SIBA Independent Brewer Winter 2024

First & Last of the Season

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

It has been a whirlwind of a few months since the last issue of this magazine in October, with some notable highs –the launch of the new SIBA Indie Beer campaign (see pages 18-21) – and sadly also some low points – I’m looking at you Chancellor!

But as thoughts turn to the outlook for 2025 there is also much to be positive about, with the brewery closure rate slowing (see the latest Brewery Tracker figures on page 9), more consumers than ever choosing independent beer and now having the means to identify it using the Indie Beer logo, and hope on the

horizon for a Government review of both access to market and business rates.

Nevertheless, the market remains extremely challenging, and SIBA’s BeerX UK event in March next year will have a particularly important role to play in bringing brewers together at a time when the power of your shared voice is much needed (see our BeerX Preview on pages 56-59 for more on plans for the 2025 show).

Elsewhere in this issue, we welcome awardwinning Guest Writer, and current Beer Writer of the Year, David Jesudason, who visits Forest Road Brewing to find out more about the career of Head Brewer James Garstand, which includes a detour to India, and the ethos behind the business (see pages 42-47).

We also delve into the 150-year history of Batemans Brewery in our Business Profile (see pages 32-39) and meet current custodian Stuart Bateman who shares his family’s story, and some of the secrets to the business’ longevity.

Our cover stars for this issue are Sam and Red Kellie, who are blazing a trail for sustainable brewing in their Northumberland brewery First & Last. Their focus on foraged ingredients sets them apart from their peers, and takes localsourcing to a new level (find out more in our Meet the Brewer feature on pages 48-55).

Society of Independent Brewers and Associates PO Box 136, Ripon, North Yorkshire HG4 5WW Tel: 01765 640 441

www.siba.co.uk

Email: office@siba.co.uk

And finally, as I prepare to start work researching the 2025 SIBA Independent Beer Report – our most comprehensive report of the year, to be released in the Spring – please spare the time if you can to fill out the Annual SIBA Members’ Survey which is now live (details on page 9). This survey data helps give the report the detailed market insight that makes it such a valuable resource for brewers so your survey responses are vital.

That’s it from me for the last issue of 2024wishing all of you a busy and profitable festive period, and I hope you also find the space for some well-deserved down time with family and friends.

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 Spring 2025 edition will be January 10th.

Caroline Nodder Editor

Editor: Caroline Nodder (caroline.nodder@siba.co.uk)

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SIBA Independent Brewer Magazine

Cover

The cover image for this issue features Sam and Red Kellie from First & Last Brewery in Northumberland, which specialises in using foraged ingredients to produce its range of unique seasonal beers. Hear more about it from Red in our Meet the Brewer feature on pages 48-55.

News

9-15

SIBA News All the news from SIBA HQ

16-17 SIBA Business Awards A new partnership with Women on Tap for 2025

18-21 Indie Beer Campaign The new campaign from SIBA to promote independent beer to consumers gets off to a great start

26-27 Membership Update A round-up of the latest SIBA Membership benefits

56-59 BeerX Preview What to expect from SIBA’s 2025 event

74-83

SIBA Regional Beer Competitions Results from the competitions in Scotland, the East of England, North West & Midlands

84-93 Brewery News The latest from our Brewing Members around the UK

95-99 Supplier News Updates from SIBA’s Supplier Associate Members

Comment

7 CEO’S Update Andy Slee, SIBA’s Chief Executive, focusses on some good news during tough times

8 Chairman’s Comment National Chair Richard Naisby looks at the bad, and good, that has come out of the Budget for brewers

24-25 The View From Westminster Our regular political update

30-31 Homebrew In Focus Andy Parker from Elusive Brewing looks at Neptune Brewery’s Gorgon

69 Tech Focus Brewlab’s Dr Keith Thomas on the use of acid in brewing

Features

29 Taproom Focus Featuring the taproom at The Kernel

32-39 Business Profile We interview Stuart Bateman as the historic Batemans Brewery celebrates 150 years

42-47 Guest Writer Beer Writer of the Year David Jesudason visits Forst Road Brewing

48-55 Meet The Brewer We profile Red Kellie from First & Last Brewery in Northumberland

61-67 Business Advice Legal, brand & marketing, consumer insight & HR

70-73 Gold Members Premier Systems and Loughran Brewers

100 Gold & Silver Members Listing of our key sponsors

102 Contacts Key SIBA contacts

For all samples, from beer wort to packaged product

Quick results without separate calculations or distillation

Calibration and adjustment with deionized water only

Fiercely independent

Since becoming SIBA’s Chief Executive, I have been consistent in my view that for Independent Brewers to grow their share of the market to a level that reflects demand for our beers we need to unite behind points of agreement and speak with a united voice.

In the relatively short time since I last wrote for this magazine, events have reaffirmed this belief.

The SIBA Indie Beer campaign

Thanks to the 400 brewers whose support, at the time of writing, had already made ‘Indie Beer’ the biggest campaign in SIBA’s history. SIBA will never knock drinkers over their choice of beer, but for those for whom local provenance is important, the Indie Beer seal is the best way they can make an informed decision.

We seem to have tapped into a positive sentiment amongst the British population and the reaction to the campaign from all parts of the media has been overwhelmingly positive. Some of the stats are remarkable. In the first 72 hours following launch we had 131 news article mentions, and 329 million reader impressions, which would have cost SIBA £6 million had we gone out and bought equivalent advertising space. This is in addition to a huge social media

We seem to have tapped into a positive sentiment amongst the British population and the reaction to the campaign from all parts of the media has been overwhelmingly positive.

presence and over 40,000 visits to the campaign website at www.indiebeer.co.uk.

Make no mistake, SIBA is in this for the long term, but our role is to facilitate a campaign that no member could possibly do on their own. Please make use of the campaign and the assets the team have produced, and you can find out more about the campaign and how to get involved on pages 18-21 in this magazine.

Government help for Independent Brewers.

As part of the Budget, the Government announced that it, “will consult on ways to encourage small brewers to retain and expand their access to UK pubs, maximising drinkers’ choice and local economies, including through the provisions to enable to enable more guest beers”.

SIBA welcomes this move, but at the time of writing we have no further information on what form this will take and how members can contribute to a discussion on how independent and global brewers can better coexist in pubs and bars across the land.

Whatever format this consultation takes, if we focus on the points we agree on and show the same collective commitment, our voice will be heard.

We live in uncertain times, but I hope these two developments provide light at the end of the tunnel for brewers who simply want to satisfy the demand for the beers they take so much time and care to brew.

Have a wonderful (but busy) Christmas. Looking forward to 2025 with lots to play for!

Thanks for your support.

Andy Slee Chief Executive SIBA

The good, the bad and the ugly

The first Labour budget for 15 years was a long time in gestation and many of the policies announced had been heavily leaked. Overall, it has gone down badly with business, but I thought I’d look at what it means to brewers specifically.

The good bits

We had a tax (duty) cut! For draught products only, but still a bit of a surprise. I’m struggling to think of another business sector which can say it enjoyed a tax reduction and it is great credit to Barry Watts and the whole SIBA team that of all the industries, ours is recognised as one to promote. After all, a wise man once said that one of the purposes of taxation is to reward the things you like – and punish the things you disapprove of (more on this later…)

The increase in the small companies’ allowance is a valuable one for those companies to which it applies – a good number of SIBA members will be beneficiaries.

The rabbit-from-the-hat as far as we are concerned is the government-led review of small breweries’ access, with an eye to the unfair dominance of the global brewers. This is something that we have long campaigned upon. SIBA now has the chance to influence policy at the highest level. We look forward to working with the government, and with our allies in CAMRA, and other organisations, on the best way to achieve meaningful and timely reform. Solutions must be found quickly or the remedies will come too late to help the patient. A delayed review is no good to anyone. I hear that the global brewers are already ‘on manoeuvrers’ – and they have much to lose, since a truly level playing field would see consumers free to buy SIBA members beers

– and I think we can rely on the British beer drinker to make a good decision when given the opportunity! Some other organisations, whose membership includes the global players, now have a difficult set of decisions to make. At SIBA our path is clear – a fairer structure for independent brewers.

The bad bits (I’ll try to keep this short!)

National insurance. This will hit every private sector employer in the land. It is a tax on jobs, pure and simple. (see above – presumably His Majesty’s Government now disapproves of workers?) The reduction in the secondary limit is particularly vicious, hitting the low paid the hardest.

Our allies (and customers) in the pub – and wider hospitality – industry are quite rightly furious about this.

Business rates. The slashing of hospitality reliefs looks egregious when the same Budget announces a hugely overdue look at the level of high street business rates. Why not leave the reliefs intact until the review is complete? Many SIBA members have pubs and/or taprooms that will be affected. All of us have customers that will lose out directly.

Indie Beer campaign launch

The launch of the Indie Beer campaign has been huge. Many members contributed and lots of media coverage resulted. There is much more to come and we plan a rolling program of updates to keep this in the public eye. We have had several behind-the-scenes enquiries from nonSIBA members who recognise the value in what we are doing, and the rollout to non-members begins next year – though membership of SIBA is clearly the better option! There have, of course, been some dark mutterings from

the global behemoths and some of their pubco allies. This is a sign that the campaign has real substance and is likely to get great recognition from the wider public.

The evenings may be dark now and the future murky but I hope that there are enough chinks of light to see us through to 2025.

Richard Naisby Chairman SIBA

UK Brewery closure rate slows in third quarter of 2024 with two regions now in growth

For the first time in 2024 some regions of the UK have seen their overall brewery number rise, with the overall net closure rate across the UK also slowing, according to the latest figures released by the SIBA UK Brewery Tracker.

The UK had a net closure rate of -27 in the third quarter leading up to the end of September, compared to a -29 net closure rate in Q2 and an even larger -38 net closure rate in Q1. Whilst this marks the third consecutive quarter of overall brewery number decline there are some success stories, with the South West seeing an increase of +2, the highest out of all regions in the UK, followed by Wales with a +1 increase.

