SIBA Independent Brewer Autumn Edition

Market

As I write this, the last rays of summer are beginning to give way to crisper mornings, and the idea of enjoying a pint of porter in front of a roaring pub fire is not as objectionable as it might have been during the furnace days

Autumn is a season I usually enjoy. But with falling temperatures and rising energy costs, this particular change of season brings with it a great deal of trepidation and continued uncertainty for the independent brewing sector. New Prime Minister Truss has acted to cap the unit cost of energy for businesses for now, but we are still awaiting detail of the plan and for confirmation of what support will be made available six months from now, and beyond that. With the economy unlikely to bounce back quickly from this historic low point,

independent brewers will undoubtedly need longer term support to avoid slashing growth or even closures.

However, there is strength in numbers. And SIBA, as it always has done, is battling behind the scenes on behalf of all our members to win the on-going support the sector needs from Government. Do watch out for the regular SIBA Brewing in Brief updates hitting your inbox which will help keep you informed of progress – and if you’re not signed up for these please do so by emailing membership@siba.co.uk.

Back to this edition of the magazine, and in this issue we feature a brewery that has weathered not just the storms of the past three years, but those of the last three decades. Rooster’s Brewing in Harrogate was founded in 1993, and as it prepares to celebrate 30 years in the trade we caught up with Commercial Director Tom Fozard, who runs the business with brother Oliver and father Ian (also a former SIBA National Chair), to find out more about this pioneering brewery and its continuing success story (see Business Profile on pages 30-37). We also feature a guest column in this issue from beer writer David Jesudason (see pages 28-29), who offers his very personal take on the issue of diversity in brewing, and how important it is to his children’s generation to be inspired by seeing more people-of-colour in positions of leadership.

Welcome to the Autumn edition of SIBA’s Independent Brewer Magazine

Our cover stars for this issue are Linda Birch and her dog Pepper who are from Brewery Market, which achieved a Highly Commended at this year’s SIBA Business Awards. We caught up with Linda for our Meet the Retailer profile (see pages 40-47) to find out more about her story.

Elsewhere, we bring you our first dedicated Homebrew in Focus column from Andy Parker at Elusive (see pages 22-23), and we will be launching a SIBA membership category for homebrewers shortly so watch this space.

Also just launched is our SIBA International Brewing Membership, and you can find details of that on pages 26-27, as well as an International feature on Beer & Food Matching in the US (see pages 52-55).

And if you are looking to grow your own Head Brewers of the future, then check out our feature on the new Brewer Apprenticeship – all the details on pages 64-69.

Happy reading! And please do keep sending me your press releases, updates, news and views to caroline.nodder@siba.co.uk so that we can share your experiences, thoughts and successes in future magazines – the deadline for submissions for our Winter edition will be October 24th 2022.

Caroline Nodder

Cover

Our canine cover star for this issue is the very photogenic Pepper, who along with owner Linda Birch who appears next to her, runs award-winning single site beer retailer Brewery Market in Twickenham. The small business has carved a niche in the middle of this rugby pub heartland and truly sits at the heart of its community. Find out more in our Meet the Retailer profile on pages 40-47.

News

SIBA news All the news from SIBA HQ

SIBA Regional Beer Competitions

Results from the Midlands and Scotland

Brewery News The latest from our Brewing Members around the UK

Supplier News Updates from SIBA’s Supplier Associate Members

Comment

7 Chairman's Comment Roy Allkin, SIBA’s National Chair, on the importance of regional representation

Meet the team Introducing SIBA’s new Business Development Officer Charlie Docherty

The View From Westminster Our regular political update

Homebrew in Focus Andy Parker from Elusive Brewing looks at how homebrewing influenced the creation of his best-seller, Oregon Trail

How Did I Get Here? David Jesudason considers the impact that representation can have in an industry sadly still lacking in diversity

Brewer's Viewpoint Greg Pilley from Stroud Brewery on why cask ale is the ultimate green product 50-51 Brewer's Viewpoint Jiddler’s Tipple’s Jacob Liddle outlines his journey to sustainability

Technical Focus Brewlab’s Dr Keith Thomas goes digital

Brewer's Viewpoint Powderkeg’s Jess Magill on why independent brewers need to fight back against big beer’s ‘crafty’ moves

Features

SIBA International Membership The launch of a new SIBA membership category

Business Profile As the iconic brewery approaches its 30th anniversary, we meet Rooster’s Commercial Director Tom Fozard

Meet The Retailer A profile of SIBA Business Award finalist Brewery Market in Twickenham

Taproom Focus Featuring the Beer Hall at Everards’ new Meadows site

Beer & Food Matching The Brewers Association’s Lotte Peplow looks at the power of pairings

Business Advice Legal, intellectual property and consumer insight

Brewing Apprenticeships How can breweries benefit from the sector’s new apprenticeship programme?

Members Close Brothers and Thomas Fawcett and Sons

& Silver

of our key sponsors

SIBA contacts

Regional representation

September was a very important month in the history of our industry as we marked 20 years of Small Breweries’ Relief, a piece of Government policy which has had an unprecedented effect on the independent brewing industry in the UK.

To mark the occasion, myself and other representatives from SIBA including former Chairman Keith Bott, South East Chair Andrew Heywood, and SBR campaigner Eddie Gadd, were involved in a very special brew day at Five Points brewery in Hackney. Five Points has been a huge supporter of SIBA in recent years and has done much to fight for positive reform of SBR.

The beer itself is a British style IPA featuring all-British grown malt and carefully selected hops, the names of which form the letters SBR: Sovereign, Bullion and Relentless - the latter of which is a brand-new experimental British hop. The brew day went well and I am very much looking forward to trying the beer when it is launched as part of an ‘SBR at 20’ event in October, which will also see the publication of a report analysing the impact of Small Breweries’ Relief over the last two decades.

But what now? After 20 years unchanged, and following a long and detailed review, Small Breweries’ Relief was set for reform and adaptation, to become part of the new ‘Small Producers’ Relief’ – which would include other independently produced British drinks such as cider. Recent changes in Government have put the implementation of these proposed changes on hold, which is causing further uncertainty

for our sector at a time when so many things feel very much up in the air. From energy to raw ingredients, costs are rising for small independent breweries making it even more pressing that Prime Minister Liz Truss and her Government press on with the proposed changes and give breweries certainty over what their tax bill will look like in the year ahead.

SIBA has been fighting your corner on this and many other issues, calling on Government to end the uncertainty over Small Producers’ Relief, and pushing for energy price caps for businesses.

As always, SIBA has been fighting your corner on this and many other issues, calling on Government to end the uncertainty over Small Producers’ Relief, and pushing for energy price caps for businesses.

However, in order to properly represent the membership to Government it is vital that you have the opportunity to raise concerns, feedback on your business operations, and discuss with fellow brewers the issues most important to you

right now – and the best way to do this is in the open forum of regional meetings. Speaking to Regional Directors I know that some meetings have been quieter than usual, which is perhaps as much a sign that we are all busy (I hope so!) as anything, but taking an hour or so out of your schedule could be hugely valuable. As well as being an opportunity to hear regional updates and speak to fellow brewers your regional meeting is a chance to hear from and ask questions of the SIBA HQ Senior Management team on a variety of issues – from lobbying and legislation, to promotional opportunities, press and marketing.

So please do check www.siba.co.uk/calendar and make sure that the next regional meeting and beer competition are in your diary - myself or a member of the team will see you there.

Roy Allkin Chairman SIBA

James Calder has stepped down as Chief Executive of SIBA

After three years as Chief Executive of SIBA, and five years with the trade association in total, SIBA’s board confirmed in July that James was stepping down on 1st August to take on a new challenge.

As this magazine went to press, the search was already well underway for a successor for the CEO role, with an announcement to SIBA Members expected in due course. Under James’ tenure, SIBA has supported every independent brewery in the UK through Covid, providing them with the latest information, support and guidance. In Scotland, SIBA secured the Scottish Brewery Support Fund and in England, Wales and NI, lobbied successfully to ensure breweries were prioritised for financial support.

SIBA begins member expansion with launch of new

James has also overseen negotiations with Government over the future of Small Breweries’ Relief, securing changes which protect more breweries whilst ensuring the system allows the potential for growth and positive reform.

SIBA has also provided more benefits to members, revamped its beer competitions and saw a hugely successful return to Liverpool for BeerX 2022 under James’ leadership.

James said: “It has been an immense privilege to lead SIBA through the most difficult period in its history. I am especially proud and grateful to the team I have led. I am sad to be leaving SIBA, but I am also proud of what we have achieved. I wish SIBA, its members, and all independent breweries across the UK well.”

National Chair of SIBA, Roy Allkin, said: “Through unprecedentedly challenging times for the brewing and hospitality industries over the last few years, James was always keen to ensure that SIBA’s members were fully represented and that the sector wasn’t left adrift. James will be an asset wherever his career takes him.”

Chair of the executive committee Francis Patton said: “I have enjoyed working with James over the last three years and under his leadership SIBA has become closer to its members and helped many brewers through challenging times during the pandemic. I wish him well in his future career.”

SIBA’s senior management team are managing the organisation on a day-to-day basis with support from SIBA’s executive until an appointment is made.

SIBA is expanding its membership remit with three new member categories launching in 2022, starting with International Brewing Membership which opened in August.

SIBA International Brewing Membership is open to independent breweries anywhere outside of the UK and includes a range of membership benefits, including access to the newly launched SIBA International Beer Awards.

“SIBA will offer our new International Brewing Members a variety of brewery business tools, UK promotional opportunities for their beer and brands, professional advice on essential business areas such as marketing or UK legislation, and free delegate tickets to BeerX –the UK’s biggest beer and brewing trade event - where our new International Awards will take place,” said Neil Walker, SIBA Head of Comms & Marketing.

Only SIBA International Brewing Members will be eligible to enter beer into the newly launched SIBA International Beer Awards, with a broad variety of internationally recognised style categories judged by some of the UK’s most experienced beer judges, Beer Sommeliers, and Master Brewers.

The awards include Belgian, French and Trappist styles, amongst others, alongside Pale Ale, IPA, Speciality & Sour beers, as well as more traditional British styles such as Bitter and Stout. The judging and awards presentation will take place as part of BeerX UK in March 2023.

“Our new SIBA Independent Beer Awards are a truly unique competition and a first for the UK. We’re really excited about bringing in craft breweries from across the Globe and can’t wait to see who comes out on top. All of the judging and the awards presentation will take place at BeerX – the UK’s biggest beer and brewing trade event – so winners will get to accept their awards on the UK’s most prominent beer

industry stage,” Neil added.

Later this year SIBA will also be bringing amateur brewers into the fold through a homebrewing membership category, offering advice on turning professional, as well as the opportunity for technical Q&As with well-known craft brewers, a quarterly printed magazine, brewing tools and guidance, plus a new homebrew competition – again set to take place at the flagship BeerX event.

The final new member category, launching by the end of 2022, is to open SIBA membership to bottleshops – offering advice, guidance and Government lobbying support, as well as access to an exclusive retailer showcase at BeerX and more.

For more information on SIBA International Brewing Membership or the SIBA International Beer Awards visit www.siba.co.uk/international and see pages 26-27 in this issue.

'Brew For Ukraine’ beer was poured in Parliament’s Strangers’ Bar

A British-brewed beer created in support of Ukrainian refugees was served in Parliament over the summer - giving MPs and Ministers the opportunity to help raise money for the relief effort.

White Crow, a 4.5% ABV Blonde ale brewed by Bridgehouse Brewery in Keighley, West Yorkshire, was a guest beer at the Strangers’ Bar in the Houses of Parliament. All profits from the specially brewed beer were to be donated to the #HelpUkraine Emergency Appeal.

“We were greatly disturbed by the events in Ukraine which struck a chord with everyone at the brewery,” said Bridgehouse Brewery Manager James Kelly. “We therefore decided to do what we do best and get brewing to support those in need and launched a special one-off blonde ale to raise funds for the Help Ukraine appeal.”

The brewery has been working with the Brew For Ukraine initiative which saw more than 600 breweries signed up worldwide including over 70 in the UK. Each supportive brewery is producing original Ukrainian recipes or

Ukrainian themed beer to raise money to support the relief effort with over $1 million raised so far.

Steve Davison from Brew for Ukraine joined local MP Robbie Moore, Mike Wood MP and SIBA’s Head of Public Affairs, Barry Watts, to launch the beer in Parliament.

Steve Davison said: “We’ve had a fantastic response from independent brewers in the UK and worldwide who have come together to Brew for Ukraine and raise much needed funds to help the relief effort. It’s great to see one of the beers poured in Parliament with MPs having the chance to give their support. Thank you to Jake Berry MP and Robbie Moore MP for securing the guest beer slot in Strangers.” MP for Keighley and Ilkley Robbie Moore said: “We have all been horrified by the distressing humanitarian situation in Ukraine and it’s great to see our independent brewers standing with the Ukrainian people and supporting the relief effort. It’s a privilege to pour one of the first pints of White Crow in Parliament and I will be encouraging all my colleagues to offer their support by sampling Bridgehouse Brewery’s beer this week.”

Pub landlords locked into buying from big brewers and pubcos should be given ‘Guest Beer right’

SIBA has called on the Government to introduce a new “Guest Beer right” which would allow every pub in the country to serve at least one beer from a small local brewery.

Currently thousands of landlords across the UK are tied into contracts which force them to purchase all of their beer and many other drinks from a single big brewery or pub company. Not only would a right to buy a Guest Beer help pubs attract more business, but it would improve consumer choice and help local brewers who have been hit hard over recent years.

“Pub-goers want to see more beer from small breweries sold in pubs and the review of the Pubs Code provides the opportunity for the Government to give tied pub tenants in England and Wales the same right to offer a guest beer as is being introduced in Scotland.

“Pub tenants should have the freedom to purchase a beer from a local small brewery which would expand consumer choice and allow tenants to meet their customers’ expectations and compete more effectively with nearby freehouses,” said Roy Allkin, SIBA’s National Chairman.

The Government is currently carrying out its second statutory review on the operation of the Pubs Code and the performance of the Pubs Code Adjudicator. The Code came into force in 2016 with the aim of regulating the relationship between pub companies and their tied pub tenants.

A SIBA/YouGov poll earlier in the year found that three quarters of drinkers believe it is important that local pubs offer a range of craft beer from small breweries.

Purity Brewing and Grainstore Brewery take top accolades at the SIBA Midlands Independent Beer Awards

Purity Brewing in Alcester and Grainstore Brewery in Oakham took home the overall Gold awards in SIBA’s Midlands Independent Beer Awards in Cask and Keg beer – making them officially the two top beers in the Midlands for 2022.

The awards were hosted this year by the Rail Ale Festival at the Roundhouse, near Chesterfield.

Purity’s ‘Pure Helles’ (5% ABV) won the top Gold in the keg category and is a traditional German pale lager beer. Pure Helles uses the finest English Maris Otter malt, Pilgrim hops from Worcestershire and a blend of classic German hops of the highest quality that give Pure Helles a clean, refreshing and bright appearance.

Paul Halsey, CEO and Founder of Purity, said: “We’re delighted to win this award. It’s been 17 years in the making. I’ve been working with colleagues from Maisel’s brewing in Germany for a long, long time. They are the experts of German lager and this beer was born out of a collaboration they did with us. They helped us really refine how to make a great, great Helles. This beer is gluten free, vegan and organic. We’re delighted to win Gold.”

Grainstore Brewery’s ‘Rutland Beast’ (5.3% ABV) took home the overall gold in Cask beer in the Midlands. Rutland Beast is strong yet exceptionally balanced. Dark earthy brown in colour it’s brewed using a combination of seven different malts and wheats, as well as three classic hop varieties and is described as a ‘bit of an animal’.

Steve Fuller, Sales Manager from the Grainstore Brewery, said: “It’s an incredible achievement for everyone at the brewery. I’m lost for words. The folks in the brewery make some exceptional beer. Rutland Beast is a dark beer, that’s very tasty and it sells very, very well. I hope that this Gold makes my life as a Sales Manager that little bit easier because it’s a beer that deserves to be enjoyed in every pub across the Midlands!”

The SIBA Independent Beer Awards have been entirely revamped for 2022 featuring a brand new set of judging criteria, an internationalstandard scoring system and hugely experienced ‘lead judges’ on each table.

See the full list of winners from the Midlands on pages 70-71

Brewers left in limbo over alcohol duty changes

Roy Allkin, SIBA’s National Chair, issued a statement following news from the Government this summer that the timetable for the reform of the alcohol duty system had been delayed.

The Government announced delays to the next stages of the alcohol duty system changes which puts its implementation timetable at risk. It was announced in October 2021 that the associated primary legislation would be published in draft in Summer 2022 for consultation so that it could be introduced through the 2022/23 Finance Bill. But in a Written Statement on 20 July 2022, the Minister announced that the Government will now respond in the autumn,

leaving little time to consult and deliver the changes by 1 February 2023.

Responding to the announcement, SIBA’s Chair Roy Allkin said: “Independent brewers have been waiting on tenterhooks for the next stages of the alcohol duty changes and are deeply disappointed that we’ll now have to wait until the autumn to know what the final reforms will look like. These changes include the Draught Duty Rate that will provide a much needed boost to community pubs and independent brewers by providing a duty discount on beer sold in pubs.

“This delay puts the Government’s timetable for implementation at risk, leaving little time to consult on changes to legislation in the autumn.

Many small and independent brewers have already made business decisions for next year that rely on these widespread changes to duty being introduced on time and any delay will create further uncertainty.

“Small brewers and pubs have been left in limbo at a time when businesses need support as they have to deal with a multitude of supply constraints and the cost of living crisis. We call on the Government to commit to achieving the changes in February next year and ensuring that community pubs and independent brewers will be able to benefit from the new Draught Duty Rate as soon as possible.”

Some of the most important work SIBA does is engaging and helping members engage with their local MPs.

SIBA’s new Public Affairs and Policy Officer, Will Lockwood, would be more than happy to help you engage with your local MP, whether that would be to organise a meeting or to help you arrange a brewery tour with them.

If you want to speak to Will to get his help you can email him on will.lockwood@siba.co.uk or give him a call on 07511209258.

and Stainless process systems

Loch Lomond’s 12% Whisky barrel-aged Scotch Ale named best beer in Scotland by expert panel

Loch Lomond Brewery has been awarded the Overall Champion Cask Gold in the SIBA Scotland Independent Beer Awards 2022, the beer industry’s most prestigious expert-judged awards.

The brewery’s 12% Scotch Ale ‘Long Road Home’ impressed judges with huge flavours of molasses, sweet malt and a distinct vanilla richness from the Speyside Whisky Cask barrel-ageing.

Fiona MacEachern from Loch Lomond Brewery collected the award and had this to say: “We’re absolutely delighted to win this award with a beer that we are hugely proud of, and one which shows why traditional Scottish beer styles such as Scotch Ale can be really delicious. The beer itself is big, full-flavoured and really complex, but also has a surprising drinkability and smoothness to it which I’m glad the judges enjoyed.”

The SIBA Scotland Independent Beer Awards are blind-tasted by expert beer judges, Beer Sommeliers, and Master Brewers from outside the region, with the winners of each beer-style category going through to a final judging table where the overall Champion Gold, Silver and Bronze are selected. The judging took place this year ahead of the opening of Indie Beer Scotland, a new independent craft beer festival at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, where all of the award-winning beers were on sale to the public.

Cairngorm Brewery’s ‘Wildcat’ Best Bitter took the overall silver, with Harviestoun’s Schiehallion Cask Lager in the Overall Bronze medal position. Awards were handed out across 10 different style categories, from IPAs and Pale Ales, to Stouts and Speciality beers.

“Huge congratulations to Loch Lomond on taking home the Overall Gold in what was a

Could your beer be a Guest Beer in Parliament?

As you may know, Parliament's Strangers’ Bar has a weekly guest beer, which is sold to MPs in the bar. You are able to request your beer be served in Parliament.

This is an excellent promotional opportunity which you are able to make a real splash of it. It gives you the opportunity to visit the Houses of Parliament, meet with your local MP in Parliament, have photos taken with your beer on the bar in Strangers’ Bar with your MP, and provides excellent content for social media and also a fantastic opportunity to get local press coverage. SIBA can also provide you with a template press release to send to your local press.

We can be there to support you all the way, including on the day in Parliament if you wish. If you decide you want to request your beer be served in Strangers bar, please either e-mail will.lockwood@siba.co.uk or your local MP who will be able to assist you.

Let us know if you have been chosen so we can help you keep an eye out for when your beer is pouring!

hugely competitive and high-quality judging day. With such a high standard of entries taking home a category win is tough enough but to then be named Champion Overall really is a huge achievement. The Gold category winners from Scotland will now go forward to battle it out with the rest of the UK at the National Finals in Liverpool next year and I’d like to wish them all the best of luck,” said Neil Walker, SIBA Head of Comms & Marketing.

Indie Beer Scotland and the SIBA Scotland Independent Beer Awards were organised by brewers from SIBA.

Find the full list of award-winning Scottish breweries on pages 72-73.

International Trade Week

The Secretary of State for International Trade has announced that International Trade Week (ITW) is returning, from 31 October until 4 November 2022.

Following the success of ITW 2021, registration has now been opened for businesses to sign up to attend International Trade Week 2022.

ITW 2022 will showcase exciting announcements as well as a diverse range of business and government-led events and workshops to suit every stage of your trade and exporting journey.

Businesses of all sizes, all sectors and from all regions of the UK, who are looking to maximise global opportunities created by trade, are invited to register, and explore new markets for their goods or services.

If you are interested you can sign up at www.events.great.gov.uk/ website/8822/itw-2022/

Celebrating 20 years of Small Breweries’ Relief

September saw an important milestone for the beer and brewing industry20 years of Small Breweries' Relief.

The anniversary was marked with a very special brew day at Five Points in Hackney, attended by some current and past representatives of SIBA who have been influential in SBR’s history as well as members of the press and Five Points brewers.

The brew day took place ahead of a Parliamentary debate titled ‘Impact of Small Breweries’ Relief on independent brewers’, led by Owen Thompson MP who challenged the Government on the future of SBR as well as the wider cost of living issues threatening the sector.

The beer itself is an English IPA made with all British ingredients including Sovereign, Bullion, and Relentless (SBR) - the latter being a brand new experimental British hop not currently commercially available.

The beer is due to be launched along with a report on the impact of SBR at the Five Points taproom in Hackney on the 16th of October.

SIBA appoints Laura Mackie as new Non-Executive Director

The SIBA team is pleased to welcome Laura Mackie on board as a SIBA Non-Executive Director, sitting on the SIBA Executive Board.

A highly commercial and experienced NED, Laura brings a breadth of finance and FMCG experience to the Executive Board.

With senior sales and marketing leadership experience within the brewing sector, Laura is well placed to understand the pressures and opportunities that our members face.

Born and raised in Burton, Laura says: “I have a genuine affinity for SIBA’s mission and am keen to drive sustainable growth initiatives for our category.”

SIBA responds to Government’s announcement on energy

The Government announced in September that it would be introducing a cap on the price per unit of energy used by businesses, in response to huge concern from business owners about rocketing energy costs.

In response to the new Prime Minister’s announcement, SIBA’s National Chairman Roy Allkin said in a statement: “Small independent breweries have faced some of the most challenging circumstances in the past few months with energy prices skyrocketing, CO2 costs rising and shortages of supplies along with a cost of living crisis hitting consumer confidence. Today’s bold and welcome intervention by the Government will provide some certainty for the next six months on energy bills but there will inevitably be concerns about what happens next year when this ends and whether small independent brewers, as a key part of the hospitality sector, will be eligible for further assistance.

“While this is an important short-term measure, small breweries also need help to move to Net Zero and we’ll be making the case with the Government for small business grants to introduce green technology as part of the fiscal statement later this month and as part of the Government’s review announced today.”

The announcement follows calls by organisations representing the UK’s independent brewers and beer consumers for urgent action on energy and support for the sector.

