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Issue 4 Winter 2020

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SIBA independent brewer Issue 5 Spring 2021

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Brewing in the eye of the storm

Social Works

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“A hose is not just a hose…” Issue no: 5 Spring 2021

■ SIBA Independent Brewer is produced quarterly to coincide with major

industry events

■ Features on exciting brewers, independent breweries and Supplier

Associate businesses ■ 1,500 circulation includes distribution to 850+ British independent breweries - from microbrewer to leading regional - & 300+ SIBA Supplier Associate members ■ Edited by a professional, experienced

industry expert

■ SIBA members represent approximately 85% of the beer produced by British independent brewers brewing under 200k HL a year ■ The SIBA Independent Brewer offers brewers professional advice & guidance on numerous business matters

A History of SIBA

1977

And now for something completley different... Terry Jones enjoying a beer at Penrhos Court in Herefordshire.

A History of SIBA at 40

We asked Roger Protz, one of the best known and most respected beer writers of the last 40 years, to delve into the SIBA archives and speak to some of the pioneers from SIBA’s early days to find out more about how the organisation came to be founded and what has driven its growth since then…

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Spring 2020 | SIBA Independent Brewer | www.siba.co.uk

Comment: The Brewers Association

No matter where your beer comes from or what style you’re drinking we believe in working together to ensure it tastes as good as the brewer intended.

©Brewers Association

Independence

We recognised a lack of clarity of ownership in the marketplace as the global brewing companies seek to muscle in on the booming craft beer scene and acquire formerly small and independent brewers to present them as craft. Large multinational brewing companies have massive influence at distributor level and this gives them an unfair advantage. The beer drinker is confused and finds it difficult to identify beer from a truly independent producer. When a beer drinker walks into a bar and sees an array of tap handles, they don’t know which beers are truly independent. Many of those tap handles, while seemingly different, can often be owned all by the same large brewing company. We call this the ’illusion of choice’ and believe it is bad for the beer industry because it reduces choice.

So, in 2017 the Brewers Association launched the Independent Craft Brewers Seal to differentiate small and independent craft brewers from ‘big’ multinational brewers. It features an iconic beer bottle flipped upside down to signify the spirit with which craft brewers have upended the beer market, while informing beer lovers they are choosing a beer from a brewery that’s independently owned. Transparency of ownership is a key driver of purchase intent and 53% of beer lovers in the Sates indicate independent ownership as being important to them when purchasing beer. To date, more than 4,700 small and independent breweries have adopted the seal representing close to 80 per cent of craft beer brewed in the U.S. A desire for independence is spreading across the globe as beer lovers increasingly want to know who makes their beer and we are seeing independent seals popping up in other countries too, like Australia and Ireland.

Style Trends

American IPAs are the rock stars of the craft beer world and it was this style that caught the attention of the British beer drinker back in the late 1990s. Accounting for almost a third of all sales in America, the category is the primary driver of craft beer volume and is now more a platform for innovation than a style in itself. IPAs are synonymous with the craft beer revolution, offering hoppy innovation of their own with a variety of incarnations from 4% to 12% ABV, from fruity and floral to citrusy and piney. I often get asked what’s the next IPA? The answer: IPA.

Sessionable beers and lighter styles, including lighter fruit sours, are also growing. If the drinker isn’t looking for hoppy beers, data shows it’s to be likely something “light and crisp.” There are two reasons I think this is: lighter styles allow the aging craft beer drinker to continue to support their favourite brewery while limiting alcohol consumption, and they also provide an entry point for new craft drinkers more used to drinking mass produced lager. Consumer demand for new and exciting American craft beer styles is growing the world round. I’m often asked whether this is a good or bad thing for exported American craft beer.

©Brewers Association

Our belief is that growing the broader category of craft will result in high-profile listings for small, quality focused brewers regardless of origin. Most craft beer drinkers are curious and always seeking out the next big thing so a UK beer drinker who enjoys domestic craft will also seek out quality, imported craft as well. While beer drinkers may support their local brewery in their respective country, there is always scope to explore and discover beers from the great brewing nations of the world, including America. American and British craft beers are not mutually exclusive, rather we see them as complementing each other. One lifts sales of the other and vice versa. Variety drives sales.