The SIBA UK Brewery Tracker takes into account all brewery openings and closures to give an accurate picture of the number of active brewing businesses – the latest figures show the total number of active UK breweries now stands at 1721, compared to 1748 at the end of June. Neil Walker, SIBA Head of Comms, said: “It’s positive to see some regions of the UK now in growth and an overall UK-wide closure rate which appears to be slowing. Demand for beer from independent breweries has never been higher from consumers, but access to market and profitability are still big challenges for small brewers all across the UK, with high taxation and rising raw ingredients costs squeezing the already fine margins most independent breweries are working with. In short, small breweries need your support so next time you’re in the pub or supermarket opt for an independent beer from a local brewery and help to keep local breweries and pubs alive.”

Year on year analysis of SIBA’s Beerflex system, which supplies guest ales into tied pubs across the UK, shows an increased demand for independent beer, with throughput per beer tap averaging a 13% increase, the majority of which

is cask beer brewed by independent brewers less than 40 miles from the pub.

“The challenge isn’t consumer demand, the challenge is getting small independent breweries access to pubs that are dominated by Global brewers,” Neil added.

Examining the figures regionally it is Northern Ireland which has struggled in Q3, with a huge -6 net closure rate taking the country’s total number of active breweries from 29 down to 23.

Elsewhere in the UK the North East of England also had a -6 net closure rate, but on a much larger starting number – with 242 breweries now remaining compared to 248 at the end of June. It was a similar story in the South East, with a -6 net closure rate taking the overall number of breweries from 331 to 325.

Scotland and the East of England both struggled with a -4 closure rate, with 129 breweries in Scotland as of the end of September as opposed to 133 at the end of June, compared to 183 in the East, down from 187.

The Midlands had a -3 net closure rate with the total number dropping from 332 to 329, followed by the North West which had a smaller -1 closure rate taking the net figure down from 189 to 188. As mentioned above the South West had the biggest (+2) increase taking the total from 203 to 205, followed by Wales (+1) where the net number rose from 96 to 97 breweries.

The SIBA UK Brewery Tracker is compiled by a team of professional staff employed by SIBA and is cross-referenced by SIBA Regional Directors in each of the eight SIBA Regions across the UK. The organisation considers a number of factors and data-sources alongside its own data analysis and extensive research and has become the go-to reference for accurate, up-todate brewery numbers in the UK.

Prior tracker statistics can be viewed via www.siba.co.uk/brewerytracker

SIBA UK BREWERY TRACKER Q3, 2024

Covering period 30/06/2024 –30/09/2024

UK: 1721 (-27)

Scotland 129 (-4)

Northern Ireland 23 (-6)

East 183 (-4)

North East 242 (-6)

North West 188 (-1)

Wales 97 (+1)

South West 205 (+2)

South East 325 (-6)

Midlands 329 (-3)

The above shows the new total number and net change compared to 30.06.24

Please note: Due to a change in SIBA’s membership regional boundaries, from 2024 onwards the breweries previously in ‘West of England’ are now counted within the ‘Midlands’ region www.siba.co.uk/brewerytracker

Save the date!

SIBA’s biggest event of the year, BeerX, is returning to Liverpool on March 19th and 20th 2025 for what promises to be our biggest show yet. Find out more about the 2025 event on pages 56-59 in this magazine, or go to www.beerx.org for all the latest information on the show.

SIBA welcomes Budget help for beer and pubs but say cost increases will hurt businesses overall

SIBA responded to the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget, saying it had ‘positive steps’ but will see breweries worse off overall.

Andy Slee, SIBA Chief Executive, said: “The Chancellor’s announcement that she will raise the draught duty discount was a positive

step which shows a continued support for breweries and beer in pubs, which contribute greatly to local communities and economies. But with broader alcohol duty, business rates, wages and National Insurance contributions all going up pubs and breweries are going to be worse off overall.

Orkney Brewery and

Fyne Ales take

home

best

cask and keg beer awards at Indie Beer Scotland 2024

In a competition that showed the huge diversity of beer styles now being brewed in Scotland, it was Orkney Brewery and Fyne Ales’ Origins Project that were named ‘Best of the Best’ at the SIBA Scotland Independent Beer Awards held at Indie Beer Scotland 2024. Orkney Brewery’s Dark Island Reserve, a 10% whisky-barrel-aged porter wowed judges in the cask beer competition, taking home the Overall Gold after winning the Cask Speciality Dark Beers Category. The beer has big bold flavours of fruit, spice, oak and roast malt flavours, alongside a subtle whisky finish.

Craig Steven, from Orkney Brewery, was on hand to collect the award on behalf of his team, saying: “It’s a great opportunity to come down here to the SIBA Awards; all our beer is brewed on the island and it comes down here to be up against all these great Scottish breweries, so to win the overall champion cask beer is just a tremendous achievement and testament to

what we’ve been doing for the last 30 years.”

In the separate Keg Beer Awards it was ‘Pinc’ from Fyne Ales 'Origins Project' – the name for their mixed-fermentation and sour beer project – which was named the Overall Gold winner. The Belgian saisonstyle base beer is aged on a mixture of grape pomace (Chardonnay & Pinot Noir), raspberries, apple juice and gooseberries to create an aromatic, fruity and subtly acidic beer inspired by rosé wine. It won the competition's Keg Sour & Wild Ale category before going home to take Gold in the Overall judging round.

Jamie Delap, Fyne Ales, was full of praise for his team: “Absolutely delighted to win, coming down to Indie Beer is such a great chance to meet everyone from the industry and see the best of what Scottish beer has to offer. There are some fantastic beers here so to come out and win is just really appreciated.”

For the full list of winners see pages 74-75.

“SIBA also welcomes the Government’s consultation on pub market access, which has the potential to improve the ability for small independent breweries to supply local pubs and we look forward to working with the Government and our colleagues across the industry to ensure this has a positive outcome which will improve consumer choice.”

Top beers in Midlands revealed in the SIBA Independent Beer Awards 2024

The top beers in the Midlands region have been revealed with the announcement of the SIBA Midlands Independent Beer Awards 2024, with a host of cask and keg beers taking home Golds in the prestigious awards at the Oxford CAMRA Beer Festival.

Liquid Light Brew Co was one of the competition’s biggest winners, topping an impressive five categories, with three Keg Overall Golds and two Cask Overall Golds. Rebellion Beer Co were another big winner, with three cask Overall Golds, followed by Titanic and Loose Cannon, who each took home two Overall Category Golds.

The prestigious awards, held at the Oxford CAMRA Beer Festival, were judged by brewers and beer experts and are seen very much as the experts’ choice awards in the industry.

SIBA Chief Executive Andy Slee was on hand to give out the awards and congratulate this year’s winners: “A huge well-done to all of this year’s Gold Medal winners, who will now move forwards to the National Finals at BeerX in Liverpool next year. The quality of beers across the board was truly outstanding and really showed off the diversity of styles now being brewed across the Midlands to an incredibly high standard. Very well done to all of the breweries who took home medals and in particular our overall Gold Medal winners.”

Winners from the Midlands Awards will now move forwards to compete against Gold Medal winners from across the UK in the National Finals held at BeerX in Liverpool next March.

For a full list of the winners see pages 82-83.

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Oakham Ales 'Icon' named best cask beer in the East of England

Oakham Ales has added to its trophy cabinet with an overall Gold at the SIBA East Independent Beer Awards 2024, beating brewers from across the East of England, stretching from North Lincolnshire down to Essex and Hertfordshire, as well Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.

Oakham's 'Icon', a 5% ABV cask-aged IPA, was named the Overall Champion of the Cask in a final round judging against winners from the various beer style categories. The beer is described by Oakham as having "vibrant berry flavours and earthy, pine resin complexity of Mosaic combine brilliantly with the pronounced grapefruit, orange and tangerine notes of Centennial and the punchy tropical fruit characteristics of Citra".

All of the category winners from the awards will now go on to battle it out at the National finals in Liverpool next year.

Andy Slee, SIBA Chief Executive, was on hand to present this year's awards and was full of praise for the winners: “Competition was incredibly tough this year with superb beers across the board, but I'd like to say a particular congratulations to this year's overall winners Oakham - very well done and well deserved.”

Taking the Overall Silver in 2024 was Brentwood Brewery, followed by Baker's Dozen in Bronze, both breweries were in attendance at the awards and had this to say on their wins;

The competition took place immediately before the opening of the Elgood’s Brewery Beer Festival 2024, taking place at Elgood’s Brewery in Wisbech, which continued over the weekend.

For the full list of winners see pages 76-77.

Husband and wife microbrewery Baker’s Dozen take home top East Region beer award

Baker’s Dozen Brewery in Stamford has taken home the top award in the East of England region of the SIBA Independent Beer Awards, winning Overall Champion Gold.

Their ’12 Second Panda’ IPA proved a big hit with the expert judges assessing beers during the competition held at Brewpoint in Bedford. The 6% hazy ‘New England’ style IPA is loaded with American Citra hops for a big hit of citrus and tropical fruit.

Husband and wife team Dean and Gill Baker were both on-hand to collect their award and commented: “Amazing! Where do you start, it’s the third year in a row that we’ve won a Gold with undertow, and we entered 12 Second Panda two years ago and it got silver, but we wanted to enter it again as we were confident it would do well since we think it has improved since last time – but we never expected it to do this well!”

For the full list of winners see pages 78-79.

New Independent Brewers of Europe group launches

A new pan-European group of trade associations and representatives have joined forces to promote independent brewing.

The Independent Brewers of Europe (IBE) aims to campaign against injustices in the beer market and to defend the diversity of independent beer to ensure that beer drinkers can continue to enjoy access to genuine local beers in the future.

The new group consists of national associations of independent breweries from ten European countries - Germany, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

One of the founding members of the new group is SIBA in the UK.

“Many of the challenges we face in the UK are shared amongst our friends in Europe and so it makes sense for us to work more closely together to exchange information and tackle them,” said Andy Slee, SIBA’s Chief Executive. “As in the UK, beer across Europe is dominated by a handful of Global companies and we need to ensure that independent breweries can survive and there is a great range of beers available which celebrates our diversity.”

Earlier in the year the members came together in Vienna to discuss the issues facing the independent beer sector and ways to work together. This was hosted by the Independent Breweries of Austria which formed three years ago as a strong advocate to preserve Austrian beer culture.