SIBA and the Campaign for Real Ale had jointly signed a letter to the Chancellor highlighting the challenges which are putting the future of the UK beer industry at risk.

With brewers facing skyrocketing energy bills, frequent ingredient shortages and price hikes, and consumers unable to afford to support local pubs, the organisations called on Government to step in and tackle the issues.

There are also concerns that the far-reaching reforms to alcohol duty will be delayed from next year including to the game-changing Draught Duty Rate which gives a 5% reduction in duty for beer sold in pubs. The organisations have asked the Government to press ahead and prioritise these changes to help consumers, pubs and the brewing sector, but also expand the scheme to include the containers used by smaller breweries such as 20 and 30 litre casks and kegs.

The organisations have also asked the Government to pause and reflect on new regulations such as the Deposit Return Schemes which will separate the UK’s internal market for beer.

Image Credit: Mike Sewell

Part of the SBR brew crew: Five Points Head Brewer Greg Hobbs, journalist Emmie Harrison-West, SIBA South East Regional Director Andrew Haywood, SIBA National Chairman Roy Allkin, SIBA Head of Public Affairs Barry Watts, and SIBA Head of Comms Neil Walker

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MSPs warn that Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme could ‘prove a very costly failure’ without urgent review

A new cross-party report has warned that the chances of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) successfully going live on time, within its full scope, are vanishingly thin and unless serious defects are addressed the scheme will not succeed and may prove a very costly failure.

The recycling scheme – which sees consumers charged a 20 pence deposit when they buy drinks containers – is due to go live in August 2023.

However, members of the Cross-Party Group on Beer and Pubs has called on the Scottish Government to urgently take time out to clarify and reappraise the scheme and that a fundamental review of the net benefits of the scheme is required. This comes as the Scottish Minister Lorna Slater considers the findings from her second ‘independent gateway review’ carried out last month to look at the feasibility of delivery. A similar exercise last year led to a delay in the DRS launch date.

The report, The Impact of the Scottish Deposit Return Scheme, follows an inquiry carried out by MSPs which took written and oral evidence from a broad section of witnesses including small brewers, pub owners, online retailers, local authority representatives and Circularity Scotland. Witnesses told the inquiry that a huge amount of detail was yet to be decided before they could fully understand what steps to take and that it’s further complicated by DRS imposing de-facto barriers to trade at Scotland’s borders.

They warned of unintended and negative consequences for consumers as price rises and the range of products would be reduced, as well as for health policy as DRS distorts the

Particular concerns were raised about fraud through online sales and ‘booze trips’ across the border into England as well as the impact on Scotland’s small independent brewers, hospitality and retailers.

Minimum Unit Pricing. Particular concerns were raised about fraud through online sales and ‘booze trips’ across the border into England as well as the impact on Scotland’s small independent brewers, hospitality and retailers. These risks were increased by the recent decision of the UK Government to not proceed with DRS for glass, which creates further logistical problems and costs.

Commenting on the report, Convenor of the Cross Party Group Craig Hoy said: “Everyone understands that we need to delivery circularity and net zero, but to be successful the scheme has to be effective. It’s clear from the evidence we heard that the Scottish DRS is far from ready and if these details are not addressed it will not be viable. Scottish producers and retailers are still recovering from the pandemic and the Ukrainian conflict is hitting supply chains, energy and costs. The Scottish Government needs to carefully consider our recommendations so that we get this right.”

Cross Party Group member Fergus Ewing MSP said: “All the witnesses we heard from wanted to see a workable scheme in Scotland but their view was that it would be easier and less costly to do this on a pan-UK basis, especially when different containers are included. The risks of the Scottish DRS failing are too high to get this wrong and urgent action is needed from the

Minister to ensure these issues are addressed urgently.”

As well as an urgent review, the report recommends that the Scottish and UK Government work together to align their schemes so that there is a single market for brewers and retailers. Without doing so there will be three different markets with knock on impacts of complexities, costs and wastage. It also argues for a phased introduction of products, starting with plastic, would build consumer understanding and allow the infrastructure to develop.

Particular concerns were highlighted about smaller businesses, such as Scotland’s independent brewers, bottle shops and online retailers with the costs being disproportionately felt by smaller businesses. It recommends that a de-minimis threshold could protect these businesses while the scheme beds in. Similarly, businesses said that there is no way to deliver the online take-back service, where empty containers are collected from people’s homes. The report suggests that this should be delayed from the rest of the scheme until a cost effective and environmentally positive solution has been found.

Jamie Delap, SIBA Regional Director, commented: “We need to get to net zero, but will this scheme make a meaningful impact with all the complexities and changes that have come about since it was first suggested? A lot of decisions still need to be made which need time to feed though the supply chain. This is going to be a very high profile environmental initiative and if it is an expensive failure it will do no favours when it comes to achieving net zero.”

You can read the report in full at www.beerandpubinquiry.com

SIBA appoints Charlie Docherty to newly created Business Development Officer role

SIBA has appointed Charlie Docherty as its new Business Development Officer following a rigorous recruitment and interview process.

The newly created role focusses on building SIBA’s network of independent craft breweries in the UK, helping existing members get the most out of their membership, and recruitment of members to SIBA’s newly expanded membership categories – including international breweries, bottleshops, and homebrewers. “With a wealth of business development and sales experience in the industry, including time at Yeastie Boys, Thornbridge, and Cloudwater, I’m delighted to welcome Charlie to the SIBA team and am sure he will be able to hit the ground running in what is a brand new and

exciting role,” said Neil Walker, SIBA Head of Comms & Marketing.

The appointment comes as SIBA unveiled details of the expansion of its membership remit to include international breweries

as of August 1st (see details on pages 2526) – with homebrewing and bottleshop membership due to launch in coming months.

“I’m delighted to be joining SIBA at such an exciting time – I’m looking forward to meeting our current and future members in all corners of Britain over the coming weeks - the challenges facing the industry are ever-changing, and SIBA has been, and continues to be an invaluable voice and resource for independent businesses,” said Charlie Docherty, SIBA Business Development Officer.

Meet the Team

How long have you worked for SIBA and what did you do before?

I’ve been with SIBA since the beginning of August - before that I worked in sales for independent breweries - Yeastie Boys, Thornbridge and Cloudwater.

What does your job role with SIBA involve?

My main role is to build SIBA’s network of independent craft breweries in the UK by increasing the number of members, but I’m also helping existing members get the most out of their membership.

What made you want to come and work within the independent brewing sector?

It was an accident! My first job was for an independent soda company, and a couple of years later I graduated to beer, and I’ve not looked back since!

What are you most looking forward to in your role this year?

Getting out on the road and rails and meeting our members! We have such a diversity of members in all eight regions, so I’m looking forward to meeting old and new industry colleagues!

What issues can you help SIBA members with and how should they contact you?

Anything! If you have brewing neighbours who aren’t members yet, if you have questions about anything that we do, or if you’d just like to vent about your Untappd ratings, my email is charlie. docherty@siba.co.uk

What do you like to do outside work?

I love to travel! Whether that’s by train, by plane or on my bicycle - I’m happiest wandering around a new place. When we weren’t really allowed to travel, I ended up cycling to all 270 tube stations - it scratched the itch of discovering new places.

What is your favourite beer and where would you most like to drink it?

This is an impossible question, so I’m going to pick three: Thornbridge Kipling in the Sheffield Tap, Fuller’s ESB in the Doric Arch by Euston Station or Adnams Ghost Ship on the bench outside The Lord Nelson in Southwold.

The view from Westminster

I’m writing this from the Conservative Party Conference, where SIBA has got facetime with key decision makers including the Chancellor, the Secretary of State in Wales and Ministers. This is only days since we finally got the details of the alcohol duty system changes in the so called “mini-budget”.

There was some good news for small brewers in that announcement with the Chancellor giving his support for the SIBA ‘Make it 20’ campaign. This garnered widespread support among MPs and within Westminster and the Chancellor confirmed in his speech that the new draught duty relief would include 20 litre containers and above instead of the 40 litres first proposed. It is also very welcome to see the Chancellor freezing alcohol duty rates from February 2023, providing additional support to a struggling sector.

On a less positive note, as feared there will be a delay in the introduction of the draught duty relief until next August, as opposed to February as originally planned. This will come as a disappointment to many small brewers who have already factored these changes into their business plans for next year. We

are pushing for a transitional arrangement so that brewers do not have to recalculate SBR twice next year. Just before Summer, MPs held a debate on this issue and many made reference to SIBA and small brewers and the urgent need for clarity. In September, we also had a debate by Owen Thompson MP on the future of SBR which put Ministers under pressure to make an announcement. We were originally expecting the Government to publish, just before they broke up for the summer, the results of the consultation as well as draft changes to the legislation and another technical consultation on Small Producer Relief, which is replacing SBR. Combining the successful Small Breweries’ Relief, which is 20 years old this year, with Small Producer Relief is very complex and there will inevitably be winners and losers, especially the hit which will be taken by those brewers making innovative stronger products like Imperial Stouts above 8.5%. We will be working closely with the new Exchequer Secretary and Chancellor to get the details right on these changes and ensure that we continue to have a vibrant, dynamic small brewing sector fit for the future. You can read SIBA’s briefings on the new changes in the Toolbox.

We will be working closely with the new Exchequer Secretary and Chancellor to get the details right on these changes and ensure that we continue to have a vibrant, dynamic small brewing sector fit for the future.

SIBA also lobbied hard for an energy cap for businesses which culminated in the announcement in September. While welcome, there is uncertainty whether there will be further support for businesses facing rising energy costs once the initial unit price cap for non-domestic users ends after six months. SIBA is continuing to lobby hard on your behalf for clarity on this. And in addition to the cap, we’ve been calling for relief for brewers which is usually reserved for high intensive energy users such as steel. But while these things may help in the short term, it’s also important to look to the longer term. I know that many small brewers want to make the transition to Net Zero and improve their energy usage and that is why we’ve also called for meaningful grants for energy efficiency and the installation of new technology including renewable generation and CO2 recovery. While the Government has exempted business rates for green improvements, many of the Government funds available - such as the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund - are only aimed at large businesses. Grants specifically for small businesses would provide the assistance you need to make the transition to new technology.

Equally there are significant challenges coming down the road from wider Government policy – which may be well meaning but add significant cost and bureaucracy for small brewers. This includes the Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) and the Extended Producer Responsibility. SIBA has full briefings available for both these issues on the Toolbox which help prepare you for their introduction and I’d recommend having a look over them if you haven’t already.

The Scottish Government is determined to deliver the DRS in Scotland on 16 August 2023 and we continue to receive more and more details on how it will work and how much it will costs. While SIBA continues to lobby for changes (including to the unworkable and unfeasible online takeback service), we’re also providing the information you need to prepare. Only recently we held a webinar with Jamie Delap from Fyne Ales providing a decision tree and scenarios for your business. The excellent slides and video are also available on the Toolbox.

We are still waiting for clarity on the DRS in the rest of the UK, but it appears that Wales intends to introduce a scheme which is very different to the England and NI schemes

creating additional barriers to trade across the UK. SIBA continues to argue that all the devolved administrations need to come together and agree one scheme for the whole of the UK which includes the same containers and goes live on the same date.

Let us hope that the new Prime Minister and Cabinet are listening, and recognise that their economic plan needs to include the on-going help for small brewers to enable them to survive, recover and build the resilience they need for the future. As vital contributors to the local and national economy, independent breweries deserve the Government’s support.

Barry Watts is Head of Public Affairs and Policy at SIBA. He covers political relations and policy for SIBA members. He can be contacted at barry.watts@ siba.co.uk or 07977837804.

Way out West

Elusive Brewing’s Andy Parker ponders how his first foray into homebrewing eventually led to the creation of Elusive’s flagship beer, Oregon Trail…

Elusive Brewing Oregon Trail

Specification

Grain Bill

4.4Kg (91.3%) Simpsons Low Colour Maris Otter

300g (6.2%) Simpsons Rye Malt

120g (2.5%) Simpsons Crystal T50

Hops

25g Magnum (14.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m

12.5g Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15 m

20g Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5 m

20g Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil at flame out

60g Citra™ (12.0%) - added during boil at flame out

60g Simcoe® (13.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter

60g Columbus (15.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter

20g Mosaic™ (12.5%) - added dry to secondary fermenter

It must’ve been 2010 or 2011 when I first tried Stone IPA, which was pouring alongside Stone Ruination at The Rake in London’s Borough Market. Ruination especially was like nothing I’d tasted before. Intensely bitter and with a hop aroma that leapt out of the glass. It was Green Flash’s West Coast IPA that really grabbed my attention around the same time though. Pouring almost amber in colour, it had a captivating resinous aroma. The malt profile and intense hopping gave it almost a sticky mouthfeel and the flavours coated the tongue as it washed over the palate, punctuated swiftly by that trademark bitterness associated with the West Coast IPA style.

When I started all grain homebrewing in 2012, it was the Green Flash beer I wanted to attempt to replicate – a bold move for a first brew! I scoured online and found a clone recipe tucked away on a homebrew forum. Ingredients were acquired and I dived straight in. The first thing that struck me with the recipe was that it relied upon a high quantity of hops in the boil. The bittering addition following by flavour and aroma additions of Simcoe, Columbus and Cascade through the boil amounted to almost 300 grammes of hops in a 20 litre recipe! The dry hop was modest by comparison. The malt bill was quite simple with some medium crystal and caramalt adding colour and body to a base of Maris Otter. The body from the crystal had some heavy lifting to do in terms of balancing out what amounted to a total of 116 IBUs!

That beer went on to win a bronze medal at London Amateur Brewers’ annual competition later that year and in the time between brewing and having that entry judged I was lucky enough to get to visit San Diego on holiday to try these famous commercial examples fresh and at the source. I was hooked on homebrewing and trying to perfect the West Coast IPA style from that point and many brews were committed to the cause, with varying degrees of success.

When Elusive Brewing started commercially in 2016, it took some time for us to find our feet in terms of what worked well in the market. The 5% American Red Ale we launched with became a staple along with Overdrive, a 5.5% West Coast Pale. We didn’t jump straight into brewing IPAs but when a customer of ours, the West St Alehouse in Fareham, approach us about collaborating on a West Coast IPA, we used to opportunity to dust off that original homebrew recipe. Some tweaks were made to bring the ABV and bitterness down and Oregon Trail was born, initially being packaged into cask and keg at 5.8% ABV.

That first brew was very well received but we didn’t get a chance to brew it again before the pandemic struck and plans to revisit were placed on pause. As part of our approach to pivoting our business to survive, with pubs being unable to open, we started canning our beers. Initially the beers were contract canned then we later acquired our own small line. When thinking about which products might work well in can, Oregon Trail was placed firmly back on the table. The nostalgia of a classically styled West Coast IPA seemed to strike a chord during what were challenging and strange times for many and by the end of 2020, Oregon Trail had become our best seller and accidental flagship beer.

I scoured online and found a clone recipe tucked away on a homebrew forum. Ingredients were acquired and I dived straight in.

Recipe Notes

In terms of recipe design, Oregon Trail is very much about layering flavour and aroma into what is essentially a dry and quite bitter beer. The grain bill uses a small amount of Simpsons Crystal T50 but the real trick is with the Simpsons Rye Malt, the spiciness of which really draws a line under the dank, resinous hop profile. The recipe as shown uses super clean Magnum for bittering but commercially we use Barth Haas’ Flex bittering extract, purely for efficiency and maximising wort volumes. Kettle additions focus on Chinook with some Citra being used later on to add some flavour. The beer is then fermented with a clean yeast strain which gives it a nice dry finish to really help the bitterness punch through. To finish, the beer is dry hopped with Simcoe, Columbus and a smaller amount of Mosaic. Those five hops deliver a profile that’s resinous and herbal at its base but with citrus and tropical fruit top notes to aid approachability and drinkability. The final thing we considered when evolving Oregon Trail as a recipe was water treatment. Berkshire water is hard with high levels of total alkalinity. This actually works quite well in the style but we add salts to push sulphate levels up to around 200ppb whilst keeping chloride levels in check at around 50ppb. Lactic acid is used to bring the mash down to around 5.3pH. The water profile helps to promote bitterness and dryness, which is key to producing a good example of the West Coast IPA style.

International Brewing Membership

SIBA International Brewing Membership is open to independent breweries outside of the UK and includes a range of membership benefits, including access to the SIBA International Beer Awards.

SIBA offers International Brewing Members a variety of brewery business tools available via our Members’ Toolbox, UK promotional opportunities for your beer and brand, professional advice on essential business areas such as marketing or UK legislation, and free Delegate tickets to BeerX UK – the UK’s biggest beer and brewing trade event.

SIBA International Brewing Membership costs £300 per year and runs from September to the following September. The subscription cost covers all member benefits listed above, including the entry of up to three separate beers into the annual SIBA International Beer Awards.

Any breweries wishing to join as a member can do so via www.siba.co.uk/international or any queries can be sent to membership@siba.co.uk

Membership Benefits

SIBA International Beer Awards:

entry of up to three beers into the SIBA International Beer Awards

medals and marketing materials following

International Beer

promotion and support to publicise award wins

to serve Gold winning beers at SIBA

Delegate

and UK trade

judge

to BeerX

the UK’s largest craft beer trade event

your beer at key industry

SIBA Regional and National Beer

International Brewing Member

International Brewing Member

and ask

and International brewing

business

brewing

of fellow

includes

international beer awards

SIBA International Brewing Members are able to enter up to three beers into the SIBA International Beer Awards across a variety of international recognised style categories, all judged by some of the UK’s most experienced beer judges, Beer Sommeliers, and Master Brewers.

Beers are judged to style and on an individual basis just like the SIBA National & Regional Independent Beer Awards, with each beer being given a score based upon its own quality rather than comparing it to another beer in the flight being judged.

Judges award medals to the best beers based upon the scoring structure below, taking into account: Aroma, Flavour, Presentation (colour, head retention, carbonation), Overall Quality, & Saleability (please note: Saleability does not mean sessionability).

Highly experienced Lead Judges record scores for each judging table and compile written feedback for every beer entered into the awards to ensure you as an entering brewery are getting the most value possible from the judging process.

Beer Style Categories

as

Silver

excellent: Well balanced and

Beer

have superb aroma & taste. You would definitely drink this beer again.

Bronze

Amber, Brown & Red

& Porter

and under)

Imperial & Strong Ale (6.5% and over)

Sour

and elements of complexity; yet do not have the quality sufficient to elevate them to the next stage. You would enthusiastically choose to drink this beer again & would recommend it to others.

good: These beers show decent

below 70 do not earn a

but will receive

How did I get here?

Beer writer David Jesudason considers the positive impact that seeing people of colour in inspirational roles can have on the next generation and future diversity within a sector…

My worst interview ever was when I spoke to a black businessman about ‘success’. He was adamant that he got to the top through hard work alone and the community he once was part of – he grew up in Birmingham –should stop moaning and take their (paltry) opportunities.

He, of course, failed to disclose that his second (white) wife was rich, he was able to buy land in the days when it was affordable and was lucky enough to appear on reality TV before it became a cliched career path. It didn’t fit his backstory of graft, initiative and then inevitable success.

That’s not to say he didn’t experience racism – he told me that when he was a Tory candidate he was abused and shouted at when canvassing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a road sweeper, bartender or rightwing politician – racism is there waiting for you on our streets.

He was a trailblazer, though, and at the top of an industry where only 0.2% are black. But it was a terrible interview because I felt icky transcribing his quotes when I knew success really rained upon him because he had capital and the safety net of his wife’s fortunes.

I felt demoralised because there’s no inspiration in this guy’s life other than marry well and change your backstory. But other more disadvantaged people of colour have succeeded against the odds and it’s worth pondering what inspired them. The main one is representation: this is when you see someone who looks like you succeed opening up the possibilities that you can have a similar career.

In fact I’m often asked by aspiring writers of colour how I became a ‘successful’ beer writer. They see an article I’ve written that resonates and presumably want the same adulation, prestige and, sadly, hand-tomouth existence –writing about marginalised communities is (spiritually) rewarding in that I’m telling untold stories to a growing, curious audience but is financially demanding as it requires a lot of research.

It’s more difficult than profiling, say, a craft brewery or iconic pub; often simple records, such as when landlords took over a pub haven’t been kept by the brewery or the contacts are reluctant to talk as they’ve been ignored by the media (fun fact: 92% of

journalists are white and beer writing is one of the least diverse sectors).

But unpicking why I’m here writing this column is difficult. I didn’t have encouraging parents who taught me how to be resilient to setbacks, rejection and criticism – I had to learn this through counselling after experiencing a childhood marred by racist trauma. I’m not from a wealthy background –my Malay mum was a nurse and my alcoholic dad of Indian origin spent most of his life unemployed.

And I’m not part of any supportive community whether that be South Asian – I was brought up to be British in a white market town – or a graduate network, as I lost touch with everyone who went to my modern university.

I didn’t have encouraging parents who taught me how to be resilient to setbacks, rejection and criticism – I had to learn this through counselling after experiencing a childhood marred by racist trauma.

Instead I think I’m here because of a handful of black or brown role models. Representation was poor on TV when I was growing up but I would seek out anyone who looked like me. Star Trek may have been searching space for new lifeforms but I was scouring the planet for people of colour –from Nichelle Nichols’s Uhura in the original series to Avery Brooks’s Captain Sisko in Deep Space Nine – that could control the universe.

But it was more day-to-day representation that really inspired my writing career. The watershed moment was when I visited my first desi pub (British-Indian pubs, ‘desi’ in this context means South Asian) 20 years ago; the Blue Eyed Maid in Borough, south London run by ‘Jay’ and his team of Asian bouncers.

We visited the karaoke bar/sports bar/Indian restaurant late after evening shifts at a nearby newspaper, and Jay changed the default of the landlord: no longer were they an aloof white figure I felt servile towards

(I had worked in a lot of pubs up to this point) but a totally different proposition. Someone empowering. That’s why I take my children to the Gladstone, also in Borough, to see brother and sister team Megha and Gaurav Khanna who are the best type of role model –hard-working custodians who nobly ensure everyone is included.

It’s a shame though that I can’t take the kids to my local taproom because the brewery has no interest in seeking out members of the diverse community it’s based in – despite profiting from the area and the lower rents it provides. But someone who does the opposite of this and seeks to make their business diverse is one of the strongest role models I can show my kids.

And if you think this is an impossible task then let me tell you about Gerry Godbaz who ran the Three Horseshoes in Southall up to a few years ago. The Kiwi became ‘Gerry Singh’ an honorary desi landlord because he loved the area so much by putting on bhangra nights, empowering South Asians and turning it into a community pub for all. And why did he do it? Because diversity and representation are inspiring but, above all, it’s about making everyone feel involved. And when they are touched by this special feeling they’ll love your business and keep coming back.

If you succeed I might even visit you - with my kids, of course.

Journalist David Jesudason is a director of the British Guild of Beer Writers where he helped set up a diversity grant in collaboration with Good Beer Hunting.

Beer pioneers

There are not many UK-based independent craft beer businesses that can say they’ve been around for three decades. And of those that can, the number that have been producing cutting edge modern American-style IPAs for all that time can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Rooster’s Brewing Co is one such pioneering business, having been founded in Yorkshire in 1993 at a time when hoppy pale ales just weren’t a thing over this side of the pond. Founder Sean Franklin, originally aiming to go into the wine trade, was inspired by what was happening in the States, especially with Sierra Nevada which was taking the US beer world by storm with its Cascade hopped brews. He decided to launch a brewery into the UK market to bring experimental beers in this American style to UK drinkers. The cask only brewery Rooster’s was born – and Sean began to educate the beer drinkers of the UK about the flavour possibilities his imported American hops could open up. Way ahead of his time, Sean battled through the 90s

selling the American dream through his flagship Yankee pale ale and eventually his hard work began to pay off as he was recognised in the 2000s with Gold Medals at the World Beer Cup and demand for his beers grew as this exciting new beer style started to gain proper momentum in his home market. In 2011, following a series of serendipitous incidents within the Fozard family, Sean sold the business to local pub operator Ian Fozard and his two sons Tom and Oliver, who have taken the cask-only brewery with five core pale ale brands, and made it into a modern independent brewing operation fit for today’s complex and crowded market. With a new larger site in a historic building in Harrogate, a new state-of-the-art taproom and a much broader range of beers now in keg, can and cask, Rooster’s nevertheless still prizes the creativity, innovation and drive that saw it burst onto the scene all those years ago. Independent Brewer’s Caroline Nodder spoke to Tom Fozard about Rooster’s historic 30 year milestone…

Business Basics

As Rooster’s prepares to celebrate 30 years in brewing, tell us about how the business came to be founded all those years ago.

