 140 breweries took part in Cerveza Mexico 2022, which this year included pavilions for the regions of Baja California and San Luis Potosí. The parallel suppliers and Inputs show featured more than 40 producers of ingredients (malt, yeast and hops), as well as packaging, label, bottle and can suppliers. Cerveza Mexico 2022 also played host to the 2nd annual Latin American Meeting of Women Brewers. The success of the event has also prompted the launch of a new show, Cerveza Mexico Guadalajara, which will take place for the first time in Guadalajara, Mexico from May 12-14, 2023 with the participation of more than 80 craft breweries.
After no events in 2020 and limited capacity shows in 2021 (with under 100 companies present at the exhibition), Cerveza Mexico 2022 marked a huge vote of confidence for the Mexican craft beer industry, with over 16,000 visitors recorded during its three-day run.
Cerveza Mexico founder, Marcos Gottfried, said the 2022 event also
demonstrated important advances in professionalism in the industry over the past two years, not just in terms of production and marketing, but also in the quality of the craft beers being delivered. He said: “There has been a spectacular leap forward and the fact that everyone is able to meet under the same roof has only accelerated this process. The quality of the craft beers being presented at the exhibition were very different to those we saw only two years ago.
“The same judges who attended Cerveza Mexico as part of the Cerveza Cup said there had been a significant improvement in the quality of Mexican craft beer during the 24 months, concluding that Mexico had now set the bar very high at a global level in terms of craft beer quality.”
With the 2022 edition including over 140 exhibitors, more than 700 brands and around 2,000 craft beer professionals, Gottfried said the organizers felt a great responsibility towards helping the industry to continue to advance forward.
“The craft beer industry is a business that provides jobs to thousands of Mexicans and for that reason we are wholly committed to continuing to support the sector,” he continued.
At the same time, Gottfried recognized the industry faces challenges in the form of the ongoing drought in northern Mexico and a reliance on inputs sourced from Europe. “These are important challenges, which the industry has to overcome through identifying new alternatives and looking at how we can continue to excel and grow,” he said.
Coorganizer Ana Rosa Corral commented: “During this edition of Cerveza Mexico, we saw an eagerness to do business and a huge enthusiasm after more than two years of the pandemic. I witnessed a highly-motivated industry with lots of projects and growth ahead of it, as well as lots of visitors looking to learn about how to brew their own beer, or looking to distribute a brand or open a tap room, restaurant or bar featuring craft beers.”
MEXICO’S CRAFT BEER INDUSTRY HAS UNDERGONE A LEAP FORWARD IN TERMS OF PROFESSIONALISM OVER THE PAST 24 MONTHS AND HAS BECOME AN IMPORTANT SOURCE OF EMPLOYMENT FOR THOUSANDS OF MEXICANS. THIS WAS THE VERDICT OF MARCOS GOTTFRIED, THE FOUNDER OF MEXICO’S ANNUAL CRAFT BEER EVENT, CERVEZA MEXICO, WHO HAILED THE PARTICIPATION OF 140 BREWERS AND 2,000 INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS AT THE RECENT EXHIBITION.
Consumption of Mexican craft beer is on the rise across Mexico and beyond, thanks to ever greater quality and innovation in an industry that now accounts for one in every 100 beers sold in the country, according to Mexican beer association Acermex.
Unlike other industries which were badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Mexico’s beer industry has thrived over the past two years, with Mexico selling close to 5.5 million litres of beer between January-May 2021, a increase of almost 41%, said Mexican national statistics agency INEGI.
Gottfried attributed the growth in sales to an increasingly confident Mexican craft beer industry, which is gathering ever greater numbers of aficionados thanks to its quality and originality.
He added: “We have seen growth year after year in the craft beer industry and that is down to the dramatic improvement in product quality which is driving consumption and sales.” fermentis.com
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INDEPENDENT BREWERS IN NORTHERN IRELAND HAVE WELCOMED THE LAUNCH OF AN INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF THE NORTHERN IRISH ALCOHOL LICENSING SYSTEM, WHICH THEY SAY PUTS SMALL BREWERS IN NORTHERN IRELAND AT A DISTINCT DISADVANTAGE. A LEADING NI BREWER AND SIBA SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS.
Northern Ireland’s alcohol licensing system has been subject to much debate over the years and is vastly different to the much more flexible systems in England and Wales, where the Licensing Act 2003 made radical reforms which made the huge growth in communityfocussed independent brewery taprooms possible.
In the Republic of Ireland, the Sale of Alcohol Bill has proposed changes to the extinguishment provision, whereby any individual seeking to open a new premises must first acquire and extinguish an existing license. In Northern Ireland, this provision is called the ‘surrender principle’ and makes it very difficult for small breweries to acquire a license to open a pub, or sell beer direct from the brewery in a taproom.
William Mayne, owner of Bullhouse Brew Co and Bullhouse East, said: “Brewers in Northern Ireland are at a significant disadvantage as a result of
our archaic licensing legislation. Over 99% of beers sold in Northern Ireland are imported. As a brewery, we sell more beer in Manchester than we do in Belfast because the surrender principle creates an ‘artificial monopoly’ where access to market is controlled by the big four multinational brewers.
He added that the current system creates three distinct areas of concern: “Firstly breweries in Northern Ireland have a vastly restricted access to the local market, Belfast has the most expensive pints in the UK (higher even than London), and we have the worst levels of alcohol related harm in the UK because people can access cheap alcohol in the supermarket and consume it at home in unregulated environments.
“Every time a supermarket opens in Northern Ireland, a community loses their local pub. We want to see a thriving evening economy where it makes sense to open more small, independent venues.”
The independent review of the Northern Irish alcohol licensing system, led by the University of Stirling, comes out of the Licensing and Registration of Clubs (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2021, when an amendment tabled by Matthew O’Toole MLA and supported by a majority in the Assembly was passed.
Andy Slee, Chief Executive at the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) added: “Our Northern Irish members are at a significant disadvantage in comparison to our members in the rest of the United Kingdom.
“Brewers in Northern Ireland can’t easily sell their own products direct to consumer and the vast majority of draught lines are tied to global brewers. “Having fought hard to ensure this amendment was included as part of the Licensing and Registration of Clubs (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland)
2021, we are delighted to see the launch of the review and we look forward to contributing as part of the 9 member ‘Stakeholder Reference Group.’
Despite the challenges facing brewers
in Northern Ireland, there are now over 30 local brewers operating here. A new category of license for local producers was introduced as part of the 2021 Act, however no brewers have so far gone through the application process. Mayne added: “Unfortunately, as licensing in Northern Ireland is handled by the Courts, the new local producers’ license still incurs many of the costs associated with obtaining any of the other types of premises’ licenses. The producers’ license only allows breweries to open to the public 12 hours per week, which makes it unviable given it would cost in the region of £10,000 just to apply for the license.”
u Licensing and Registration of Clubs (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2021 Section 23 committed the Department for Communities to appoint an independent person to conduct a review of the licensing system in Northern Ireland within 12 months of the Act receiving Royal Assent. The University of Stirling have been appointed to lead the independent review
and will manage a multidisciplinary team which includes experts from the University of Stirling, Queens University Belfast, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Sheffield.
uSection 23 was brought about following an amendment to the 2021 Bill brought by Matthew O’Toole MLA (SDLP) and supported by a majority of Assembly MLAs. It is the first major review of licensing in Northern Ireland in a generation and has been welcomed by the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), the trade body representing independent breweries in the UK.
WHEN
Gone are the days where choosing a beer without the alcohol meant forgoing genuine choice in the process. Countless macro businesses now offer 0.5% or 0.0% iterations of well-known brands. While numerous independents continue to throw their hats into the ring with a fascinating array of no-and-low pales, lager, sours, stouts and more. These drinks complement the burgeoning number of beverages available to consumers that want a great beer just with less, or none, of the alcohol. For Mash Gang, who started their brewing journey back in the first COVID lockdown, no-and-low is their raison d’être. And if ongoing demand is anything to go by, they’re showing that the appetite for quality beers, without the alcohol, is only growing and growing.
But let’s first take a moment to reflect. A successful crowdfunder, brewing 36 beers, exports to the Nordics, Australia, and USA to name but a few along with 700% growth FY21-FY22 - it’s not been a bad few years for Mash Gang. Of course, that’s come with a lot of hard work along the way. But in doing so, they’ve showed that you can produce exciting beers that taste great, look the part and further broaden people’s understanding of what no-and-low alcohol beers can really be.
If you happened upon a Morrisons store in January you may have encountered Self-Titled, a 0.5% ABV American pale ale collaboration with Northern Monk It’s Mash Gang’s first major supermarket listing. Or perhaps, you might not have. Such is the demand for beer, consumers have
partaken in the British tradition of driving up and down the country in search of the elusive nectar. And in launching that maiden supermarket beer, Mash Gang leader and brewer Jordan Childs was aware of the importance of striking a balance.
“I was actually really surprised with people’s reaction to it. Even a few years ago in craft beer a supermarket listing was seen to be the end of your craft beer journey, rather than the beginning,” he says. “I often get confused when people talk about the desire for brewing to be more inclusive but that supermarkets can’t be part of that.”
“It goes without saying that I love bottle shops, I absolutely love bottle shops. They’re one of the best things about going to any town or city. They are our lifeblood and the opportunity to have some-thing curated for you is a fantastic experience.”
He adds: “But I think supermarkets are somewhat utilitarian. You are going there for certain items, and sometimes you don’t want to think about a beer very much. You just want a consumable item and I designed ‘Self-Titled’ to be a consumable item.
