Smart brewers use planned maintenance to keep their business flowing

Dominic Smith, Director at brewery equipment specialist Collective Motion Brewing, explains the long-term value of planned preventative maintenance in keeping brewery revenue flowing…

At a time when manufacturers are carrying the burden of soaring energy costs, downtime is a headache they can ill afford.

The bottom line takes a hit when production shuts down and the problem often arises unexpectedly: research in the US in 2017 found that over 80% of companies experienced at least one unplanned downtime incident in the preceding three years, with most suffering two or more. In the same year, a study concluded that the impact of machine downtime was costing Britain’s manufacturers over £180bn every year.

The impact has intensified in recent years. The True Cost Of Downtime 2022 Report carried out by Senseye revealed that unplanned downtime costs manufacturers at least 50% more than it did in the period 2019-20, due to spiralling inflation and production lines running at higher capacity. Most breweries fear downtime as much as any other business, but many cross their fingers and hope for the best without considering pre-emptive steps to remove the possibility of an unexpected breakdown in production.

That decision is understandable, but misguided. Brewers operating within tight margins see a programme of planned preventative maintenance as a non-essential overhead, but the investment invariably pays off in the long-term. Given the probability of unplanned downtime, reactive maintenance is likely to be a much greater drain on finances.

The vast majority of manufacturing downtime is caused by process or equipment failures. Performing repairs after equipment has broken down can be a time-consuming, labour-intensive process. The diagnostics, sourcing of replacement parts and remediation work usually add up to an extended period and a substantial invoice. Most maintenance contractors charge a premium for providing their services at short notice to deal with urgent problems. In addition to the immediate expense of services and materials to rectify the problem, brewers can often find themselves waiting weeks to resume production, creating a huge drag on profits.

Unplanned downtime can lead to missed opportunities. Breweries often have tight production schedules, with orders and events planned months in advance. If production is halted, the brewery may be unable to fulfil these commitments, potentially losing out on significant opportunities.

The complex process of brewing requires precise timing and temperature control. The failure of a critical piece of equipment could spoil the beer or make it unusable. That means lost time and wasted ingredients. Unplanned stoppages and the interruption to brewing processes can affect fermentation times, the freshness of ingredients, and quality control checks. Those circumstances are likely to result in batches that fail to meet a brewery's high standards, leading to potential product recalls.

Brewers need to consider the risk to reputational damage. If a brewery is unable to fulfil its volume of orders or expected quality due to production downtime, it could compromise relationships with key customers and retailers. That’s another setback which could do untold damage to the health of a business.

In addition to hitting revenue, unplanned downtime can compromise safety. Reluctant to call out expensive contractors, brewery staff often attempt their own troubleshooting and find themselves confronted with unfamiliar operation environments.

Having a well-run, efficient preventative maintenance programme identifies and rectifies equipment problems before they occur. Any necessary measure can be planned weeks or months in advance to minimise impact on production schedules. If an ageing part is seen as a future failure risk, a replacement can be ordered and shipped in preparation. Services are scheduled for mutually convenient times, enabling brewers to avoid the higher rates for urgent call-outs which are common in reactive maintenance. Periodic health checks are not only valuable in preventing downtime. For breweries, they are also highly effective in increasing the ongoing efficiency of production, maintaining more reliable quality control and minimising dayto-day running costs. Steps like descaling equipment and eliminating air/water leaks can significantly reduce energy bills while improving accuracy and consistency.

Collective Motion Brewing have worked with brewing businesses of all sizes. We’ve found that, without exception, companies that opt for planned preventative maintenance are quick to appreciate the structure, certainty and control that it brings. They understand its value in ensuring their production flows as smoothly as their beer. Many look back and wonder why they managed without it for so long

For more information email Dominic Smith at dominic@cmbrewery.co.uk or go to www.cmbrewery.co.uk