Name: Rooster’s Brewing Co.

Founded: 1993

Location: Harrogate

Owners: Ian, Tom & Oliver Fozard

Annual production: 8,500Hl (2022 forecasted)

Brewing team: 6

Total Staff: 14 full time (ex. Directors) & 5 part time, including the Taproom

Flagship beers: Yankee (4.3% Original Pale Ale), Baby-Faced Assassin (6.1% American IPA), Thousand Yard Stare (5.4% Gluten Free Hazy Pale Ale), Pilsnear (4.8% Pilsner/Pale Ale Hybrid), Go Backer (3.6% Session NEIPA), YPA (4.1% Yorkshire Pale Ale), London Thunder (4.2% Porter), Capability Brown (4.0% Best Bitter) & Better Late Than Never (5.9% NEIPA)

Production split: 65% cask / 25% can / 10% keg

Key export markets: Sweden, Italy, Finland & Switzerland

“It was founded by a guy called Sean Franklin in 1993 who had been brewing since the early to mid 80s. Originally, he'd studied winemaking in Bordeaux, and from what I gather from him, he failed at the last hurdle to become a professional winemaker. Then he came back to Yorkshire and eventually had an epiphany moment over a pint where he started to become interested by the makeup of that pint - what was creating the flavours that he was experiencing. And then he started to understand that actually, hops and grapes have got a huge amount in common in terms of the whole myriad of different flavours that a single grape can give a wine depending on where it's grown, the soil, the climate, the angle, and the hill that it's grown on. He realised that hops actually are incredibly similar, and around the same time he'd got wind of what was happening in the States with Sierra Nevada brewing with Cascade and creating Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. They were creating this beer that no one had ever tasted anything like before. And Sean, being inquisitive enough, and having the passion that he'd had for grapes and winemaking, took it upon himself to learn more about what was going on with these New World hops. They were giving out incredible fruit characteristics compared to the sort of hedgerow, earthy, spicy, traditional English hops at the time. In the 80s, he had founded a brewery called Franklin's Brewery that he ran for maybe five or six years, and he used to supplement it by being a taxi driver at the same time. There are newspaper articles from the time about this local taxi man who delivers beer to pubs in his spare time - he was just trying to wholesale at a time when the pub market was much more closed than it is now. The big six breweries owned everything and it was a closed shop, and that ultimately led to Franklin's ceasing to exist by the late 80s. Then the Beer Orders opened the market up a little bit, and he decided to give it another go. And that's when Rooster’s was eventually created. He started importing hops directly from farmers in the US, he went over and met them and understood more about Cascade in particular, this hop that was causing such a stir on the West Coast. He started brewing with these new American hops before people over there had even heard about what was going on over there. He completely blazed a trail. The flagship beer for the brewery is called Yankee, because it was the first beer in the UK to be brewed with modern US hops. The pale ales in England at that time were still really amber in colour, just slightly lighter than the best bitter. And then here was Sean with this pale, straw-coloured beer that was incredibly floral and incredibly fruity. People didn't really know what to do

with it to start with. But he persevered. And he turned a lot of heads along the way. And he was doing that for a long time before anyone else came close, in terms of picking up the baton and running with it. There were certain people who really cottoned on quickly that he was onto something, and supported the brewery, but for the 90s I get the impression it was a bit of a hustle in terms of just trying to get people to really understand what he was on to. Then in the early 2000s he stepped things up a gear and he won Gold Medals at the World Beer Cup in I think 2006, and again in about 2008 and 2010. He was very early to recognise the quality of that competition and test himself against what was going on in the States. It was always a cask only brewery, so I'm not quite sure how he achieved getting his beer over there to be judged, but Rooster’s just became synonymous with experimental hop varieties. And that's really what we inherited.”

So how did you and your family come to take over Rooster’s?

“When we bought the business Sean been doing it for a long time - 18 years by that time – and he was ready to retire. At that point my Dad [Ian Fozard] had been running pubs for the best part of 20 years. He had built up a small group of pubs that he operated across North and West Yorkshire. They stocked Rooster’s, a lot of them, so him and Sean had a good relationship. And from my point of view, me and my twin brother Oliver, who is our Head Brewer, we both shared our first ever job which was a kitchen porter pot washing job in one of my Dad's pubs. And at the end of the shift, our manager back in the day would allow us to sneak a pint in the kitchen. It was usually one of three beers depending what was on the bar, but Yankee was always one of those three for me. So from an early age we knew what Rooster’s was about. Fast forward to 2010 and early 2011. I'd gone to university, then got into publishing, my brother had left school and had no interest in further education. So he answered a job at the Job Centre for a trainee brewer at Daleside Brewery, which is just down the road. So my Dad has the pubs, I went off and did my thing, and my brother went off and eventually trained as a brewer with Daleside then moved to a different brewery. By 2010 I'd been made redundant, because of the global financial crash in 2009, and I was working back in a pub and didn't have enough money to pay my mortgage. So I started homebrewing by way of being able to have a beer on a weekend or an evening, and just fell in love with it. I didn't realise at the same time my brother was disillusioned where he was. And neither of us realised that my Dad was looking to sell his pubs. I went to my dad, I had drawn up a business plan with a friend because we had this pipe dream that we were going to start a brewery together, and

PUTS BREWERS

IN

my Dad quite rightly took one look at it and said ‘that's not very convincing’. Little did I know my brother was also going to my Dad and asking him for some careers advice. And all of a sudden my Dad realised he had two sons who were passionate about beer and were at a crossroads. We didn't know he was looking to sell the pubs at the time as well. So he shared that information with us. And then we decided that we would try and start a brewery from scratch and spent about six months figuring out what and where and how. Around that time we started looking for premises and somehow Sean Franklin got in touch and said he wanted to retire and ‘do you fancy taking the business on?’ So very serendipitous in that sense. And we decided to give it a go.”

How has the business evolved since then?

“That was May 2011 when me and Oliver joined and we did seven months, while due diligence was going on, under Sean. So we got to know the nuts and bolts of the brewery. From my point of view in terms of being the commercial manager, for Oliver he had learned the art of production brewing, whereas with Sean, there was more creativity involved. We took the keys on December 1st 2011. And at that time we inherited a cask only brewery that had five established pale ale brands. And over the course of the last 10 years the market around us has moved at an incredible pace, and I think Rooster's has remained at the forefront of that. We were one of the first breweries to invest in our own canning line way back when

-

We were one of the first breweries to invest in our own canning line way back whenwe saw that trend coming way before a lot of other people.

we saw that trend coming way before a lot of other people. So we have still been able to innovate and take the lead on certain things, but ultimately we are now surrounded by a huge number of breweries that have started up in that time.”

Is the ethos behind the business, that experimental pioneering spirit, still the same today as it was in 2011?

“On one hand I think the fact that we were ahead of the game in terms of investing in that canning line and seeing how things were going to go in terms of small pack, I feel that we have carried that forward. But on the flip side, the sort of innovations that have taken place in the industry in the last 10 years, and the amount of investment that comes with it, means new breweries, not all of them, but there's a lot of very good new breweries that hit the ground running very quickly. They are very well financed. And it's perpetual investment in running a brewery, but you can't just go and buy the latest state of the art thing every time something new comes along. There's so much that's advanced in terms of brewing technology, or new styles of beer that require new bits of equipment or new understanding. And I don't think I could sit here and honestly say that we've

been at the forefront of everything. What we've attempted to do is carry forward the ethos that Sean created around the business and push that story forwards. But equally, we wanted to put our own stamp on it. What we’ve done for the brewery is push expectations or push the understanding of what Rooster’s is in terms of introducing a broader range of styles to our core range, which we did way before we started canning. We're all interested in hoppy beers first and foremost, but we enjoy drinking a broader range of styles and we recognise that pubs want a broader range. Then can and keg has helped us push that a bit further because there's styles in keg in particular that don't work in cask. Then we've added the taproom, and we're able to expand that further by having a direct outlet for some of that passion and creativity around those different styles. Yankee was a brand that already had a good reputation, I think we've just managed to sell it a bit more which has been really positive. But we've also introduced the likes of Baby Faced Assassin in there as well, which really helped raise awareness of the brewery. When we took over the brewery, because the Sean's award wins in the US, we would randomly get emails from people in the States inquiring about Rooster’s beers, but people in the town where we were brewing didn't even know there was a brewery there. So we intentionally set about trying to become a bit more connected to the local community and let people know that this was on their doorstep.”

How do you continue to differentiate yourselves in such a crowded market?

“The obvious thing for us is that there aren't many modern UK breweries that are going to be celebrating their 30th anniversary next year. There are one or two that perhaps come close in being able to tell a story about being at the start of this movement, that are still in operation. We've got that. But we've got to be careful with that, because we don't want to bang on about being 30 years old, being this old brewery, in what is a very exciting and young market. We've got this incredible USP, but we've got to be really careful with it. It's about trying to strike a balance between remaining true to the original ethos of the brewery, playing to our strengths, but also remaining relevant.”

What effect has the pandemic had do you think on consumer tastes, has there been a move away from the more ‘wacky’ styles?

“It used to be that the States always felt like it was 10 years ahead of us. And then it was five years ahead. And now it's probably 12 months ahead of us. And I've seen it in the States, over recent visits, that there's still loads of wacky stuff going on around the sides, but it definitely seems to have settled down and people actually are more interested in that heritage. Being true to style, understanding what a good representation of a style is, and a well brewed consistently brewed product. I mean, if you ever see Rooster’s brew a Milkshake IPA, you know that I've had a bang to the head or something - that sort of thing doesn't interest us. From a commercial point of view, that's

probably the wrong decision to take because there clearly seems to be a lot of interest in that style of beer, but hopefully, by sticking to our guns, it will pay off because I think more and more people definitely are becoming more interested in understanding what's a good example of X style. That's not to say that we don't want to push ourselves – we’re always interested in new techniques or new styles of beer – but that doesn't mean to say that we want to do everything under the sun just because it's new. It's trying to find a balance. I remember way back when New England IPAs first started getting brewed over here. I couldn't understand the haze. We just assumed it was a passing fad. We were wrong. So when we brewed our first New England IPA, we wanted to poke fun at ourselves. The first one was called Behind the Curve, then we did one called Better Late than Never, then we did one called After the Horse had Bolted. So, you know, we're probably missing out on some things, but we're comfortable that we're sticking to our guns in terms of what we want to produce.”

“On our old site there was literally no room to swing a cat, but we started doing annual Open Days, literally for five hours, once a year, we would open the brewery, offer tours, set up bars outside, get a DJ in, get in some really good street food. And I remember one year it took us 15 hours to prep for a five hour service to be able to tidy the brewery enough to create the space. And we did it. And I think we attracted somewhere between 500 and 600 people in a five hour period to come down and just hang

out at the brewery. So that told us that there was an appetite for something like that but we couldn't do it regularly on that site. Then when we started looking to relocate I always had the hope that we would find a space for a taproom. We had to be quite patient until the right place came along. And then this place came up and it was way bigger than we intended. But it meant we ended up with a taproom that seats about 160 people with a beer garden that can seat 120, and then a function room upstairs that can cater for 140. We've ended up with this beer hall sized taproom that's got a massive viewing window into the brewery, which was just a blessing in itself, because we want people to feel the connection that they're drinking something that was made on the other side of that window. You can't get fresher. So we opened the taproom in May 2019. And it was just finding its feet, and at the turn of the year, in 2020, we had got through a nice, busy Christmas period. And we were able to focus on the next steps of trying to put on events and not just have people come to us, actually trying to attract them by doing different things. And then the pandemic stopped that in its tracks. But coming out of lockdown, this space was a blessing. So when the government eventually allowed us to open up we opened up with social distancing, two metres apart, and we were able to say to people look, you can trust us. I felt really sorry for the small pubs that had very little option and had to strip everything back just to fit the rules. But from the taproom’s point of view, we were able to really use that space to our benefit. And then thankfully, since the end of the restrictions last summer, it's been performing consistently beyond what we thought it might do.”

You opened a new taproom just before the pandemic, how is that working for you?

The recent CO2 surcharge that everyone's been hit with is probably the most immediate thing that's going to affect us.

How is the energy crisis affecting your business, and what are you doing to address it?

“I mean, some form of government intervention would be the obvious starting point. By the time this gets published, I hope something will have happened. We're in a position where our electricity contract was up for renewal earlier this year, we engaged with a broker and we came on to a variable rate for a little while and tracked the market for a few weeks, just because everything at that point was already 50% up at that stage. So we kept our powder dry and tried to figure out if we needed to go onto a fixed rate, or do we wait it out for a few months and see what happens. And then we ended up just hedging our bets and thinking, the likelihood of any of it getting better anytime soon was fairly remote. So we entered into a fixed contract for four years earlier this year. Everything has gone through the roof still, but at least we know where we stand. My heart goes out to some of these businesses that are struggling to engage with these energy companies, and some of the quotes I have seen put out there, I don’t see how anyone can survive that without some form of help or intervention. The recent CO2 surcharge that everyone's been hit with is probably the most immediate thing that's going to affect us. Thankfully, we don't use too much gas, but that's something that's obviously beyond anyone's control as well. Everyone's got to tighten their belts, and without compromising on the quality of what we're doing. We've just got to try and, you know, buckle down, try and steal our way through it. My biggest concern is what's happening in the wider industry. We're already a small island that’s had 1,000s of

pubs go under in the last 10, 20 years. This is catastrophic, I think. The knock-on effects for any brewery, any of our suppliers, is just going to be huge.”

How will you be celebrating your big anniversary next year?

“For our 25th in 2018, we hoped that we would do a collaboration a month, so we'd have 12 for the year. And we cherry picked breweries that we've made strong relationships with. So we approached 18 breweries on the basis that not every one would say yes – but then we were pleasantly surprised that 17 out of the 18 said yes. It was very, very humbling that some of the breweries came over, big and small, from the States under their own steam to celebrate with us. So for the 30th we're going to do more of that. Hopefully a mix of those friendships that exist, and then we’ll hopefully tie in some breweries that we really look up to and see whether we can do something with them. We'll also be releasing one, if not a series, of anniversary special beers. And hopefully, we'll see some very special collaborations. Because we've got the taproom, we've now got the room to do something that we didn't five years ago. We'll put on some sort of big event, an invitational beer festival, at some point next summer.”

What are you proudest of during your time at Rooster’s?

“Initially I would say Baby Faced Assassin, on a very personal level, because that was a homebrew recipe of mine initially. And in the eight years we've had it as a commercially available product, it's won us the most awards. More broadly speaking, being able to take the business from where it was, when we inherited

that cask only business in that ramshackle building, to having a business that – while it's still small – now we’re exporting, we’ve got our taproom, we’ve got a state-of-the-art facility. I can't help but feel enthused by what we've created.”

What is your favourite beer from Rooster’s 30 year back catalogue and why?

“There are three that spring to mind. A beer called The Accomplice, which we’ve just done a 10 year anniversary brew of, brewed with Doug Odell from Odell Brewing Co in Colorado. He was, and still is, a brewing hero of mine. So for him to approach us to do this collaboration 10 years ago, was easily one of my highlights from the last 11 years, and it was actually the first collaboration Rooster’s had ever done. Then there is 1000 Yard Stare, which is our gluten free, hazy pale ale, that was born out of lockdown one - hence the name. We were staring into the abyss, just not knowing what was around the corner. We decided to rejig the core range. And we spotted a couple of gaps in what we were doing. So we introduced 1000 Yard Stare. And that was launched in January 2021 and we got a listing with Waitrose within six weeks of launching it and it's won an International Silver Medal and continues to be a very good seller for the business. And then in a similar way, our first ever barrel-aged release last year was a beer called Wild Wild Life, which was a sour Saison aged in Pinot Noir barrels. That was something that was always talked about but never felt like it was going to happen. And then during that first lockdown, we just bit the bullet. It's comfortably one of the best beers we brew.”

Why Stroud Brewery champions cask beer as the “greener” option

Stroud Brewery’s Greg Pilley looks at why cask is such a sustainable choice…

As we sweltered in the heatwave, there won’t have been many of us that didn’t contemplate climate change. The message from the experts is clear, we’re in a climate emergency and we can’t keep pumping carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. However, the challenge is how do we become more sustainable and not have to give up all the things we enjoy which includes supping a pint of beer.

Helping our customers make better choices by knowing more about how beer is made, how it should be drunk, and stocking sustainable products is a great start. This is why Stroud Brewery are championing cask conditioned beer as they know cask beer produces less than half the CO2 emissions vs a non-returnable bottle beer.

So, what makes cask beer so much more sustainable?

UK cask beer evolved over centuries as the best means to produce, store, transport and serve the best beer possible, in our climate in the pre-industrial era when life was not subsidised by cheap fossil fuel and other inputs.

There are a number of elements that contribute to total CO2 emissions, and these include growing the raw materials, the brewing process, packaging and distribution and trade, which can all be positively impacted when managed properly.

Let’s start with the raw materials used in beer which provide a high proportion of the carbon emissions. Using locally sourced organically grown barley and hops helps to reduce emissions something Stroud Brewery are very passionate about. They know it’s kinder to the planet as well as helping insects, birds and animals to thrive. They only work closely with organic farmers who are already taking huge strides to reduce their climate impact.

Next to consider is the brewing process which is responsible for a small proportion of the total carbon footprint and brewers need to make the right investment decisions to achieve carbon neutral production over the next decade. Again, Stroud Brewery have been doing this for years. Their focus on cask conditioned beer supports the environment as it’s less demanding, as it requires less refrigeration and produces its own carbon dioxide during conditioning.

Once the beer is made packaging can account for between 5 and 45% of the total footprint depending on the type of package chosen. Recyclable bulk units such as casks and kegs have a smaller carbon footprint, while small pack beers in bottles and cans require

Package type

Brewer's viewpoint: Greg Pilley

more resources and energy even when taking account of recycling. Within the pub industry cask wins hands down due to lower dependence on chilling and carbon dioxide production.

Stroud Brewery produce beer across all formats and have chosen cans over bottles as again these ‘win’ when the environment is prioritised. This also helps to satisfy consumer tastes as the unfiltered, pasteurised beer delivers a better quality Stroud Brewery product. Keg plays an important role in the portfolio as it allows for a larger range of styles of beer, again to meet consumer demand however they encourage the sale of cask beer whenever possible.

Finally, Distribution and Retail accounts for around 15% of the total carbon footprint and can be mitigated by:

• Drinking local beers in local venues.

• Using electric vehicles and distribution hubs to reduce transport miles.

• Minimising the energy required for cooling and storing beer in trade

Cask beer requires less chilling and is dispensed without any gas pressure.

Results show a pint of cask beer releases around 1/3 of the amount of harmful climate change gases when compared to the same beer sold in a non-returnable bottle. How we travel, store, and consume the beer is important to consider and drinkers can influence their carbon impact. They can stay local and walk or cycle to the pub. They can be encouraged to drink a pint of locally brewed cask conditioned beer served at ambient temperature (10 – 140C), through a hand pull with no added CO2 as the most environmentally responsible option.

It is clear that cask beer is king for taste, supports traditional brewing methods and should be the choice of environmentally savvy pubs and consumers. It is up to all of us to take responsibility for the planet so we can all continue to enjoy a pint of craft cask beer in our local.

Stroud Brewery, established in 2006 and based in Stroud, with a mission to make outstanding organic beer without damaging the planet and bring people together to inspire positive change.

out more at www.stroudbrewery.co.uk

dioxide (greenhouse gas) contribution mg/pint CO2e

Brewery (US)

Meet the retailer: Brewery Market

Up Market

With a long career in finance for global businesses in the City under her belt, Linda Birch had been looking for an opportunity to start her own small independent business for years. A chance invite to a bottle share event sparked a newfound love of all things craft beer, and the seed of an idea to open a bottleshop in the rugby pub heartland of London’s Twickenham was formed. A few years later, Linda and her dog Pepper are now the proud owners of Brewery Market, a unique shrine to craft beer in the heart of Twickenham’s boutique-led Church Street. The site has gathered around it a loyal band of beer lovers who supported each other through the pandemic lockdowns and are now the thread that binds the Brewery Market operation and its local community together. The business is very much built around its customers, and the experience they have while drinking the beers it stocks, both

in-house from the tap and at home through the off-trade side of the shop. Linda uses accessible descriptors for her beers, referencing common tastes and flavours from wines, for example, to help newcomers to the craft beer category understand what it is they are sampling. By cutting out the beer snobbery, the technical descriptors and more pompous side to the sector, Linda has attracted a wide range of customers, many of whom, like her, were previously wine or spirits drinkers. In March this year, Brewery Market was Highly Commended in the very hard-fought independent retail category at the SIBA Business Awards at BeerX in Liverpool, a fantastic achievement for such a young business. Caroline Nodder, Independent Brewer’s Editor, caught up with Linda, and Pepper, back in September to hear more about her passion for craft beer and her journey to becoming an outstanding independent retailer…

Business Basics

Name: Brewery Market

Founded: Opened in 2018

Location: Twickenham, London

Owner: Linda Birch

Number of retail sites: 1

Staff: 1 full-time, 1 parttime (plus occasional shift workers)

Key product categories and sales mix: 99% beer (with 1% soft drinks and cider)

Meet the retailer: Brewery Market

How did you come to launch Brewery Market and how has the business developed since then?

“I'm a Finance Director for a global recruitment company, and I've been doing that since I was 16. I've always wanted to run my own business, but I was never really inspired. I must have written like, a million business plans. Cheese, sweets…it just didn’t go anywhere. Then in 2016, I had almost given up on drinking really, I was just fed up with wine and gin, and just the industry in general. The pubs I was going to after work, the bars and stuff in the City and I was getting home late just fed up with everything. And then someone invited me to join a craft beer bottle share group. It was actually being run at the time by someone that started it from [independent retailer] Real Drinks - or it was called Real Ale back then. We were living above Real Ale then - right back really early on in its existence. And we would go in and Nick [Real Drinks owner Nick Dolan] would be like, ‘try this beer, try that beer’. We were really just going down because they had some spirits and wines there too, but he started introducing us to different beers and then - I was married at the time - we started going to CAMRA pubs that year as well. So I happened to be in the shop and this guy said ‘why don't you come along and try all these different craft beers in one night?’ You just had to bring a bottle along - I think I took a really dodgy sweet potato or quinoa based beer and everybody just laughed at me. I never made that mistake again. But I was just overwhelmed by it all. And after going a couple of times, I was actually sat next to Lotte Peplow [Ambassador for the US Brewers Association in the UK and Europe]. She was one of the

founders of this bottle share – it still carries on now in fact – and I just turned to Lotte and said, ‘I'm going to open a bottleshop’. She was still studying for her Cicerone at that point, and she just looked at me and said, ‘Do it!’ So I was enjoying attending the events socially, the people I was meeting and I realised at the same time that they really desperately needed something different in Twickenham. It was just rugby pub, rugby pub, rugby pub. I thought it would just be great to be able to get home after work and come in to somewhere like this. It just all fit together like the magical moment. But then it took me a few years to find the right location.”

How did you go about finding the right site?