“And early on, you can see the reviews are all over the place with people arguing it’s not hoppy enough, or it’s not aggressive enough, or it’s not bitter enough. But I think they’re missing the point. Perhaps there’s not a lot of nuance in craft beer sometimes. Someone might say ‘this beer is a little thin’. But would you want something like a thick lager? That sounds awful!”
Childs explains: “I think the challenge of making a supermarket beer is the equivalent of writing a pop song versus
IT COMES TO NO-AND-LOW, THAT NO LONGER MEANS NO CHOICE, NO QUALITY, NO VARIETY. THANKS TO OUTFITS LIKE MASH GANG AND THEIR PEERS, THERE IS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE. HERE JORDAN CHILDS, THE LEADER AND BREWER AT MASH GANG, SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON CHANGING CONSUMER PERCEPTION OF NOLO BEVERAGES, HIS LOVE OF WORKING WITH BREWERIES AND BUSINESSES OF ALL KINDS, AND THE GROUP’S COLLECTIVE DESIRE FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT.
writing a metal song. Both of them need a technical edge but let’s be honestwriting a song that everyone will like is obviously very hard.”
Consumer acceptance of no-and-low alcohol beers has come a long way in recent years. The choice is greater than ever, as are the styles available to the discerning punter. But Childs also feels that is still some way to go for these beers to command the respect they deserve.
“There is still the tendency to minimise and undermine those that brew noand-low beers. I frequently get asked when I am going to make a real beer, and some brewers will ask that same question because they feel we’re doing ‘pretty well’ with one hand tied behind our backs,” he recalls. “I think it was at Indy Man Beer Con and someone asked me about making a proper beer. Because that’s what the world needs, another 5% Hazy IPA. And yes, maybe I have a reputation of being a bit of a d*ck about this but that’s just my sense of humour. Which is funny because if you look in my fridge, it’s full of hazy hop-forward beers!”
Like so many of us, Childs appreciates a wealth of beer styles, and the brewing expertise used to produce these. But from speaking to his peers, he asks if no-and-low is one of the “last great challenges” for a brewer.
He says: “It does feel as if no-and-low is perhaps the last hurdle available to a lot of craft brewers. As a brewer, you want to constantly challenge yourself and do new and exciting things.
“But one of those problems is that a lot of the time, the customer at large really doesn’t want many of those new and exciting things. Many beer styles that brewers challenge themselves on are a niche within a niche, but in my opinion that’s why the no-and-low beer sector offers up so much scope for innovation and growth.”
Mash Gang have brewed beers from lagers and pales to sours and stouts. These have been produced at a range of breweries across the UK and beyond. For Childs, working with the right brewing partner has been invaluable. As has
brewing alongside brewers that are used to producing beers at the stronger end of the spectrum.
“On the whole, I don’t really work with other low-alcohol companies. And the reason for that is I don’t see a value for either of us in it. You’re already doing it, and you’re already doing it well. I prefer to go into a business that traditionally does a lot of high ABV stuff, and show them what we’re doing is really just the inverse of that,” he says.
“I take a large amount of pride in doing that, helping them understand what we’re doing is kind of inverse to the
He adds: “No single recipe stays the same. And just because we contract brew, that doesn’t mean we don’t have an eye on quality. I have a close relationship with breweries like Northern Monk and Fierce. Are you going to tell me they don’t respect quality? They are obsessed with it! These beers are our babies, they are just incubated in their womb.”
As an eponymously-titled phantom brewery, Mash Gang brew and collab on beers at a number of brewing partners. And disproving the myth that contract brewing means the quality of their beer is at risk is a particular point of passion for Childs and the group.
“For those that believe we aren’t fullyfocused on quality because we contract brew, I tell them ‘That’s fine, I understand you want, and have, control over your whole process’. So with that in mind, they must be growing their own hops. Oh, they don’t? Ok then it’s just the grain they’re growing. They don’t? Ok, then it’s just a case of malting their own barley. Nope, not that either. So it’s just a case of the line stopping at where they say it stops, right?”
He explains: “Ok. I then ask if you have material safety data sheets for every ingredient? Do you have a standard operating procedure? Do you have Total Quality Management in place?
Do you work on the ISO 9001:2008?
imperialization of a beer. So whatever works up, works down, and we’ll take a great amount of pleasure working on things that are traditionally very high abv and making a lower version of them.”
And always looking at the next step, the next project and ways to improve is in the Mash Gang DNA. “Planning is a big part of what we do,” says Childs. “We run our business through the Japanese model of Kaizen, which translates as continuous improvement. We are focused on slow, sustained growth. Which is why we wanted to spend the early years of this business working on a solid foundation where you build up trust with consumers that you always deliver a high quality product, and that you are always relentlessly innovating. We are never satisfied with what we do!”
Oh, you don’t? Well, we do. So when it comes to ensuring quality we are using preventative actions, not corrective ones. And that means in the last 80 batches we’ve produced, we’ve rejected three. “Also our yields are about 30% higher than most breweries. And that is all to do with the Total Quality Management system. And it’s because the most boring parts of my background is that I worked in fields like cosmetics and pharmaceutical. And the yields and quality processes that exist in much of brewing would not be accepted in those sectors, that’s for sure.”
While Childs is the brewer and public leader of Mash Gang, he is part of a wider team that has grown since the outfit started out back in 2020 alongside co-founder and CEO James Loveday. As the team has grown, so has its reputation.
When it comes to ensuring quality we are using preventative actions, not corrective ones, Jordan Childs, Mash Gang.
And it’s what’s in, and on, the can that has propelled Mash Gang to be one of the UK’s leading names in the world of no-and low-alcohol beers. The market for such beers continues to grow, but Childs and the team know that craft beer, without the alcohol, isn’t for everyone. But that’s also ok. Because as Garrett Oliver once told us, liking everything is called having no taste.
“It’s going to sound dismissive, but it’s not my job to convince people what to like. I think it’s kind of exhausting to want to be liked by everyone. Personally, I break down every product into two things. It’s either utilitarian or it is experiential,” he explains. “A good utilitarian item is like an unbranded t-shirt or Heinz ketchup. You know exactly what it’s going to do. “But something experiential gives you something to be excited about, but it’s also probably somewhat niche. And what we do is a niche within a niche, and it’s not for everyone. Someone came up to me at Hop City in Leeds and told me that they can’t be bothered with no-and-low, and for me to convince them. But why?
I’m not a salesperson like that.
“Just go on something like Untappd and
check out the reviews for our beers. Those people on there are mean-spirited and brutal. But even then they say they dock two stars for the beer being a 0.5% beer yet they still give it three stars. So we have a five-star beer then? The quality is shining through without us having to convince people of it.”
He adds: “And if you’re willing to miss out on it, because you want to make this bizarre standpoint, that’s possibly about some hyper-masculinity of not drinking something that doesn’t have alcohol in it, then what’s the point in craft beer at all? “Actually, you may as well skip drinking spirits too and just have a Xanax and black out on the sofa if that’s the case. For me, I don’t drink alcohol for the effects. That’s a by-product of the beer for me. I enjoy beer for the flavour and for the experience.
And one recent experience was Childs trying ‘A Hymn For the Fields’ from Field Recordings (North Brewing) at our very own Brewers Congress event. A Hymn For the Fields is a Saison, featuring Pilsner malt and wheat mashed at a low temperature begin by making a rounded beer with a dry finish. Dry-hopped with
Nelson Sauvin from New Zealand, German Hallertau Blanc and a small addition of US Talus in the whirlpool, the brewery co-pitched traditional farmhouse saison yeast and wine yeast nutrient, they both boost the vinous flavours of the hops and bring a light tartness and full body. The result is a hybrid between a Belgian classic, a NEIPA and a sweet wine.
“Honestly, that is one of the best beers I’ve ever had. What even is it? I don’t even know! It’s a bizarre blend of styles but something that is truly exciting and it won attention, especially brewers’ attention, for good reason,” he explains. “It blew me away. Then again, it won’t be liked by everyone but like I said, you don’t have to be liked by everyone. It’s fine. In fact, the best things aren’t liked by everyone. I always think that if people have a strong opinion of what you’re doing either way, it’s better than indifference!”
FROM GUINNESS TO LEFT HAND NITRO MILK STOUT VIA SIREN HARD POUR BROKEN DREAM, NITROGEN HAS LONG BEEN A WAY TO ELEVATE YOUR BEERS. HOWEVER, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT NITRO BEERS, BUT WERE TOO AFRAID TO ASK? THEN WORRY NOT, HELP IS AT HAND FROM OUR GOOD FRIENDS AT BREW YORK.
The vast majority of beers consumed today will be carbonated, either naturally or by post ferment addition. Carbonation, obviously, is the introduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) to a liquid to create the bubbles you see in your beer so what does changing the gas involved actually do, it’s still just bubbles right? Well, not entirely…
Nitrogen gas has a smaller molecular size than carbon dioxide and so creates smaller bubbles than the standard CO2 in your beer. The smaller size of bubbles will create a much tighter foam for the head and also, once drunk, a smoother feeling on the tongue giving more creaminess and better mouthfeel.
The size of the bubble, however, can’t convey the big hoppy aromas as well which isn’t a massive issue where big nitro stouts are involved as the benefit of the texture of the beer far outweighing the reduction in the volatile aromas.