Justin Hawke, Founder, Moor Beer

Growing up in California in the 1970s, Justin Hawke developed a taste for beer at a very young age when his father, a fan of the emerging craft brewing scene on the West Coast at the time, allowed him an occasional sip or two at the tender age of five. Honing his leadership skills at the elite US military academy West Point, a subsequent four year stint in the American army took him to Europe, where he immersed himself in the beer culture of Germany, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Britain and the idea of founding his own brewery really took hold. In 2007 he did just that, after buying the assets of shuttered micro-brewery Moor Beer and reinventing it as an industry-leading operation that would go on to change the face of craft brewing in the UK market. Hawke’s idealistic view of what beer and brewing should be led him to directly challenge the establishment, namely CAMRA and SIBA, and he successfully campaigned for rule changes to allow his new brand of hazy, hoppy beer to take its rightful place on the UK’s stage. This was a pivotal moment for the sector, paving the way for the craft beer revolution that followed, and one that not only won Hawke a reputation as a visionary and pioneer, but also led to a flurry of top industry accolades. Under Hawke’s leadership, Moor Beer has continued to blaze a trail, most recently expanding into the London market with a retail site ‘The Vaults’ on the ‘Beer Mile’ in Bermondsey. Caroline Nodder, Independent Brewer’s Editor, caught up with him in early May to find out more about his personal journey, and ask him what his view is of the UK’s independent beer sector 16 years on…

What is your background and how did you get into brewing?

“So I got into beer at a very, very early age, probably around five years old, when my dad gave me my first sip of beer and said, ‘One day you'll drink this stuff, so you may as well know what the good stuff tastes like’. I was born in 71, and he was basically going around bottle shops back then, and was interested in foreign beers. Whatever German, British, Belgian imports he could get. And at the time, also, the likes of Anchor Steam and Sierra Nevada were starting to get some distribution. So he would let me just have little slips of his beer. And oddly, for a young child, I enjoyed the bitter taste. So that kind of kicked it off. He got the Michael Jackson books and would read those and he would travel over to England a lot for business, so that gave me my passion for England and for beer. Then when I was in the army I got stationed in Germany and had an opportunity to experience first hand, for an extended period of time, that German beer culture and tradition, and then that extended to spending lots of times in Belgium, the Czech Republic and in Britain, and really immersing myself in the culture and beer and I decided that ultimately, that's what I wanted to do with my life. I left the army after about four years and went back to California for a couple of years, which was perfect timing because the craft brewing explosion was happening at that time. In the mid 90s the IPA craze kicked off, all the micro breweries started popping up. Homebrewing was a huge thing, so I started out as a homebrewer, and got really involved in the local homebrew club. I always knew that I wanted to become a brewer professionally, so I was going to start doing that in California when a friend of mine offered me a job. And he said: ‘Look, you're making money as a consultant. Save up some money. You want to move back to England? Move back to England, and then buy your own brewery.’ So that's basically what I did.”

When did you found Moor Beer and what is the strategy behind it?

“Moor Beer was actually originally founded in 1996, but then it shut down. So I read about it in 2006, that the assets were for sale. I bought it in 2006, and restarted it at the beginning of 2007. It was an interesting time to get into craft brewing, I mean, that term didn't really exist at the time. But it's the same year that the likes of BrewDog started. So it was very, very early days. And I will say that I had a very idealistic view of what I wanted the brewing market to be and what I wanted to bring to it. Doing it at a very small scale, brewing on a farm in old dairy tanks in the middle of cider country in Somerset. That was incredibly challenging, especially with the financial crisis right around the corner. So yeah, it was really, really difficult to start during that period. And I was making some fundamental changes to the British brewing scene by bringing in unfined beer and having to go and campaign to SIBA to get the rules changed so that we could actually enter hazy beer into competitions and sell hazy beer and get it to be accepted. So I literally, with a foreign accent, had to go and stand up in front of 500 brewers at a SIBA AGM and say, ‘Look, guys, you know, brewing is changing, we need to change’. Thankfully, I got that pushed through and paved the way for beer styles that back in 2007 you just couldn't brew here in the UK. We absolutely are recognised as pioneers in that, and it also helped to create the vegan beer movement. That wasn’t the original intent behind it, but it's created a completely new sector for people who otherwise wouldn't want to drink beer with isinglass added to it. And we've done other either evolutionary or revolutionary changes in the industry, such as being the first to do can conditioning, which we had to get approved with CAMRA over a period of about a year and a half. And we were awarded a certificate for that, as the first in the world to pioneer that, and then consequently off the back of those pieces of work we were awarded Brewery of the Year in 2017 by the Guild [British Guild of Beer Writers]. At that time, I was also Vice Chairman of SIBA, and then CAMRA awarded us a Golden Award on their 50th anniversary, which was quite an honour because we were by far the smallest and youngest brewery on the list.”