“We want to cooperate across borders,” says Hubert Stöhr, the Chair of Independent Breweries of Austria, describing the idea behind the founding of the group: “We have a major goal in common. We want to protect indigenous beer culture in all its diversity and facilitate its further development.”

More information can be found on the IBE websitewww.independent-brewers.com

SIBA, UK

Syndicat National des Brasseries Indépendantes (SNBI), France

Craftbrouwers, Netherlands

Private Brauereien, Germany

Pienmanimoliitto, Finland

Die freien Schweizer Brauereien, Switzerland

Unabhängige Privatbrauereien Österreichs, Austria

Unionbirrai, Italy

Czech-Moravian Association of Microbreweries, Czech Republic

Polish Craft Brewers Association, Poland

The 10 members are:

SIBA National Homebrew

Competition marks 60th anniversary of Maris Otter malt with new dark beer challenge

SIBA has announced a partnership with leading London brewery Five Points, malt specialists Crisp Malt and The Malt Miller, to challenge homebrewers to brew the best British Dark Beer.

And to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Maris Otter malt in 2025, each beer should use this legendary variety as the base of their brew. Crisp Malt is providing this and the other malts for a standard sized homebrewed beer free to all entrants.

The SIBA National Homebrew Beer Awards 2025, which opened for entries in October, will give one talented homebrewer the opportunity to brew their winning beer with the expert team at Five Points Brewery on its innovative test kit with the beer being available in their pub and taproom.

The competition is free for SIBA Homebrewer Members and now in its third year. It gives amateur brewers the chance to have their beers judged by the UK’s best professional brewers, sommeliers and experts at BeerX in Liverpool – the UK’s biggest beer and brewing trade event in March.

Homebrewers who have registered for the competition will be able to get hold of their Maris Otter and other Crisp Malts via The Malt Miller, who have a wide range of ingredients available.

SIBA’s Homebrewer membership was launched in 2022 and is open to all amateur brewers across the UK who want to improve their brewing skills.

For more information on SIBA Homebrewer membership or to join please visit www.siba.co.uk/homebrewer/

The annual SIBA Members’ Survey

Tight at the top: Three breweries dominate the medals at the SIBA North West Independent Beer Awards 2024

In what is a historic first for the region, the top six awards at the SIBA North West Independent Beer Awards 2024 were awarded to just three breweries; Bank Top in Bolton, Black Edge in Horwich, and RedWillow in Macclesfield.

Bank Top Brewery took home the Overall Gold and Silver in the cask competition having also won across a number of styles categories, with Black Edge being named the Overall Gold Champion in the separate keg beer awards. RedWillow were just edged out of the Overall Gold medal spots, but took home the biggest medal haul, with an Overall Silver in cask and an Overall Silver and Bronze in keg.

But top of the cask table was Bank Top’s flagship Flat Cap, a traditional English Bitter – a beer with a fierce local following but which has only recently begun to be appreciated more by judges in beer competitions. Claire Kirkman, Bank Top Brewery General Manager, was on hand to accept the award on behalf of the team: “Flat Cap is our best-selling beer, our most famous beer, but it hasn’t won that many awards before but is just absolutely on form at the minute. It’s absolutely amazing to win, especially as we’ve just lost one of our brewers who has left to pastures new – so to know that we’re brewing great beer with Ben and the new team is really great.”

The Overall Keg Gold was Black Edge Brewery’s 99 Red Balloons, a Strawberry Berliner Weisse sour beer developed as part of a new more experimental range of keg beers by the brewery.

Wayne Roper, Founder and Director of Black Edge, had this to say of their win: “We’re delighted to win so many awards tonight, especially in Bolton where we’re actually from. Absolutely overwhelmed to win the keg award too as we’ve been working really hard to get the keg beers going for the last 12 months – especially something a little bit different like this sour beer which is more specialist. ”

For the full list of winners see pages 80-81.

Our latest SIBA Members’ Survey is now live. The data we get from this annual survey is vital to producing our comprehensive Independent Beer Report, released each Spring, which offers a detailed overview of sector performance and trends, as well as insight, ideas and guidance for independent brewers looking to plan for the future. The more of our members who respond to the survey, the more detailed the data and analysis we are able to share with you in the report.

To fill out the survey online go to: www.surveymonkey.com/r/SIBA2024. We really appreciate your time on this.

SIBA collaborates with Women on Tap to launch new ‘Diversity Champion of the Year’ Award

SIBA has launched the SIBA Business Awards 2025, including a brand new ‘Diversity Champion of the Year’ Award in partnership with industry group Women on Tap.

The new award celebrates independent breweries who have made equality, diversity and inclusivity a central part of their business - be that with a focus on gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic background, disability, neurodiversity, or age.

The winner will need to demonstrate an authentic commitment to creating a diverse workplace alongside tangible positive outcomes for your business and team. With judges especially looking for schemes, policies, campaigns or other initiatives that can inspire the wider industry to follow suit.

As well as joining the judging panel for the SIBA Business Awards 2025, Women on Tap’s Rachel Auty also helped to create the criteria for this important new award.

See our Q&A with Rachel opposite for more on the new partnership and what Woman on Tap stands for.

The SIBA Business Awards seek to congratulate excellence in the brewing industry across a variety of categories, from pump clip, can and bottle design, to efforts taken by brewers to make their business more sustainable, innovative or diverse, as well as naming the UK’s best pubs, bars and retailers of beer from independent breweries. The judging panel is chaired by Neil Walker, SIBA’s Head of Comms and Marketing, who said: “SIBA is delighted to be working with Women on Tap to launch the new Diversity Champion of the Year Award. Rachel’s knowledge and expertise was absolutely invaluable in the creation of this award which seeks to highlight breweries who show a real commitment to promoting equity, diversity and inclusivity.”

Another change for 2025 is the renaming of the ‘Empowering People’ Award, which will be known as the Employer of the Year award moving forwards. The new name brings it in line with the Brewers’ Brewer of the Year, Brewery of the Year, Supplier Associate of the Year and new Diversity Champion of the Year awards in the awards line up.

The SIBA Business Awards 2025 are judged by a panel of industry experts and presented at the UK’s biggest beer and brewing event – BeerX UK in Liverpool, March 2025.

For more information about the awards, and to enter online, visit www.siba.co.uk/businessawards

• Marketing Implementation

• Sustainable Business

• Community Engagement

• Best Individual Design

• Best Concept Design

• Business Innovation

• Best Collaboration

• Commercial Achievement

Entry Deadline: 31st January 2025

SIBA Business Awards 2025: The Categories

• Diversity Champion of the Year - NEW!

• Employer of the Year (Formerly ‘Empowering People’)

• UK's Best New Independent Craft Brewery

• UK's Best Independent Brewery Taproom

• UK's Best Independent Brewery Webshop

• UK's Best Independent Beer Retailer

• UK's Best Independent Beer Bar or Pub - City

• UK's Best Independent Beer Bar or Pub - Rural

• Brewers' Brewer of the Year (Brewer nominated)

• Supplier Associate of the Year (Brewer nominated)

Women on Tap: Rachel Auty

We caught up with Women on Tap’s Rachel Auty to find out more about the initiative, its mission, and the partnership with SIBA on the new Diversity Champion category for the 2025 SIBA Business Awards…

Image © Ryan Walsh

What is Women on Tap all about?

“Originally founded in 2017, Women on Tap CIC is a social enterprise on a mission for gender equality, with a focus on the UK beer industry. To date we have delivered more than 100 events and seven festivals, with women in the spotlight. Over the last eight years we’ve developed initiatives that champion women in beer spaces through a programme of activism including events, campaigns, and arts commissions with one clear messagewomen belong in beer. We work alongside the industry and we learn from the lived experiences of women to forge connections and nurture allyship, and to drive collaborative positive change. Women remain significantly underrepresented across the industryparticularly in leadership and brewing roles. What's more, many women have reported incidents of bullying, harassment and discrimination while working in the industry. The 2024 SIBA report stated that women constitute 30% of the UK brewery workforce, with most working in marketing, admin or accounts roles. Only 6% are in brewing roles, and just 25% of management roles are held by women. More than 90% of breweries in the UK are owned by men. Beer continues to be a heavily male-dominated space, and this is problematic. Women on Tap CIC is a voice for women in the space and our work is intended to reset this balance.”

What do you hope to achieve through the initiative?

“Ultimately, we want to see not just a more gender equal space, but also more women in decision-making and leadership roles. We want all women to have the right conditions in which to thrive in long and rewarding beer careers, and we want more women to benefit from all the positive social aspects of being a beer

consumer. We also believe that by bringing more women and wider diversity into senior roles, the beer industry can break the chains of years of damage done by persistent misogyny and male-oriented marketing, and open up new and significant commercial opportunities. In doing this, new innovations can emerge, growth and new employment opportunities are created, and the industry can sustain a vibrant workforce that is valued and can thrive. We want to let women know through Women on Tap, they have a voice and support - because we know it can feel like a lonely and impossible space to navigate without that. We also want the industry to know we are here to support and help provide practical solutions for change. We want more leaders to acknowledge and address the issues and challenges so we can all move forwards together.”

What do you think is putting women off joining the sector?

“Women simply do not see themselves within it. Most women don’t think the beer industry is for them. A problematic history of misogyny and discrimination has built a wall that’s taking a lot of work to smash through. Women still cite male-oriented advertising as the biggest barrier - in 2024! If women can’t see themselves in beer careers, they are also much less likely to see themselves as beer consumers, and so not only is the industry missing out on top talent, it’s also a huge commercial disadvantage. For too long beer just has not spoken to women - in many ways it still doesn’t. This means there’s a potential workforce and customer base the size of half of the population that’s largely untapped. How ridiculous is that?!”

What can brewers do to support Women on Tap?

“For now, be sure to follow us on social media @womenontap and sign up to the mailing list via the website at www.womenontap.co.uk

We are always looking for sponsors and donations to help fund our work. Get in touch with us if that’s of interest.”

What plans do you have for the initiative in 2025?

“To advance our goals, we recently expanded our leadership. In response to new YouGov data showing persistent inequality in the industry, we initiated a recruitment campaign and formed an Advisory Board, bringing together leaders from both public and private sectors. Together as part of a six-month project, we are looking at impact, activities, resources and governance; we’ve developed a Theory of Change, and we’re now finalising a five-year strategic plan. We will have more to reveal on all that in the coming months.”