The next thing is the solubility of the gas itself. CO2 can dissolve in water readily due to the polar nature of the molecule (it’s like a little bar magnet). Nitrogen, being non-polar, doesn’t which leads to the small bubbles breaking out easily producing that beautiful cascading effect you see in all those images of a certain nitro stout made by a famous Irish toucan.
The lack of solubility also increases the
sweetness of a beer to the consumer as with CO2 some of the gas will dissolve on the tongue creating minute amounts of carbonic acid which along with the bubble burst gives most beer (and soft drinks) that sharper taste and refreshing zing.
You may not notice the sharpness of a standard CO2 beer but once you try a nitrogenated brew it will become more obvious.
There are minor setbacks with this solubility of nitrogen in the fact that it won’t stay in the beer long meaning beers can go flat quicker than a standard carbonated one but if it’s a tasty brew it’s not going to be hanging around long in the glass anyway!
Along with the difference in the actual science of the gases themselves there is also a difference in the way you should serve them too.
With nitro beers you need to perfect the hard pour, a way to dispense the beer contrary to standard brews where the can is turned a full 180° after opening and allowing the beer to almost fall out of the can.
This creates a mass of nitrogen bubbles creating a super thick dense head and the trademark cascading effect resulting in the super luxurious creamy beer.
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Made
Many breweries – from the largest scale industrial breweries to microbreweries and craft beer producers – use carbon dioxide (CO2) at various stages of the brewing process. Applications include inerting, purging tanks or brew kettles, protecting against oxygenation, and nitrogenating the beer. However, due to periodic shortages
of carbon dioxide gas (a by-product of the fertiliser industry) brought about whenever fertiliser plants cease production due to high gas prices, breweries have seen enormous increases in the costs of their CO2 supply.
This year typical costs have increased five-fold from £200 per tonne to £1000 per tonne, although one large brewery which we have been in touch with has
seen a £3000 surcharge per tonne added to their usual CO2 purchase price.
The implication is that the brewery’s CO2 bill would rise from £3000 per month to £35,000 per month – an unsustainable amount – unless the brewery finds ways to adapt its processes away from carbon dioxide wherever possible.
On top of the rising price of carbon dioxide, the same breweries are also experiencing higher than usual electricity
COPCO, DISCUSSES HOW AND WHY MANY BREWERIES ARE CHANGING THEIR PROCESSES TO MOVE AWAY FROM CARBON DIOXIDE IN FAVOUR OF NITROGEN.
costs. These two issues combined naturally have a knock-on impact on the consumer price of beer and, in the worstcase scenario, even risk putting some breweries out of business. This is where nitrogen gas comes into the picture. Nitrogen, which is much cheaper and more readily available, can be used instead of carbon dioxide in at least twothirds of brewing applications.
It is already known and trusted by many manufacturers in the food and beverage industry as a viable CO2 alternative for removing oxygen from all types of packed goods, as well as for cleaning, inerting and pressurising bottles and cans before filling. Nitrogen is also more sustainable. Replacing a proportion of CO2 with nitrogen significantly reduces a brewery’s carbon footprint. When the nitrogen used in a brewing process is released, it merely returns into the air that it came from, whereas escaped CO2 is a greenhouse gas emission. Nitrogen can be supplied in various ways: in high-pressure cylinders delivered to site by a third-party supplier, as liquified nitrogen in tanks, or it can be generated from compressed air using an onsite nitrogen gas generator. The latter method has many advantages over the first two.
An on-site nitrogen generator is a selfsufficient resource that can instantly deliver all the gas breweries need, ondemand, 24/7, at the touch of a button. It produces nitrogen at as low as one-tenth of the cost of delivered nitrogen, with a short payback period now that energy and CO2 prices are high, making this method more attractive to breweries than it has ever been before. Self-generation solves several other issues as well. Gone is the need to order deliveries to site and arrange for collection of empty cylinders or request tank refills, thereby reducing logistics planning and associated administration time and costs. Fewer delivery trucks arriving on site reduces carbon footprint.
Having nitrogen on tap also avoids any production time being lost while gas cylinders are changed. Furthermore, removing high-pressure bottles or tanks of liquid nitrogen from site removes certain safety concerns and eliminates the need to store them in a space where there is adequate ventilation in case of a leak.
Suppliers such as Atlas Copco have developed a range of nitrogen generation solutions that make it easy for breweries of all sizes to reduce their dependence on carbon dioxide and improve their profitability. For example, the NGM+ is a compact, quiet and dependable nitrogen generator that maximises the robustness and simplicity of membrane technology.
Thanks to its exceptionally low air and energy consumption, it also offers the lowest cost of ownership on the market today. The NGP+ is a premium nitrogen generator which uses pressure swing adsorption technology. Carbon molecular sieves guarantee premium nitrogen at the highest purity levels and highest energy efficiency. For smaller breweries, the NGMs membrane nitrogen generator is a cost-effective, point-of-use solution that meets low-flow requirements and has a footprint of as little as 0.25 cubic metres.
At Atlas Copco, we understand that brewers face an everyday struggle to produce quality beer for the right price, with the challenge sharply increased by the recent scarcity of carbon dioxide and high energy prices. We do not want to see breweries forced out of business, soaring beer prices or pub closures.
Breweries should be insulated from the impact of CO2 supply shortages and high prices, and, in our experience, on-site nitrogen generation is the most dependable choice to do so. We expect that we will see more breweries adapting as much of their production equipment as feasible to use nitrogen gas rather than carbon dioxide in the future, and when they do, we will be ready to offer our advice on selecting the most suitable nitrogen generators for their individual needs.
When the nitrogen used in a brewing process is released, it merely returns into the air that it came from, whereas escaped CO2 is a greenhouse gas emission, Andrew Butler, Atlas Copco.
Tel : 01525 718288
E-mail : info@enterprisetondelli.co.uk
Website : www.enterprisetondelli.co.uk
handling?
• Want to reduce your carbon footprint?
• Want to control your own hygiene and QA procedures?
• Want improve your packaging?
• Want to save money on labour costs?
• Want to reduce your dissolved oxygen?
You can with an Enterprise Tondelli craft beer Canning, Bottling or Kegging line!
✓ 1,300 cans per hour upwards to 80,000 cph
✓ 1,200 bottles per hour upwards to 60,000 bph
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✓ 16 kegs per hour upwards to 1,000 kegs per hour
Earlier this year, Wells & Co installed Parker’s Nitro Source system at their Bedfordshire brewery. The compact standalone unit generates 22 m3 of nitrogen per hour, and the equivalent of 500 kg of CO2 in 12 hours.
They’re now generating food-grade nitrogen from compressed air at a fraction of the cost of buying in CO2. Using it in some of their brewing applications has reduced their CO2 usage by 50 tonnes per year. CO2 is used extensively in brewing applications – from blanketing and counter pressure filling to purging, sparging and pressure transfer. But brewers are facing ongoing challenges with rising costs, and supplies have been interrupted a number of times in the last few years.
In 2018, production of CO2 fell –according to Gas World, it was ‘the worst supply situation to hit the European carbon dioxide business in decades.’
There were further shortages in 2021 when two main UK ammonia production facilities were halted, causing a 60% reduction in the UK’s food-grade CO2 supply. The stoppage was attributed to prohibitively high wholesale gas prices.
The energy crisis is continuing to create further problems. Earlier this year, a new announcement was made ahead of a further production stoppage. again due to the high cost of gas making production uneconomical. Where CO2 is available, brewers are seeing huge price increases.
Wells & Co produces 25,000 hectolitres of beer each year, using 500 kg of CO2 each day. While their costs are contracted, the contractual price is linked to supply – so if CO2 becomes hard to get hold of, the cost rises.
Fortunately, Wells & Co didn’t experience production downtime, but only because they were able to buy gas in bulk.
James Hunter, Wells & Co’s Head Brewer says: “We have a bulk tank on site that’s sized for regular 4-6 weekly refills of CO2, but that’s something smaller breweries won’t have. Supply shortages are a real problem for many brewers – and in some cases they simply aren’t sustainable.”
Experts are predicting that the surging cost of CO2 will add £1.7 billion to the price of groceries, with the UK’s food and drink sector potentially having to foot the bill for liquid CO2 if gas prices remain high.
While CO2 can’t be swapped out of all brewing applications, nitrogen can certainly take its place in some of them. When an inert atmosphere is vital, nitrogen can be used at numerous stages of production, including blanketing, counter pressure filling, CIP pipework, purging, filling and kegging.
Parker and its distributor partner, Maziak Compressors, worked alongside Wells & Co to carry out a scoping and sizing exercise, calculating existing gas usage and taking into account the link between peak demands, purity and buffer capacity.
WITH FREQUENT SHORTAGES OF CO2 INTERRUPTING PRODUCTION, AND SPIRALLING COSTS FORCING BEER PRICES UP, ONE LEADING CRAFT BREWER HAS PARTIALLY CONVERTED TO NITROGEN TO REDUCE ITS RELIANCE ON BOUGHT-IN GAS. BREWERS JOURNAL REPORTS.
While CO2 can’t be swapped out of all brewing applications, nitrogen can certainly take its place in some of them.
Target levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) were fully considered and scoped ahead of the project.
Accurate and on-going DO monitoring, with an accuracy to parts per billion, following the installation of the Nitro Source, confirm the DO level in the finished product remains well within the desired specification.
The Wells & Co team was also impressed with the collaboration between Parker and Maziak. The detailed scoping exercise meant that the installation itself was straightforward.
“Full credit to the thorough preparation,” Hunter says, “Because once all the calculations have been done, it’s literally plug and play for the unit, then you just have the electrical supply and peripherals like the pipework to manage.”