How have you seen the British craft beer sector evolve since you launched Moor?

“That's been a really interesting journey. And it's quite ironic, given that I was the person who arguably brought hazy beer to the UK, a lot of the beer styles and things that have come along since are things that I'm personally not really a fan of. So I find it quite ironic at times that whilst I was the pioneer for hazy beer, what's now considered hazy beer isn't necessarily the kind of beer that I enjoy drinking or the kind of beer that we brew. But it was great to be able to pave a path for people to express their creativity in whatever way they wanted to. The industry has changed massively in the last 16 years, but we've always had a very firm view and a philosophy behind the brewery and the types of beers that we brew and the way we market and position ourselves, and they're based on my idealistic view of what I want out of a beer and beer experience. Whether that's going to pubs or beer halls, or events or concerts and how I want to interact and bring beer into that. It's important to have that philosophy and identity. The market that we sell into now is considerably different to what we sold into at the beginning. Before it was very much just local pubs. Now we have dedicated craft beer bars, we have people that order cans of beer at home. Nearly every restaurant, venue, or leisure activity place, you can at least get a decent beer to drink, which is great. And that's a huge change to what it was before.”

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It's great to see beer festivals and events starting back up again, it's absolutely critical that we have got back into pubs. And we have just got to start having fun in the industry again.

What was the thinking behind expanding to a second city and do you have any plans to expand further?

“We opened the London Vaults at the start of 2018. Initially, it was designed to have three purposes. One purpose was to act as a London distribution hub for us, because it was really hard getting access to the London market. We couldn't really justify sending the van down to London to do direct deliveries, but wholesale distribution was challenging. So we felt if we had our local hub set up that we could distribute out of there, and off the back of it, we could open the taproom to get some brand presence and also use some of the space to extend our barrel-ageing programme, which we had run out of space to do in Bristol. But over the course of the last five years, the world has changed quite considerably. And from a functional point of view the only thing that we've really kept there's the retail and tap side of it, and we do a lot more events out of the space. It was an ill planned folly of mine to do the barrel-ageing programme. It was just a very expensive use of real estate. We very much could look at doing that in other locations as well in the future. But I want the situation to settle down first with the world before we start doing that level of investment again.”

What is the secret to continuing to compete in a crowded market?

“That's a fantastic question. And when I have a good answer, I'll let you know. Because, I don't think we've figured it out yet, but this is really the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. I like to talk to other people to get their opinions, but to me, again, it's about having a philosophy. So, what sort of beers are you brewing? Why do they exist? They have to have a purpose. And as a brewery, you have to have a recognisable brand. And I think Moor absolutely has that with the fabulous work that my best friend Ben does for us. We've won an award for the best beer branding, I think it was back in 2009, when he first started doing the branding for us, and we just won another award with it last year, which is fantastic. We try and have a timeless look and feel to what we do. And much like our beers, it has very much a nod to history and tradition, but with a modern edge. We incorporate that into our brewing and into our branding, under a philosophy and a purpose for all the beers that we brew, and we work with an ecosystem of collaborators - whether that's bands, publications, importers in other countries, distributors around the UK, pubs, clubs, etc. So that's really important to have that brand and philosophy together. And of course, at the end of the day, it is a business. So you have to have an eye on the numbers and how you're structured. We're still 100% independent, and 100% self-funded. We've had an opportunity, lots of times, to get outside investment. But we've turned those opportunities down. Sometimes I kick myself. Sometimes I'm grateful for it. But basically, the buck stops with me for everything, every decision that gets made in the brewery. It's done with the rest of the management team’s input, but at the end of the day, I'm the one paying for it. I've got a fabulous team that's been with me for many years. My brewery manager actually started as my apprentice. He's been with me for over 13 years now. A lot of our brewers and other staff members have been with us for a long time. We're a fantastic company to work for. We've got a lot of like-minded people. And we've had our challenges, like everyone else has, especially during the pandemic. But I think it's important to have a company structured in the way that you want and also have people on board who share that passion and vision.”