What more can brewers be doing themselves to improve diversity in their teams?

“The first step to solving a problem is recognising that one exists. At a basic level, leadership teams need to review their current diversity, and make a commitment to creating workplaces and experiences where everyone can thrive. It’s within the control of those leaders to define what practical measures and metrics work for their own organisation that can be put in place to move towards that goal. Representation remains absolutely key - we need to see more diversity in beer marketing and on social media - but it’s only one of many things that need to work together. Those who have decision-making responsibilities in breweries need to reflect on workplaces, contracts, internal culture, and lived experiences of former employees to understand why they are not attracting or retaining diverse talent. Revisiting exit interviews is a good place to start, particularly where someone reflected currently underrepresented groups in the company. There’s a fair bit of research available on what makes an inclusive and appealing employer for a wide range of people who are more likely to face barriers in society, too. One thing companies can do straight away is this: fix workforce diversity as an agenda item at every main board or senior management meeting. At those meetings ask yourselves what progress has been made since the last meeting, and define what needs to happen next. Having this scheduled, regular conversation will deliver positive results for your company.”

Why did Women on Tap decide to partner with SIBA on the new Diversity Champion Award?

“As recent industry research from SIBA and other sources has evidenced the lack of progress in making the UK beer industry more diverse, it’s clear we have to keep this subject front and centre. With this in mind we are incredibly grateful to SIBA for introducing this award and inviting us to be a partner. We recognise the important role SIBA plays in the independent beer space, and as a small social enterprise with huge ambitions, such collaborations are absolutely key to achieve the impact we need to have to make a real difference.”

Indie Beer: A whirlwind few weeks!

It’s safe to say that the launch of the Indie Beer campaign went better than any of us at SIBA HQ could have hoped, with a hugely positive response from members and the industry.

Even more importantly the campaign has achieved real cut through to regular consumers outside of the beer bubble, putting the issue into the National conversation and stimulating debate about the need to support independent businesses.

The launch week saw blanket coverage across the National press with an unprecedented four pieces in The Guardian including an Editorial which made clear the paper is backing the Indie Beer campaign:

“Showing admirable solidarity, the Campaign for Real Ale and the British Institute of Innkeepers have already thrown their weight behind the initiative.

With a raised glass in hand, so does this newspaper.”

There was also coverage by The Sun, The Telegraph, The Daily Star, MSN, The Scotsman, The Mirror, The Press Association, CityAM,

In the first 72 hours the Indie Beer campaign generated 131 news article mentions, creating 329.3M reader impressions, with a £6M estimated value.

and a huge number of regional media. There have also been broadcast pieces on BBC Radio 5 Live, ITV, The Times Radio, Regional BBC, LBC and various podcasts and beer-industry communicators.

In the first 72 hours the Indie Beer campaign generated 131 news article mentions, creating 329.3M reader impressions, with a £6M estimated value. Which shows the power of a successful PR campaign launch – giving us the ability to compete with the marketing budgets we are up against from the competition…

Thanks to all of you who submitted quotes in support of the campaign ahead of launch, these were invaluable in gaining traction in regional press across the UK and I know many breweries have had further local press off the back of the campaign launch.

At the time of going to press we’re now approaching 400 breweries actively ‘enrolled’ in the campaign and growing daily. We’ve also seen a big uptick in new member recruitment, with joining breweries citing the campaign as their reason for joining.

Drinker engagement

Consumer response to the launch of the IndieBeer.UK website and in particular the Brewery Checker has also been superb with 40,000+ brewery searches in the first two weeks of launch from some 17,000+ active users.

The response on social media has also been incredibly positive with a real feeling of a ‘social media takeover’ on launch day. Again thanks to all of you who posted in support of the campaign and helped to fill up social feeds with the campaign messaging – keep it up!

On Instagram alone the #IndieBeerUK hashtag has reached over 175,000 users and we’ve got big plans to grow the channels with more viral content in coming months. We will also be launching a ‘Brewery of the week’ feature and offering consumers the chance to win free cases of beer in an effort to further grow the campaign channels.

Indie Beer

Branding & Point of Sale Available

• BOTTLE CAPS via Croxsons (50% subsidised by SIBA)

• BAR RUNNERS via Colorscan (20% subsidised by SIBA)

• CASK PUMPCLIP CROWNERS via Colorscan (20% subsidised by SIBA)

• KEG BADGE CROWNERS via Colorscan (20% subsidised by SIBA)

• BEER GIFT PACKS via Bag in Box Shop (10% subsidised by SIBA)

• POSTERS & WINDOW STICKERS FREE via SIBA (office@siba.co.uk)

BUYLOC AL BEER BUYIND E PENDENT

Looking for great quality, local beer? You just found it. Find the INDIE BEER mark on the bar.

Here’swhatbrewers havegottosayabout thecampaign

“Cloudwater Brew Co is delighted to support SIBA’s Indie Beer campaign. Independent businesses are the lifeblood of thriving local economies. Clearly identifying authentic and independent breweries will help consumers make the choices they want to ensure their money stays in their local area, and continues to fund innovation and to build a stronger future for British beer.”

Paul Jones, Cloudwater Brew Co.

“As an independent brewery, we're proud to be a part of SIBA’s Indie Beer Campaign, helping to highlight independent beer businesses across the UK.”

“We are so pleased to support this great campaign and it’s a great way of showing just who is actually independent.”

Simon Webster, Thornbridge Brewery.

“It's great to have a symbol of independence to represent our part of the sector to consumers. With the mix of brands all represented by the same large companies it's impossible for consumers to understand what is truly independent and this is a fantastic start to differentiate us.”

“Brains is proud to support the INDIE BEER campaign, championing independent breweries and beer businesses across the UK. As an independent brewery here in Wales, we believe in the importance of celebrating authentic, local beer."

“Now more than ever, consumers are quite rightly keen to know more about where the food and drink they consume comes from. This scheme doesn’t just help to celebrate the many amazing independent brewers crafting excellent beers across the country, it also helps consumers to understand more about the beers on offer, allowing them to make informed decisions that directly support local businesses and economies.”

Sarah Leigh Webber, Brains Brewery

Jo Farn, Attic Brew Co

David Glenwright, Titanic Brewery.

Jonathan Radford, Windsor & Eton Brewery.

“INDIE BEER is a great initiative to help inform consumers which brands are independently owned. With the branding and marketing lines being increasingly blurred to present global brands as artisan products, looking out for the INDIE BEER mark will be a simple but effective way to know you're buying from an independent business.”

“In a market where it is increasing difficult to distinguish between independent craft brewers and global brands marketed disingenuously we fully support the SIBA Indie Beer Campaign.”

“For too long, the British beer drinker has been hoodwinked into believing that the brands they are drinking are independent and full of genuine heritage. Now, we can call out these brands that unethically marketed by the international brewers and remind drinkers to support the brands that are brewed locally and endorsed by the new Indie Beer logo.”

Patrick McCaig, Otter Brewery

"As a proudly independent brewery with deep roots in our community, we’re thrilled to join the Indie Beer Campaign. This movement celebrates the craft, creativity, and commitment of brewers like us. Together, we highlight the quality and diversity we bring to the UK beer scene, ensuring the future of authentic, independent beer remains strong and accessible to all."

“Research shows that most beer drinkers in the UK are unaware that many of the mass marketed craft beer brands are in fact owned by one of the six global brewers. Yet the majority of beer consumers also say that they want to buy beer from genuinely independent local breweries.

This hard hitting campaign is designed to redress the balance and help our local independent breweries fight backI’m proud to support it.”

“There is a lot of confusion over which beer brands are truly independent, brewed by local businesses rather than global conglomerates. We hope that the Indie Beer campaign will clear up this confusion by championing local independently run breweries like ours.”

“After 20 years of brewing craft beer in Kent, it is clear to us that following the purchase over the last 10 years of many craft breweries by global brewing giants, consumers are being misled. We must tell our loyal customers what is independent beer and what is not. We support the Indie Beer campaign to inform consumers that what is in their glass has been crafted with loving care and attention by an independent brewer.”

Andy Parker, Elusive Brewing

Harrie Kelly, Ossett Brewery

Toby McKensie, RedWillow Brewery

Ian Fozard, Rooster’s Brewing.

Sara Barton, Brewsters Brewery

Robert Wicks, Westerham Brewery

The view from Westminster

Ok, it was a very tough Budget, wasn’t it? We knew that the Chancellor intended to make a series of difficult decisions to, as she said, “restore stability to our public finances”. Certainly the combination of increases to the Employers’ National Insurance Contribution and the reduction in the threshold is a bitter blow to businesses, especially our hospitality venues which employ significant numbers of part time staff.

But if you look under the hood of the Budget, there’s some really positive news for small breweries and it shows that the Government has listened to SIBA and to you. Specifically there are three good new stories I wanted to highlight which also pave the way for changes in future Budgets.

Draught Relief

The first is around Draught Relief – the lower rate of duty for beer packaged into large containers of 20 litres or more which are predominately sold in pubs. Ahead of the Budget we joined forces with CAMRA and the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) as well as several pub businesses to

commission new research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) on what increasing the Draught Relief from its current 9.2% discount could do.

The research showed that a 50% relief could create more than 8,500 additional full time jobs in brewing and hospitality and see an extra 76 million pints sold as well as boosting the national economy by £265 million. A more modest increase to 20% could see an extra 2,250 jobs and 20 million extra pints. Importantly it showed that many of the costs to the Treasury from reduced duty would be offset through additional sales and increases to other taxes.

After carefully considering this research and our submission, the Chancellor chose to increase the Draught Relief to 13.9%which means that from 1 February 2025 duty on draught beer will be lower. This is significant as it means that a political consensus has emerged on the benefits of Draught Relief – the last government introduced this over a year ago and the new one has been willing to expand it. This bodes well for future Budgets and means that we can make the case for further changes over time.

Barry Watts is Head of Public Affairs and Policy at

He covers political relations and policy for SIBA members. He can be contacted at barry.watts@siba.co.uk or 07977837804.

SIBA.