The system installed was a Nitro Source N2-25PALY rated @ >23m3/h, 500 ppm @ 8 barg food grade nitrogen unit. Ancillaries included a 55 hectolitre
oil-free air system, a sterile gas filter, a 500 litre buffer vessel and a 2,000 litre storage vessel.
The benefits so far have been outstanding. Wells & Co now uses nitrogen to transfer the conditioned beer after fermentation and control the top pressure in the buffer tanks and the finished tanks. The first two purging processes are driven by nitrogen, while CO2 is still used in the third round.
If CO2 was costing the brewery 93p/m3 (at a price of £500 per tonne), nitrogen is running below 25p/m3 – a cost saving of around 73%.
One of the most satisfying outcomes of the project has been the environmental impact Wells & Co have seen. The brewery’s carbon emissions have reduced by 50 tonnes per year, so their partial conversion to nitrogen represents the single biggest factor in reducing the brewery’s carbon output.
Hunter adds: “There are always going to be barriers that make breweries hesitant to convert to nitrogen – shelf life of the product, for example, capital outlay and payback time – but if you scope it properly, you can understand exactly what the benefits and risks will be and make an informed decision.
The capital investment doesn’t just include the unit – we also have to consider energy consumption, ancillary equipment and maintenance. That said, we’ll see a return on our investment within 2 ½ years and it’s made us more cost-competitive. Alongside that, the contribution to our environmental objectives has more than exceeded our expectations.”
Nitrosource was supplied and installed by Maziak Compressors, Parker’s distributor partner.
WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU COMBINE THREE BEER-LOVING FRIENDS WHO ALSO HAPPEN TO BE EXPERIENCED BREWERS? COMBINE THIS WITH A FANTASTIC LONDON LOCATION AND A COMMITMENT TO PRODUCING AND SERVING THE FRESHEST, TASTIEST BEERS, YOU HAVE ONE OF THE LATEST ADDITIONS TO THE CAPITAL’S EVERCHANGING BREWING SCENE. AND IT’S A SCENE THAT’S ALL THE BETTER FOR HAVING THEM PART OF IT, TOO.
Opening your own brewery, at any point is time, comes with its own challenges and hurdles to overcome. Just ask the countless outfits that had COVID to contend with, weeks and months, after slinging open their doors. And in the current economic climate, things probably aren’t much easier, to say the least. But people are thirsty, and there remains an insatiable appetite for excellent, locally-made produce.
Which is conveniently exactly what John, Ollie and Nick, the co-founders of Great Beyond Brewing Company specialise in. The brewery, which launched with a soft opening last November, is founded by a trio that take pride in their work, their community, and their values, while the team’s approach to brewing emphasises quality, sustainability, and creativity. And in Great Beyond Brewing Company they are treading the path many of their peers have done before - setting out on their own into the wild world of brewery ownership.
Speaking to co-founder John Driebergen, he tells us about his love of brewing and his desire for Great Beyond Brewing Company to become part of the fabric of East London, as well as the team’s experiences working in the the industry and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.
“I think many brewers kind of dream about opening a brewery one day and, in that sense, I’ve been thinking about it for probably close to 12 years, I guess,” he recalls. “But I started to think about it more seriously probably two years ago. And like many people during COVID, when did a lot of reflecting.”
Prior to starting Great Beyond Brewing Company Driebergen was working at Fourpure, based in Bermondsey, London. A business that was acquired by Australasian brewing firm Lion and was subsequently sold to In Good Company Brewing, alongside Magic Rock, last summer.
“I found the transition from working for an independent craft brewery to a larger one (Lion) and the corporate ownership that came with that quite difficult on a cultural level. But I also appreciated the job security during COVID, and I learned a lot in that period, too,” says Driebergen. He adds: “But the pandemic gave me time to think. I started to speak to Ollie Parker, my then Fourpure colleague, and the conversations become more serious. Nick Walsh, who was also at Fourpure, then came on board.
“It was a long road, using evenings and weekends to plan the business, raise the money we’d need, source a location and the equipment that could eventually call that location home. It has been like working two full-time jobs at once for the last two years. So the irony of finally opening during a perfect storm,
economically, is not lost on us!”
Great Beyond Brewing Company would open on Union Walk in London. An enviable location in Shoreditch, minutes from Hoxton Overground station and the countless bars and restaurants the area has to offer. In opening in the vicinity, a taproom offering is at the heart of the brewery.
“As a new brewery, our business model is ultimately about having a small core range based on Hoxton Fresh (4% DDH Session IPA), Hoxton Lager (4.4% English Keller Lager), Gluten-Free West Coast (4.4% Pale Ale) and a sour beer, too,” he explains. “Our business model is to sell as much beer as we can via the taproom and to also have keg and can product to sell locally and also really anywhere within the M25.
“But those direct sales through the taproom are incredibly important, especially as it helps us absorb the rising costs we are facing. Cost pressures are affecting us like everyone else. That said, in starting this brewery, the greatest challenge to-date was securing that premises license.”
And like many new businesses know, securing the relevant licenses is all-important and it’s not always straightforward, either, as the team would find out.
“In working our notice periods at Fourpure, and using every spare moment here, we outsourced as premises license to an expert,” recalls Driebergen. But, if I’m honest, the consultant didn’t put together a great application and it was subsequently denied by Hackney Council. It didn’t help that there was a fair amount of organised opposition to the brewery from an adjacent property developer, either.”
The developer in questioned financed a campaign with a petition that targeted local residents and also surrounding neighbourhood buildings and businesses. The aim was to stop the brewery opening but, thankfully, it failed. He looks back: “There were expensive legal fees that we didn’t anticipate but following a second application, our license was granted. Even so, we had to initially open with a TEN. (A Temporary Event Notice is required if you want to carry out a ‘licensable activity’ on
unlicensed premises in England or Wales.) “It slowed us down somewhat and meant we couldn’t exit our “soft launch” phase until later than planned. It probably slowed our momentum a fair bit but at the same time, the publicity that campaign gave us had its benefits, too.”
According to Driebergen, the petition painted “a picture of a business that is nothing like ours”. It made it sound like the brewery was going to be extremely loud and noisy, and open all night. Understandably, with those
in London. We are very proud to be a brewery in this city.”
Early batches of Hoxton Fresh, the DDH Session IPA, has hit the right note with both the team and consumers alike. “We’re really happy with it so haven’t change much so far,” says Driebergen. “It has a really lovely, soft, pillowy mouthfeel and full saturation without any kind of hop burn or harsh notes. To us, it’s very balanced, really aromatic and we love it. We hope it’s going to be a great sort of flagship product for us”
While early iterations of Hoxton Lager has been brewed as an English Keller Lager, the team see that moving to more of a seasonal brew in the future, with the core beer being more of a German Keller Lager. “We’re going to experiment and see how it goes,” he says. “The great thing about running our own brewery is the ability to experiment and innovate.”
And with the taproom offering, the team have the ability to produce a growing number of other beer styles for consumers to enjoy
“We want to keep the taproom fun and interesting and that means always having new small-batch beers available,” explains Driebergen. “We can brew a 10HL batch of a beer to serve at the taproom and if it performs well, we can always look to package it for the trade.”
early accusations in mind, there were some that were reluctant to support the opening. But with those needless fears allayed, there ended up being hundreds of local residents and employees ready and eager for the brewery to pour those first beers (and other beverages, too).
“We are already seeing visitors from across the board, which is great as we are a London-based brewery and need that local love,” he says. “We are also grateful to the support from local businesses like Howl at the Moon (neighbourhood pub), TT Liquor (cocktail bar) and Kill The Cat (craft beer bar and bottle shop).
“We live in London, we love living in London and we want to keep living
Some of the first small batch beers to see the light of day include Cherise, a 7% Cherry Sour with Oak Chips & Tonka Beans as well as The Raspberry Incident, a 4.4% Raspberry Sour. The latter was an early example of the team learning as they go.
“In making that beer, we sourced fresh fruit that is flash frozen after it’s harvested. Assuming they’d be sealed, we left them in the cold store overnight but in doing so, they defrosted and the place looked like a murder scene. It smelled amazing, though!” he laughs.
“Our general manager Nick was the poor guy that had to clean it up but at least we had a beer name as a result.”
Ingredients such as peanuts and marshmallows have also been additions to their beers, the latter being vegan so that the brewery can ensure each beer
Direct sales through the taproom are incredibly important, especially as it helps us absorb the rising costs we are facing,”
John Driebergen, Great Beyond Brewing Company
they produce remains vegan-friendly. “We don’t compromise on the quality of the ingredients, but we also price the beers accordingly at the taproom, and I think that’s fair,” he adds.
John, Ollie and Nick are no strangers to collaborations, and working with other brewers. They met while working at Bermondsey-based Fourpure, with John part of the team there for nearly a decade before making the leap last year. And he values the experiences he had during that time.
“When it started, it was a really exciting place to work. It was fast-paced with rapid growth and that’s always challenging, but also thrilling,” says Driebergen. “We were pouring our beer everywhere, and then we secured a supermarket listing that was great for the business but probably less so for the brand. Though I think it was an important one to make, too.
“Then came the acquisition by Lion, which really changed the culture of the business and I think it suffered from a bit of an identity crisis. Lots of decisions were made that impacted on all parts of the brewery.”
Despite this, he is proud of the work he did at the business and he’s also grateful for the wealth of colleagues and friends he made along the way.