“In Twickenham, because of the stadium and it being a small town, there's this thing called a Cumulative Impact Zone [making it more difficult to open licensed premises in certain areas of the town]. So we found this really nice premises - and when I say we I am talking about me and my dog, it was just the two of us at that point. We found this place and I really fell in love. It was this really old restaurant with teak-lined walls, it was really cool. We'd got great terms with the landlord and I was starting to make plans. And then basically we got gazumped by Tesco. So I started looking for another place and found these old offices on Church Street in Twickenham. It's just a really boutiquey street, and it was just perfect for Brewery Market, with loads of independent businesses all working together to keep the street nice, and I eventually convinced the landlord to turn it into a bottleshop. It's like a cute little white cottage and it's a conservation building. It just feels like it has really good vibes in there.”

What is the ethos behind the business?

“I knew there were some key elements to it, like focusing on bringing something different to the community in the area and all the things that go with your duty of care to that community, like making sure the environment is good, sustainability and all of those sorts of things. I also wanted to inspire people as well. Like when you're a kid and you go in to a sweet shop, and you're like, ‘Oh my God, look at this place!’, people literally walk in here and go ‘Oh my God there’s so many fridges look at this place!’ That’s what I want. I did obviously do a lot of research, I had to go to a lot of bottleshops, and I would hear people saying the same thing, ‘it's too much flavour’ or ‘I couldn't drink a whole one’ and so I wanted to focus on answering some of those issues as well. So making people feel comfortable and giving them options was really important as well.”

So you’re taking people on a journey in a way?

“Yes, there's definitely a progression in our fridges and it's such a wide and diverse selection of beers – 200 of them - you could definitely go on a journey. And there's lots of ways to make it easier for them - we often identify beers in the fridge by flavour, so we say you might like it if you're a wine lover, or if you love this flavour, it's a bit sweeter. Because some people walk in and they can be a bit overwhelmed by it all. But then if they can focus on one of these small elements, we find that really connects with people. That was always really important, not to be just selling people things, but to be getting them to taste something. And if they like it, so many times we've had customers coming back saying ‘I came in the other day, I didn't buy anything but you gave me some tasters and I’ve brought my entire family with me’. And they get a flight of beers and they have a great time. I love that part.”

What makes you stand out from other retailers?

“I would say its the way we approach beer. We're not coming at it like we know loads about beer. We're not posting loads of reviews of beers or in craft beer forums or anything like that. We are just really focusing on how, when you have a beer, how the environment affects it, and how what you do can affect the way you remember that beer. The events we do are a bit more unusual, the music we play is a bit

retailer: Brewery Market

I'd say that the pandemic did actually affect us in a positive way. I think it really helped us establish a core group of customers, a real inner crew.

different to what you would hear anywhere else – we are zagging where everybody else is zigging. We're not doing the opposite just for the sake of it, but we actually say ‘think differently’, that's our little hashtag. Don't get drunk, you don't need to drink so much, have smaller measures, try more variety. And just see what you like. Whereas some retailers are all about ‘buy 12 beers and get 10% off’. It's a completely different view of alcohol and how to treat it and behave around it. I know people sometimes think about music, but it’s thinking about beer and things like lighting –drinking it with very bright lights is a different experience to if you've got very dim lights. An environment makes you want different beers. And temperature and time of year as well. But actually a venue makes a real difference. That's why our branding is very much black lines and white paper. When you go into the shop, all the colour on the wall is coming from the beer. It's beautiful and cosy and warm, and it's great, but it's not our influence, it’s us saying ‘here’s all the wonderful things you can try’.”

What’s new at Brewery Market for 2022?

“We're still catching up with a bit of the preCovid plan. But hopefully, by the end of this year, we'll have our webshop fully up to date and have that online, because things just got on top of that. And we've got plans for the end of this year and certainly into next year to go out and about a bit more, get to some festivals and things - not big festivals, but more local community events. They're the short-term plans.”

What is your pricing strategy and how do you compete with larger retailers?

“We try not to sell anything that people are selling elsewhere. Some people do walk in and say, ‘Oh my God, how can you charge that much?’. But we do really try to keep our prices low. And I'd say our pricing strategy is, when we're looking at pricing, what would I want to pay for it? So if you take an Omnipollo or Lervig which should be £16-18 a can, I would never pay that – so we'll mark it down to a reasonable level and try and recoup a reasonable profit in another areas like merch and stuff like that. It's a bit of a balancing game. We don't just put 85% markup on everything. We definitely really think about the pricing. It's quite important to us.”

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How has the pandemic changed the business?

“When the pandemic started we were still really just getting into things. So I don't really know what sort of a business we would have been pre-pandemic because it was about 50/50 on-trade to takeaway. But I would say the pandemic helped us get established on the takeaway side. Because we were open just selling through the window, where other people like the bigger chains weren't open. So a lot of people were coming across us very quickly. Especially doing the growlers and we do the 10% off - a lifetime discount on our growlers if you bring it back, which is nice. So I'd say that the pandemic did actually affect us in a positive way. I think it really helped us establish a core group of customers, a real inner crew. We got a little Whatsapp group going and because a lot of these guys and girls that come to the shop are actually just on their own, most people we get are just individuals and occasional couples, we don't get many big groups. So they became a community. They created their own bubble. Some of these people are my best friends now. I don't think I'd have that group of real dedicated ‘Shop Friends’ without the pandemic happening.”

How do you balance the on- and off-trade sides to your business?

“Obviously during the pandemic it was 100% off-trade. But I’d say now we get far more people coming in, having a few drinks and then taking away. Some people will sit there and have a few beers from the tap and then take away 20 cans or something like that. And then there's other people that will come in

just to do flights of beers, which they love. We don't have corkage or anything like that. So it's just the same price if you’re drinking in and taking away. I'd say it's more drinking in now. Maybe 70% of our business now?”

How successful have your virtual tastings been and how do they work?

“That came out of the pandemic as well. Because I obviously have this job in the city. Someone was saying, ‘Oh, I'm looking for a way to entertain my clients, can you do something?’ So I said I thought we could do something, we can send out a little package. So everybody gets the same beers. And we can get Zoom on. And so we started it with Osborne Clarke. And we did a load with them. We did it with Paul Davies, who's director of AleHunters and a World Beer Award judge and it just really took off. Especially because we're all about the flavour, so we designed these little flavour packs, just six little packs, tiny light little snap packs, and in each one is something that's a different flavour. So you only need to have a tiny little nibble on it, just to try it and see how it affects the beer. For umami it might be dried mushrooms, or it'll be sour cherries, or a bitter chocolate or bitter coffee or something like that. And they're still going on now. In fact Osborne Clarke got in touch the other day and they want to do one in person now.”

What do you look for in the small brewers you work with?

“I would say there are a few elements to that. I mean, obviously the people that were nice to me in the beginning when I first joined craft beer, they get in! And people that are loyal to the industry, true to what they do with their own ethos, and they’re trying to do good things, obviously you want to work with those sorts of people again and again. Someone like Duration or Double Barreled. Then I get recommendations from within the industry, just travelling out going to different breweries or festivals and trying different beers, going to other bottleshops and trying beers in different areas around the country. Never on Untapped.”

Is the energy crisis likely to seriously affect you?

“Well we've got this cold store out the back – it was offices so we lined and insulated one of the rooms and built a false wall. So we run that as a chiller basically but we have to run it all the time - you can't turn it off. But I have been lucky in that I was able to sign a contract with British Gas just before all this started and it doesn't expire until 2025. Which is so lucky. Our electrics is already high enough as is. Because we've got this old office ceiling with those massive halogen bulbs. So I’ve just installed fairy lights everywhere.”

Have you seen any interesting consumer trends coming through this year?

“That's an interesting one. I would say we get more people trying craft beer that hadn't previously. So we certainly get more people interested in that part of the industry. Mostly older people – much older, retired people.”

Does that reflect your usual customer demographic?

“We actually get a lot of teachers. Really - lots of teachers. And our LGBTQ plus community is huge. I'd say probably 40% of our customers. Because there's nowhere else for them to go in Twickenham, where they feel comfortable. There's just nowhere you can come to one bar and still get loads of variety, whereas you'd have to go to loads of different places to try out this many beers normally. It's always different. And we're super friendly as well. You can feel safe here.”

What are your plans for the business over the next five years?

“First off, I'd like to take a salary and give up the day job. I feel that's sort of happening as we speak anyway. But we do have some plans. One of them is to take Brewery Market on the road, and also to develop our own range of products. So this is something that we started doing in

the beginning with hop oils and creams. But I had to shelve something, I was just trying to do too much at once. So I just had to put that on the backburner. So that'll hopefully come back, and it’ll be nice to see our products in other bottleshops. I'm actually a psychotherapist, and also a Master Herbalist. I'm really, really interested in herbology. And the ingredients that people use in their beers especially, they're so natural, aren't they? So it lends itself to something like that. I love hops. They're so amazing - antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifungal, anti inflammatory, naturally relaxing and full of essential minerals. So I started making these creams and they were really popular, so those will be coming back soon in a big way, not just me making them at home.”

What are you proudest of during your time at Brewery Market?

“I think how these individual, single people, living alone have all come together and they've made this wonderful community. This network of support based around the shop, I think that's probably what I'm proudest of.”

Who do you most admire in the craft beer retail market at the moment and why?

“This is a hard one. I think honestly anyone, literally anyone, that's opened an independent shop on their own, in this industry, I admire.”

Name: The Beer Hall, Everards

Founded: 1849 Everards, 2021

Everards Meadows

Location: Cooper Way, Leicester

Taproom Hours:

Monday - 9am–11pm

Tuesday - 9am–11pm

Wednesday - 9am–11pm

Thursday - 9am–11pm

Friday - 9am–11pm

Saturday - 9am–11pm

Sunday - 9am–10pm

Taproom focus: The Beer Hall, Everards

Taproom focus: The Beer Hall, Everards

Everards’ hugely impressive new Beer Hall is the central hub of Everards Meadows, an expansive green space bringing together open grassland, bike and walking paths, coffee and bike shops, as well as superb beer and food.

The Beer Hall itself is bright, open and airy, with a definite US taproom feel to it. The classic Everards cask beers are joined by new keg beers available in the taproom only, brewed on the onsite test kit next to the main beer hall.

When we visited for a SIBA Regional Meeting recently the cask was tasting superb, with Everards clearly now at home in the new brewery and producing some superb beers in a board range of modern and traditional styles. Our pick of the bunch? It’s got to be Tiger. A truly classic amber bitter with a perfect balance of lightly sweet, biscuit malts and fruity hops creating an unmistakable bitter-sweetness to the flavour. Truly delicious and a beautiful space to enjoy it in!

Liddle

Jacob Liddle, the founder of Jiddler’s Tipple brewery, takes us through some of the steps on his journey to become a more sustainable operation…

Jacob Liddle

Who are we?

My name is Jacob Liddle, The Jiddler, and I am the founder of Jiddler’s Tipple! I launched Jiddler’s Tipple in October 2019 after falling in love with homebrewing in 2017. I set out with the aim of making the most delicious session beer you could get your hands on. That’s why all our core range beers are 3.8%. We pack them full of flavour and body despite being a little lower in ABV. That way you can enjoy a few extra beers without feeling wobbly!

It took a few years to get the business off the ground, but in February 2022 I quit my job and went full-time beer baron. I now lovingly develop every recipe on a test kit at home in Turnpike Lane, before brewing the perfect pints at a commercial scale. We don’t like to brag about our beers too much, so we get world renowned beer judges to do it for us(!). The beers have all won awards across the London Beer Competition, World Beer Competition, and Great Taste Awards as well as securing awards for our brand and design.

We’re a super small team, and I’m currently the only paid member of staff. Our Head of HR is my ex-racer greyhound, Chas. He looks after the wellbeing of all the friends and business partners who make Jiddler’s Tipple such a great success story.

Why we are green

As a fledging business, we wanted to start on the right foot and do as much as possible to be sustainable in the long term. Environmental issues are close to my heart (I must admit, initially inspired by my partner Lauren), and we keep our home as low/no waste as possible. Also now that I have a daughter, Robin, I want to make sure my business does as little damage to the world I’ll leave behind for her. At the same time we recognise that being a sustainable business will also appeal to our target audience and customers, and be beneficial in a crowded beer market.

Going plastic free

The first thing we wanted to do was ensure that the product itself was as eco as possible, on the premise that the little things make a big difference, especially as the business grows. So we decided to can all of our beers rather than use glass bottles. Metal is not only infinitely recyclable but it takes less energy to recycle than glass (apparently up to 90% less energy in some cases). Metal is also significantly lighter, meaning less fuel usage during transportation and a lower carbon footprint.

We then decided to paper labels made out of recycled paper rather than plastic. This does increase our unit price cost, but it was a no brainer for us. We all know the current single use plastic crisis is huge. Plastic is a huge contributing factor to global warming as well as sticking around in the environment forever and harming wildlife. Not to mention it leaks chemical into our water systems, and I need clean water to make good beer! It just doesn’t make sense to use plastic if you don’t have to. It’s 2022 after all, we’ve got to keep up.

It was quite difficult to find a label composition that provided the quality and longevity of plastic. We worked with our label provider (Label Net) and tested a few different solutions.

Unfortunately, if you use standard paper labels on cans they tend to wrinkle and distort during the packaging process due to the contact with water. On top off this, you need to use a special water-resistant adhesive. After a few botched batches of cans that looked a bit wrinkly we found an environmentally friendly solution that worked. Coating the labels in a water based varnish protected the paper and meant they still looked great when on the cans.

We were very happy to have found a paperbased solution for our cans.

It then also occurred to us to use paper tape on our packaging rather than plastic tape, thus eliminating plastic usage in our packaging.

Going Vegan

The next step we took was to make our beers Vegan. This reduces our impact on the planet but also makes us more accessible to our customers, as the percentage of people who are Vegan in the UK grows considerably every year. Also, Deborah Meaden is Vegan, and I bloody love Dragon’s Den.

Going carbon positive

The final thing we did (for now), was to invest in Carbon offsetting with TIST. We wanted to build in carbon offsetting from the start so it’s part of Jiddler’s Tipple DNA. We decided to offset 25% more carbon than Jiddler’s Tipple produces so that we’re not just net-zero impact, but we’re giving something back too. We used a sustainability consultant to make sure we were getting it right, and chose TIST (The International Small Group and Tree Planting Programme) as one of the best options.

Firstly, their carbon credits have been validated and audited so the carbon has already been captured and removed from the atmosphere. We didn’t want to take the risk of working with someone or making a pledge that doesn’t get fulfilled.

Secondly, the TIST farmers in developing countries receive 70% of the net profits from the sale of the credits. This means the money from carbon offsetting is going back to the farmers local economy which significantly helps their standard of living. As an organisation TIST have already offset 9million tonnes of carbon with their partners, of which we are one.

So before we knew it, we’d taken lots of steps along the way which meant that we could credibly state that we are an eco-friendly business. So many people have told us that we need to talk about this more in our marketing and comms activity. We didn’t initially set out on this journey to be more attractive to our customers, but since making these decisions we’ve realised how beneficial it can be in terms of gaining new business and customers.

Find out more about Jiddler’s Tipple at www.jiddlerstipple.com

If you’d like to find out more about going carbon positive check out www.tist.org

If you’d like to find out more about paper label solutions get in touch with Rob Lorkins at Label Net: robl@labelnet.co.uk

USA vs UK beer and food pairing approaches

Lotte Peplow, the American Craft Beer Ambassador for Europe for the Brewers Association, compares the culture around beer and food matching in the US with that in the UK, and offers advice on getting it right…

International focus: Beer & food matching

Walk into any bar, diner or restaurant in the States and American craft beer is often the dominant beverage of choice. Many venues list beer pairing suggestions alongside food dishes on the menu, as well as a separate and extensive beer list. American is a nation of beer lovers!

According to a Nielsen survey nearly half of craft beer drinkers in the States say they drink beer with food always or often, 63% of people select beer based on what they’re going to eat and 88% enjoy a beer with their meal at least sometimes.

Pairing American craft beer with food can elevate both to a whole new level and offer something innovative and different. Beer has a wider flavour spectrum than almost any other beverage and can accompany almost any food partner. Brewpubs with food offerings should consider these top tips:

1 Match strength with strength. Pair delicate dishes with lighter craft beers and strongly flavoured dishes with intense, more assertive beer styles

2 Think of beer as one of the flavour components of a dish, the only difference being it’s in a glass not on the plate!

3 Use the dominant flavour or ingredient in a dish as the starting point. Hops are very food-friendly and will go with just about any food.

4 Consider what cooking methods and techniques to use because this affects the end result. Grilling, roasting, smoking and baking when done at high temperatures will accentuate the beer’s malt flavours, while braising or frying adds fat that will coast the palate and protect against the ‘bite’ of the alcohol

5 Hops can mimic the flavours of herbs and spices. Hops with herbal, spicy, pine, citrus, tropical, fruity or woody flavour notes will complement similar herbs and spices used in the dish

6 Avoid incorporating American craft beer within a recipe because the cooking process drives off the flavour, and depending on the beer in use, may enhance bitterness. There are exceptions, of course, such as mussels in a smooth witbier or a beef casserole using stout, but pairing a beer with a dish allows the diner to taste all the flavours in both the food the beer.

Foods with spice, heat, acid and complex flavours are a great way to showcase and utilise certain beer styles. Hops can calm heat and spice, carbonation can cleanse the palate and malt in beer balances acidity on the palate.

There are three main interactions with beer and food pairings, as follows:

Complementing

Look for harmonious flavours between the ingredients and the beer eg. roasted duck breast with a brown ale or Dubbel, or the light acidity of a witbier with a salad and vinaigrette dressing. Roasting or grilling will complement the malts used in beer and bring out the Maillard reaction (a non-enzymatic browning that occurs in hot, moist environments like the char on a beef burger or roasted duck breast). In a recent survey, 71% of craft beer purchases gave ‘complements my meal’ as a very or somewhat important selection criteria in their beer choice when at a bar or brewpub.

Contrasting

Contrasting is the most challenging interaction on the palate and works best when the dominant flavour of the dish contrasts against the main flavour profile of the beer eg. sweet v sour or bitter v sweet. A classic example is the tropical flavour notes of an American IPA with an intensely, hot pepper spiced dish or curry.

Cutting

Craft beer cuts through the fat of rich, succulent and creamy foods to cleanse the palate after every mouthful and leave it feeling

refreshed, clean and ready for the next bite. The bitter strength and astringency of hops lifts fat from the palate and a sweet finish cuts away acidic flavours leaving a pleasant sensation in the mouth. Sour and tart flavours can cut away sugary and fruity notes and the scrubbing effect of carbonation diffuses the richness of the food.

Pairing beer with food in the States is far more prevalent than in the UK. Prestigious, high demand events take place regularly and draw huge interest from across America, and further afield, where the worlds of gastronomy and American craft brewing collide in unique sensory showdowns.

One such example is SAVOR, a one-off carefully curated beer and food pairing event organised by the Brewers Association, the trade association representing small and independent American craft brewers. SAVOR is an annual showstopper taking place every June in Washington DC that pairs 110 American craft breweries serving 225 beers with 65 exquisite small bites. Each dish is masterminded by the Brewers Association’s Executive Chef and international beer and food pairing expert, Adam Dulye, supported by a talented team of award-winning chefs. Now it its 11th year running, SAVOR is a mecca for gastronomes and attracts 2,500 guests from all over the world.

SAVOR is different to most beer events because it allows guests the opportunity to engage with the people behind the brewery and the beers. Brewers/brewery owners are present at each station to pour their beers while talking and interacting with guests. This allows beer lovers to get up close and personal with some of the ‘rockstars’ of the American craft brewing world which helps to heighten their whole SAVOR experience.

As Matt Lincecum, founder of Fremont Brewing Co put it: “SAVOR is a special event because the people who attend do so with real intention. They’re here because they really love craft beer and they pick out exactly what pairings they want to sample ahead of time.”

The high quality and full flavour of American craft beer combined with a wide diversity of innovative beer styles, lends itself perfectly to pairing with food. In keeping with the ethos of SAVOR the menu features mostly organic ingredients from local producers.

But beer and food events of SAVOR’s magnitude are few and far between in the UK. Does the issue lie with the UK’s longentrenched ‘pie and a pint’ mentality or are we yet to realise the boundless potential between high quality American craft beer and food? The Brewers Association recently addressed this question by hosting an American craft beer and food pairing initiative at Westminster Kingsway Catering College in Victoria, London that targeted students. The objective was to stimulate understanding and trial of American craft beer and food pairings at an early stage in the students’ careers to arm them with knowledge and experience as they progress through their professional careers.

The event consisted of a four-course beer and food paired menu devised, cooked and served by third year students, under the leadership of the Brewers Association’s Adam Dulye.

Beer is highly versatile when it comes to pairing with food making it the ideal pairing partner and the Brewers Association wanted to prove this point to the chefs of tomorrow.

The menu comprised: Salad of Heirloom tomatoes, pickled watermelon, wasabi and ginger granita with Chuckanut Asian Lager, Chuckanut Brewery and Paradox Pilsner, Paradox Brewery

Cannelloni of Brixam crab, mango and chilli salsa with Weekend Vibes, Coronado Brewing Company and Joint Resolution, DC Brau Aylesbury duck, roast and confit, potato press, heritage carrots, veal and blackberry sauce with Baker’s Ordinary Bitter, Virginia Beer Company and Kriek, Upslope Brewing Company

“Josper” charred pineapple, coconut ice, lime meringue paired with Pineapple Mana Wheat, Maui Brewing Company

The UK is the largest export market in Europe and second biggest individual market for American craft beer in the world, accounting for 8.4% of all exports.

Chris Basten, commercial development chef at Westminster Kingsway College, added: “Our students gained valuable knowledge and experience of pairing beer with food which will stand them in good stead for their future careers. They were intrigued by how the flavours in beer harmonised with those in food to create a heightened sensory taste experience. The event helped change the perception of beer from a beverage to an additional flavour component of a dish and opened their eyes to beer’s pairing potential.”

India Pale Ale (IPA) is the biggest sector in American craft beer, driven by imperial IPA and hazy/juicy IPA. American craft brewers continue to innovative and create new flavours and styles such as fruit beers, sours, and lighter ales many of which are perfect partners for food. American craft beer is widely credited with pioneering the global craft beer movement we see today through innovative use of ingredients, technical brewing expertise and the relentless pursuit of quality. Such beers regularly

win top honours at prestigious international beer competitions around the world judged by panels of experts.

Brewers are invited to submit beers to the now annual World Beer Cup in Nashville, TN next year. Known as the ‘Olympics of Beer’, the World Beer Cup is the most prestigious beer competition in the world and is held annually in conjunction with the Craft Brewers Conference® and Brew Expo America®. Registration opens in November and beers will be consolidated at the UK hub in Hertfordshire before being air-freighted to the USA at the Brewers Association’ s expense. Winners will be announced in Nashville on 10th May 2023. For details please see www.worldbeercup.org

The UK is the largest export market in Europe and second biggest individual market for American craft beer in the world, accounting for 8.4% of all exports. In the UK American craft beer is available from select national wholesalers or direct from www.cascadeclub.co.uk or www. uk.athleticbrewing.com

Chefs and brewers are welcome to make use of the wealth of free, downloadable resources available on www.brewersassociation.org including the Craftbeer.com Beer & Food Professional Course, at www.craftbeer.com/ printedCourse

Lotte Peplow is the American Craft Beer Ambassador for Europe for the Brewers Association and is based in London, UK. She is a Certified Cicerone®, BDI accredited Beer Sommelier, beer writer, beer communicator, international beer judge, author, homebrewer and beer and food pairing evangelist. Find out more about the Brewers Association at www.brewersassociation.org

Experienced pub owners and those in the licensed trade will know that when you hold a licence to sell alcohol, it is important to be aware of the responsibilities that come with it - and to be aware of the pitfalls that can await you.