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What is your view on the current review of SBR?

“I always try as much as possible to take an objective and balanced view on things and look for the upsides and downsides. So I think for SBR, absolutely it needed to be reviewed. I mean, we existed where the 5,000hl limit was absolutely a barrier to growth, there were a couple of years that I intentionally curtailed sales. And I felt that that was foolish. So in the end, we added more capacity, and we made a real push for it. And we pushed through it, but not far enough. So then we got massively penalised the following year, to the point where it was unsustainable. And then also the pandemic kicked in. So we really took a pretty solid beating to our profitability, just because we went over that 5,000hl line at the wrong time. So that definitely needed to be changed. But we now find ourselves at the opposite end of the spectrum. We’re going to be in the cohort of breweries that are going to get penalised in the change, but it gives us an opportunity to push past it again, without being penalised to the level we were the first time around. I think for the market as a whole, it's a positive change from what I understand of it, although we're still waiting to see the detailed calculations. But there's also some unintended consequences that are coming out of this review - there's going to be the push to beers that are 3.4% ABV and below, which I think is a great thing. That's on a positive side, and balancing that on the negative side I think that with the high strength duty, there's a lot of businesses that are geared around brewing nothing but high strength beers, and they're not going to be affordable anymore.”

We're going back to the way that it might have been historically with a lot of local breweries, very small local breweries, satisfying the needs in a small local area.

What do you think can be done to address the challenge independent brewers have in getting their beer into mainstream venues?

“There's never going to be a perfect system in place to solve these issues. In my younger days, and I would say still from a lot of breweries’ perspectives, it is almost like we feel we have a right to be everywhere. But we don't. And we also don't have the capability to do that. So I think we have to look hard at ourselves, as an industry, but also as individual businesses and say, why do I want that access? And can I even deliver on it? Because if I was a big pub company, with hundreds or 1,000s of pubs, I want a supplier that I know is going to consistently deliver the quantity and the quality and the consistency that I expect out of a supplier. And I think we have to be really honest and look at ourselves and say, most breweries, especially those of us on the smaller end of the scale, probably don't have the capability to do that. Yelling and shouting that you don't have access to venues, when you actually don't have the ability to deliver into those venues, in a consistent, quality, sustainable way? You're wasting your time. Go focus on something that's more relevant to your business.”

Do you think the pandemic has had a positive or negative effect on the sector in the longer term?

“I can try to find some balance out of it. But it's hard to find balance out of the pandemic. Because by and large, it was, and remains, an incredibly awful period, and if we combine the pandemic with Brexit, that compounded the problems, especially for those of us who did a lot of exporting. Then you throw in the financial crisis and the global instability geopolitically and we're in a pretty awful time to try and be operating. But what are some of the positives? I think quality of service absolutely went up, both in retail sites and from producers. There was just too much supply. And a lot of it was quite good. So in order to go and get those customers, you have to have great service as well as a great product. It's also made people buy local again, which I think is fantastic. We're going back to the way that it might have been historically with a lot of local breweries, very small local breweries, satisfying the needs in a small local area. I see that when I travel back to the US or over to the Continent, everyone is selling a lot more in their local area, which is great. And I think it's made people reassess if they were able to survive because they had a viable business model. That's precipitated the popping of the craft beer bubble a little bit, and it needed a bit of deflating because it was getting overheated prior to the pandemic. None of us wanted something like a pandemic or Brexit or the financial crisis to come along and do it in the way that it did. But absolutely, we altered the way we are operating, we used to do a lot more self-indulgent beers, a lot less planned

Continued on page 53 and thoughtful approaches to the market. Our service levels have increased, and we've had to focus on the things that are absolutely essential for us to do as a business.”

What does good leadership look like to you?