“I met so many fantastic people and have so many great memories of my time there. There are also some brilliant people that are still part of that business, too,” he recalls. “We can sometimes forget that when a brewery gets bought by a big multinational, it doesn’t mean that all of the team are suddenly bad people that no longer have that passion for what they do.”
At Fourpure, Driebergen saw a Londonbased brewery start, grow and evolve.
And in Great Beyond Brewing Company, a brewery he’s helped start, he is confident and bullish about the road ahead.
“I really believe in Great Beyond Brewing Company, in every way,” he says. “I feel that we have the location and the business model, while the beer is great. And I think that we can only get better.”
Driebergen adds: “But I also know that, in the short term, like many other small independent craft breweries, our focus is on survival. We are thrilled with the support we’ve had already and we only want to build on that. We will survive, and then we will thrive.”
Photos: Great Beyond Brewing Company
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Our reason for being is to inspire people to stay curious. To question. To celebrate. To smile more.
To never graduate from the school of life. This is the opening greeting on independent, award-winning Curious Brewery’s homepage. And yes, it does make you curious to know more. As the craft beer market becomes increasingly competitive, it is even more important to stand out from the pack. This means consistently creating and producing outstanding product. We talk to Wesley Lynch, Head of Production at Ashford-based Curious Brewery as to how they achieve this.
Curious is a fully independent brewery, run by brewers and focused on making
the UK’s best lager, IPA and cider. Their journey began through the Kent-based winemaker Chapel Down who introduced their first beer product in 2011, Curious Brew lager. Initially, as there was no brewery on site, Chapel Down contracted out production, first to Everards and then to Fullers. In April 2021 Risk Capital Partners, (RCP), purchased Curious in what set out as a passion-led project for their CEO, Luke Johnson.
The site for the brewery in Kent was purchased in late 2017 and doors to the brand new brewery opened on May 10, 2019. The project cost around £16m with an addition of £6m equipment sourced from around the globe, including fermentation vessels from Austria and the Brew House from China.
FOR KENT-BASED CURIOUS BREWERY, MAINTAINING
OPTIMUM HYGIENE STANDARDS IS AT THE VERY TOP OF THEIR AGENDA. HERE CHRISTEYNS FOOD HYGIENE, EXPLAIN THE ROLE THEY’VE PLAYED IN THAT JOURNEY.
As of Summer 2022, the brewery has brewed approx. 7.5 million pints. Their biggest seller and flagship beer is Curious Brew Lager which boasts a clean, fruity, and aromatic finish. During the summer months Curious Apple, an aromatic cider fermented with Bacchus wine yeast, is not far behind. There is also a Curious Session IPA brewed with three complementary hops and their newest product, Kentish Pilsner brewed in celebration of Kent’s hopgrowing heritage, was launched in 2022. It’s not just the beer though that makes you curious, even the name of the BrewHouse gets you asking questions.
The original brewery site was home to a primary school and in 1943 one very smart and forward-thinking teacher, a Miss Ellen Adams, saved the school’s pupils and staff from a bombing raid that flattened the school and most of Ashford’s railway lines too. On hearing distant air raid sirens Miss Adams promptly escorted all the pupils to the air raid shelter where they stayed safe and sound.
Hence the Brew House is named in her
honour, the Miss Ellen Adams, with her Grandson officially opening the facility in 2019. So, what makes Curious Brew different? Lynch explains in more detail.
“We may brew lagers, but they aren’t your standard lagers. We want to brew characterful beer which celebrates the ingredients that go into it. We use a lot of hops in our products which gives us a more flavourful product once it’s finished. We may no longer have the winemaking connection through Chapel Down, but what we want to celebrate is the provenance of Kent and the hops grown here.
We have been gradually shifting more and more of the hops used in our brews to locally sourced ones. This has a great impact on sustainability as well as the freshness of the ingredients we use. Fresher hops help make fresher beers with bright, citrusy flavours.
The addition of champagne yeast and Nelson Sauvin hops means we have a lot more hops to clean out at the end of our processes. The physical debris is always a challenge and a good hygiene partner is crucial to help us stay on top of
our game and ensure a pristine brewing environment.
I wasn’t happy with the level of service I was being provided by our hygiene partner and wanted a more personal connection. Anyone can supply chemicals but it’s the knowledge and the friendly face behind it that are really valuable.
What I discovered is that Christeyns Food Hygiene really goes the extra mile to encourage their account managers to work closely with clients. They make time for proper visits and have a good reporting structure with audits to highlight areas that need attention from hygiene to chemical safety. They visit monthly as a minimum and produce a detailed report about any findings or recommendations. In the past we have found with other suppliers that they do the bare minimum to keep the contract and don’t necessarily value us in the same way as some larger clients.
Since using CFH we have done a lot of work on our brewhouse CIP procedures. We standardised and validated the process and ended up with a much
better result. As this is one area where malt and hops and heat make the equipment that much harder to clean, it has been an invaluable improvement for us.
We have also installed an automatic testing and dosing unit for the detergent on our keg washer/filler. This has allowed us to have much more confidence in the cleanliness of our kegs before they are filled. Dirty kegs have a huge impact on beer quality and can lead to sourness and haze, so this is one of our key areas for brewery hygiene.
I look for an account manager I can get along with and good service and expertise in a chemical supplier. Chemicals are just chemicals at the end of the day – it’s how they are used that counts. Having a supplier that knows best practice (and particularly safe practice!) that matters. We work with Justin Adams at Christeyns and he has carried out numerous chemical handling training sessions with my team as well, so they are knowledgeable about the risks they are taking on. Health and safety is always at the top of our list – followed closely by quality.”
Not one to rest on their laurels, Curious are firmly set on the future and working on several initiatives.
The brewery recently purchased Wild Beer Co. from administration and are now in the process of working with their brewer and founder to bring those beers online at the Curious site. Although still in the early days this will mean new challenges with a lot more beer and many different styles. From a hygiene perspective, their famous Wild, or sour beer, can only be produced in an environment with impeccable hygiene standards.
Sustainability is a personal focus for Lynch this year. As well as looking at shortening raw material supply chains the brewery now sends spent grain to aerobic digestion rather than animal feed. There are also discussions underway with a local hop farmer about taking the used hops as potential fertiliser for next year’s hop crop which diverts it away from the drain.
Negotiations are under way with a new waste supplier to improve the brewery’s recycling programme and they are also looking into CO2 recovery, solar panels, and electric vehicles.
He concludes: “It’s a really exciting time and we have a ton of work to do to improve, but if we want to keep sourcing Kentish hops and British malt then we need to do our part to look after the farmers growing those crops. At the end of the day beer is a natural product and we need nature to provide – something which is looking increasingly challenging as climate change takes its toll.
CFH has always been supportive of using less chemical and optimising how we use it – this is counterintuitive for them as it means we would purchase less, but that’s a mark of a good supplier who looks after their customers and the environment as a whole rather than always selling more.”
In 2019 Curious won the UK Brewer of the Year award and Gold medal at the World Beer Awards for their product Curious Brew. The brewery continues to go from strength-to-strength.
SynerChi is Ireland’s original Kombucha brewery. Established in 2012, they have been based in their own custom, state of the art, BRCGS A++ facility in Gweedore, Co. Donegal since 2013. In that time they have created more than 20 Irish local jobs in the community. SynerChi are certified by The Organic Trust to produce organic products.
Of their process, the company said “Our unique micro-brewing craftsmanship produces authentic live kombucha in small batches and without the use of any artificial additives or preservatives. We have nurtured our culture and carefully blended the finest organic teas and tisanes resulting in a perfect synergy of natural ingredients.”
If you don’t know what kombucha is, then read on. Kombucha is a fermented tea product that is “live” and is generally made from green tea that is fermented with a “SCOBY” - an acronym for ‘Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast’.
The product is then enhanced with such natural flavours such as ginger, raspberry and apple. There are purported health benefits from the probiotic bacteria in the product and this market continues to grow rapidly. Allegedly kombucha culture can even be dried into bacterial cellulose and then moulded into forms to create seamless clothing!
The bottling line from Enterprise Tondelli consists of a de-palletising station feeding a rotary three station labeller. The labeller from BRB Globus in Italy is fitted with servo motor driven bottle platforms so that any future labelling combinations can be accommodated.
The bottles are labelled before filling as the drinks are carbonated and filled cold. This strategy avoids labelling on to bottles with condensation and allows more accurate labelling and better product presentation.
A packaged carbonator supplied by Enterprise Tondelli is used to carbonate the final drinks with fine bubbles giving a velvety mouth feel. The carbonator uses an in-line with flow meter control for accurate CO2 dosing and a stabilisation tank prior to filling all mounted on a stainless-steel skid. Also supplied is a Cimec rotary rinser, counterpressure filler and crowner mounted on the same stainless steel base frame to ensure high product hygiene. To enhance shelf life and potentially colour retention a double bottle pre-evacuation system is used with a final injection of CO2.
As this is a ‘live’ product cleaning in place is also very important and the filler has special stainless steel dummy bottles. For improved worker safety caps are loaded into a hopper at low level and then automatically delivered to the highlevel cap unscrambler by a pneumatic pipe system.
A two tank CIP set with flow and return pumps and electrically heated tank ensure the system is cleaned effectively with a control panel with timers and temperature settings. Conveyors from Enterprise Tondelli partner Euro Sistemi Srl complete the line to give a turnkey project.
Seamus McGowan, factory manager of SynerChi, explained: “We are very happy with the line supplied and commissioned by Enterprise Tondelli. The result of our collaboration together has been a bottling line to be proud of, giving us gains in efficiency and consistent highquality production.”