There is often a spotlight focused on the licensed trade and complaints or visits from the local authorities, Environmental Health Officer and the police may result in what we commonly describe as enforcement. There are two ways in which enforcement can take place. Firstly, when it is due to a complaint or a concern that has been identified eg. a neighbour flagging noise concerns, reports of underage customers, or a scuffle in your premises resulting in calls to the police. The second way enforcement takes place is by way of routine licensing visits, where compliance with the licence is checked by the police or council licensing officers. As life seems to be returning to normal, it is becoming clear that after a hiatus of 2 years, enforcement officers have a lot to catch up on and are back out making their checks in force. Just prior to writing this article I have taken a call from an operator where a test purchase has been failed at his premises and the dreaded letter notifying them that the authority will be in touch, handed to staff. It is a situation no operator of licensed premises wants to be in.

In my view this is a very good time to review your licensing practises - and make sure you are prepared for the spotlight. Ask yourself:

• Do you have the most up to date copy of your premises licence AND summary on the premises? Don’t make the

An upsurge in enforcement – are you protected?

In this article Napthens Head of Licensing, consultant Gill Sherratt, looks at the current upsurge in enforcement of licensing compliance and asks whether you are fully protected.

mistake of thinking the summary IS the premises licence, they are entirely separate documents.

• Is the person named as the Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) still working at your venue? Not having a DPS is a criminal offence and taken very seriously by the authorities. You must stop selling alcohol immediately if your DPS has moved on and make an application to change it.

• It is highly likely that following the pandemic you have recruited new staff. This raises the question of how they have been trained and if that training is documented. Are training records up to date?

• Licence conditions – check the conditions at Annex 2 on your premises licence. Are they routinely breached or a cause of commercial or practical issues for the premises? Breach of a premises licence condition is a criminal offence and compliance with them warrant attention as soon as practicable.

• Have you used the pandemic as an opportunity to make changes to or refurbish

your premises? If so, remember the plan forms a part of the premises licence and must reflect the current layout. If it does not, some authorities will insist the premises ceases to trade until remedial works are carried out or plans altered

Remember - enforcement takes place against the backdrop of local councils and other authorities being under resourced and often lacking knowledge of their role. Ideally, all operators of licensed premises would be treated the same, but enforcement is not applied consistently by local councils. In reality, it can be a lottery when it comes to the action an officer might choose to deal with potential transgressions.

Enforcement action can range from a warning, a request for conditions to be applied to a licence, a suspension, or revocation of the licence - or even prosecution. When you consider the potential impact to your business in terms of financial losses and damage to reputation, it makes good sense to get your house in order in order to avoid any problems before they arise.

For advice on this topic or on legal issues affecting your business, please contact theSIBA Legal Helpline on 0845 6710277

North West Law firm Napthens LLP is a SIBA supplier associated and Silver Standard Sponsor. The firm has a team of specialists looking after legal requirements of clients in the leisure and licenced trade sector, with clients including Daniel Thwaites Plc and Titanic Brewery.

Napthens manage the SIBA Legal Helpline which offers legal advice and guidance on a wide range of legal issues affecting your business, including: General commercial, intellectual property, corporate finance, dispute resolution and litigation, commercial property, licensing, employment law and HR advice. Any enquiry through the helpline will receive up to 1 hour of free legal expertise (if further work is required, you’ll be advised of the appropriate charging structure).

Full details of the helpline can be found on the SIBA Members Toolbox.

This month’s article is something of a sequel to a piece we wrote last year, in which we raised serious concerns about the fact that the Municipality of Munich had been able to secure EU trade mark protection for the term ‘Oktoberfest’.

We were not alone in our surprise that the Municipality of Munich had managed to secure these rights and felt compelled to take action on behalf our clients in the brewing sector and wider hospitality industry – not least because there was a further application by the city of Munich pending in the UK.

On 9th August this year, the UK application was withdrawn following an unsuccessful attempt by the Municipality of Munich to overturn the UKIPO Examiner’s view that ‘Oktoberfest’ is non-distinctive and therefore cannot function as a trade mark. The withdrawal came shortly after we filed third-party observations on behalf of several interested parties in the brewing and hospitality industry.

We felt compelled to mount this challenge because we could see the potential impact it might have on valuable commercial opportunities for our clients and the brewing and hospitality industry. It was the scope of the application that gave our clients most cause for concern, with the potential to severely restrict the long-established commercial activities of event organisers and merchandising manufacturers that have been built around Oktoberfest in the UK. It also had the seemingly impossible potential to allow the Municipality of Munich to prevent brewers labelling their glasses with Oktoberfest, even if they were made to hold an Oktoberfest lager, for instance. Ultimately, our arguments against the registration of Oktoberfest as a trade mark were three-fold:

1. Oktoberfest is descriptive of two distinct

beer styles (a traditional Märzen lager and a paler Festbier that is now more commonly served at an Oktoberfest event), and the name of a beer festival held annually in autumn between late September and early October. Although an Oktoberfest is held annually in Munich, many other cities and private entities across the world also hold Oktoberfest celebrations. As such, there is a public interest that goods or services bearing the Oktoberfest mark remain freely available to all undertakings in order that they may use them when describing the same characteristics of their own goods or services.

2. Oktoberfest has become customary in the current language or in the bona fide and established practices of the brewing and hospitality trades.

3. The Oktoberfest application seeks to disrupt the legitimate interests of businesses already operating in the brewery and hospitality sectors whose exploitation of the mark Oktoberfest in relation to a range of merchandising goods, such as, printed matter (class 16), glassware and drinking vessels, hand-held utensils and drinking accessories (class 21), clothing (class 25), and a range of services, such as, the organisation and promotion of events, in particular beer fairs, festivals and exhibitions (class 35), the broadcasting of such events (class 38), and related travel to such events (class 39), has gone unhindered to date.

The decision by the UK Intellectual Property Office has been welcomed by the brewing industry. Felix Bollen, co-founder of German Kraft Brewery, had the following comment: “We're very glad they have withdrawn the application. It would have impacted us a lot as we're a German brewery and celebrate the 'London Craft Oktoberfest' every year at our three venues.”

Prost! Oktoberfest UK trade mark application withdrawn

Chris Baume and Cameron MaloneBrown, trade mark attorneys at European intellectual property law firm Potter Clarkson, offer an update on attempts to trade mark ‘Oktoberfest’…

Anthony Knight, sales and marketing director at Incipio Group, highlighted the global nature of Oktoberfest, commenting “Although we respect the significance of celebratory traditions and occasions which initially originated in one place, we also believe such occasions can be enjoyed globally around the world by many. Pergola Paddington looks forward to hosting our interpretation of Oktoberfest this year having sold out in 2021.”

This is a great outcome for the brewing and hospitality industries, for whom Oktoberfest is a key date in the calendar and an event that generates significant revenue by way of event hosting and merchandising. We are delighted to have played our role in ensuring the best result for our clients and for the brewing and hospitality sectors more widely.

Challenging the EU Trade Mark

The Municipality of Munich’s EU trade mark registration for Oktoberfest is also under challenge by Potter Clarkson AB in Sweden, and will be reported in due course – so watch this space!

Potter Clarkson helps companies, organisations and individuals across all sectors of business to understand, create, protect and defend the commercial value of their innovations anywhere in the world through intellectual property rights.

As a full-service intellectual property law firm with expertise in patents, trade marks, designs, litigation, licensing and consultancy, the firm can provide specialist support in all areas of IP.

Find out more at www.potterclarkson.com

Chris Baume

Cameron Malone-Brown

Are we heading towards a future without alcohol? Well, are we? This was a (semi) serious question asked of panellists at our recent Low and No conference this summer. And the consensus was generally that it’s certainly not in our medium-term future but then who would have ever thought 20 years ago that the tobacco giants would be putting all their money into supporting a “tobaccofree UK by 2030.”

Personally, our recent extensive work in the Low and No category has made me question some of my own motives for drinking alcohol. Whilst alcohol consumption rose slightly (a LOT in my household) during the pandemic, our latest research, in partnership with Lucky Saint, found that more than 1-in-2 Brits say they actively want to cut down their alcohol consumption in the next 12 months. Better health, as well as ‘saving money’ was the largest driver behind moderation, while respondents identified taste as being the number one thing they care about when choosing an alcohol-free option.

Some 55% of UK drinkers consume fewer than ten units of alcohol per week, according to KAM’s new research. This growing ‘moderate’ group of drinkers are, however, also the most likely type of drinker to visit a pub at least once per month (78%), highlighting a major shift in consumer behaviour. Drinkers are increasingly moderating their alcohol intake but still actively taking part in traditionally alcohol-led social occasions. No doubt alcohol still plays a huge role in modern British life, but our social occasions are becoming less dominated by it.

Laura Willoughby, co-founder of mindful drinking movement Club Soda, talks of the importance of “social inclusion” for human beings; “Alcohol is such a huge part of who we are and how we socialise in the UK –it’s how we celebrate, it’s how we relax, it’s built into the core of virtually every social occasion. If someone doesn’t want to “drink” then they’re often left sipping a luke-warm tap water or cola as an afterthought”. With the increasing proportion of people actively wanting to moderate their drinking,

Are we heading towards a future without alcohol?

the growing number of decent tasting alcohol free alternatives mean they can still enjoy these social occasions, whether at home or in pubs and restaurants. The research shows that the stigma of choosing alcoholfree whilst in pubs and bars is fast shrinking, especially across Generation Z. The average UK drinker is now frequently moderating between alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks, with nearly one in three pub visits (29%) and 37% of restaurant visits being completely alcohol-free. These occasions are most likely to be when dining with family, having lunch and also work meetings. The challenge for the on-trade is that 22% of these customers will default to tap water, so the growing options in quality low and no alternatives should be welcomed here with open arms. Those that don’t will miss out on vital sales and people will further shift their socialising into the home. Supermarkets were identified as the main market for the growth of alcohol-free choices from consumers in the UK, with more than twice as many consumers saying that it’s their go to source of discovery compared to pubs, bars, or restaurants. Supermarket aisles is where consumers are learning about these low and no brands and trialling products for the first time (at a lower cost and thus lower ‘risk’.) The challenge for retailers and suppliers will be to really understand these ‘alcohol-free’ occasions and the purchasing decision hierarchy which drives them, because the research suggests it differs considerably compared to the ‘alcohol purchase.’

Given the continued movement towards moderation, it’s no surprise that alcohol-free continues to grow in the UK, albeit from a small base. But the UK has been slow to adopt credible low and no alternatives. Luke Boase, founder of Lucky Saint, recently pointed out that we’re really still a laggard when it comes to catering for the increasing number of drinkers who prefer to moderate their choices. The likes of Spain, France and Germany all have at least five times the market share for low and no options

compared to the UK.

There is clearly a massive opportunity to emulate the European market for Low & No. Consumers want taste and quality, but historically there’s not been a product that fits the bill.

In an industry that historically only knows people as drinkers and non-drinkers, there isn’t much understanding of how to cater for our evolving consumers currently. We need to rethink what we understand as a ‘nondrinker’ in the UK.

Consumers are looking for ways to drink less alcohol but don't want to miss out on all the occasions where alcohol is normally present; going to the pub with friends, celebrating a birthday at home, enjoying a beer while watching sport, for example, and the increasing number of alcohol-free options available is being welcomed by UK drinkers.

The growth in popularity of the alcoholfree category isn't primarily driven by those who never drink alcohol, but rather the huge number of Brits who want to moderate their intake. This isn’t about a growing teetotal population but accepting that our relationship with alcohol is shifting and consumers are demanding an alternative. We now see a modern consumer who is more aware of the risks of alcohol, where their leisure time is not so focused around drinking culture and who are in tune with their consumption, therefore more likely to take action to ensure that they are drinking at what they consider to be responsible levels. So are we heading towards an alcohol-free future? The pandemic may have bought a temporary return to ‘Booze Britain’ for some but the growing trend of “Drinking in Moderation” will certainly dominate.

KAM Media is a boutique research consultancy, specialising in hospitality and retail, running bespoke and syndicated customer research programmes for both pub companies and on-trade suppliers. Find out more at www.kam-media.co.uk.

Katy Moses, the Founder and MD of consumer insight specialist KAM Media, takes a look at the latest research from the no and low market and questions what the future might hold…

Digital Brewing: from production to dispense

How digital can a brewery really be?

Well almost all breweries have a website, social media platforms, email access and an online shop, but how about their production and delivery? And how about interfacing these with drinkers?

To start with, production. A brewer’s log was traditionally a hallowed document - a written record of each brew’s performance and progress. Today I would imagine the majority of breweries also have a spreadsheet record if only as a back-up to a folder of paper sheets. In addition, though, a spreadsheet will allow calculations and predictions and help you to visualise fermentations and maturation. In some professional programmes these can integrate with stock lists, sales, and distribution, even summarising each month’s duty and integrating with finance.

Brewsheets and spreadsheets record your ingredient input, target specifications – ABV, OG, PG, colour, bitterness and pH as typical examples. They also record data on progress at different stages of brewing temperature, gravity and, perhaps, pH and O2 so allowing conformity to targets to be assessed. Measuring these takes time and attention so it is little wonder that automatic monitoring and remote access is increasingly popular. Tracking a brewery’s fermentations online not only makes for easier control but also allows further analysis. The rate of fermentation, initially and towards attenuation, for example, can be correlated to yeast source and viability. Progressive gyles can be compared to determine a trend analysis allowing an alert to post before targets are overshot. The relationship between fermentation kinetics and processing such as mash temperature, O2

or wort pH can be tracked allowing feedback for greater quality assurance. Interface is, perhaps, the liability in such systems as automatic monitoring needs reliable monitors for each input. pH and O2 probes are widely available but require calibration and responses may drift with time. Gravity may be determined by gas flow or weight loss of the vessel or by automatic sampling and analysis. Attention to the quality of data capture is essential but brew monitoring does have potential for improving process control.

Tracking a brewery’s fermentations online not only makes for easier control but also allows further analysis.

Such monitoring isn’t just unique to fermentation control but is increasingly available in other fields of production – and literally so for monitoring cattle health as one example. Beef herd management uses ear tags to record individual cow movements, rumination, even fertility indicators. Data is relayed hourly to a server for storage and analysis including an alert if animals have wandered off field or onto the road through an open gate.

Fermentation data is, inevitably, for in-house use, not for public view. Although some breweries are magnanimous enough to make recipes freely available it is unlikely that production data will be provided openly or in real time. What though can be provided to enhance consumer interaction?

One option arises from downstream programme applications focused on container tracking. It is easy enough to record delivery of beer to an outlet but retrieving casks and kegs is a perpetual nightmare. Not only may these be collected by other breweries but increasingly swept up by collection services to be stored in depots awaiting payment for release.

Applying the livestock approach to containers allows a tag to report on their location and send an alert if moved from their designated site. Such ‘intelligent’ casks and kegs not only save loss but can reduce the numbers you need by making their return more guaranteed. A further advantage is that coupled with a consumer app an ‘intelligent’ cask or keg can provide information of where a particular beer is available. Potential coupling with a till logging of sales would further confirm the beer being on tap and allow for the delay between delivery and dispense. Such a combination could direct drinkers to the right bars for the right beer at the right time and be particularly valuable in promotions of new and specialist brews. No more searching the streets from pub to pub or following endless Facebook threads. Today the online brewery needn’t be just social media posts anymore, but real time data in your hand.

Brewlab’s Dr Keith Thomas takes a look at how developments in digital technology can support brewers at every stage of the brewing journey…

Brewing Apprenticeships

The Brewer Apprenticeship programme has been specifically developed by HIT Training in collaboration with brewers to support UK breweries in growing and developing the next generation of talent needed in their brewhouses. Apprenticeships can bring huge benefits to brewery businesses, not just in helping to develop an in-house pool of future Head Brewers, but in improving staff retention, learning and bringing new techniques and methods back to the brewery and ultimately improving efficiencies and boosting profits. Here we meet some of the breweries and apprentices who are already reaping the benefits of the programme…

HIT Training is the only training provider in the sector to offer the brewing apprenticeship and has been instrumental in designing the programme content and delivery model.

The aim of the apprenticeship is to improve employees’ skills and increase their efficiency and productivity in a demanding and often sought-after role.

HIT Training works closely with both employers and apprentices to deliver a training programme which meets the bespoke needs of individual breweries

and apprentices’ career aspirations. The apprentices will gain from in-work experience covering a broad spectrum of activities, from gaining an understanding of ingredient provenance and the importance of stock control, to safe operation of brewing equipment, design of beer recipes and brewery promotion.

Jill Whittaker, Managing Director of HIT Training, said: “We’re extremely proud to have been part of the trailblazer group which has developed the Brewer Apprenticeship

The inaugural Brewer Graduation event was held for graduating apprentices at The Jubilee Hotel, University of Nottingham, on 8th September.

The event was attended by Apprentices, Head Brewers and Brewery owners from all over England to celebrate the tremendous commitment and achievements of our 'future Head Brewers'.

HIT Training proudly collaborates with the ICBS (International Centre for Brewing Science) at the University and the IBD (Institute for Brewing & Distilling) to deliver the unique programme, developed by the brewing industry for breweries.

A total of 18 Apprentices graduated and celebrated with their friends, families and colleagues over a splendid buffet lunch and a few cheeky beers - if brewers can't put a decent event on, who can?

and to be among the first to deliver it to the sector. The UK brewing and pub industries are significant contributors to the national economy with over 2,000 breweries currently in operation. It’s brilliant news to see the sector taking control of its future and making sure it has the best workforce for the exciting time ahead via offering high-quality training opportunities such as this apprenticeship.”

What is a Brewer Apprenticeship?

• Entry: Employers will set their own entry requirements in order to start on this apprenticeship.

• Duration: Typically a Brewer Apprenticeship will take 18 months.

• Level: This apprenticeship standard is set at level 4.

• Delivery model: Apprentices access a library of online learning resources, developed and designed to deliver the essential knowledge elements of the programme.

• Content: The online modules prepare each apprentice for the face-to-face workshops and provide invaluable revision resources for the learner. Each apprentice will attend 12 workshops (6 x 2-day residential) at the International Centre for Brewing Science at the University of Nottingham. Industry experts will bring the theory and practice of brewing to life with a series of lectures, practical sessions and tutorials.

• Requirements: If the employee does not have maths and English GCSE passes at grade C or above, they will need to pass maths and English Functional Skills level 2 during their Apprenticeship.

• End-Point Assessment: the employer, training provider and apprentice will agree when the apprentice is competent and ready to undertake the independent end point assessment. Alongside the apprentice, HIT professional trainers will agree on a personal learning and development plan, setting a timetable of learning activities in preparation for the EndPoint Assessment (EPA). The HIT Training Consultant will meet with the apprentice regularly either online or face to face to complete and review assessments, provide further coaching where required and agree the next steps of learning.

FACTS AND FIGURES

100%

Key benefits of the Brewer Apprenticeship programme

• The measurable impact to business: apprentices learn new methods, techniques and efficiency models which, when brought back into the brewery, ultimately impact on improved business performance and efficiencies.

• HIT’s expert Brewer Trainers will review learning progress at each stage of the delivery, visiting the Apprentice’s Brewery and assessing their application of their new found knowledge and skills. This is in essence a free business consultation with an industry expert.

• Apprentices, if requested, will also complete and earn their Institute of Brewing and Distilling ‘General Certificate in Brewing’ as part of their learning.

• Running a successful brewery, pub or licensed premises requires an expert team comprising the best chefs, kitchen staff, servers and managers. Investing in work-based apprenticeships for staff can make a world of difference to a team’s expertise, practical and social skills - and is not only affordable but worthy too.

• Creating a team that delivers high-quality customer experiences, entices people back time and time again and gets people talking about a business for the right reasons. To secure future growth, brewers need to nurture their own talent.

• Providing skills that increase efficiency, productivity and enable innovation, in turn, boosts the bottom line. Investment in training and development of staff always pays dividends.

THE BREWER APPRENTICESHIP WITH HIT TRAINING HAS A 100% PASS RATE. OUT OF ALL LEARNERS WHO COMPLETED ENDPOINT ASSESSMENT, 45% ACHIEVED A DISTINCTION AND 55% ACHIEVED A PASS

Apprentice Case Study: Zoe Clack, Project Brewer and former Brewer Apprentice at Greene King

Tell us a bit about yourself

"I grew up in Southwold, Suffolk, where my mum worked as a tour guide for Adnams brewery. As I’m half-Dutch, after completing my A-levels I went to university in Leiden, Netherlands, to do International Studies. As a student I really enjoyed trying different styles of craft beers and during the long holidays I would go home to Southwold and work as a tour guide alongside mum for a summer job. I loved it! It made me realise that this was an industry I wanted to work in."

How did you end up working for Greene King?

"After finishing my studies, I was keen to return to the Netherlands and contacted a craft brewery I knew of there. I suggested they start running brewery tours and they took me on as tour manager. Then Covid-19 struck, and all tours were cancelled. When an ex-colleague who had moved to Greene King brewery told me they were looking to take on an apprentice, I applied and got the job. I moved to Bury St Edmunds, the home of Greene King’s head office in Suffolk, and began the Level 4 Brewer Apprenticeship in November 2020 in partnership with HIT Training."

Why did an apprenticeship appeal to you?

"With my long-standing passion for the industry, I knew doing an apprenticeship meant I could learn lots more about the business, not only the theory of how to craft a beer but also practical aspects such as health and safety. It would be another qualification under my belt too – the equivalent of a foundation degree."

What did you learn on the Brewer Apprenticeship?

"The coursework was made up of 12 evidence pieces focusing on the brewing industry, ranging

from knowledge of raw materials, the different stages of brewing right through to packaging and cellar dispense. I was part of a small cohort of six apprentices and we had six two-day workshops during the course at the University of Nottingham’s International Centre for Brewing Science. These were led by Rod White, Assistant Professor in Brewing Science, and technical brewer and teaching associate Zane Barnes, both experts in their field. It was a tricky start to the apprenticeship because the first two workshops had to be held remotely due to lockdown, but I managed to attend four live workshops later where I got to stay the night in Nottingham and meet my fellow apprentice brewers. It really was life-changing and Rod and Zane’s lectures were truly inspirational. They are super-heroes of the brewing world."

How have you been able to use your knowledge in the workplace?

"Things often go wrong in brewing and I’ve used the skills I learnt on the apprenticeship to help me problem-solve alongside colleagues at Greene King who were my mentors along the way. For example, when a yeast is offflavour, I was able to find the root cause by applying my theoretical knowledge to a practical problem. Also, with knowledge comes respect which means I have much more confidence in my brewing ability and that makes me a more valuable team member. As part of the apprenticeship, I also achieved a ‘General Certificate in Brewing’ with the Institute of Brewing and Distilling (IBD) – another feather in my cap. I’m now studying for the IBD Diploma in Brewing which is a further stepping-stone in my career."

How has your apprenticeship helped Greene King?

"Alongside my apprenticeship, I was able to work with the company’s smaller craft brewery and helped launch two new premium beers with the aim of appealing to a younger audience. As a young person myself, it was something I truly believed in and I like to think I made a valuable contribution to the company. I was also promoted to Project Brewer."

Would you like to see more women go into brewing?

"I’d highly recommend the Brewer Apprenticeship to anyone - particularly women - interested in brewing. While it’s a very male dominated industry, it’s also incredibly friendly and collaborative and I hope more females join the industry. We should be doing more to attract women, and now craft beer is becoming more inclusive and appealing to a wider audience, I hope that in turn will attract more people to join the industry including women."

specializes in the supply of machinery and complete “Turn Key” production lines for the bottling and packaging industry, covering primarily the beverage field

catering for special needs in the food

to our success is the “know how” gained in over 40 years of experience in this industry

the ability to supply equipment

competitive pricing and efficiency

service and support.

Brewery Case study: The Brewhouse & Kitchen (B&K) Brewers Academy

What is the B&K Brewers Academy?

"We started this program in 2018, hoping to get a few people on board to be trained and developed, and now 84% of our B&K Brewing Team started their career by completing the Brewing Apprenticeship program.

We understand that there is a need to provide in-depth training, to support the up-skilling of passionate people in the brewing industry from the ground-level. We identified the need for trained professionals in the Brewpub world, due to the skillset and technical knowledge required.

Success as a brewer is not dictated by doing the same task time and time again. However, it is learning the impact of decisions and changes that are made each time you brew. We train natural creativity, through learning about the cause and effect of decision making in the brewing process.