Small Producer Relief

This is one that I think most people missed but could be consequential. Although the new Alcohol Duty System is much more complex, it does allow the Chancellor to fine tune any duty changes. While in the past, under Small Breweries’ Relief, it was a simple percentage calculation. But now under Small Producer Relief the government has the flexibility to make changes to the cash discounts at different levels to improve the results for small breweries.

The Chancellor announced that the headline duty rate for nondraught beer was going to increase by RPI on 1 February 2025 which is 3.65% - this is the increase that the Global brewers face. Importantly, she chose not to increase it by the same rate for small breweries and also increase the discount from the headline rate. As the Budget document says: “the government will also increase the discount provided to small producers for non-draught products, and maintain the cash discount provided to small producers for draught products, increasing the relative value of Small Producer Relief.”

You can see some examples below of what this impact looks like. For those below 5 hectolitres of pure alcohol (HLPA), which is about 111 hectolitres at an average 4.5% ABV, there’s a 12% fall in the nondraught duty rate with the discount increasing to 92% whereas those below 210 HLPA receive a 2% increase compared to the 3.65% for the toprate.

All these duty changes will come in at the beginning of the next Small Production Year on 1 February 2025. Remember that you’ll need to recalculate your total production for the previous year (from 1 February 2024 to 31 January 2025) to then work out your cash relief and duty rate. To help you, Eddie Gadd from Gadds’ Brewery has updated the calculator which is now available on the Toolbox.

Guest Beers Consultation

The Government also announced that it will “consult on ways to ensure that small brewers can retain and expand their access to UK pubs, and maximise drinkers’ choice, including through provisions to enable more ‘guest beers’.” We’re expecting that this will be a broad review of the state of the pubs market with any consultation probably getting going around Spring next year. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to get involved and raise any access issues with the government.

One of the catalysts for this is the guest beer agreement being introduced in Scotland at the end of March next year. This allows a tied pub tenant to choose a local beer and purchase it directly from the brewery. This beer has to be a brand which produced less than 5,000hl in the previous production year, meaning that small breweries are well placed to benefit from this changes. At SIBA we’re preparing the ground and will have detailed information for members as well as a listing site to assist pub tenants. More information on this will be coming soon.

As ever, if you want to know more or have any views on any of these issues please do get in touch using the details opposite.

Hectolitres of

IS YOUR BREWERY

MISSING OUT?

Offering a range of Membership benefits from as little as £162 per year, SIBA, the Voice of British Independent Brewing is the one stop shop for Independent Craft Breweries SIBA are committed to ensuring that our Members’ are equipped with the Tools, Legislative advice, access to market and insight data required to run a successful Brewing business Look out for the * to see what you could be saving by joining SIBA.

SALES

Various opportunities for increasing sales within the on and off trade accounts through direct delivery, resources or exclusivity at prestigious events

PROMOTION Exclusive access to promote your beers at prestigious events such as the British Guild of Beer Writers Awards, BeerX and much more Access to the BGBW event would cost a single brewery *£4k, with other events costing much more

INDEPENDENCE CAMPAIGN Standing out from ‘big beer’ by increasing visibility on bottled products with Independent Crown Caps and independence badges for beer labelsassuring consumers that they are buying from an Independent Craft Brewer.

An option for all SIBA members to develop on trade sales by supplying to large pub operators at a price band of your choice and with favourable payment terms

The average Beerflex Member generating *£15k turnover.

INTEL

Raising the bar for your brewery and beer by obtaining invaluable industry information and data

REGIONAL MEETINGS Access to quarterly meetings, with presentations from industry experts and members of the SIBA Management Team, with complimentary food and beer for you and your fellow brewers

LOBBYING Securing Support & Advice via Political representation with a user friendly synopsis of Government Legislation available to members.

GOVERNANCE Eligibility to take a seat at the table of SIBA Board Directors, helping set the strategic direction of the trade association

BREWING IN BRIEF Weekly email newsletter, containing member news, Industry news and upcoming events A snap shot of the week in brewing.

CRAFT BEER REPORT Opportunity to contribute towards data insight and analysis on brewing businesses and the industry, providing invaluable data for your business planning

BUSINESS ADVICE & ACCOUNTANTCY FREE one-hour consultation from Johnston Carmichael, who currently offer brewers a wide range of services, from payroll and accounting to corporate finance, taxation and business strategy

LEGAL ADVICE Members can contact the dedicated SIBA Legal Helpline, facilitated by Napthen’s Solicitors for 1 hour FREE advice With legal specialists not only covering England, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland ensuring no eligible SIBA member goes without There is no limit on the number of times members can contact the helpline. Potential saving of *£200 per call.

Unlocking access to exclusive

whether it be entering

BUSINESS

From Legal issues, to user friendly calculators and Tools, SIBA has its members covered in all areas with the Business Benefits, potentially saving each member a substantial amount of time & money

HR & EMPLOYMENT Covering all areas within HR & Employment, SIBA Members have access to an array of Templates to customise to their own business branding in addition to a 30 min *free* HR consultation with a team of HR experts. Estimate value exceeding *£3000.

COMPLIANCE Assisting members with legal compliance, a number of Tools are available for members to customise to their own business needs From HACCP and traceability tools to a H&S guide and practical guide to labelling your draught and packaged products, with a value in the region of *£3000

COSTING TOOL A Tool aimed at smalled brewers whom perhaps are unable to justify the expense of accounts personnel Members can access at any time the Brewery Costing Tool to ensure that your sell price is calculated to run a sustainable business

DEBT RECOVERY & DISPUTES Debt recovery & insolvency are hot topics at the moment and members can access free of charge template letters to customise and issue Saving on average *£500

ALCOHOL DUTY In addition to ensuring Independent Brewers voices are being heard in Government, SIBAs Political team supply members with user friendly guides and simplified Duty calculators.

LEGAL PORTAL Taking away from our members the stress and pressures of being kept up to date on Legislations The SIBA Legal Portal, in collaboration with Napthens Solicitors contains every day legal documents tailored to Brewing Businesses

INDUSTRY SUPPLIERS From brewery equipment to ingredients, to business saving experts and promotional items Members can find a SIBA Supplier Associate Member for every business need from the SIBA Trade Directory

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Taproom Focus: The Kernel

Taproom focus with Neil Walker

SIBA’s Head of Comms & Marketing Neil Walker highlights one of his favourite taprooms to visit in the UK…

Name: The Kernel Spa Road Taproom

What’s on offer: 2 permanent cask hand pulls, 25 keg lines, plus a range of natural wine, cider, gin & soft drinks. With a current guest kitchen residency from Yagi Izakaya, serving Japanese inspired comfort food.

Location: 132 Spa Road, London SE16 3AE

Taproom hours:

Wednesday - Friday 12:00-22:00

Saturday - 11:00-21:00

Sunday - 12:00-20:00

Kitchen hours:

Wednesday 17:00-21:30

Thursday & Friday 12:00-21:30

Saturday 12:00-20:30

Sunday 12:00-19:00

Opening back in August this year, The Kernel’s impressive new taproom near to the brewery on Spa Road is a big step up in every regard, with far more beers on offer including two permanent cask hand pulls and 25 keg lines serving a huge variety of Kernel beers. The new taproom has an ever-changing selection of their freshest beers, along with natural wine, cider, gin & soft drinks. To soak up the beer they also currently have a kitchen residency by Yagi Izakaya, which will be running until at least the end of the year, serving Japanese inspired comfort food such as Gyoza, udon noodles and karaage (Japanese fried chicken).

Cask has become a more regular feature at The Kernel in recent years so it’s great to see their new taproom featuring two handpulled cask beers at all times, alongside the keg beers they are perhaps better known for. As always at The Kernel there’s an impressive range of beer styles on offer, with the beer list regularly including Pils, Hopefenweisse, Biere de Saison, Small Pale Ale, Grisette, Export India Porter, Brown Ale, Stout, Imperial Stout and of course India Pale Ale.

My pick of the bunch is their bright, peppery and floral Nelson Sauvin hopped Grisette. A 4.9% session-strength saison that really showcases the unique aromas of Nelson and is super snappy and refreshing. It’s a really drinkable beer but one with loads going on, the Belgian yeast adding some subtle spice, and for me is one of The Kernel’s very best.

Neptune GorgonBelgian-style Dubbel

Andy Parker from Elusive Brewing, a former British Guild of Beer Writers’ Brewer of the Year, spoke to Julie and Les O’Grady from Liverpool’s Neptune Brewery to find out more about their latest seasonal beer…

Founded in 2015, Neptune Brewery is known for its rock solid and super accessible core range and love of being playful and exploring new styles. If you ever see their Mosaic Pale on cask, take my advice and don’t hesitate to order a pint - or two! It’s a masterclass in hop expression and balance. The name Neptune harks back to the days when the O’Grady family ran a successful aquatics business in a suburb of Liverpool. The brewery was founded by Julie and Les on the same site in Maghull but has since moved to a new, larger location near to the world famous Aintree Racecourse. More recently they opened their own bar - Neptune Beerhouse - back near their original location.

Neptune has kept a firm eye on its roots and its branding and beer names are inspired by sea life, the ocean and mythological creatures. Another thing they’ve stuck to firmly is that all their beer is naturally conditioned via secondary fermentation - even their kegged and canned beer. This takes commitment, especially in winter when waiting for cans and kegs to naturally carbonate after filling can take longer, but Neptune believes this delivers their beer to drinkers with the perfect mouthfeel for the best drinking experience.

I caught up with Julie and Les to ask about their latest seasonal beer, which is a nod to the wonderful Belgian Dubbel - a style that is always a genuine delight to drink, especially when the seasons change and temperatures fall. Its rich malty flavours and warming booze are like a cosy blanket as the flavours of dark fruits envelope the palate. The best Belgian-style Dubbels offer a supreme balance of malt and yeast esters on the nose and are rich and full bodied, carefully avoiding being sweet or cloying. Neptune packaged this beer in cask, keg and can formats and even gave their Belgianstyle Dubbel the cask treatment which is definitely one I’d like to find on a bar somewhere! I’d imagine the malts would really shine with the softer carbonation.

Homebrew in Focus columnist Andy Parker

Nepton Gorgon - Belgian-style

Dubbel 20L Recipe (75% Efficiency)

Specification

OG 1.070

Neptune targets a soft water profile for this recipe, by treating their water to favour chloride over sulphate. This helps keep the perceived bitterness in check and allows the complex malt character to shine through.