Garry Wilson, senior project manager for Enterprise Tondelli added: “It has been a pleasure working with Seamus and his team on this small but interesting project. By good cooperation the very best outcome has been achieved.” Enterprise Tondelli said they are very proud to be associated with SynerChi and continue to work in partnership with both small and large producers.
SYNERCHI KOMBUCHA RECENTLY COMMISSIONED A NEW AUTOMATIC BOTTLING LINE “TO BE PROUD OF”. THIS IS HOW, AND WHY, THEY DID IT.
THE WYNDRIDGE FARM CRAFT BREWERY AND CIDERY HAD AN URGENT PROBLEM THAT NEEDED TO BE SOLVED BEFORE IT COULD FULFILL A LARGE ORDER. THIS IS HOW THE FAMILYOWNED BUSINESS, SET IN BUCOLIC YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, GOT RID OF THEIR HEADACHE.
The Wyndridge Farm craft brewery and cidery is not only a popular destination with its restaurant and beer garden events, but it also serves as a contract manufacturer of craft beer, hard cider, hard seltzer, and nonalcoholic beverages.
“We detected unacceptably high levels of dissolved oxygen, a problem we urgently needed to cor-rect prior to packaging an order for 21,000 cases of craft beer from a European wholesaler,” explained Scott Topel, the Beverage Production Manager at Wyndridge.
Managing the level of dissolved oxygen (DO) is an essential part of the art and science of brewing beer. After the fermentation process is complete, the presence of elevated levels of oxygen
will degrade the quality and taste of the final product and shorten shelf life. Mitigating the risk of exposure to oxygen is especially critical during the packaging process that transfers the beer to cans, bottles, or kegs.
“High levels of DO can reduce the shelf life to less than three months, especially with IPAs where the effect of oxygen on the hops character is quite noticeable,” said Topel. “Ensuring a long shelf life is always important, but was absolutely necessary for this European order because the product would have to be shipped across the ocean and pass through customs prior to being distributed to stores and homes.
“We were able to diagnose the problem by taking measurements all along the production line. DO readings before and after the silicone hoses in the can-filling machine allowed us to pinpoint the location of the oxygen pick up. After a
lot of research, we found that silicone hoses actually do allow some measure of permeability.”
Topel reached out to Bill Winard, the U.S. Business Development Manager at Aflex Hose, a division of WatsonMarlow Fluid Technology Solutions (WMFTS), who visited the Wyndridge facility and recommended Aflex’s new Fabline SI PTFE hose. As the FaBLINE name denotes, the hoses are specifically designed for the food and beverage industry, including brewery applications. Developed to meet the latest hygiene standards, the patented PTFE-lined hose with standard 316 stainless steel braid ensures efficient product transfer and
handling while simultaneously offering an exceptionally long service life.
The design allows the PTFE liner to expand around the outside and compress around the inside of a bend. This helps to retain a smooth circular bore throughout the hose, without distortion, resulting in smooth, consistent flow with minimal turbulence.
This construction is ideal for the repetitive up-and-down action of food and beverage processing equipment, like the can-filling machine at Wyndridge. Laboratory tests have demonstrated that the Fabline hose construction can withstand more than 100,000 cycles of repetitive action, with small bending radii, at maximum working pressure, compared to competitor hoses that fail after less than 13,400 cycles.
“We received the Fabline hoses in the nick of time,” said Topel. “Within a day, we were able to reduce our dissolved oxygen levels from 100-150 parts per billion to well under 50, and therefore we were quite relieved to be able to ship the European order on time.”
The decision to replace the silicone hoses was originally driven by the need to reduce DO levels in order to preserve product quality and extend shelf life. After installation, the new Fabline hoses have brought other important benefits as well.
The new hoses have significantly reduced product loss in two different ways. The first reduction occurs continuously. With silicone hoses, at a microscopic level, there is enough undulation to cause some turbulence of carbonated products, making them foam over continually, resulting in a cumulative loss of 4% of the product to the ground. The FaBLINE hoses, with their smooth, circular bore, have reduced this type of loss to 2.3%.
A second way that the Fabline hose reduces loss occurs during the startup of the hard cider can-filling process. Previously, with the silicone hoses, it was necessary to bring the temperature of the lines down to below 40° F to avoid generating foam.
A scale measures the weight of each filled can, and if it contains too much foam, the can is automatically discarded — resulting in a loss of 2.5 or 3 cases at the beginning of each run. Now, with the FaBLINE hoses, the cider can move through the filling machine at 40-43° F without generating foam. Only one or two cans are now discarded at the start of each run.
Topal said: “We replaced the hoses due to an urgent need to bring down the dissolved oxygen in our beer, and the Fabline hoses immediately allowed us to achieve that goal. What we did not expect, but have come to really appreciate, is how the hoses have also allowed us to more smoothly run the canning operation for all our products, with much less waste.”
The process of traditional African brewing has been passed down by word of mouth through generations. Some of the equipment may have changed but the basic scientific principles of fermentation and mash conversion still hold true. Beers are made from locally grown cereals like sorghum, millet, rice, and maize which all have gelatinisation temperatures higher than malt (range 75 – 95C) which are above the deactivation temperature of malt starch hydrolysing enzymes.
This requires separate cooking and gelatinisation of the starch before cooling to allow the enzymes to break the starch down to fermentable sugars.
All the traditional brewers are faced with the same technical problem and each African country has developed their own solutions. Below we will describe quite different methods to produce beer in East & West Africa.
Visiting a traditional Ajon Brewery involved a meeting with Deo Lule, the head brewer of Uganda Breweries in Kampala.
Ajon splits mashing into two parts with the different grists being mixed together in the fermentation vessel. By splitting mash conversion, the brewer can achieve all the required operations of mashing without needing an accurate thermometer.
The process involves:
u Burying ground damp sorghum in the soil to encourage the growth of lactic acid bacteria which acidifies the grain.
u After a week the acidified grain is dug up and baked on an open tray to gelatenised the starch granules
rendering them accessible to enzymic attack. Acidification drops the pH in the fermenter to less than 5.0 which is suitable for the amylolytic enzymes.
u A separate portion of the grain is malted in the conventional way to produce sprouted sorghum which is sun dried and milled and provides the source of starch hydrolysing enzymes. The brewer thoroughly mixes 4 parts of the ground acidified cooked grain with 1 part of the malt at a ratio of 2.5 litres of water to 1 kg grist and is transferred to a plastic barrel (a repurposed 200 litre plastic drum) for fermentation. The volume is made up to the equivalent of 7 litres of water to 1 kg grist.
The wort is fermented in recycled plastic detergent drums and wet sacks are attached to promote cooling. Typical fermentations take around two days. During fermentation the enzymes break the starch to sugars allowing the bacteria and wild yeast from the malted grain and environment to ferment the wort producing a low alcohol beer.
Fermentation is carried out by a mixed population of micro-organisms whose activity is largely controlled by the fall in pH. Moulds only making a brief appearance at the start and is followed by the growth of lactic acid bacteria. Bacterial growth falls away as the pH continues to drop allowing the yeasts to flourish (particularly ale yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae sp.) and produce the alcohol.
With the help of Matthew Manyaga and members of the team from Diageo Kenya and During a visit to the country, visits to a sorghum maltings (steeping shown
Ajon production
Concentration of total reducing sugars in the fermentation mixture. Unlike conventional fermenta-tions the concentration of sugar increases at the start of the fermentation as the enzymes release sugars from starch found in the gelatinised grain.
Fall in pH during fermentation. The initial pH is lower than a normal brew because of the addition of the sour grains and continues to fall following the growth of lactic acid bacteria resulting in a lower final pH giving the beer a tart acidic/metallic flavour.
Microbial growth in a traditional fermentation. There is a rapid increase in acidity, which will halt am-ylase activity after the first 24 hours. The yeast fermentation then takes over to produce ethanol.
on the left) and a brewery in Moshi took place.
In Tanzania plantain (bananas) are commonly used as an adjunct to produce a fruitier beer. Traditionally beers were bittered with quinine, but at this time the practice had ceased, as it was considered a health risk.
Plantains are mashed and allowed to stand overnight where the banana juice concentrate acidifies, the extract is then squeezed out as shown below. This is mixed with a boiled malted sorghum mash to give the required acidity needed for mash conversion and fermentation. A handful of ground malted sorghum is added to the fermenter to supply the necessary enzymes.
The rest of the brewing and fermentation process is similar to that described for Ajon. The beer produced is quite thick and is usually drunk from cups which are consumed in the adjacent bar.
Accompanied by Miaro Rismalo and my brewing students we visited a Bili Bili brewery in the suburbs of N’Djamena in Chad which uses sorghum and occasionally rice to brew beer. Chad is one of the poorest countries in Africa and the affordability of the beer is important. Brewing Bili Bili is complicated and involves a series of mashing and
filtration stages to produce the wort for fermentation.
Ground Malted sorghum is mashed with warm water at around 60C, (below the starch gelatinisation temperature) and supernatant is filtered to be stored as a source of malt enzymes. Gumbo (the sap from the Triumfetta tree) is added as a clarification aid.
u The solid part of the mash (I) (remaining grain) is remashed and boiled for two hours to gelatinise the starch and then left to cool for a day.
u The liquid part of the mash (II) is kept separate and will be infected by natural airborne spoilage organisms (lactic acid bacteria) and the pH will fall between 4 – 5.
u Once the mash is cooled the two liquids are combined and left to stand at round 60C to let the enzymes break down the available starch to produce fermentable sugars.
u The wort is allowed to cool to ambient circa 25 to 30 C and is filtered through the basket with a bed of dried grass before being collected for fermentation.