You don’t typically tell your careers advisor at school that you want to become a Brewer – or if you did, maybe they would have given you a bit of a funny look! We realise that going professional in the brewing industry can be daunting, so being able to hone your trade within a Brewpub setting can be comfortable for some. However, our Apprentices do the

Launched: 2018

Level: Level 4 Brewer Apprenticeship (Equivalent to Foundation Degree)

Length: Approx. 18 months

Entry Requirement: Have passed your B&K Probationary Period (between 12-16 weeks)

entire job, from production, brewing, packaging to sourcing, with some quality control thrown in too!

We have a strong team of brewers, from all backgrounds of life, such as homebrewers, beer lovers, university graduates… we even have a Senior Brewer who is a qualified ballroom dancer (and a doctor too, but the dancing sounds more fun!). We welcome, with open arms, those that want to learn, we just ask for two things in return, PASSION and POSITIVITY. Combined, these two traits can take you a long way in this industry.

B&K proudly holds a completion rate of 100% for all Apprentices going through this programme since 2018. And whilst many of these people choose to stay with us, some have headed to pastures new, to breweries such as St Austell, Cloudwater and Attic Brewing Co.

B&K’s goal for 2023 is to have at least five new Brewer Apprentices - could this be you?"

What does the Academy course cover?

"As a lover of all things beer and brewing, we take that passion and turn it into success. By getting Apprentices acquainted with one of our

Want to get involved and find out more about the Brewer Apprenticeship?

Brewpub Brewers, they learn from the ground up, with the foundations of great understanding coming from on-the-job training. Alongside the University of Nottingham and HIT Training, B&K will tutor them in equipment, styles, recipes, marketing and troubleshooting alongside the best people in the industry. The Brewers Support Team will be on the journey too by coaching and mentoring with real-life earn-as-you-learn experiences. We aim to have Apprentices up and running in their own Brewpub within 12 months, where they take on the job of brewing our core, seasonal and their own Brewer’s Choice beers – which will be designed entirely by them. Graduates will lead their Brewpub’s team in the understanding of our in-house brewed range, championing from the front and delivering our popular Brewery Experience Days for guests, team and stakeholders alike. They’ll have expeditions away, visiting beer festivals, residentials with the team and attendance at national competitions."

Interested in finding out more?

training@

your interest

Breweries can enquire directly to HIT Training via www.hittraining.co.uk/brewer-apprenticeship. Interested breweries are welcome to attend any of the university workshops, by request, and meet the delivery team involved.

Regional Beer Competitions

Midlands

Cask Session Dark Beer

Sponsored by: Abacus Flooring Solutions

G GOLD: Nottinghham Brewery Ltd

Rock Mild 3.8%

S SILVER: Brampton Brewery

Impy Dark 4.3%

S SILVER: Little Brewing Co

The Panther Stout 4.2%

S SILVER: Brunswick Brewing Co Ltd Railway Porter 4.3%

B BRONZE: White Horse Brewery

Wayland Smithy 4.4%

B BRONZE: Grainstore Brewery Rutland Panther 3.4%

B BRONZE: Milestone Brewery Black Pearl 4.3%

B BRONZE: Shipstone's Beer Company Nut Brown 4.0%

B BRONZE: Vale Brewery Red Kite 4.3%

Cask British Dark Beer

Sponsored by: Murphy & Son

G GOLD: Grainstore Brewery

Rutland Beast 5.3%

S SILVER: Weal Ales Brewery

Centwealial Milk Stout 4.9%

B BRONZE: Loose Cannon Brewery

Robust British Porter 5.0%

B BRONZE: Castle Rock Brewery Oatmeal Stout 4.6%

B BRONZE: Loddon Brewery Hocus Pocus 4.6%

B BRONZE: Dancing Duck Brewery Dark Drake 4.5%

Cask British Bitter

G GOLD: Everards of Leicestershire Tiger 4.2%

S SILVER: Brewhouse & Kitchen Sutton Coldfield OO4 Oaks 4.2%

S SILVER: Shipstone's Beer Company

Original Bitter 3.8%

Overall Champion of the Cask Beer Competition

Sponsored by: Keg Logistics

Presented to: Steven Fuller

Presented by: Stephanie Brindley

G Grainstore Brewery Rutland Beast 5.3%

S Backyard Brewhouse Bad Santa, Oak Aged 6.8%

B Grainstore Brewery Nip 7.3%

Cask Session Pale Ale

S SILVER: Titanic Brewery Steerage 3.8%

S SILVER: Purity Brewing Company

JIMBO - Very Best Bitter 4.0%

S SILVER: Rebellion Beer Co. Ltd. Overthrow 4.3%

B BRONZE: Blue Monkey Brewery Primate Best Bitter 4.0%

B BRONZE: Derby Brewing Company Business As Usual 4.4%

B BRONZE: Backyard Brewhouse The Hoard 3.9%

B BRONZE: Dancing Duck Brewery 22 4.3%

B BRONZE: Lincoln Green Brewing Company Hood 4.2%

B BRONZE: Charnwood Brewery Vixen 4.0%

B BRONZE: Front Row brewing Sinbin 4.2%

B BRONZE: Green Duck Brewery Blonde 4.2%

B BRONZE: White Horse Brewery White Horse Bitter 3.7%

B BRONZE: Peak Ales Bakewell Best 4.2%

B BRONZE: Phipps NBC Steam Roller 4.4%

Cask British Best Bitter

Sponsored by: Charles Faram

S SILVER: Grainstore Brewery Ten Fifty 5.0%

S SILVER: Fownes Brewing Company ... at the Gates of Dawn 5.0%

S SILVER: Titanic Brewery White Star 4.5%

B BRONZE: Everards of Leicestershire Old Original 5.2%

B BRONZE: Loddon Brewery Dragonfly 5.2%

B BRONZE: Matlock Wolds Farm Reverence 5.0%

B BRONZE: Milestone Brewery Little John 5.0%

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G GOLD: White Horse Brewery

Pacific Pale 4.0%

S SILVER: Purity Brewing Company

Pure Gold 3.8%

S SILVER: Fownes Brewing Company

The Elephant Riders 4.0%

S SILVER: Green Duck Brewery

Session IPA 4.0%

S SILVER: Titanic Brewery Iceberg 4.1%

S SILVER: Nottinghham Brewery Ltd Scrum on down 4.0%

B BRONZE: Backyard Brewhouse

Modern Sate 4.4%

B BRONZE: Little Brewing Co Loop 3.7%

B BRONZE: Milestone Brewery Maid Marian 4.3%

B BRONZE: Alter Ego Brewing Co Echo Chamber 3.8%

B BRONZE: Charnwood Brewery Blue Fox 4.2%

B BRONZE: Brampton Brewery

Terminus 4.2%

B BRONZE: Castle Rock Brewery

Army Of Me 3.4%

B BRONZE: Lincoln Green Brewing Company Archer 4.0%

B BRONZE: Welbeck Abbey Brewery

Skylight 4.4%

B BRONZE: Howard Town Brewery Kerala 4.2%

B BRONZE: Navigation Brewery

New Dawn Pale 3.9%

B BRONZE: Vale Brewery Vale Pale Ale 4.2%

B BRONZE: Blue Monkey Brewery

BG Sips 4.0%

B BRONZE: Dancing Duck Brewery

DCUK 4.3%

B BRONZE: Everards of Leicestershire Golden Hop 3.5%

B BRONZE: Loose Cannon Brewery

Recoil 4.2%

Overall Champion of the Keg Beer Competition

Sponsored by: Keg Logistics

Cask Pale Ale

SIBA South West competition winners 2022

Presented to: Purity Brewing

Presented by: Stephanie Brindley

G Purity Brewing Company

Pure Helles

S Fownes Brewing Company Korvak's Downfall

B Purity Brewing Company Double Bunny 6.8%

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G GOLD - BEST IN CATEGORY:

White Horse Brewery West Coast IPA 4.6%

G GOLD: Welbeck Abbey Brewery Atlas 5.0%

S SILVER: Castle Rock Brewery In Bloom 4.5%

S SILVER: Green Duck Brewery American Pale 4.5%

S SILVER: Little Brewing Co Taj 4.6%

S SILVER: Black Iris Brewery Endless Summer 4.5%

B BRONZE: Backyard Brewhouse Gold 4.5%

B BRONZE: Lincoln Green Brewing Company Áine Kveik 5.4%

B BRONZE: Derby Brewing Company Mercia IPA 5.0%

B BRONZE: Towcester Mill Brewery Roman Road 5.2%

B BRONZE: Milestone Brewery Fletchers 5.2%

B BRONZE: Thornbridge Brewery Crackendale 5.2%

B BRONZE: Weal Ales Brewery

Weller Weal 4.6%

B BRONZE: Loddon Brewery Ferrymans Gold 4.4%

B BRONZE: Uttoxeter Brewing Company Admiral Gardner 4.5%

Cask IPA

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

B BRONZE: Blue Monkey Brewery Infinity Plus 1 5.6.0%

B BRONZE: Thornbridge Brewery Jaipur 5.9%

B BRONZE: Derby Brewing Company You Had Me At IPA 6.0%

Cask Speciality Light Beer

Sponsored by: ekegplus

G GOLD: Peak Ales Chatsworth Gold 4.6%

S SILVER: Milestone Brewery Raspberry Wheat Beer 5.6%

S SILVER: Hollow Stone Brewing Co Sorbeto - Grapefruit WIT IPA 6.0%

S SILVER: Weal Ales Brewery Lemon and Ginger Weal 5.5%

B BRONZE: Titanic Brewery Raspberry Pale 4.7%

Cask Speciality Amber to Dark Beer

G GOLD: Backyard Brewhouse

Bad Santa, Oak Aged 6.8%

S SILVER: Titanic Brewery Plum Porter 4.9%

B BRONZE: Alter Ego Brewing Co S'more Fire 5.2%

Cask Imperial & Strong Beer

Sponsored by: Murphy & Son

G GOLD: Grainstore Brewery Nip 7.3%

S SILVER: Uttoxeter Brewing Company Winners Enclosure 6.5%

Keg Lager Sponsored by: ekegplus

G GOLD - BEST IN CATEGORY: Purity Brewing Company Pure Helles 5.0%

G GOLD: Rebellion Beer Co. Ltd. Rebellion Lager 4.4%

B BRONZE: Langton Brewery Ltd Bridge 62 5.0%

B BRONZE: Davenports Brewery Ltd Continental lager 4.5%

Keg Pale Ale

Sponsored by: Abacus Flooring Solutions

G GOLD: Howard Town Brewery Xanadu 4.3%

S SILVER: Green Duck Brewery Foam Party 4.5%

S SILVER: Oxford Brewery Hoptric 4.4%

S SILVER: Purity Brewing Company Session IPA 4.5%

B BRONZE: Rebellion Beer Co. Ltd. 24 Carat 5.0%

B BRONZE: Alter Ego Brewing Co Force Field 4.5%

B BRONZE: Matlock Wolds Farm Apogee 5.5%

B BRONZE: Brewhouse & Kitchen Sutton Coldfield Nipmuc 4.8%

Keg Double & Triple IPA

B BRONZE: Navigation Brewery Square Waves 8.4%

Keg Imperial & Strong Ale

G GOLD: Fownes Brewing Company

Korvak's Downfall 9.0%

S SILVER: Thornbridge Brewery Necessary Evil 13.0%

B BRONZE: Navigation Brewery

Gravitational Anomaly 11.6%

Keg IPA Sponsored by: Charles Faram

G GOLD: Purity Brewing Company

Double Bunny 6.8%

B BRONZE: Dhillon's Brewery

Red Rebel IPA 6.2%

Keg Stout & Porter

S SILVER: Milestone Brewery

Black Pearl 4.3%

B BRONZE: Loose Cannon Brewery

Robust British Porter 5.0%

B BRONZE: Fownes Brewing Company

Korvak's Verdict 5.0%

B BRONZE: Rebellion Beer Co. Ltd.

Black 5.2%

Keg Wheat Beer

S SILVER: Dhillon's Brewery

Weizenbock 7.8%

Keg Speciality IPA

Sponsored by: Beer Box Shop

B BRONZE: Front Row brewing

Crafty Flanker 6.0%

B BRONZE: Brewhouse & Kitchen Lichfield Spellman Sam 4.8%

Keg Speciality & Flavoured Beer

S SILVER: Navigation Brewery

Key Lime Pale 4.0%

B BRONZE: Milestone Brewery

Raspberry Wheat Beer 5.6%

Keg Belgian, French & Trappist

Ale Sponsored by: Beer Box Shop

B BRONZE: Navigation Brewery

Blonde 5.0%

Keg Non-Alcoholic & Low ABV

S SILVER: Birmingham Brewing Company Sober Brummie 0.5%

Keg Bitter

G GOLD: Loddon Brewery Dragonfly 5.2%

Regional Beer Competitions

Sponsored

Gold

Cask Session Dark Beers

G

Cask British Dark Beers

(4.5 to 6.4%)

Sponsored

G GOLD: Loch Lomond Brewery

Silkie Stout 5.0%

S SILVER: Braemar Brewing Co. 80/- 5.0%

S SILVER: Dargavel Brewery Ltd Moo-Lin Rouge 5.0%

B BRONZE: Orkney Brewery Dark Island 4.6%

B BRONZE: Aye Been Brewing Company Fort Point 5.1%

B BRONZE: Sulwath Brewers Ltd Knockendoch 5.0%

B BRONZE: MoR Beers Ticia 4.5%

B BRONZE: Hybrid Brewing Magic Porridge 4.7%

B BRONZE: Windswept Brewing Co Wolf 6.0%

Gold award presented to

by

Cask IPA (5.6% and over)

G GOLD: Windswept Brewing Co

Coastal Haze 8.0%

S SILVER: Bellfield Brewery

Jex Blake Galaxy 5.6%

B BRONZE: Five Kingdoms Brewery Captain Morrisons IPA 6.5%

Gold award presented to Fiona & Ewen by Jenna Barningham

Cask British Best Bitter (4.5 to 6.4%)

G GOLD: Cairngorm Brewery Company

Wildcat 5.1%

S SILVER: Born Brewery

Best Bitter 4.5%

B BRONZE: Fyne Ales

Highlander 4.8%

B BRONZE: Swannay Brewery

Orkney IPA 4.8%

Cask British Bitter

Cask Session Pale Ale (up to 4.4%)

G GOLD: Cross Borders

Session Pale 4.0%

S SILVER: Born Brewery Blonde 3.8%

S SILVER: Loch Lomond Brewery

Southern Summit 4.0%

B BRONZE: Fyne Ales Jarl 3.8%

B BRONZE: Orkney Brewery

Island Life 3.7%

B BRONZE: MoR Beers Scode! 4.0%

B BRONZE: Windswept Brewing Co

Poseidon 4.0%

G GOLD: Cairngorm Brewery Company

stag

S SILVER:

B BRONZE: Swannay Brewery

Special

B BRONZE:

Ossian

B BRONZE: Born

B BRONZE:

Blonde

and

Cask Pale Ale

G GOLD: Orkney Brewery Cliff Edge IPA 4.7%

S SILVER: Born Brewery IPA 4.8%

S SILVER: Loch Lomond Brewery

Lost in Mosaic 5.0%

B BRONZE: Windswept Brewing Co

Hurricane 4.5%

B BRONZE: Bellfield Brewery

Lawless Village IPA 4.5%

B BRONZE: Newt Brew

Organic Pale Ale 5.0%

B BRONZE: Cross Borders Braw 4.5%

Cask Speciality Light Beer

G GOLD: Harviestoun Brewery

Schiehallion 4.8%

S SILVER: SPEY VALLEY

SPEY'S CADET 4.5%

S SILVER: Dargavel Brewery Ltd

Haud Yer Wheasht 5.1%

S SILVER: Loch Lomond Brewery

Take Me With You, I Can See

S SILVER: Hybrid Brewing Jar Nektar

B BRONZE:

Calm & Wise

Beers

Cask Imperial & Strong Beer

(6.5% and over)

G GOLD: Loch Lomond Brewery

Lost Monster 10.0%

S SILVER: Broughton Ales

Old Jock 6.7%

S SILVER: Five Kingdoms Brewery

Dark Storm Stout 6.9%

B BRONZE: Beath Brewing

Impy Stout 10.0%

B BRONZE: Windswept Brewing Co Bear 10.5%

B BRONZE: Swannay Brewery

Orkney Porter 9.0%

Sponsored by: Charles Faram & Co Ltd

Gold award presented to Ian McGrath by Beth Eaton

Sponsored by: Crisp Malting Group

Gold award presented to Craig Steven by Colin Johnston

Gold award presented to Fiona & Ewen by Cameron Shaw

Gold award presented to Merlin Sandbach by Beth Eaton

Gold award presented to Chris Kennedy by Hayley Young

99 PER UNIT

E F

TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN KEG AND CASK RENTAL

A container rental solution that puts brewers in control

EkegPlus, our technology driven cask and keg rental solution, is a year old!

With bulk scanning options, live cycle data and transparent pricing, it is helping brewers across the country reduce costs and streamline operations.

Transparent, flexible costs

• Only pay for containers when you use them

• 80 day cost cap for longer hire periods

• Keep track of costs on our PlusPortal management system

Containers ready when you are

• Access to our 400,000+ fleet

• Collect and refill ekegs and ecasks as needed

• Deliver direct to venue or through approved wholesalers

Time saving technology

• Track and manage hundreds of containers in seconds with RFID bulk scanning technology

How does it work?

EkegPlus is a container rental pooling service that gives customers more flexibility. Our outsourced keg and cask solution allows you, the brewer, to only pay for the time you use containers – with prices starting at just 99p for 30 days. With access to our fleet of over 400,000 ekegs and ecasks, brewers have the freedom to adjust usage and costs as required. You simply keep the agreed stockpile of containers needed onsite, or collect and refill from a range of locations. Each container is embedded with RFID technology, making it uniquely identifiable. After you’ve scanned an ekeg or ecask into a hire cycle, you can track where your product is and how much it’s going to cost on our PlusPortal management platform.

It feels like we have finally reached cask utopia for the industry. From our perspective the flexibility to collect ecasks from venues, scan them in, fill and then scan back out is something that we and our publicans have been crying out for, for years. EkegPlus has successfully filled this gap in the market, and at a rate which represents good value”.

Libby Elswood, Sales & Marketing Manager | Goff’s Brewery

1. YOU RESERVE

the containers you need, store them onsite or collect from our local depots

Technology driven

STARTS ENDS

2. YOU BULK SCAN

containers when filled to start the hire cycle

3. YOU DELIVER

product direct to venue or to an approved wholesaler

4. YOU COLLECT

and rescan the containers when empty OR WE COLLECT them, automatically ending your cycle

Our award-winning RFID technology allows more visibility when managing containers and costs.

Every time the containers you’re using are scanned, the data is logged on the PlusPortal management system. This allows you to trace the progress of your product throughout the supply chain – from fill to closing the hire cycle.

The PlusPortal provides an overview of the keg or cask fleet you’re using and charges, as well as data about container usage that could help you to make logistics more efficient and improve profitability.

Your supply chain, your choice

EkegPlus gives you the flexibility to deliver products directly to retail venues or to any of our approved wholesalers. When the ekegs and ecasks you’re using are empty, collect them yourself to reduce costs, or wait for us to recover them, closing the hire cycle for you.

With access to our large fleet of kegs and casks, you could extend your product’s reach across mainland UK. There’s no obligation to recover containers from wholesale and our pricing cap stops brewers from being overcharged.

Pricing model

Active cycle pricing consists of three components:

The one-off fill fee: Applied at time of fill.

The daily hire: A fixed daily hire fee is applied until the container is scanned back to an approved location or if the cycle cap is reached.

The cap: A fixed number of days where, if the container has not been scanned back into stock, the daily hire fee will stop.

THOMAS FAWCETT & SONS,

Crop Report 2022

From our early crop walks the winter barleys and cereals looked very good ; they were well established before the dry conditions, the grain had filled out, the ears were quite long, straw was of reasonable length, it was reasonably dense, and the expectation was for low nitrogen. The spring barley looked to be more variable ; some fields had shorter straw, the plants hadn’t tillered as much, it was a less dense crop, and the grain size seemed to be small – every indication was for more variable nitrogen levels.

The 2022 harvest started early in England ( and mainland Europe ) due to the very hot weather in July and dry conditions over the previous few months. As expected, the winter crops yielded well and the winter barleys were of excellent quality. We therefore bought enough to cover coloured malt sales ( crystal malts and roasted malts ), moving the barley promptly off farm and into stores in order to secure the best samples. All the contracted winter varieties ( Maris Otter, Pearl and Halcyon ) were low nitrogen and will make very good new crop pale ale malts.

The spring barleys were also harvested early, and in general have been of better quality than expected. Although yields have been down, the grain size has been good and the earlier samples were surprisingly low nitrogen. I suspect farmers applied slightly less nitrogen due to the exorbitant cost of fertiliser. We noticed more variability in the spring crop and some of the later samples were of higher nitrogen. We prefer to make our coloured malts from winter barleys and therefore do not need to chase large volumes of spring barley. We have cherry-picked the best low nitrogen samples, together with the contracted Golden Promise, with which to make quality pale ale and distilling malts.

The UK crop was generally better than that seen in mainland Europe, which was more affected by the very high temperatures and drought conditions. Similar global weather patterns, together with the ongoing war in Ukraine, has kept cereal prices much higher than last year. The limited supply and high global demand, cost of fertilisers, and over-inflated energy costs are all likely to keep global cereal prices at high levels for the foreseeable future.

In summary ; the UK heritage varieties have all performed well and we have some excellent quality barley with which to make malt next year. We are specialist maltsters making a full range of different malts ( pale ale, distilling, crystal, and roasted ) for the brewing, distilling and food industries. We are confident that the quality of our raw materials purchased from the 2022 crop will enable us to continue making premium malts for sale in 2023, and that all our customers can be re-assured of our commitment to supplying them with the very best malts available.

Where craft brewing passion meets

Hands off Craft: why words matter!

beer. In the first few years running our brewery Powderkeg we would jokingly nominate each other to explain it to journalists and curious bystanders. It’s such a notoriously slippery concept that no one wanted to attempt it, as you would generally tie yourself in knots.

Of course we know that the term was coined for the American market to distinguish smallbatch brews from the mass-produced lagers, in a country which didn’t have as strong a history of small-scale production as the UK.

But when applied in the UK, what does it actually mean, and how much does it matter?

Obviously what the real ale breweries have been doing for decades, if not centuries, is in many senses, ‘craft’. They are independent businesses making small batch, hand-crafted products with their own specialist recipes.

However, if the term ‘craft beer’ is used by real ale cask producers brewing traditional British ales with classic UK hops, we lose a chance to identify those breweries who are using modern styles, techniques and new world hops that produce such different drinking experiences.

So, while ‘craft’ is used by all kinds of UK independent breweries it might not really tell you about style or flavour, but what it signifies is hand-crafted beer produced on a small scale.

Until, enter the big brewing corps.

The appetite for new and interesting beer among drinkers resulted in scores of column inches, social media posts and fervent word of mouth, punching way above the weight of the actual market share in the UK. And seeing this, despite the fact that mass-produced beer still takes over 90% of beer sales, multinational companies wanted in on this small but exciting slice of the pie.

From buying up cool breweries to producing cans cunningly designed to look like part of the craft movement, big brewcos have gone hard on marketing their way into a sector that

was created to stand apart from mass-produced products. This is not to be snobby – big brands have their place in the world, recognised and consistent- and that place accounts for 88% UK market share by the ‘Big 4’, and 6% by other national and international brands, leaving 6% of UK beer brewed by SIBA members, of which a smaller percentage is craft in the modern sense. Yet we see Heineken et al elbowing their way into the corner of the market that local producers have managed to carve out, by disingenuous marketing that muddies the waters for everyone.

What we need is anything that is not from an independent brewery to be referred to as ‘craft-style beer’, ‘craftinfluenced beer’ or ‘in the style of craft beer’.