Mash for 60 minutes at 67C

Simpsons Maris Otter - 3.8kg

Weyermann Abbey Malt - 2.2kg

Dingemans Special B - 270g

Torrefied Wheat - 270kg

Boil for 60 minutes

10g Challenger @ First Wort

60g Bravo - 5 minute whirlpool after flame out. Note that you’ll need to calculate how to reach the desired 20 IBUs based on your transfer time and whirlpool temperature.

Yeast

Pitch 1 pack (11g) of Lallemand LalBrew Abbaye™ at 19C and allow fermentation to free-rise to 22C. Hold until fermentation is complete.

A Belgian-style Dubbel is different to the usual style of beers you brew, what inspired you to brew it?

“We like drinking them and thought it would be a changesomething different to the usual styles people associate us with. It’s fun to do something different and not always expected - Autumn being the perfect time drinkers are likely to enjoy this beer! It’s a beer we think should be enjoyed slowly and savoured, compared to your normal pint.”

What do you view as the gold standard of Belgian Dubbels and what is it you like about it?

“It has to be Westmalle Dubbel. They have this style to a T, having brewed it since 1926, so it’s no surprise their Dubbel is so well known around the world. It’s warm and rich with well balanced notes of spices and raisins. A comforting drink to savour the flavours of. It’s a bit like a hug in a glass - so inviting.

Brewing an authentic example requires striking a balance between the specialty malts, noble hops and an expressive yeast. How did you go about designing the recipe for Gorgon?

“We know the style, so we looked at the various Belgian malts we could use to obtain the desired flavour profile, and blended those

with UK Maris Otter. Bravo hops we find give a nice dark fruit character, and we have used this hop previously in other darker beers. The yeast is a well known Abbey strain, which gives the traditional spice notes. We believe the ingredients have worked well and it is a good balanced beer.”

How would you describe Gorgon in terms of appearance, flavour and aroma?

“It’s deep brown in colour with an initial nose of caramel and burnt sugar, with a hint of booziness up front. The flavour brings more caramel with notes of molasses sitting alongside dates and spices. The beer finishes with a light, dry warmth.”

We've all got fond memories of trips to Belgium. Please tell us about a memorable experience you've had whilst exploring Belgium's wonderful beer culture.

“Visiting Cantillon Brewery to see how their Lambics are brewed was pretty special, learning about the history surrounding it and their unique processes. Their beers are, of course, completely different from what we brew and how we brew it! Their skill and knowledge is something many breweries over the years have benefitted from in brewing their own spontaneously fermented Lambic-style beers.”

Playing the Generation Game

A decade and a half may seem like a long time in independent brewing, but Lincolnshire brewer Batemans is this year celebrating a century and a half of brewing heritage, under the ownership of what is soon to be five generations of the same family. This achievement cannot be underestimated, spanning 150 of the most turbulent and transformational years in the sector’s history, and all the while Batemans has maintained the family values and culture that have always been at its core. Remaining fiercely independent since its foundation in 1874, the operation under current custodian Stuart Bateman, who took the helm in 2002, has seen a shift to a more structured organisational system, with employees not only empowered to drive the business forward, but also included in the detail of the brewery’s successes and challenges. Stuart believes this is one of the key reasons that many of his team members spend their whole career

within the business, and why they pull together so effectively during challenging times, as illustrated during the Covid pandemic. With Stuart and Jaclyn representing the fourth generation of the Bateman clan to work within the business, the fifth generation, Stuart’s two sons and daughter, are now waiting in the wings and will eventually take the helm. Although Stuart is keen that they start at the bottom and learn the ropes before moving into leadership roles – not least in order to show respect to his highly talented team at the brewery.

Independent Brewer’s Editor Caroline Nodder spoke to Stuart back in November on the eve of the American Presidential Election – he called it, she didn’t, and that’s probably why he has been able to foresee potential shifts in the market, and successfully steer Batemans through the rollercoaster ride of the last two decades…

Business Basics

Name: Batemans Brewery

Founded: 1874

Location: Wainfleet, Lincolnshire

Owners: The Bateman family

Annual production: 10,000HL

Production split: 75% cask & 25% small pack

Total Staff (not including retail): 78, with over 1,000 years of service between them

Core beers: XB (3.7% English EPA), XXXB (4.8% ABV Premium EPA), 5G (Five Generations) (4.2% ABV Session IPA), Yella Belly (3.9% ABV Golden Beer), Salem Porter (4.7% ABV Porter) & Dark M (3.4% ABV Dark Mild)

Number of pub sites: 50, with 400 freetrade accounts

Batemans is celebrating its 150th year this year, tell us a bit about when the brewery was founded and its history through the generations.

“In 1874 George Bateman bought a small brewery and started brewing beer for the local farmers who paid their land workers part in beer, part in the produce that they picked, and part in money. He was joined during the First World War by my grandfather, Harry, who started to make the business more of a commercial enterprise. And one of his successes was that, with production limited due to the war effort because of a shortage of raw materials, the strength of beer came down as brewers tried to make their raw materials go further. But he managed to get a licence to brew more beer in the Birmingham/Scunthorpe area, because there were munitions factories there. So to keep the morale going of the factory workers that were making munitions, he got a licence to actually brew more than the normal quota he would have been allowed. So that left him in a very strong position. Then my father joined from Greens of Luton, where he'd been a brewer, in 1953 and he really kicked things on in terms of the commerciality of the brewery. And over the first few years of his tenure, he bought a lot of pubs. That's when it was unfashionable to buy pubs, and he borrowed quite a lot of money to do it. His biggest purchase was 23 pubs in and around Boston, Lincolnshire, which he bought for under £25,000 for the whole lot. The brewery progressed well. My aunt and my uncle were part of the business, but then they decided they didn't want to be part of the business anymore. We had a fairly traumatic two years of trying to buy them out, which proved challenging. It was difficult to borrow money. We weren't terribly profitable, but in the end, the family managed to borrow around £3.6million when the company was only valued at about £5million. We bought the other side of the family out, and then spent the next few years really scraping by because we were a big risk, and we were paying enormous amounts of interest. So the trading profit every year was pretty good, but then interest was applied and we were making a loss. We had no capital to invest. And so what we did was to build up a freetrade division, because obviously we didn't need capital for that. So the family were out on the road, and the staff we had left were out on the road, and we built up a freetrade division. And then Carlsberg came along and said they wanted to buy our freetrade, which we didn't really understand, because obviously freetrade is freetrade, but they offered us rather a large number to take our freetrade, which meant we had to stay out of freetrade for five years. We were a bit reluctant, and suddenly the price started going up and up. And the figure actually got to £3.6million which was the exact amount of money that we had had to borrow in the first place. That left us suddenly in a fantastic position that we could start investing again in the company.

Heritage can be seen as old fashioned, and so we need to basically say, ‘Yeah, we are 150 years old. But that doesn't mean that we're old fashioned’.

Business Profile: Batemans Brewery

Having secured our independence previously, we'd had to sell off quite a lot of pubs. We'd had to let some people go. So we started re-employing. We started buying new pubs and actually investing in the business to keep customers, employees and shareholders happy, rather than keeping the big bank manager happy.”

When did you take the helm at Batemans and what has been your key focus for the business since then?

“I trained at Mansfield Brewery, as a brewer and in general brewery management, from about ‘83 to ’87 and then joined the company in 1987 as Assistant Managing Director, working alongside my father and my sister [Jaclyn Bateman] and other directors. Then I became Managing Director in 2002. I think my focus was that, as for a lot of family breweries or even family companies that are vertically integrated, they are quite complicated businesses. So you know you're making a bit of a profit, but you haven't got a clue where the profit’s coming from, and you haven't really got a clue where the loss is coming from, because it all just goes into one pot. So my emphasis was very much on introducing structure, departmentalisation, strategy, organisation, and also empowering staff as well, which was a very important focus, and then sharing in success. And in that sharing in success, it very much meant sharing information, which I think sometimes family breweries can be a little bit reluctant to do, and don't involve the staff enough.”

What are the core values you hold as a family business?

“Continuation of independence is absolutely number one. It's really, really important that the main ethos of the company is we are an independent company, and we need to explain to our customers and make it clear to our staff, what are the advantages to those individuals of us actually being independent. The shares in the company are owned by the family, and the family has core values of independence and passing the company on to the next generation. Whereas, understandably, if you are a company that has outside shareholders, then the number one criteria or focus of the company is to actually increase the benefit for the shareholders, which sometimes can mean making short term decisions, rather than decisions that are based on longevity. We keep the fabric of our own pubs for our tenants in good order, which will obviously mean our repairs are quite high. If you were a company that had outside shareholders and investors, it’s very easy to make a very good profit one year by saying, ‘oh, we're not doing any repairs’. For us it is all about looking at the long term. Our other core value is brewing our own beer. The day that we stop brewing at this brewery will be the day that the family walks away, because there's just something so fantastic about

creating your own beer, brewing your own beer, seeing it in the pubs. So brewing is a massive core value.”

What sets Batemans apart from other brewers?

“That's quite a difficult one, because obviously I don't know entirely what the focus for other brewers is. But I would certainly say that we don't take ourselves too seriously. I always say to our staff, we're working with pubs. We're working with people. So please enjoy what you're doing. And I think on the whole we have a bit of a giggle. There's usually a lot of laughing, happy faces, and, we just don't take ourselves too seriously. But that doesn't mean we can't. We can be serious, we do have an ethos of work hard, play hard.”

How has your beer range changed over the years?