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Spring 2020 | SIBA Independent Brewer | www.siba.co.uk A History of SIBA

The story of SIBA tells how a small group of dedicated beer lovers took on both the brewing establishment and the government and in so doing transformed the beer scene in Britain.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s the omens were not good for launching small breweries. The industry was dominated by six giant national groups that acted as a cartel while regional brewers enjoyed the comfort blanket of their tied estates of pubs. It was an industry that had seemingly impossible barriers for new producers to enter. David Bruce, founder of the Firkin chain of brew pubs, was one of those who crashed into the road blocks when he attempted to join the Brewers’ Society, forerunner of the British Beer & Pub Association.

“I told them I was a fully licensed commercial brewer but they said I was too small and they represented big brewers, not entrepreneurs. I was also turned down by the Worshipful Company of Brewers.” Bruce met up with a small group of kindred spirits who faced even greater difficulties: they didn’t own any pubs and they couldn’t get their beers into outlets owned by national and regional brewers. The pioneers included Simon Hoskins of Tower Bridge Brewery, Patrick Fitzpatrick of Godsons, Mark Wallington of Archers, and James Lynch of Bourne Valley. “We used to meet for lunch on Fridays once a month in a Davy’s Wine Bar in London called the Boot & Flogger,” David Bruce recalls. “They were very long lunches and we then drove home – fortunately before the breathalyser was introduced.” These boozy events had a serious intent. With his love of dreadful puns, Bruce labelled the group SLOBA, which stood for the Society of London Brewers. “We were a bunch of renegades,” he says. Their aim was to make good beer but they had to break the monopoly grip of the bigger brewers. Bruce then had the good fortune to meet Dave Roberts who was keen to open his own brewery, Pilgrim in Surrey. Roberts visited Bruce’s Fox & Firkin in Lewisham to see if he could buy similar brewing equipment and was encouraged the join the SLOBA group as he had muchneeded experience of government. Roberts was a former civil servant who had worked at the top level of the Welsh Office and had been seconded to the Ministry of Defence. He knew how Whitehall worked and how to get the ear of politicians and policy makers. Memories differ over where the first formal meeting to set up SIBA, first known as the Small Independent Brewers Society, took place. David Bruce believes it was at the Cross Keys pub in Wootton Basset in Wiltshire, while Dave Roberts thinks it was the offices of the brewery supplies group Murphy’s. What is certain is that Bruce’s wife, Louise, became the first voluntary secretary and Dave Roberts was put in charge of campaigns. The collegiate nature of the small brewers is highlighted by Dave Roberts’ experience. He watched brewing at the Fox & Firkin and other Bruce brew pubs then installed similar kit at his site in Reigate. “David came down to help me set it up, then one of his team, a brewer who had trained at Heriot-Watt, spent a day showing me how to brew – and then I was on my own!”

The fledgling group had some star dust sprinkled on it when it had the good fortune to attract the interest of Peter Austin who had connections to the Monty Python star Terry Jones. Jones, who died in January this year, recalled in an interview in 2008 with the Morning Advertiser that the Python team had unexpectedly made a lot of money from their film Monty Python and the Holy Grail and one way to avoid being hammered by the tax man was to invest in a business.

Jones loved beer, he was a member of CAMRA and he put money into launching a brewery at Penrhos Court in Herefordshire in 1977. He teamed up with Peter Austin, former head brewer at the Hull Brewery, who was keen to build and develop kit suitable for small brewers. Penrhos survived for only a few years but it had put down a marker and the publicity it generated as a result of Terry Jones’s involvement encouraged a number of beer lovers to open their own plants. Peter Austin was invited to become SIBA’s first chairman. Dubbed “the father of micro-brewing”, he opened his own brewery in Ringwood in Hampshire in 1978 where he achieved further fame when his Old Thumper strong ale was named CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain in 1988. He then toured the world, installing brewing kit in many new small breweries in the United States, France, Africa and China.