In the 2022 SIBA Craft Beer Report, they discovered a real problem for consumers, who are finding it increasingly difficult to identify ‘real craft’. In other words, the corporations are successfully ‘craft-washing’. Only 3% of those surveyed believe that craft beer can be made by a multinational global brewer, yet 1 in 4 people can’t tell which beers are brewed independently.

SIBA created the Assured Independent British Craft Brewer badge, available for all SIBA brewery members to put on their products to differentiate them from mega corps. This is a great idea, and we feature them on all our cans, but without a large public awareness campaign there is not enough recognition to have an impact, and consumers continue to be misled. This confusion is compounded when others, such as journalists, pubs or retailers, refer to beers from big brewers such as Marstons as ‘craft’. Brewing conglomerates have many advantages over microbreweries; the genuine handcrafting of products and high quality is

our key USP, and it should be protected from co-option by these giants, both for the breweries sake and the consumer.

What we need is anything that is not from an independent brewery to be referred to as ‘craftstyle beer’, ‘craft-influenced beer’ or ‘in the style of craft beer’.

In reality, it’s just a phrase and it doesn’t have protected status. So what can be done?

We can all play our part.

As brewers we need to promote the SIBA badge as a mark of independence so that it is recognised by as many beer drinkers as possible (and there is surely more SIBA can do in this regard).

Retailers, especially supermarkets ,are some of the worst culprits, often producing their own version of a craft beer in collaboration with a genuinely independent brewery but having dictated a price point that inevitably makes it lack the character we would hope for. They then mix these in with the fake multinationals ‘craft’ and genuine craft so that no-one really knows what they’re getting. I would love to see a ‘supporting independents’ section, but I don’t expect to. Hospitality venues like pubs and restaurants often advertise craft beer when it’s anything but. They should get some genuine independent local products - even for tied venues, they are available through the SIBA list. Chain restaurants may have to fight harder with their head buyer to get independent and local products in house.

And journalists should make consumers aware so that they can make informed choices, rather than adding to the confusion.

Otherwise the craft beer scene will be watered down beyond recognition and will lose its cachet with customers.

And no-one wants watered-down beer. Find out more at www.powderkegbeer.co.uk

Jess Magill, the joint founder of Powderkeg Brewery in Exeter, Devon, looks at how ‘big beer’ is pulling the wool over the eyes of consumers and what independent brewers can do to fight back…

Salcombe Brewery Co launches Atlas

Salcombe Brewery Co has announced the launch of Atlas (ABV 4%), a new Session IPA that celebrates the South West’s seafaring heritage. The beer was available from 1st July on tap in pubs and from 11th July in 330ml cans (12 x 330ml cans RRP £24) from retail outlets.

Head Brewer Sam Beaman said: “We are thrilled with the latest addition to our small batch range. Atlas showcases a combination of hops from across the globe, featuring British, US and Australian varieties. When it came to naming our new beer we took inspiration from the many maritime explorations and adventures that have set off from Devon, across the Atlantic, and returned with exotic ingredients. Atlas is the Greek god after whom the Atlantic is named.”

Atlas is a fruity ale with flavours of peach, blueberry and papaya. These tropical notes are complemented by a hoppy citrus finish and balanced bitterness. It is the perfect pint to enjoy with an ocean view and the ideal accompaniment to BBQ food.

Sam added: “Atlas is the second beer in our new small batch range. Our first, Belgica, won gold at the SIBA awards so the pressure is on to follow it with something just as outstanding. I am confident that we have hit the mark with Atlas and it will be a fantastic addition to our range of award-winning ales.”

Salcombe celebrates gold at the European Beer Challenge and SIBA awards

Salcombe Brewery is delighted that its Pilsner has been awarded a Gold Medal at the 2022 European Beer Challenge following hot on the heels of a Gold for Belgica, its small batch Belgian Pale Ale, at the National SIBA Beer Awards.

Jordan Mace, Salcombe Brewery’s Managing Director, said: “It is a tribute to our great brew team, led by Sam Beaman, that two of

our newest beers, Pilsner and Belgica, have picked-up Golds in two separate prestigious awards. We are passionate about consistently producing top quality beers and offering our customers something different to try alongside our range of permanent beers, and these awards, judged by leading industry experts, are testament to the brew team’s hard work, creativity and focus on quality.”

Find out more at www.salcombebrewery.com

Bluestone Brewing Company releases hemp infused lager in collaboration with Pembrokeshire farmer

Pembrokeshire-based microbrewery Bluestone Brewing Company released a new hemp infused beer in July, made using locally sourced hemp seed.

The Botanist, a 4.4% ABV hemp infused lager, is brewed using Finola hemp seed, grown in Pembrokeshire. The Brewery, based just outside of Newport, sourced the hemp seed from a family farm in Pembrokeshire that has decided to diversify. Previously a dairy farm, the farm has recently dipped its toe into the world of growing hemp seed.

Originally sourced from Finland, the Finola Hemp Seed was sown in Pembrokeshire in June 2021 and supplied to Bluestone Brewing Company to use in the new recipe. The seed is EU approved and certified.

Head Brewer Tom Dunn said: “I have never brewed using hemp seed before, so we had to do some reading to make sure that we got as much flavour out of the seed as possible. We decided to toast the seeds before adding them to the brew. It gives the beer a slightly nutty flavour and more depth. It’s been fun brewing with a new ingredient and it’s a real bonus that it’s been grown locally.”

Whilst the hemp seed will add a lot of flavour to the beer, there is no need to worry about its influence on the drinker. THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, is not naturally contained in the seed.

Find out more at www.bluestonebrewing.co.uk

Royal Highland Show partners with Scottish brewer Innis & Gunn

The Royal Highland Show this summer unveiled Innis & Gunn as its new brewery partner and principal beer supplier.

Innis & Gunn beers were served at over 20 bars throughout the Royal Highland Show, which took place from 23rd-26th June and welcomed in the region of 200,000 visitors.

Both the Royal Highland Show and Innis & Gunn are aligned in their motivation to champion Scottish producers, supporting the industry and the country’s wider economy.

The new partnership allows the ethos of the Royal Highland Show to extend to the Showground bars, with Scottish beers available to be enjoyed for the first time.

Iain Green of Corskie Farm in Moray, is a RHASS member and exhibitor of cattle and sheep at the show. His farm supplies barley to the Crisp Malting Group who in turn supply it malted to Innis & Gunn.

Iain said: It is great to see Scottish produce come to the fore at the Highland. As a showcase for the best in food, forming and rural life, it is field to pint at its best!”

Vandalism and theft incidents on the increase at Arran Brewery site

Vandals and thieves have been regularly attacking Arran Brewery’s Dreghorn site, causing considerable damage and destruction as well as stealing various items.

Attacks have increased in frequency and in the severity of the damage caused, and are now almost daily, with the police appearing powerless to stop them. Even when they apprehend some of the culprits, their age prevents them taking any meaningful action, while under Scottish law their parents cannot be held liable for the damage their children cause.

The site houses a small brewery and is currently awaiting redevelopment. However, constant vandalism and break-ins have curtailed investment in the site.

The site failed to attract an RSA grant several years ago and as a result Arran Brewery lacked the funds for development beyond phase one.

Managing Director of Arran Brewery Gerald Michaluk said: “The site has been problematic and the council’s insistence that the school building is preserved has frightened off development partners, while thieves stealing lead from the roof have caused considerable structural damage to the building, and almost constant blatant vandalism has not helped.

Headquartered in Edinburgh and with its own brewery in Perth, Innis & Gunn has grown to become one of the biggest independent brewers in the UK, exporting to over 20 countries around the globe.

Innis & Gunn works with various Scottish suppliers to create its multi-award-winning beers, with malts sourced in Scotland, barley malted in Alloa and spent grains collected by local farmers for use as cattle feed.

The multi-award-winning Scottish beers available at the 2022 Royal Highland Show included Scotland’s number one craft beer, Innis & Gunn 4.6% Lager, Session IPA, Mangoes on the Run and Innis & Gunn 0.0% Lager.

Dougal Gunn Sharp, Innis & Gunn Founder and Master Brewer, said: “The new partnership between Innis & Gunn and the Royal Highland Show is an excellent match. The event showcases and celebrates the best that the country has to offer and our multi-awardwinning beers, brewed in Scotland using Scottish ingredients, perfectly align with this.”

For more information go to www.innisandgunn.com

“Some neighbours have been too scared intervene or even to call the police and I don’t blame them! The most recent attack was from thieves armed with screwdrivers and other tools. So I urge any witnesses to simply call the police and not try to tackle the criminals themselves.”

Arran Brewery will investigate other grant opportunities to help preserve the site but against these constant and worsening attacks it is unlikely, that even with grant assistance the site will be attractive to develop.

For more information go to www.arranbrewery.co.uk

Powderkeg gets council grant funding for new canning line

Powderkeg Brewery in East Devon has installed a brand new canning line at their facility in the Greendale Business Park, supported by a grant from East Devon Council’s Innovation and Resilience Fund.

Powderkeg is renowned for its session-strength craft beers, packed with modern hop flavours. The brewery looks beyond the established ideas and opinions to revolutionise a style and to create something fresh, interesting and always outstanding. Now in its eighth year, the brewery’s consistency and quality have made it an obvious choice for businesses stocking the best local produce.

With the new canning line now installed, the brewery will be able to package its beers inhouse, meaning more limited edition releases, even higher quality standards and a considerable reduction in its carbon footprint. The brewery’s core range of beers, Speak Easy pale ale, Cut Loose pils and low-alcohol Green Light are all well recognised - both for their eye-popping

designs and their multiple awards - but the brewery has much more to offer.

“We’ve brewed over 70 different beers in the past seven years, but many of them have had very limited release due to packaging constraints. This canning line should let us offer the full Powderkeg Experience to a much wider audience,” said Co-founder and Head Brewer John Magill, “That’s a very exciting prospect for us and our supporters.”

Dream Land session NEIPA is the first special edition release off the line and is available now. That will be swiftly followed by Cool Hand, a summery Kolsch-style with white wine notes from New Zealand hops. Then the sensory flood that is PKIPA will return, along with 6ixes & 7evens west-coast amber which is making a much anticipated comeback. Harmony Helles has earned a permanent place in the 440ml lineup for being a perfectly tuned session lager. Having packaged products is an increasingly important way to reach drinkers, as 70% of

craft beer sales are now of bottles and cans. Home consumption for beer is on the rise, and while Powderkeg are staunch supporters of the pub, they also want everyone to be free to enjoy the beers in any way they see fit. Powderkeg considers cans the best packaging for beer because they are opaque, lightweight and infinitely recyclable; they chill down quickly and are perfectly portable.

Powderkeg Sales Manager Dan Poulson is excited about the many improvements this will offer the business: “Canning in-house will allow us to develop our packaged sales, do shorter runs of special edition beers and improves our flexibility and ability to respond to market demand. It also reduces our carbon footprint significantly, something we are always striving to do.”

The machines are supplied by Vigo, a Devonbased specialist in drinks equipment. Find out more at www.powderkegbeer.co.uk

Lucky number

Fresh from a re-brand, and the opening of its 6th retail site The Clubhouse Premium Sports Bar, Friar Gate, Derby Brewing is thrilled to announce the launch of its 7th site, The Pointing Dogs, located in the former Herd Steakhouse in Matlock.

A contemporary and premium pub offer, the site is located in a prime and growing popular location in the heart of the town. As you would expect from Derby Brewing there are an excellent range of drinks available - craft beers, premium ales, artisan spirits, cocktails, world wines and ciders - all housed in a characterful former NatWest bank property, split across three levels, including a main bar, mezzanine, restaurant with riverside views and a funky cellar bar.

Food wise the offer is contemporary pub food with a modern twist perfect for relaxed dining. The site was due to open in August. Paul Harris, MD at Derby Brewing, said: “Matlock has been a target location for us for some time and we are delighted to secured such a fantastic venue. We can’t wait to bring our modern Derby Brewing offer to Matlock, combining an unrivalled drinks range with excellent food. We hope everyone will agree a great addition to the Matlock.’ Find out more at www.derbybrewing.co.uk

Hepworth & Company installs new canning line as part of investment programme

Hepworth & Company has unveiled a major programme of investment in its Sussex brewery, including the installation of a new 30,000 cans/per hour capacity canning line and a number of environmental measures which will help the brewer reach its 85% carbon neutral target by 2025.

The investment programme will be led by brewery founder and Managing Director Andy Hepworth, who is stepping down from day-today operations to become Chairman, guiding new projects. Ed Wray, who has been with Hepworth's for three years as assistant head brewer, moves up to the Head Brewer role.

The canning line will enable Hepworth's to launch new beers specifically for the craft can sector later this year, complementing its existing range of cask, keg, and bottled beers. The brewery will also offer a quality canning service to other brewers, to make use of the significant capacity offered by the new line.

Andy Hepworth said: "Our limited experience of canning beers has been something of a mixed bag, which most brewers who have explored canning will relate to - so many brewers we have spoken to have a horror story

to tell about outsourced canning.

"Given our many years of successful contract bottling, the logical move was to bring canning in house, which gives us complete control over the quality of our canned beers and means we can go to our contract customers with a new service.

"The thirst for canned beers looks set to continue growing so we're confident there will be demand from brewers who know Hepworth's as a trusted contractor."

Hepworth's has big plans to continue blazing a trail for sustainable brewing, most immediately with a CO2 reclaim project set to be installed in Autumn 2022.

This follows a string of sustainability measures implemented by Hepworth's since opening its purpose-built brewery near Horsham, West Sussex, in 2016. In 2019, Hepworth's created the world's first beer source heat pump, using the heat from fermenting beer to heat the boiler that starts the brewing process. The brewery also reconditions wastewater through reed beds, purifies waste in an anaerobic digester and uses heat from beer chillers to heat the brewery offices and visitor centre.

Hepworth said: "Sustainability has driven the

way we do business at Hepworth's since the start. We have always looked to source our barley and hops locally, to minimise our food miles, and since moving to our current site we have put in place a number of measures to make us an increasingly sustainable business.

"By any measure, we are now one of the most sustainable brewers in the UK, but we are continuing to look for new ways to reduce our carbon footprint even further. We are aiming for 85% carbon neutral status by 2025 - 100% is simply not achievable within that time frame, but we will get there.

"I am personally excited about becoming the company's full-time sustainability champion and passing the day-to-day running of the brewing operation over to the very capable hands of Ed." Find out more at www.hepworthbrewery.co.uk

Alcohol-free brewer Big Drop is turning back the clock and tipping its hat to the founding fathers of brewing as it develops the world’s first 0.5% ABV Cask Pale Ale.

Looking to add another string to its bow, Big Drop is consolidating its craft credentials with the special release of its Paradiso Citra IPA which will be vegan friendly and gluten free. Cask Ales are served without the use of added gas as the carbonation is a natural byproduct of the fermenting process. They are also usually intended to be served at a slightly higher temperature than products from kegs.

Johnny Clayton, Head of Production at Big Drop, said: “With any beer product a lot depends on the dispense method and how the beer is looked after, this is even more true with cask. We have done our best to ensure it arrives in top condition and with any caskonce it’s broached - get ready to finish it off quickly before it oxidises.”

Big Drop only brews up to 0.5% and the same goes for its cask. A secondary fermentation creates light carbonation so Johnny and his team had to closely monitor the recipe to

ensure that the precious 0.5% ceiling wasn’t breached.

Beer writer Melissa Cole said: “Big Drop continues to challenge the idea of what alcohol free beer can, or should, be and this is a great step to making non-alcoholic beer more appealing to a wider audience; as a huge fan of, what I consider, our national drink I can’t wait to try it."

Out of all the beers it could have chosen, Big Drop decided to launch its cask with Paradiso Citra IPA. Paradiso is the starchild of the Big Drop stables, winning ‘World's Best’ awards at the World Beer Awards and beating fullstrength competition domestically. Likewise, Paradiso is the only ever AF beer to be awarded a Which? Best Buy.

Big Drop’s Vegan Paradiso Cask Ale was showcased at the London Craft Beer Festival in August.

For more information visit www.bigdropbrew.com

Award-winning South Warwickshire drinks brands collaborate on new cider

Purity Brewing Co is celebrating a new partnership with nearby Napton Cidery for the launch of its new cider.

The two award-winning businesses have announced an exciting collaboration to create the brewers’ medium dry Pure Cider recipe, now available in pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the UK.

The partnership, to produce both 330ml cans and 50-litre kegs of the Pure Cider, marks a further milestone in the success of the familyowned cidery which continues to grow in Napton-on-the-Hill as part of the latest quarterof-a-million pound expansion plans announced at the end of last year.

It’s also a particularly proud moment for its owners Jolyon and Charlotte Olivier, whose, now multi-award-winning, business was inspired by a holiday to Cornwall 10 years ago.

And Jolyon has even become the face of local cider – quite literally – thanks to a quirky cartoon recreation of him forming part of the cans’ distinctive branding!

Jolyon said: “It’s great to have the opportunity to work with Purity, which is a well-known brand but they obviously believe in what we do as well. We’re both Warwickshire based and share the same values about the environment, which is at the forefront of everything we do.

“I think it also shows, from what we’ve achieved already, that we’re here to stay and the provenance and story is a strong one. I feel honoured as well to have my face on the Pure cider cans, it's a great feeling. We are very much looking forward to a long lasting partnership.”

Pure Cider will now sit alongside Purity’s awardwinning product range, including Mad Goose, Pure Gold, Pure UBU, Longhorn IPA, Lawless Lager, Bunny Hop, Session IPA, Kveik NEIPA, Organic Pure Helles, Fixie Hybrid Coffee Stout and Low ABV Purity Point Five.

Based in Great Alne, Purity was established in 2005 by Paul Hasley and James Minkin who were on a mission to ‘brew great beer without prejudice, with a conscience and a consistency and attention to detail.’

Central to their ethos is a strong commitment to supporting the environment. Purity only uses natural ingredients; supports recycling programs and respects the local community and environment. Waste products are recycled through its unique wetland system. This sustainable ecosystem helps minimise carbon dioxide emissions, reduces energy consumption, and encourages wildlife diversity.

Andy Maddock, Purity Brewing Group’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with our friends at Napton Cidery. With sustainability at the heart of our business we are always keen to partner with likeminded brands and businesses who share the same passion.

“As a sustainable family run business with focus on great quality cider only 30 miles from our brewery in Warwickshire, we knew we had found the right Pure Partner. We’re looking forward to building long standing business partnership with Jolyon and Charlotte and watching our Pure Cider brand grow!”

Find out more at www.puritybrewing. com or www.naptoncidery.co.uk

Titanic Brewery opens its latest café bar in Alsager

Staffordshire-based Titanic Brewery has opened the latest of its bod Café Bars in Alsager, Cheshire.

Following a £300,000 investment to convert a former solicitors office, the venue on Crewe Road will offer local residents a relaxing and comfortable environment to meet and socialise.

First introduced in 2018, Titanic’s bod Café Bars bring together the best of cafes and micropubs in one space, offering customers everything from coffee and cake to craft beers and wines. The brewery now operates seven of these café bars across the country, alongside its eight pubs.

Jonathan Wright, Titanic Brewery’s Head of Retail, said: “The team have been working

hard over the past weeks to get everything ready, and we’re really proud of the venue that we’ve opened here.

“At its heart, our bod Café Bars have always been about supporting the local communities in which they exist, and we’re excited to be part of the vibrant and engaging community here in Alsager.”

Sustainability is a key part of the ethos of bod Café Bars, which is why many of the products have been sourced locally from independent suppliers. Customers are also able to get a 50p discount on hot drinks if they bring their own reusable travel cup. Find out more at www.titanicbrewery.co.uk

Rooster’s Brewing Co sponsors hit comedy podcast

Harrogate-based brewery, Rooster’s Brewing Co, has created a partnership with the Comedians Playing Fantasy Premier League podcast, hosted by Jon Richardson (8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Meet The Richardsons) and Matt Forde (Spitting Image, Have I Got News For You).

Rooster’s has joined forces with the podcast to become a sponsor for the 22/23 season, with the aim of increasing the profile and awareness of the independent, family-owned brewery, its on-site taproom and award-winning, vegan friendly beers.

The podcast loosely follows a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) of 30 of Britain’s most famous comedians, including: Josh Widdicombe, Alan Davies, Rob Beckett, Richard Osman, Iain Stirling and Russell Howard, intertwined with observations on Jon, Matt and their guests’ lives. As one reviewer summed it up “it’s 10% FPL, 90% nonsense”.

Created in the summer of 2021, the podcast is entering its second year, with the new season kicking off in August, ahead of the new Premier League campaign getting underway.

As well as being joined by their guests to talk all things football and comedy, the podcast will also feature Jon and Matt discussing the brewery and sampling a selection of Rooster’s beers across eight episodes.

Comedians Playing Fantasy Premier League became the Apple’s most listened to sports podcasts last season, with each episode reaching 40,000+ individual listeners and achieved 1 million downloads in only its first season.

Speaking of the partnership, Tom Fozard, Rooster’s Commercial Director, said: “I’ve been a huge fan of both Jon and Matt’s comedy for a very long time and the CPFPL podcast instantly became a ‘must listen’ for me when it launched last year. I’m delighted with the association Rooster’s has been able to create by becoming a sponsor of the podcast and the opportunity it

Somerset-based Quantock Brewery has picked up three major medals at the 2022 World Beer Awards

gives us in helping more people hear about our beers.”

Plans are also underway for a live recording of the podcast to take place later in the year at Rooster’s Taproom in Harrogate, a venue that already hosts a monthly comedy night (Really Funny Comedy) and has attracted comedians such as Maisie Adam, Josh Pugh and Brennan Reece to join host Micky P Kerr in the coming months.

Find out more at www.roosters.co.uk

Quantock Brewery was founded in 2007 by Cheryl Ford and Rob Rainey and specialises in producing small batch beers, and recently took home three major awards at the World Beer Awards.

It’s ‘Titanium’ beer won overall for UK-based IPA American Style, and ‘We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat’ was the overall UK winner for New England IPA style. The brewery’s biggest selling and flagship beer, ‘QPA’, took home a gold medal in the American Pale Ale category. The World Beer Awards are the global awards selecting the very best in all the international recognised styles. The annual competition promotes the world’s best beers to consumers and trade across the globe. World Beer Awards select the very best in all the international recognised styles such as IPA, New England IPA (NEIPA) and many others.

‘Titanium’ was crafted by co-founder and technical director Rob Rainey, who has spent the last 15 years perfecting his lifelong passion. He said: “It’s great that myself and the team have been recognised for the passion and work we have been putting into creating our best beers, not only in Somerset but now the UK as well.”

‘We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat’ was inspired by the brewery’s requirement to expand due to a surge in demand over the previous two years. Inevitably, the famous line by Robert Shaw from the original Jaws film became the natural name for the new beer.

The brewery received new investment earlier this year and a new 20-barrel brewhouse has been installed, allowing the brewery to expand production to meet the growing demand and secure its future. Co-founder and managing director, Cheryl Ford, said: “It’s another proud moment for our team to win these medals in this year’s World Beer Awards, especially in such heavily contested categories. As the beer markets have evolved so have we; we are constantly pushing the boundaries of what we create. As a team we love beer in all its forms, commit ourselves to continually improving our skills and equipment to constantly evolve and make our beer the best it can be.”

out more at www.quantockbrewery.co.uk

The Glass for Beer

Hogs Back celebrated 30 years as it prepared for hop harvest

Hogs Back Brewery marked its 30th birthday with a special '30 at 30' celebration, inviting 30 local loyal drinkers to join them for a celebratory pint of its flagship beer, Tongham TEA, with a younger family member or friend.

The event, held at the brewery in Tongham, brought back happy memories for guests, as they recalled where they had enjoyed their first pint of Tongham TEA. For Nigel, his first pint at the King William IV at Mickleham, was ‘love at first taste and it has been an enduring love story!'. Martin was ‘lucky to taste the first brew of TEA, with the original Hogs Back brewer' and John remembered drinking it ‘with my father, explaining to me what real beer tastes like’. Several guests had enjoyed Tongham TEA at weddings and birthday parties.