This is similar to European style brewing and produces a relatively bright wort but has been adapted to meet the requirements to gelatinised sorghum.
Traditional African beers rely on spontaneous fermentation by “wild
yeast”, mixtures of yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. The predominant sugar extracted from the cereal is maltose and the most common yeast strain, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (top cropping Ale Yeast) is particularly well adapted to ferment “wort” and is the most prolific yeast variety found in any mixed culture fermentation.
Brewers go to great lengths to keep their source of yeast safe. For example, Belgium Lambic Brewers preserve their yeast and the microflora by not cleaning around their cooling and fermentation areas to preserve any microbes present and use wooden barrels infused with micro-organisms.
Tropical Brewers use clay pots which are infused with microbes and become a source of inoculating the wort. Both systems have limited capacity to hold micro-organisms and fermentation may be slower while yeast grow to complete the fermentation. Other breweries practice repitching or “back slopping” by saving yeast from an earlier fermentation often by skimming the foam and adding it to the next vessel to supply enough viable yeast to complete the process.
Examples of how yeast is preserved and transferred between traditional brews:
u In Uganda Ajon relies on microflora in the brewery to inoculate the wort and since the wort is not boiled the sorghum added to the mash is also a source of yeast and bacteria. The malted sorghum is actually referred to as “yeast” by the Brewers.
u In Tanzania the mash for Mbege is boiled with handfuls of raw malt added to the cooled acidified banana juice to provide the microbial inoculum to complete the fermentation.
u In Chad the brewers of Bili Bili use a process of back slopping. Good quality Bili Bili has a good foam present on the drinking vessel and once consumed the foam is collected by the server who uses it to repitch the next brew, perhaps not the most hygienic of processes. This may be necessary since fermentation is now
The process used for brewing (East African Uganda) is summarised on the leftin plastic containers rather than clay pots and can no longer carry the microflora from one brew to another.
Drinking beer was an important part of early cultures often based on rituals and ceremonies. With the introduction of European style beers many of the ceremonial functions have been stripped away and Traditional Beers have been relegated to the low-cost end of the market offering a more affordable source of alcohol.
Much is made about the ceremonial importance of “drinking through straws” shown in most images and carving of beer drinking in Africa and the Middle East. While this may be an important aspect of the beer drinking in some cultures my observations suggest that drinking through straws was restricted to unfiltered beers such as Ajon to separate the husk residue from the liquid but filtered beers such as Mbege and Bili Bili are drunk directly from a cup or gourd. In Africa traditional beer amounts to about a third of the total volume of beer produced and is generally consumed by the less well-off citizens. Many working people drink European Beers after they
receive their pay and traditional beer (which cost about 1/5 of commercial beers) until the next paycheck. The traditional beer is something of an acquired taste. The cost of a litre of beer in Tanzania is 10c US - around a 1/10 cost of regular lager.
Beer quality is important, most traditional beers have a short shelf-life, staying fresh for just a few days. The beer is usually drunk fresh in the brewery. The presence of beer foam is considered to be a good indicator of quality.
Similarities between current practices in Traditional brewing and those captured on early pottery show just how little has changed with the passage of time. It is possible to relate the current brewing practices with those shown in models and friezes many thousands of years old.
The similarities between the ancient and modern brewing practices and beer drinking are striking, making it a good way of appreciating ancient brewing methods which have been passed on by word of mouth and still being practiced today.
While practices remain unaltered over the centuries, new materials such
as metal pots and plastic tubs often recovered from larger commercial brewing have replaced many of the more fragile ce-ramic and wooden vessels. Acknowledgement: I would like to thank my local mentors and guides Dea Lule and Okelai John Ariko from Diageo Breweries Uganda, Matthew Manyaga from Diageo Moshi Brewery Tanzania, Luis Tamio Supply Chain Director and Miaro Rismalo Head Brewer Brasserie Castel Chad Brewer-ies as well as all my students in who all supported and accompanied me in the brewery visits and research.
1) Nicholas P Money “The Rise of Yeast” pub Oxford University Press 2018
2) Matthew A Carrigan “Why do we drink alcohol” presented at British Academy London 2018.
3) Tim O’Rourke “Brewing up the Past” Brewer International Volume 2 Issue 9 2002
4) Michaela Charles, Tasha Marka and Susan Boyle “A sip of Ancient Egyptian Beer part of Pleas-ant vice series”, Blog and video https://www.facebook.com/ britishmuseum/videos/ancient-egyptianbeer/754992025293909/
5) Ian Hornsey “Taming the Yeast” Brewer & Distiller International June 2011
In 2023, Elusive Brewing will celebrate its seventh birthday. Next issue we speak to the team about how the business has grown and evolved in that time. So it’s the perfect opportunity now to revisit those early, formative days of the brewery founded by Andy Parker and why homebrewing will always be in this blood.
The 8th September 2018 was something of a milestone for Andy Parker. His business, Elusive Brewing, was busy pouring its beers for the thousands of thirsty patrons at the second annual Beavertown Extravaganza event in London.
Breweries from across the globe were invited to attend and, for that festival, Andy’s particular neighbours were none other than Paso Robles, California-based Firestone Walker. Nearly five and a half thousand miles (5410, to be exact) separate those two very different breweries but on those two days, they were pouring as equals.
And for someone that discovered beers from breweries such as Sierra Nevada and Anchor Brewing during his time living on the West Coast of the USA twenty years previously, it’s hard to imagine the juxtaposition of breweries over that weekend was lost on him.
But with that done and dusted however, life goes on. And for Parker, speaking to us in the autumn of 2018, that involved attending the launch of your new book, conducting a live brew in Kent as part of Tunbridge Wells beer week, speaking at our own Brewers Lectures in Bristol and, of course, brewing, selling and distributing many, many beers in-between.
There’s something romantic about owning and running your own business, but when you are the business, then working the hours of 9 to 5 that Dolly Parton famously sang about are something of a pipe dream. For now, at least.
“These last 12 months have been great, but the whole experience has been very different from the 12 that came before them,” he explains.
Elusive Brewing had recently turned two, and much like the famed second album syndrome in music, it has been something of a learning experience, albeit a positive one.
“In our first year, every little detail was mapped out. We knew what events we wanted to attend, the beers we wanted to brew, and everything in the middle. Thankfully, we hit all of our
targets so my wife Jane asked me: ‘Well, what do you want to do’, so we decided to add some more tank capacity to grow into. We’ve been running at full capacity ever since.”
These two years have been something of a whirlwind for Parker and Elusive Brewing. Year two saw the brewery produce 50hl each month, a marked increase on the 30hl it was producing during the 12 months prior.
He explains that a firm eye on planning enabled the business to keep costs in check so rent and rates remained a manageable percentage of their revenue.
“I’m quite analytical and early on we were very systematic and went about executing the plan we had in place. It sounds all very corporate but we are not very corporate at all!” he laughs. “It was more that we had longer than initially planned before moving in, so we were able to map everything out. Year two was more about growth and getting to where we needed to be.”
Elusive has achieved that, too. Sales were up 50% at the end of their second financial year and the need to brew more beer, without growing too large, is on the agenda. Bigger prem-
ises both locally and a little further afield are being looked at. There is still the possibility it will remain on the Hogwood Industrial Estate it shares with Siren Craft Brew, just in a larger unit. Either way, Parker is firm on remaining in Berkshire. Once that move does happen, however, he sees the investment in double-size FVs as the immediate investment, long before the brewery’s brewhouse is replaced.
Although Parker has only been brewing professionally for little more than two years, he’s been a regular part of the London and UK beer scene. He is also known for being a super nice guy, too.
“I’m not sure where the reputation for me being a really nice guy came,” he smiles. “It’s also not a bad thing though, of course, and it’s much better being known as that rather than the biggest d*ck head in the industry!”
He explains: “I’ve spent the last 10 years or as part of the beer industry. Whether that was through attending events to nag brewers and learn from them or to bring some of my homebrew to places like the Indy Man Beer Con for feedback.
“I remember some early Magic Rock takeovers in London and then going up to Halloween events in North Bar, Leeds, and chatting to people thinking about how much of a cool industry it was and how it was something I wanted to be part of.”
One such person that stood out for Parker then, is Gregg Irwin, formerly of Weird Beard and then of Fourpure.
“I remember it was in August 2011 and there was a pre-GBBF Kernel tap takeover at Cask Pimlico, a night on which I’d also affirm my love of Saison,” he explains. “We’d go on to become good friends, but that night, Gregg certainly planted some seeds as he talked about the beers he’d created at home and his aspirations to brew commercially. He was, and remains, a huge inspiration to me personally, especially when I’d call up asking up on advice on how the hell I do something or other.”
That would not be the end of the role Craft Beer Co played in Elusive’s creation, either. In 2014, Parker scooped The Craft Beer Co’s National Home Brewer award. He was rewarded with a cash prize and also, the chance to brew on a commercial level with Sussex-based Dark Star Brewing.
His ‘Level Up American Red’ was born and other beers, such as Lord Nelson with Weird Beard, Dinner for One at Siren Craft Brew, and Lemon Head with Wild Weather Ales. Since it launched its profile on popular ratings site and app Untappd back at the end of 2012, 125 beers have been tagged, checked-in and enjoyed. Most of the time…
“The industry has obviously changed a great deal in recent years. Of course, there are an increasing amount of breweries and that change has been for the better in terms of quality improving,” says Parker. “A lot of that has been driven by a smaller businesses improving their processes as they grow. But there are aspects I also enjoy less.”