“Leadership is super important, it's intrinsic to everything that I was brought up with, and especially going through West Point, which is arguably one of the world's premier leadership institutes. We studied it a lot, and there's a lot of tenets that we have to memorise, and we're meant to aspire to and live by. So things like, seeking responsibility and taking responsibility for your actions. You’ve got to be willing to take that step up. I think one of the most important things as a leader is being willing to challenge things. In our little microcosm, we're trying to progress beer, but we're also trying to see the bigger picture, you know, progress the world and humanity and look at how we grow and improve. You can only do that by evolving things or having some revolution in some way. So you have got to be willing, as a leader, to step up and do that. I think we've demonstrated a lot of that really well. I think it's also important to have a level of maturity and experience behind you. And it's great when you're young and idealistic about things. But try and take that step back as well and have a balanced view. There are things I did 16 years ago, or even a few years ago, that I look back and say, ‘Oh, I wish I could go back and change a few of those things’. But we all make mistakes. You’ve got to be able to pick yourself back up, look in the mirror and say, ‘Okay, I'll learn from that one. I'll try not to do that again. And I'll try and do better in the future’.”

What makes an outstanding craft beer?

“The main word that I always go back to is ‘drinkability’. So the perfect craft beer, for me, isn't a style. It's a beer that I just want to keep drinking. And we always joke about the ‘10 pint rule’, every beer we brew, you’ve got to be able to drink 10 pints a day - not that we sit there and drink 10 pints - but flavour-wise, you've got to want to just be able to sit there all day long and go, ‘Yep, I'm not bored of this beer’. And alongside that, of course, comes quality, flavour and consistency. Those kind of go without saying. I think that's why I go back much more to classic styles and breweries that I have loved and respected for long periods of time, because they brew beers that are just infinitely drinkable. Whether that's a fabulous German lager, a great Belgian gueuze, a fantastic British bitter or a great American Pale Ale or IPA, they all have to have that element of drinkability. And unfortunately, I think in the craft brewing industry, like any industry that's growing and going through his teenage years, and it gets a little bit rebellious, thinks it knows everything, tries to push all the boundaries. I think there's been a lot of beers that to my personal taste are not very drinkable. They're fantastic for one sip, and you can say, ‘Well, that was a really creative idea’. But can you drink 10 pints, let alone one pint of it?”

What was the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

“The best piece of advice, which I try to remember even though it's been really, really tough these last few years, is that you’ve got to have fun along the way. And I don't think any of us have had much fun in the last few years. Those of us that have survived and gotten to this point, need to remember why we got into this. Yes, we have survived. And we want to continue to survive a lot longer. But along the way, we’ve got to get back to the point of having fun. So it's great to see beer festivals and events starting back up again, it's absolutely critical that we have got back into pubs. And we have just got to start having fun in the industry again.”

What inspires you?

“To me, it's the human connection. Beer connects people. Beer is arguably one of the foundations of why society was settled and formed. And it still is to this day. I can meet people from all walks of life, and if we sit down over a beer in a pub, then we can all talk to each other as people and share an experience in a way that doesn't seem to exist in any other context. Whether that's meeting just random people, or people who are in the industry and are as passionate about it as I am, we're able to talk about industry-related subjects. We're meeting musicians and getting passionate about their music, they're passionate about our beer. It's great to just have that human connection.”

Who do you most admire in the craft beer arena and why?

“It's always tough to limit it to just one person. I always tend to point first to the industry to the real revolutionaries and pioneers, which would be Fritz Maytag and Michael Jackson. If it wasn't for them, doing what they did firstFritz Maytag by actually starting the craft beer movement in the 60s, and then Michael Jackson for going and getting people excited about beer in the 70s - we wouldn't be where we are today. Then I've got some of my, I wouldn't call them peers, because they were people who pre-dated my entrance in to brewing, but that I’ll always have a huge amount of respect and admiration for, and that’s Roger Ryman and John Keeling. I have found them to be incredibly amazing people to talk to and work with. Roger was a fabulous person and is a huge loss, but I learned a lot from both of them and shared a lot of fantastic experiences and brewing opportunities with both of them. And then I would just say, a huge range of people in other countries, brewers that I love to hang out with and drink and learn from - German brewers, Italian brewers and publicans, people who are super, super passionate about their work. Those are the people that keep me going.”

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