With Austin in the chair, SIBA attracted more members, including Carola Brown from Ballards in West Sussex and Simon Whitmore who founded Butcombe in Avon in 1978. Whitmore was a major influence. He forced the bigger brewers to sit up and take notice of SIBA as he had been managing director of Courage Western in Bristol and knew the industry inside out. At Butcombe he installed a 45-barrel kit that produced 150 barrels a week for 250 outlets in Avon and Somerset. Many of those pubs had been Courage houses that Whitmore had adroitly sold off when he was running Courage: it was a classic example of gamekeeper turned poacher. He proved to his fellow SIBA members that it was possible to brew substantial amounts of beer, get them into free trade accounts and, most importantly, make a good living at the same time.

Peter Austin and Dave Roberts said SIBA’s main role had to be campaigning for drastic changes in the way duty was levied on beer. In Britain, duty was paid on original gravity, a measure of the fermentable materials – malted grain and such additives as brewing sugar – and brewers of all sizes paid the same rates.

“Small brewers had one hand tied behind their backs,” Dave Roberts says. “The straight line in duty meant the bigger brewers could afford to offer big discounts to pubs and supermarkets as well as selling through their tied estates. We argued that small brewers needed a 50 per cent discount on duty.” SIBA members did benefit from the switch from duty based on original gravity to alcohol by volume. It meant in effect that tax was paid when the beer was ready leave the brewery and was known as “factory gate duty”. “When duty was paid on OG,” Roberts adds, “small brewers had to borrow to pay their monthly bills.”

"I told them I was a fully licensed commercial brewer but they said I was too small and they represented big brewers, not entrepreneurs. I was also turned down by the Worshipful Company of Brewers." David Bruce

Continued on page 28

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Leading in Diversity and Inclusion

At the Brewers Association we believe beer is for everyone and we continue to be proactive in advancing the brewing community’s path of diversity and inclusion. Our Diversity Committee works to cultivate conversation and action and has led to initiatives like the hiring of the Brewers Association’s first ever Diversity Ambassador, Dr. J Nikol Jackson-Beckham. In addition to traveling to state guilds and craft brewing community events to speak on best practices, she’s helped us publish a new set of guidelines that lay the groundwork for addressing, creating and managing a diversity and inclusion program for breweries. Another initiative by the committee has been the introduction of a grant in support of local and regional events that foster and promote a more diverse and inclusive beer community. By funding these projects, our goal is to inspire festival organisers to reach a broad and diverse group of festival attendees, foster growth and stimulate a cultural shift in beer.

Quality

American craft beer is exported all round the world, but it is a perishable product and requires Comment: The Brewers Association

all parties in the supply chain to be singing from the same song sheet. Beer drinkers are becoming more knowledgeable than ever before about shelf life, BBDs and flavour and this is helping to ensure higher standards are maintained throughout the supply chain. Just one bad experience can put off a potential customer from purchasing your beer again. The Brewers Association publishes the Draught Beer Quality Manual (DBQM) an easy guide to draught line cleaning, system components and balance, proper pouring technique, glassware sanitation and more. Despite being written for an American market much of the information contained within DBQM is relevant to the UK and can be downloaded FREE OF CHARGE from http://www.draughtquality.org/ We also produce a raft of literature and resources to help our international trading partners understand and appreciate American craft beer and these are available to download free of charge from www.brewersassociation.org

American Craft Beer in the UK

The Brewers Association EDP has been actively supporting American craft beer in the UK for the last 15 years and enjoys a long-standing and mutually beneficial relationship with CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival every August. Lotte Peplow, our American Craft Beer Ambassador for Europe, is based in the UK and her role is to educate and inform the trade and industry about American craft beer while raising its profile amongst beer drinkers. Her relatively new appointment shows our commitment to advancing and elevating American craft beer in the UK and Europe. We have also appointed a new Ambassador in China to help our members grow their businesses on the other side of the world. We enjoy a strong relationship with SIBA because no matter where your beer comes from or what style you’re drinking we believe in working together to ensure it tastes as good as the brewer intended.

And what of the next 40 years…..it’s an incredibly exciting time to be a beer drinker and I can foresee greater innovation, greater creativity and greater choice in the craft beer industry. Cheers to that!

For more information go to www.brewersassociation.org

©Brewers Association

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