“In our centenary year, 1974, my father employed somebody called Colin Crowson. His first job was actually to introduce lager into our pubs and to de-list light, mild. But I'm a big, big believer in circles or cycles. Obviously, before technology allowed, beer was all cask conditioned beer. Then you had the keg beer revolution, with the likes of Watneys Red Barrel, and it became filtered, pasteurised and carbonated. Then you get to1976, I think it was, and you’ve got the demise of cask ale so the Campaign for Real Ale came in and gave keg beer a right good kicking and cask ale made a resurgence. But on the whole, things always come back, just in a slightly different format. There was a bit more emphasis on premium beers, I mean above 4.5[% ABV] rather than the weaker beers, which had grown in popularity as there had been heavy industry. So cask ale did extremely well again. And then keg beer came back again. And it came back as nitrogenated. That happened for a few years. Then cask ale came back again. But your session beer was more at 4.2 than 3.7 and the hops that we're talking about started to get more exciting. And then what happened after that? Keg beer came back again. It's come back now as a premium product and a craft product. So I'm not worried about cask. Cask ale is so fantastic that, yes, we all need to get behind it. We need to market it properly, and especially the quality has to be good. But again, cask ale will overtake keg beer in the future. Because why is that cycle suddenly going to stop?”

You celebrated your 150th earlier this year with a special event. How did that go, and do you have anything else planned to mark the occasion?

“I was really flattered by the people in the industry that took the time to come and celebrate with us at the brewery, but I wanted to make it clear

I was really flattered by the people in the industry that took the time to come and celebrate with us at the brewery, and I wanted to make it clear that I wanted it to be a celebration of our industry, not just a celebration about Batemans.

that I wanted it to be a celebration of our industry, not just a celebration about Batemans. So I'd done a bit of research, and I picked out all the family brewers that had done around 150 years and more, which started, therefore with Wells & Co with 148 and went through to Shepherd Neame, with around 350 years. So there's 14 different brewers, family brewers, in the room, and between them, there is something ridiculous, like 3,224 years. And of course we had 150 people there, for our 150th –it was actually 154 but don't let the truth ruin a good story. Everything we've done has been based on 150 this year. At the start of the year we launched not only new branding, but a new website, and also gave the whole of what we were doing a brand name. So it was branded ‘Tradition with Ambition’. Heritage can be seen as old fashioned, and so we need to basically say, ‘Yeah, we are 150 years old. But that doesn't mean that we're old fashioned’. The events and celebrations have all been brought together under the banner of ‘Tradition with Ambition’. The year was launched with the Christmas staff party in January at which we did the long service awards (78 people, with 1,000 years’ service), and staff were also presented with a limited-edition commemorative plate, at the midsummer party. We also introduced Five Generations (5G), brewed with English hops and malts, and there have been various promotions and competitions for consumers based on ‘150’, including various 15.0% discounts throughout 2024, and on the 150th day of the year (Wednesday May 29th), selected pubs were selling £1.50 pints. I thought, let's get the benefit out of this for a whole year. And let's use it as an opportunity to do events and promotions and competitions throughout the year to keep the whole thing going for as long as possible.”

What do you see as the main challenges you are currently facing as a family brewer?

“I think last Wednesday [the Autumn Budget] has thrown a lot of challenges at all of us. The political parties were wrong to almost suggest that there was a money tree out there, because it's only three years ago that we were being told that our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, will be paying for what happened during Covid for the

next 50 years, and then before the Budget, or before the election, all the parties are saying they were going to cut taxes. So I think the Labour government have been a little disingenuous in what they've done because of what they said. I think we've all had to accept that there had to be money coming from somewhere, and that we can't complain about the NHS, we can't complain about schools, we can't complain about the police force, transport, military, etc, etc. But the Budget has given us all a little bit of time to reflect, time to reconsider, and it’s maybe not the time to take too many risks until we see how things play out. We have been in a situation of growth for the last 10 years or so, and I think we might just have a year or a couple of years now of consolidation, of just taking things steadily. We do have plans to purchase more pubs, and we're actively looking at the moment. We do intend to increase the size of our sales force. So we want to continue going forward. We're just stepping back a little bit. We're looking to invest, but want to make sure that we actually invest wisely.”

How do you recruit and retain the best people on your team?

“I go back to the fact we don't take ourselves too seriously. I think, on the whole, people enjoy coming to work here. And I do love my clichés and slogans, but we do share in success, I believe. What you've got to try and do is to understand what the triggers are, or the drivers are, for each individual person. And that's what I think we can do here, because we all know each other. We know each other's families, and will often drink together in Wainfleet, so you've got an opportunity of appealing to each individual's specific drivers. It just means that the whole thing's a lot more personal, and I think it makes things more enjoyable for them, and more enjoyable for me as well. I will hand over the baton when the boys are ready to take it on, but they will not go straight into very senior positions. I think that's wrong for the staff, and also is wrong for them as well. I think sometimes there are too many of an upcoming generation put into positions that they do not have the experience or knowhow to actually handle.”

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Business

I think I worked 409 days on the trot during Covid, so I actually moved out of my office into the yard, so that I could drive the forklift truck so when lorries were coming in, I could load up the lorries, I could unload lorries, etc. That, I have to be honest, took quite a lot out to me. But we got through it and I am proud of that.

What is your view on the future for cask ale?

“I see it exactly the same as I did in around 1974. Watneys Red Barrel and those type of beers began to dominate. And it certainly wasn't through consumer demand that they were dominating. It was because the ‘big six’ wished to destroy cask ale. I think we are in a similar situation at the moment. We all know it's going like that, but it won't go to the bottom, because there will be consumer demand. There are some fantastic cask ales - I have to blow the trumpet for the likes of Timothy Taylor's Landlord here. What a fantastic beer, something that is archetypal of English cask ales. And, if they were really honest about it, the Americans would love to have our heritage in cask beer and have something that's completely unique. So I do believe that it's going to continue down for a period of time, but it will increase, and those brewers that are left with cask ale will have the ability to shape the market around them. There'll be fewer serious players left in it. But the actual amount of cask ale being produced by those brewers, there's no reason why that can't increase again. And you get the focus there, and the quality would be better. I do think the industry is sometimes a little bit too hell bent on choice still, rather than quality. Choice is important, but it's not as good as quality. So we need, as brewers, to all be focused on, not volume, volume, but actually making sure that the throughput of each particular beer has got the volume, so that the quality is going to be good.”

Will we be seeing the next generation of the Bateman family joining the business soon?

“My son Harry is 29, and he has done training at Wells & Co and Castle Rock. Then got himself a job with the Laines Pub Company on the sales side, and then at Beavertown - so he is now a production brewer at Beavertown and is looking at coming back to the brewery within the next two years. My younger son [Edward], who's 27, has done a year at JW Lees and he's done a year at Robinson's, and he's now got a job as a freetrade area manager at Heineken. So he is two or three years away. And my daughter [Eliza], who's got a fashion degree but loves pubs, has always been involved at the brewery. Wetherspoons are doing range of beers next Spring, all brewed by female brewers. So we've had to give Eliza some quick training, and she will be brewing the beer for the Wetherspoons beer festival of female brewers in Spring, which is great.”

Do you see Batemans still being in business in another 150 years?

“I would say that we have every possibility of being here in 150 years because of the fact that when my Dad, my aunt and my uncle fell out, and the shares had been split, 40% to my Dad, 30% to my uncle, 30% to my aunt. My aunt and uncle combined made 60%, and that's how they managed to try and sell the company from underneath us. So after that, the whole of the family, including me and Jackie, agreed that more than 50% of the shares should be put in trust for the family. Within the trust, that means that the shares cannot be sold. So the company cannot be sold unless the trustees thought it was in the interest of the trust, ie, the company was going bankrupt. So we are in a strong position, so long as we continue to run the company professionally, which I hope we can do.”

What are you proudest of, looking back at the history of Batemans?

“Maintaining our independence. And coming through Covid. I think I worked 409 days on the trot during Covid, so I actually moved out of my office into the yard, so that I could drive the forklift truck so when lorries were coming in, I could load up the lorries, I could unload lorries, etc. That, I have to be honest, took quite a lot out to me. But we got through it and I am proud of that. The way it's turned out, I think that is probably the thing that I am most proud of. I do feel that, not just me, but people who work in the company, we are leaving the company in a position whereby eventually we can hand the baton on to the next generation without saying, you know, here's a hospital case. And also, winning the two Publican Awards. We never entered the Publican Awards because I thought we never had a chance of winning it. And then I got involved in the tied trade department, and got a new team together, and there were three of us, and we had the first meeting, and it was called the 41 point agenda. And the 41 point agenda was within our tenancies. We are going to do these 40 different things. And the 41st point was, if we do all of the above, we will win the Publican Awards within three years. We did it in two years.”

Into the Forest

In this, the brewery’s first in-depth feature interview, multi-award-winning beer writer David Jesudason meets up with Forest Road Brewing Company’s Head Brewer James Garstang to find out more about his unusual career journey, as well as the brewery’s current focus and ambitious plans for the future…

Journalist David Jesudason is the current British Guild of Beer Writers Beer Writer of the Year, and also helped the Guild set up a diversity grant in collaboration with Good Beer Hunting. His awardwinning book, Desi Pubs, is available on Kindle, and has been called "one of the most exciting books about beer and pubs in recent years".

“If you don’t have a core of delicious but simple beer that’s affordable for people, you’ve lost what beer is.”

I’m with James Garstang, head brewer at Forest Road Brewing Company, a Lewisham brewery he set up with US-born Pete Brown, and James is keen to tell me how simplicity is key to its operations.

It’s a bit of a surprise, as James has led a far from simple life - up to now - and has taken a different path to many, into leading a brewery that is economically resilient in challenging times. In fact, despite the many pressures everyone faces in this country, Forest Road is looking to expand into the US.

James’s beer story has many chapters - it begins in the ‘breadbelt’ or breadbasket of Cambridgeshire where he grew up because of his agronomist father; continues at Camden Town brewery at the embryonic stages of the UK craft movement; and takes in the tranquillity of India, where he set up White Rhino Brewery in Gwalior.

Because of his rich experience in Britain and Asia, he’s well placed to talk about investment - in fact, before our interview starts we spend a while discussing which breweries remain independent after I spot a ‘All is not that it seems’ poster [designed by Michael Tonsweire] that reveals which firms are owned by large multinationals. It shows the process of amalgamation which started with the US market.

“We’re behind America,” James says, “We could [see what’s happened there and] not let it happen here. It does take someone really strong to say, ‘no I don’t want all this money’ especially if someone is offering you better market penetration and a stronger parent family who respects you.”

James points out that the line should be especially drawn when it comes to predatory international firms with poor human rights’ practices in developing nations but adds: “We’re doing decently and our sales team is really awesome. The market is suppressed but we’re continuing to break new ground.”