He adds “Look at beer Twitter. Back in the day, anyone I spoke
4.4% ABV
to, I also probably knew in person. With that, you’d understand each other’s tone, humour and everything that comes with it. Things have grown so you no longer have that personal dialogue as much. Don’t get me wrong, social media has helped beer in a major way. It has helped it grow and I won’t have discovered breweries like Magic Rock without it.
“Beer Merchants were also one of the first accounts I ever followed and they introduced me to breweries like Mikkeller, so it’s really helped increase awareness but that said it can be hard to switch off from it sometimes.
“The same applies if something like Untappd. You can be out with your mates watching football and your phone buzzes with a check-in from someone saying your beer is rubbish. It can put a dampener on things but at the same time, that rating could be a positive one, so it’s a two-way street. You want to feel like you’re engaged and maintain a dialogue, but it’s a case of recognising limits too.” Beers like its Level Up American Red, and Plan-B Belgian Pale have resonated with a diverse section of drinkers. From those that exclusively drink cask in haunts such as The Harp, a venerable pub in Covent Garden, to modern keg drinkers in bars across the land. People have also taken notice of the brewery’s branding too, a nod to the gaming eras of times gone by cherished by Parker.
“I don’t think we’ll ever move away from that style of branding, but I also think it can do a lot more for us, too. It needs to be at the front of what we’re doing. We will start canning later this year though and with that, we’ll work with talented individuals to revamp our artwork. I’m excited to see what they can with the canvas a can presents,” Parker explains.
And more recently, Andy Parker has been working on a canvas of a different kind. A year on from helping edit the UK edition of CAMRA’s Home-Brewing Problem Solver book, he proudly launched a title he co-wrote with Graham Wheeler, CAMRA’s Essential Homebrewing.
Pitched as a pocket guide for both old hands and novice homebrewers, the book identifies a dozen former homebrewers who have taken the leap to brew professionally. “Home brewing has enjoyed a similar resurgence, mirroring this growth in the number of commercial brewing operations, and today’s home brewer enjoys access to the same quality and range of ingredients as the professional with a vast number of options when it comes to selecting equipment,” says Parker.
“I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s strange to think that I started in this field as a hobby and to be in this position a few years later, doing it professionally and writing a book about it. It’s very rewarding, and a bit mad!”
The book was launched at the Beer Merchants tap bar in Hackney Wick this summer. Somewhat fitting, considering the role the Beer Merchants played in introducing Parker to various breweries.
The launch also allowed him to do what he does best, chat with people about beer, over a beer. That’s something that’s unlike to change any time soon, or ever.
“We’ve never wanted Elusive Brewing to be a big business, and it won’t be. I don’t want to be a people manager again because I had enough of that in a previous career. The way I see it, I can imagine Elusive being a team of three or four people at most because I want to keep things personal.” he explains.
“As long as we can do that, while maybe selling a bit of beer out of the front door, I’d be happy.
“Doing so would put us in a good position and things would be a bit more viable than they are now. At the moment we are a one a half person business and we work long hours.
“It’s not about getting rich and much bigger, it’s about looking after a small team and making beer that people enjoy.”
Finchampstead, Berkshire-based Elusive Brewing recently brewed a Brave Noise beer as their first beer of 2023.
Brave Noise is a global collaborative effort to provide inclusive and safe environments for women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ people throughout the beer industry. It began with Brienne Allan’s question on Twitter ‘Have you ever experienced sexism in the beer industry?’ which received an overwhelming international response. Brave Noise was born from this to honour those who have shared their stories and to raise awareness of anti-discrimination across the beer industry.
By brewing a Brave Noise beer Elusive hope to help to bring about a positive change in the beer industry. The beer, a West Coast Pale Ale, is Elusive’s take on the original Brave Noise
recipe which has been brewed across the world. It features Mosaic, Sabro and Talus hops kindly donated by Barth Haas X. Ruth Mitchell, managing director of Elusive Brewing said:
“There has been much talk about the issues faced by women and minorities in the beer industry over the past few years but very little action, especially in the UK. All too often people are outraged by the stories shared but then don’t do anything to improve things, and when they are no longer the hot topic, people move on.
“I am incredibly proud that by taking part in Brave Noise we are making a stand as a company, and doing something to help to make a real positive difference to our industry.
“The beer industry is on the whole a wonderful, inclusive, encouraging and supportive one, but the overwhelming reaction to Brianne’s question shows that we still have a way to go. So far 15 of the 2000+ breweries in the UK have brewed or pledged to brew a Brave Noise beer.
“There is still time to sign up and we really hope that more breweries join us to help make a great, big, brave noise.”
Estimated OG: 1.045
Estimated FG: 1.010
Estimated ABV: 4.5%
GRIST
Maris Otter Pale Malt 3.5Kg
Golden Promise Pale Malt 500g
Light Crystal Malt 60g
YEAST
WHC Labs LAX, pitch at 19C and hold for 7 days until final gravity reached
IBU: 30
EBC: 12
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72%
Boil Time: 60 min
Talus (9% AA) 10g @ 60m
Talus (9% AA) 10g @ 20m
Talus (9% AA) 10g @ 5m
Whirlpool Addition @ 80C Mosaic INCOGNITO (TM) 15g
DRY HOP
50g Sabro
50g Mosaic LUPOMAX(TM)
The Milwaukee mw102 pro+ ph meter has won fans around the world with its reliable, fast and simple operation as well as its toughness. accurate to ± 0.02 ph with automatic temperature compensation. Here, avid home brewer Paddy Finnegan puts it through its paces.
Ikeep threatening that I am going to get serious about brewing water. It has easily been my Brew Year’s Resolution since 2018. It’s a huge gap in my game and I’ve always known that when I give it the respect and effort it deserves my homebrew will be all the better for it. I decided to start on my journey to full out Aquaman by dipping my toe in via pH instead of diving all the way into water composition which scares the trub out of me if I’m honest.
I like to refer to myself as a “Monkey that glues metal together with heat” from my days as a full time sanitary welder which I freely admit is a far cry from being a chemist or a biologist.
PH adjustment has an impact at virtually all stages of a brew. Achieving optimal pH levels for your mash in and sparge help with the enzymatic conversion. Sparging with too high a pH can actually have an impact on the clarity of the beer. In the fermentation process different yeasts like different pH levels and will perform accordingly.
pH monitoring and adjustment has a larger impact on certain styles than others. Most beers hover around the 5 pH level but if we were to call out a standard range it would be 4 - 5.5. The refreshingly tart Berliner Weisse lands between 3.3 and 3.7 and it’s a process to get it there. My first experience with the PRO+ 2 in 1 was during this very process. I used reverse Osmosis (RO) Water and didn’t do any acidification prior to mashing in. I wanted to use the PRO+ to read and adjust in real time and it was a fun/stressful experience. Stressful only because of the nature of free wheeling like this and not in any way because of the meter. In fact the meter was incredibly easy to calibrate and use. I took the 1st reading 15 min into the Mash and it read 5.11 which was already a little lower than the target conversion range of 5.2 - 5.4 so I adjusted with 2 tablespoons of Gypsum to bring it up a little.
Anything between 5 - 6 pH will work so I didn’t stress on this step but I have since spoken to a good friend of mine that makes a mean Berliner Weisse professionally and he tells me that he likes to mash at 4.8 as it aids in head retention. I put that little nugget in my notes for the next brew.
I knew I wanted to get the pH down to the 4.5 before the 1st short boil (there are 2 boils in my recipe) because I read that
Pros
o Quick and simple calibration
o Accuracy of +/- 0.02 pH
o Automatic Temperature Compensation
o Easy to handle and operate o New sleek design
o Probe storage sleeve to keep crystal saturated
o Temperature probe for auxiliary uses
Cons
o Only initial calibration fluid comes with the unit. Single use and there is no rinse fluid
o 3’ of cable is unnecessary given that the unit is portable and even if not generally we take the samples to it
this also helps with head retention and if you leave it high the beer will take ages to come down in the Kettle depending on how you are using to cultivate the lactic acid with. I chose to “steep” it by tossing a few handfuls of unmilled two row into the hop spider. 24 hours later I took a reading and it had not dropped at all.
The PRO+ did its job. I hadn’t done mine. I did a little more research, dropped the temp in my kettle to 36*C form 46* C, purged the kettle’s headspace w CO2 and taped it all up. less than 24 hours later the pH had dropped from 4.5 to 3.42! I gave it another half day and went to my second boil when I got a reading of 3.36. Being able to grab a quick sample and knowing, not guessing, your pH instantaneously really made this brew special.
Historically I tried using pH Strips but gave up on them and just went by taste. If I’m honest I’ve probably avoided this style be- cause of not wanting to gamble on the level of acidity I was producing. Having this data on hand is what Brew4.0 is all about. Professional level intel for homebrewers is Milwaukee’s sweet spot.
I know this reads as a bit of a beginners guide to brewing a Berliner Weisse but that says something in itself. This instrument is so easy to use, and the info so incredibly useful that it’s hard not to focus on the outcome vs the data itself. Tuning in my Mash and Sparge/Pre Boil pH will only make the good bugs happier and isn’t that what we spend 5 - 10 hours brewing aiming for?
24 hours after using the meter to make and validate process adjustments
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