Hogs Back Brewery managing director Rupert Thompson said: "We wanted to celebrate our 30th birthday with thanks to loyal customers who have supported us for 30 years - as without them, we wouldn't be here today.

"Over the years, TEA has been requested as the beer at many weddings and other celebrations, so for a whole generation of local people, it has a special place in their lives.

Stroud Brewery proudly announces its B Corp recertification

"Many also spoke about coming here with their parents to collect a barrel of Tongham TEA and are now doing the same with their own adult children. We're of course delighted to see this tradition continue, and by inviting some of these younger drinkers to join our celebrations, we hope that they too become lifelong Tongham TEA drinkers!"

The '30 at 30' gathering was one of the last to be held in the Hogs Back hangar this summer before it switched from being a bar and event space to become the hub of the hop harvest, which started at the end of August. Hop bines cut in the hop garden just yards away are brought back to the hangar where they are sorted, then dried and vacuum packed that they can add flavour and aroma to the brewer's beers all year.

Hogs Back will harvest three hop varieties this year: Fuggles, used in Tongham TEA; English Cascade, used in its Hogstar lager and Surrey Nirvana Session IPA and Farnham White Bine, a traditional local variety that the brewer saved from near-extinction. Find out more at www.hogsback.co.uk

Stroud Brewery has announce its has achieved its B Corp recertification. This means the company is committed to aiming for the highest standards for social and environmental performance. Stroud Brewery was the first independent UK brewery, which makes its own beer, to become B Corp certified back in 2018.

B Corp is an accreditation that provides a holistic measure of a business’s environmental and social performance. To retain the certification B Corps have to recertify every three years. The criteria and assessment is under constant review to refine it for the many different business types and understand how we can best measure

business performance. The process helps businesses to continuously improve and be a real force for good.

Stroud Brewery is keen to point out that whilst it is B Corp certified and an organic brewery, it is not interested in making unrealistic claims.

Greg Pilley, Managing Director at Stroud Brewery, highlights the issue of greenwashing as damaging to the good work that is being done. He said: “Whilst we are very proud of our B Corp certification, we’re not claiming that we are saving the planet, just simply doing the best we can. The B Corp assessment highlighted that we need to see more improvement within our supply chain, improving accountability and ensuring good environmental and social practices within

our suppliers and customers. We know we have improvements to make and want to be transparent about this. We also have work to reduce our carbon impact before we commit to offsetting in 2025.”

Stroud Brewery would love to see more organic breweries in the UK and encourage them to become B Corps! Greg goes on to say, “being part of the B Corp community connects us to like-minded businesses, where we freely share successes and failures in an effort to get us all to where we want to be faster than we would working alone!

For us all, it's more than a certification, it’s recognition of the values that drives us”. Read more at www.stroudbrewery. co.uk/pages/certified-b-corp

Bath Ales chooses Enterprise Tondelli as line supplier for new state-of-the-art canning facility

Bath Ales, based in the South Gloucestershire village of Warmley, was purchased in 2016 by Cornish brewer St Austell, which set about building a £7 million state-of-the-art production site that opened in 2018. The latest investment in the Warmley site has seen the installation of a flexible world class canning facility. The project was some time in the planning and Enterprise Tondelli, as specialist suppliers of canning and bottling equipment, was selected as one of the line suppliers.

Established in 1977, Enterprise Tondelli has made a name for itself for attention to detail, ability to provide alternative scenarios quickly and flexible working approach.

The space allocated for the project was compact and so line design was a challenge. Enterprise Tondelli provided a number of line designs which were optimised until revision 12 was selected allowing good materials access, third party equipment, common working areas and an efficient use of space, whilst still giving an efficient operation.

A single common accessway reaches to the secondary packaging area with two packing machines opposite each other with one operator for both machines. A second operator has a work area off the central accessway for the self-adhesive labeller and filler and lid feeder magazine. A link conveyor allowed the use of an existing robotic palletiser to maximise utilisation of assets. On the project there were four other suppliers contributing to the overall success. Enterprise Tondelli supplied a high level empty can depalletiser manufactured

all in stainless steel from its subsidiary Eurosistemi. The unit can handle both layer sheets as well as recyclable plastic interlayers with a high level magazine. A full length high level platform supplied by Enterprise allows full access to both the depalletiser and all empty can conveyors. Open electronic architecture allows Bath Ales to adjust the machine as required. A VPN provides remote access for support, reducing total cost of ownership.

Conscious of their environmental footprint, ionised air is used for can cleaning, saving around 8,000 litres of water per shift. A fully enclosed can drier from Eurosistemi, with adjustable drying nozzles, removes any water prior to coding and packaging. Empty and full can conveyors from depalletiser to packer were manufactured by Eurosistemi and supplied and managed by Enterprise Tondelli

A 16-platform self-adhesive labeller supplied by Enterprise Tondelli from its manufacturer BRB Globus applies a wraparound selfadhesive label to plain cans. To prevent can crushing during this operation and to give an effective adhesion the cans are pressurised with air on the labelling carousel. Guillotine guards allow easy access to the machine which is also fitted with a VPN connection for remote assistance in real time.

As a sustainable business, the company wanted to ensure that smaller runs of nonprinted cans can be labelled with 'Wood Film' labels which were developed in conjunction with the large papermills of Scandinavia. Tree oils are extracted as a by-product of the paper making process and converted into a chemical structure which forms the basis of a white and clear Polyolefin Wood

Film self-adhesive material. The label material performs the same as a standard PP self-adhesive material and is highly durable, and can be supplied in clear or white faced material. The BRB labeller is able to handle both these and other types of labels without any difficulties.

Bath Ales and St Austell have historically tended to the turnkey approach which can sometimes lead to equipment compromises. However, they have been very pleased with the result this time by selecting some of the best suppliers in the industry who are specialists in their fields. Brewing Director Georgina Young said: “Over the years I have worked with many suppliers in this industry and had not worked with Enterprise Tondelli before and found it a positive experience. Their continuing attention to the project throughout the process and unfailing willingness to adjust to our requirements has been refreshing. As the conveyor supplier for the project, Enterprise became key in the management of the project. They dovetailed with hard working and dedicated St Austell and Bath Ales teams and other contractors on site. Thank you.”

Craig Wilson, Managing Director of Enterprise Tondelli, said: “It was a great pleasure to work with Bath Ales and the team who were very collaborative. Despite some challenges given by Covid, customs, shortages etc the final result is a tribute to Bath Ales and St Austell and we look forward to working together on any future projects that may arise.”

Find out more at www.enterprisetondelli.co.uk

Muntons launches expert guide to brewing alcohol-free beer

2022 Global Brewing Supply Award winner Muntons is building on the launch of its Premium Alcohol-Free Malt Extract back in March 2021 with further support for brewers entering the alcoholfree market.

The goal for Muntons is to help all brewers easily produce 0% ABV beers that don’t just taste good as alcohol-free beers, but taste great as beers in their own right.

Now it is more important than ever to create full bodied and fresh tasting alcohol-free beers for a rapidly growing number of highly discerning consumers. The Non-Alcohol Beer market is the space to watch with revenue in this segment amounting to just shy of £300 million in 2022 and expected to grow annually by 12.68% (CAGR 2022-2025). This is why specialist brewing technologists at Muntons have continued to focus on perfecting

methodology and accessibility to this market by running free workshops for brewery customers and now releasing an Expert Guide revealing new flavour ideas and techniques.

Rob Urquhart, NPD Champion & Brewing Technologist for Muntons, said: “By helping brewers more easily create their own styles of alcohol-free beer we hope to support a revolution. Increasing the richness of choice for consumers and improving the overall quality of great tasting alcohol-free beers.

“In creating the recipe for our Premium Alcohol-Free Malt Extract, which took our team over two years to perfect, we had to find the balance between bringing mouthfeel, depth and flavour to 0% ABV beers but keeping it versatile as a base to which brewers can add their own craft and personal approach reflecting their style.”

Innovus Engineering helps Hackney Church Brew Co Join the canning revolution

The result is an extract that is already being trialled in a significant number of breweries around the world and has been successfully used in commercial beers ranging from black lagers (see Good Karma), stouts to IPA’s and Pale Ales, including a Brussel’s Beer Challenge gold medal winner (Neon Rain from Mash Gang).

Find out more at www.muntons.com/ premium-alcohol-free-malt-extract/

In spring 2022, London brewpub Hackney Church Brew Co took advantage of a local council grant to expand its offering by investing in a canning line.

After looking at the available equipment options, the team at Hackney Church chose the recently launched CF15 Automatic Canning Line from Innovus Engineering.

The brewpub is named after the parish church across the road and Managing Director Hamish Glenn and Jacob Hobbs, Head Brewer, have created a welcoming space where everyone can enjoy tasty beers and food.

The new CF15 canning line is the latest model in the CF range of machines - a compact two head canning line with a production capacity of 1,000 cans per hour. Innovus designed the CF15 to fill an important gap in the beverage canning line market. Although a compact machine, it has all the expected industry leading features such as automated lid dispenser and undercover gassing, plus a pre-fill purge and post-fill gas injection for consistently low levels of dissolved oxygen.

To increase the level of automation and allow their canning line to be operated by one person, Hackney Church Brew Co also invested in two Innovus integrated rotary tables for can infeed and collection. Other optional equipment for the CF15 includes a date coder and can labeller.

Purchasing an Innovus canning line has enabled Hackney Church Brew Co to launch their new core beer range into cans and to increase their small pack presence in the market. The move to a core range meant there was a more regular canning requirement and justified the investment in equipment for in-house canning.

For more information visit www.innovusengineering.com.

New Business Development Manager targets growth for Beatson Clark

Glass packaging manufacturer Beatson Clark has strengthened its sales team with the appointment of Stephen Reyes as Business Development Manager.

Stephen will be the new face of Beatson Clark, travelling round the UK to visit potential customers in the food, beverage, brewing, spirits and pharmaceutical sectors.

He has many years of experience working in sales and business development for a number of packaging firms, including Duo Ltd and Berlin Packaging UK.

While working at Berlin Packaging UK he became known as The Beer Guy after developing a reputation for his extensive knowledge and contacts in the brewing sector.

“I’ve known Beatson Clark and the Marketing Manager Charlotte Pike for a long time and I’ve always got on well with the company,” said

Stephen. “Beatson Clark is a relatively large business but it has a family feel, which is rare in these days of global corporations. I want to help Beatson Clark to grow and increase its turnover overall and I want to build even better relationships with our customers. My role is about identifying trends and looking for new markets.

“I’m looking forward to getting out there, meeting some new faces and getting reacquainted with existing customers. I’m aiming to build new relationships and make more people aware of Beatson Clark and the fantastic service we offer. Beatson Clark has a lot of brewing customers, which is a sector I really enjoy, and I’m very keen to maintain and continue to build my relationships there.”

Find out more at www.beatsonclark.co.uk

Sales-i introduces Variance+

Sales-i has introduced Variance+ as part of its latest update.

The new system provides a multidimensional analysis of sales data in a wide variety of ways. The feature combines the best aspects of sales-i, providing context and insight to every relevant, measurable variable. It answers questions relating to customers’ year-on-year spend, compares figures across any two date ranges, and easily highlights any gaps in sales strategy. Overall, Variance+ is a valuable tool and addition that makes

sales-i better by making it easier to track sales progress and performance, so the sales team can sell smart, every day.

Sales-i is a sales enablement tool that provides sales teams with actionable data analytics and CRM insights into every customer, product, and sale. It supports businesses in becoming sales-driven, with a user-friendly and multidevice use platform and provides salespeople with the best opportunity to plan for their future growth. Find out more at www.sales-i.com

18th October

October

October

1st November

4th November

November

Centre,

Factory,

Hotel, Cheltenham

Technology) via Zoom (8.15am)

Lunch, Albert Hall, Nottingham

evening, The Brewery Tap, Bury St Edmunds

17th November BFBi Tour of Timothy Taylor’s, Yorkshire

18th November BFBi Northern Section Pub Tour, Leeds

2nd December BFBi Midland Section Axe Throwing & Christmas Pub Tour, Worcester

December BFBi Western Section Christmas Social, Flight Club, Bristol

2nd March BFBi Northern & Scottish Section Annual Luncheon, Edwardian, Manchester

Enjoy

with

drinks

Service

Less

Championing Malt – at a whole new level

Now, after six years at Crisp Malt, he has been promoted to Sales and Marketing Director.

“This new role recognises Colin’s achievements over the years in terms of sales and customer service,” says CEO Stuart Sands. “More than that, it gives him the opportunity to expand the craft brewer and distiller education programme that he helped to create. This will help in the quest to take malt knowledge in these sectors to a new level.”

Colin’s new position sees him directing the marketing team, as well as the team of UK sales managers.

Colin said: “This is the dream job. I get to champion barley growers at one end of the supply chain, brewers and distillers at the other end – and of course maltsters in between.

“There’s an extraordinary pool of experience and technical expertise among my team members – and also among other colleagues in the business. We can tap further into that huge resource, and into the research done in partnership with growers, customers and university partners, to create even more educational tools for brewers and distillers.

“There are always loads of exciting insights to share. These include news on agricultural practices; barley varieties; malting processes; malt styles and malt products. Obviously, brewers and distillers also want to know about the function and impact of different malts in different beers and spirits. We have so much information at our fingertips: my ambition is to share it as far and wide as possible to benefit the industry.”

Feedback from recent research shows support from Crisp’s sales and customer service teams to be well appreciated and highly valued by customers. This gives Colin a great platform on which to start his new role.

“But,” he added, “we won’t be resting on our laurels. There’s plenty more to be done, especially as market conditions get tougher for brewers and distillers in the coming months. We’ll be looking every-which-way to support customers as best we possibly can. After all, it’s a long-term partnership. Through thick and thin. From grain to glass.”

Find out more at www.crispmalt.com

Wold Top Brewery invests in case packing automation

Award-winning, family-owned Wold Top Brewery has recently installed an automatic wrap-around case packing machine from packing and wrapping specialists Atlanta UK.

The investment, which replaces a manual case packing and shrink wrap operation at their site, has generated production efficiencies with scope to enable future growth. There are environmental benefits and a positive re-direction of labour resources resulting in reduced exposure to repetitive strain injury.

Using traditional methods to produce highquality beers from their 600-acre farm high on the Yorkshire Wolds, the brewery asked Atlanta UK to provide them with an automated solution to replace the manual tray and plastic shrink wrap process being used to pack their beer products. Atlanta UK introduced Wold Top to two similar microbreweries producing cardboard case packed product using the Atlanta Raffaello. Following several project meetings at Wold Top to fully understand their requirements, Atlanta UK were able to design a bespoke solution to meet their objectives. The Atlanta Raffaello machine is ideal for medium levels of production. Automatically

collating the loose product into pack format, then forming and gluing the carton around the product from a flat blank. The Wold Top solution included an infeed accumulation conveyor to receive and buffer product from the production line. Further new conveyors to the outfeed completed the full solution.

As a result, Wold Top also accrue some key environmental benefits, including no plastic usage, improved recyclability of material and greatly reduced energy in their packing operation.

“Installation of the Raffaello system was a very smooth process and the complete solution was commissioned on time. I can’t fault Atlanta UK for their service and support - they provide a knowledgeable single point of contact and look for solutions, rather than focus on installing just a machine,” said Alex Balchin, a Director at

Wold Top Brewery. “The equipment not only helps improve efficiencies, it has also made us move away from our previous process to complete carton board units, which is definitely a plus from a sustainability point of view.”

Atlanta UK’s Roger Cope added: “Wold Top Brewery was using an old method of fulfilment that was inefficient and restrictive to growth. The right thing to do was to automate the process and at the same time, move to a full cardboard carton. We took time to review a number of layout solutions which involved re-working conveyors and retaining the option of their existing shrink wrap facility before we settled on a complete solution based around our Atlanta Raffaello case packing machine.”

For more information visit www.atlantapackaging.co.uk

Colin Johnston has long cared about the relationship between the land, food and drink. A career in brewing, and more latterly malting, has reinforced his respect for that relationship.

Bottling and Packaging Solutions for the beer industry

GEA develops watersaving membrane dealcoholisation system for beer

GEA has unveiled a new sustainability option for the membrane system for beer dealcoholisation at Drinktec 2022.

GEA AromaPlus PRO reduces the water consumption for diafiltration during dealcoholisation by up to 100%. The alcoholic base produced as a by-product of the filtration process can be used for manufacturing other beverages in the brewery, such as Hard Seltzer. This technical solution is one of the GEA innovations at the trade fair to address the fresh-water consumption of production processes.

GEA AromaPlus uses a filtration technology with special polymer membranes to separate alcohol and water from the other ingredients by means of reverse osmosis; these ingredients are crucial for the aroma, colour and turbidity of the final product. Adding the new PRO technology to the water-saving CO2 blow-out function and the selective membrane which is already implemented in the AromaPlus unit design, GEA succeeds in saving more than two thirds up to 100% of the fresh water used for diafiltration.

“Our latest AromaPlus generation combines the trend towards 0.0% beer with the goal

of reducing water in production,” said Ralf Scheibner, filtration expert at GEA, under whose leadership the GEA AromaPlus has been further developed. “In fact, a membrane process requires a lot of water to flush out the alcohol. That is an issue for breweries with a limited deoxygenised water availability. Our new PRO solution is an important step for them towards fresh-water neutrality in production processes.”

So while breweries need less fresh water for the diafiltration step, the permeate leaving the system can be reused as a valuable by-product. Due to its lower volume, it has a higher alcohol content and can thus serve as a base for alcoholic mixed drinks and trendy beverages, such as Hard Seltzers, or can be reused within the brewery itself.

“The pandemic showed that breweries whose production facilities offered the flexibility to process other beverages coped best with the drop in demand. GEA AromaPlus is a good example of how customers can gear their plants toward high demand dynamics,” added Scheibner.

While only a few years ago the thermal method was accepted for large production volumes and

Thielmann joined other Steel Keg Association members at Drinktec

Thielmann attended Drinktec, an industry-leading convention for the beverage and liquid food sector, alongside five other members of the Steel Keg Association. The Steel Keg Association is a non-profit organisation that aims to advocate for the use of stainless steel kegs throughout the beverage industry. At the exhibition in Munich, each member shared information about the efficiency, sustainability, and freshness benefits stainless steel kegs offer.

“We are excited to meet and greet our visitors at Drinktec and transmit Thielmann’s commitment to sustainability. We believe that stainless steel will play a vital role in making the brewing and beverage industries more sustainable, so we can enjoy quality drinks and protect the planet,” said Li Simon, CCO of Thielmann.

for achieving 0.0%, membrane filtration is now on the fast track as the gentlest dealcoholisation technology. The GEA AromaPlus membrane dealcoholisation is pioneering this technology. Instead of requiring high temperatures that affect the taste, it uses pressure. Based on a specially developed reverse osmosis membrane, very selective for ethanol, brewers can filter at a low temperature level. The original flavours are preserved and do not need to be restored after alcohol removal.

Find out more at www.gea.com

Since its launch in the United States, each of the Steel Keg Association’s members has made a substantial financial commitment to the program. The funds will aim to educate beverage companies, bars, and restaurants about the tried-and-tested benefits of stainless steel.

Thielmann believes that stainless steel is integral to making the sector more efficient and environmentally sound. Marketing investments are primarily focused on the US market in 2022 and will be expanded to select UK and Western European markets in 2023, where Thielmann is excited to continue working with other members to champion stainless steel.

For further information visit

Gold members Silver members

Brewers Select

Siobhan Lakey sales@brewersselect.co.uk

Charles Faram & Co Ltd

Any of the Team sales@charlesfaram.co.uk

Close Brothers Brewery Rentals

Reem Mohsen

Reem.Mohsen@closebrothers.com

Croxsons

Tim Croxson Tim.croxson@croxsons.com

Murphy & Son Ltd

Frances Maud frances.maud@murphyandson.co.uk

Premier Systems Ltd

Sam Williams Sam@premiersystems.ltd.uk

Thomas Fawcett & Sons Ltd

James Fawcett james@fawcett-maltsters.co.uk

Alfa Laval

Rebecca Halpin rebecca.halpin@alfalaval.com

Anton Paar Ltd

Tertia Rimell tertia.rimell@anton-paar.com

Beer Box Shop

Simon Hulse sales@beerboxshop.co.uk

Breww Ltd

Max Andrew max@breww.co.uk

Crisp Malting Group Rob Moody rob.moody@crispmalt.com

Festival Glass

Kelsey Cheesbrough sales@festivalglass.co.uk

Framax UK Limited

Elizabeth Smith esmith@framax.co.uk

IGC Engineering Ltd

Chris Hamlett chrishamlettigc@onetel.com

Vigo ltd Sales Team sales@vigoltd.com

Lemon Top Creative

Andy Mogg hello@lemontopcreative.com

Muntons Plc

Vanessa Makings vanessa.makings@muntons.com

Napthens

James Allison James.Allison@napthens.co.uk

Pentair Food & Beverage Solutions

Debbie Larkin debbie.larkin@pentair.com

Rankin Brothers & Sons

Jim Rankin sales@rankincork.co.uk

Saxon

Packaging Ltd

Mike Impson mike.impson@smurfitkappa.co.uk

Vale Labels Ltd

John Riches john@valelabels.co.uk

Willis Publicity

Carl Andrews carl@willispublicity.co.uk

Kegstar

Oliver Baldwin oliver@kegstar.com

SIBA

SIBA Team

Sara Knox Company Secretary sara.knox@siba.co.uk

Rachel Harriott

Head of Membership Services rachel.harriott@siba.co.uk

Neil Walker

Head of Comms & Marketing neil.walker@siba.co.uk

Barry Watts

Head of Public Affairs & Policy barry.watts@siba.co.uk

Will Lockwood

Public Affairs & Policy Officer will.lockwood@siba.co.uk

Jenna Barningham

Membership Services Administrator jenna.barningham@siba.co.uk

Louise Henley

Membership Services Administrator louise.henley@siba.co.uk

Elle Spencer-Blanchard

Membership Services Assistant elle.spencerblanchard@siba.co.uk

Charlie Docherty

Business Development Officer charlie.docherty@siba.co.uk

All

office@siba.co.uk

Board of Elected Directors

Existing members wishing to contact your regional representatives can use the relevant regional e-mail addresses listed below.

For individuals, just type firstname.lastname@siba.co.uk

Chairman of SIBA Roy Allkin Boss Brewing East east@siba.co.uk

Chair Richard Naisby Milton Brewery (Vice Chair of the Board) Ian Rydings Leigh on Sea Brewery Marcus Beecher Elgood & Sons Ltd

Midlands midlands@siba.co.uk

Chair Anneli Baxter Loose Cannon Brewing Co Ltd Anthony Hughes Lincoln Green Brewing Co Ltd Tom Fownes Fownes Brewing Co

North East northeast@siba.co.uk

Chair Ian Fozard Rooster’s Brewery Ltd

Joe Joyce Harrogate Brewing Alex Balchin Wold Top Brewery

North West northwest@siba.co.uk

Chair William Mayne Bullhouse Brewing Co Paul Jones Cloudwater Brew Co Haydn Williams Crankshaft Brewery Ltd

Scotland scotland@siba.co.uk

Chair Christie Slater Consolidated Craft Brewers Jamie Delap Fyne Ales

Fiona MacEachern Loch Lomond Brewery

South East southeast@siba.co.uk

Chair Andy Hayward Thames Side Brewery William Harris Wild Card Brewery

South West southwest@siba.co.uk

Chair Paul Arrowsmith Isca Ales Ltd

Darren Batten Palmers Brewery Alan Collyer The Exeter Brewery

Wales & West west@siba.co.uk

Chair Buster Grant Cold Black Label Ltd Rob Lilford Tomos & Lilford Brewery

Roy Allkin Boss Brewing Glenn White Brew Monster