This is no surprise, as James is always the outlier, but someone whose roots and beliefs are strongly tethered in preserving what he believes British beer should taste like.

His Cambridgeshire background gave him his simple approach to brewing and he admits that it was traditional British bitter - Adnams and Greene Kingthat gave him his first taste of how to approach beer. In fact, when he was a small child he thought the Greene King logo meant ‘pub’.

But specifically it was Courage’s Directors that had the most profound effect on him from a young age. “I went ‘wow’,” he admits, “and it felt like I was having a cycle of flavours. I was on a rowdy night out but I remember thinking ‘this is my private world where I enjoy this thing’.”

Continued on page 45

James has led a far from simple life - up to now - and has taken a different path to many, into leading a brewery that is economically resilient in challenging times. In fact, despite the many pressures everyone faces in this country, Forest Road is looking to expand into the US.

Hoegaarden, Budvar, Duvel (drunk straight from the bottle and nicknamed ‘atom bombs’) followed, but James became more invested in beer flavours in his early 20s. Our stories overlap as we went to the same university at the same time - Brunel, West, West London - 25-odd years ago but we never met.

To be honest, in those days it was a socially-excluded environment - not really conducive for beer apart from if you got wrecked at the student bar or ‘Spoons. It’s no surprise that we didn’t meet as there wasn’t a ‘beer lovers’ type place to hang out at and I spent my student days liking GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64 more than golden ales.

James was into skating, was in a melodic death metal band and post-uni worked in many necessary but dull jobs, such as being a caretaker of a school, as well as homebrewing. At this school he told the headteacher and deputy head that he wanted to be a brewer and the latter introduced him to his friend Jasper Cuppaidge, founder of Camden Town brewery.

At the time, Rob Lovatt, of Thornbridge, was the head brewer and they hired James, who in 2010 was aged 27, because he had a driver’s licence and was willing to work long hours. They wanted to install a £2.5m fully automated system in two months, with Rob, James and two engineers from BrauKon working around the clock to get it online.

“I got to run every wire,” says James, “put all the automated valves in and hang out with these German guys who taught everyone how to use it.”

They did two 20HL brews before Rob left - one lager, one pale ale. “It was literally just me there working on a fully automated system,” says James. “It was fine but hard.”

James was at Camden for three and a half years and in a good week he’d work 50 hours with bad weeks going up to 80. During this time, he was tutored by Troels Prahl, a microbiologist at White Labs, who taught him hygiene, as well as other head brewers, including Rob Gargan and Alex Troncoso who had differing approaches.

“It was a nightmare,” James admits, “but it was a hothouse too. Everyone who worked there learned so much.”

When Alex came in, James learned a bit from it but that was when he decided he had had enough of this intense working environment. The market was craving Camden Town beers and apart from Meantime’s Lager there was no natural ‘craft’ competitor, leading to 21 brews a week on a small-ish kit.

James joined Partizan Brewing and then understandably found himself burnt out and not drinking responsibly. He did a bit of bread- and icecream-making, but ended up missing beer and joined Kernel who wanted to keep James in beer because of his talents.

“I was drinking way too much,” he reveals, “it was a self-destructive cycle.”

Shortly after joining Kernel in 2014, Troels got back in touch as he was now at India’s White Rhino and he introduced him to Ishaan Puri, the brewery’s co-founder. The brewery needed setting up though and Jameshaving helped get Camden online - was tasked with flying to Asia to deal with the logistics.

James had no idea about India and asked Ishaan if there were roads there so he could skate to keep himself sane. He thought he could tolerate the sparsity of the state for a few months while he got White Rhino online.

Sadly, the head of state had promised a holy man he wouldn’t grant any more liquor licences and James was stuck there for a year while the legal ramifications of this were dealt with. But this time was good for him as he led a more wholesome life, studied brewing science and met his wife Nidhi Sharma (now at Diageo) at the brewery.

He was dry the entire time and he remembers vividly returning to Britain trying a Harvey’s Best and then being blown away - like awakening from a coma - when he saw sours in his Cambridgeshire village’s Co-op.

All these experiences fed into what makes Forest Road such a resilient, logical operation.

“The Camden kit was 20HL,” says James, “this [at Forest Road] is 60HL. So from the off, we were like, ‘let’s oversize everything’. We’ve built the place based on being brewers.”

That’s not to say it didn’t have difficulties, as you’d expect from any

Continued on page 47

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brewery that was built on a site that was bombed during the second world war - it was then part of the Mazawattee tea company - and planned to open just when the Pandemic struck.

Before the move they were contract brewing, with James travelling the country and working out of seven different breweries. In 2019, James thought he would buy a small kit, looked at US websites and found the entire Russian River Brewing Co’s kit listed for £600,000.

The kit was acquired and it was meant for a Walthamstow site which was aborted after asbestos was discovered. They then found the current site in January 2020 on Zoopla and waited for the kit, which landed in March 2020 in Southampton just as Covid struck.

Later that year their budget had to be doubled when an unexploded bomb was found under the floor, which previous owners had paved over, and then a distributor they used went bust, owing them £120,000. But all this bad luck was about to be turned around when Pete’s father told his friend, who owned a diner in the US, of their plight.

“He put £100,000 in our bank,” says James. The donor had come into some inheritance and gave them the money to finish the brewery. He’s commemorated in the premises with a poster depicting him as a king.

The first brew was so un-Forest Road, though. A 10% ABV barleywine

that took 16 hours because they were figuring out the electrics as they went along. Today it’s ‘Posh’ lager and pale ales which are ever-present with Forest Road self-distributing and working with the likes of his childhood favourite Greene King and M&B.

They also own a taproom in East London and a pub in Ladbroke Grove, where drinkers are like a young James, skater-types who he admits are ‘surprisingly cool’. The beers have won international brewing awards and all the pain seems worthwhile - in fact, the many setbacks James has endured have imbued him with a dry sense of humour.

“Some people don’t get the joke that it’s called Posh Lager,” he admits. “Because what’s less posh than a 4.1% lager? It’s from the tradition of low ABV lagers that sit on the pumps - Carling, Carlsberg. Loads of people are trying to make continental-style lager.

“I didn’t want to do that.”

And I’m glad James - the ultimate outlier- didn’t do that as he and Pete are thriving at Forest Road, producing a British lager that has green tea aroma (Challenger hops), honey (Goldings) and orange (Admiral) flavours.

Which shows that there are many paths to success, especially if you’re able to be resilient to the many bumps on the journey. And you know exactly what beer is.

First & Last of the Season

Husband and wife team Red and Sam Kellie both have a background in sustainability, which means that environmental concerns factor high on the list of priorities for their brewery, First & Last in Northumberland. In fact, before launching the brewery in 2016, Red led a project at Newcastle University to build Europe’s first ever student-led micro-brewery within a University, founded on sustainable principles. Stubrew, as it was named, is still going strong over a decade later, and while Red is now full time at First & Last, she remains close to the team at Stubrew, which has done some pioneering work looking at how small breweries can become as sustainable as possible across their operation. Meanwhile at First & Last, Sam and Red have maintained their own fierce commitment to sustainable practices, even where the alternative might have been to save a few pounds, and have

become UK market-leaders in the hugely environmentally-friendly foraged beer category. Gathering ingredients from the hedgerows that grow all around their Northumberland site has become part of the seasonal routine at the brewery, with their rotation of seasonal special beers never the same twice, due to the influence of the weather on the flavour of the ingredients they forage each season. The couple’s ambitions for First & Last lie in continuing to improve and invest in their core sustainable principles, and they have no desire to grow the business beyond its current modest capacity and predominantly local market distribution. Independent Brewer’s Editor Caroline Nodder caught up with Red in early November, when she had just finished putting her latest foraged brew into barrels, and was able to spare time in what remains a very hands-on day-to-day role within the brewery...

What is your background and how did you first get in to brewing?

“Both my husband [Sam] and I, did sustainability degrees. That's what we studied at University, and I then out of Uni went into community voluntary sector work. I did a lot of regeneration work around funding for disadvantaged communities. I did that for a few years and it was fantastic, but I wanted to get back into sustainability. So I was working at Newcastle University for quite a number of years on various different partnership projects across the Uni, and trying to get this real focus back on sustainability. I was doing a bit of community-based stuff and getting volunteers out into the community, and I tried to focus that as much towards the environmental side as possible. And that's where I actually trained to brew. Sam and I were homebrewers, we just did that for pleasure in our own time, and did a lot of wild ferments and country wines, using lots of hedgerow ingredients. So we had that interest. And at the time I was bidding for a load of money from the Green Fund. It was a student Green Fund, a national fund which universities could bid for. So I bid for seven projects, and one of those was a student micro-brewery, based in the University, with a sustainability focus. So through that project, part of the funding was for training, to train up one key volunteer and two members of staff so that we could brew commercially, and build on the experience that we had homebrewing. So we went and did courses at Brewlab, based in Sunderland, and that was amazing. Then we moved to the more technical side of training through Brewlab, and then we started

Brewery Basics

Name: Red Kellie

Brewery name: First & Last Brewery

Location: Bellingham, Northumberland

Annual production: 1,400HL

Production split: 65% cask, 20% small pack & 15% keg

Best-selling beer: Equinox (4.1% Pale Ale)

Years in the industry: 11 years

Qualifications: Various brewing and technical qualifications from Brewlab, Sunderland

Career history: Degree in Environmental Studies at Newcastle University, Project manager at University micro-brewery Stubrew, Launch Brewer at Twice Brewed & Co-Founder of First & Last Brewery

Current role: Co-Founder and Head Brewer, First & Last Brewery

teaching students to brew, because by that time we had sourced a site in the University. Stubrew - it's actually a partnership project with the Chemical Engineering Department. So we did the brewing course, and then we did loads of add-on courses, like packaging and quality control. It was a really exciting time. It was the first student-run microbrewery business in Europe, and it's still going now, 11 years on. I've long since flown the nest, but that's where I started out, and I still have really close ties with Stubrew, we share resources. In fact, I've got their little baby kegging tank just here so I can blend my barrel aged beer! So they borrow stuff and we borrow stuff. It's a nice relationship.”

What led to you launching First & Last?

“It was a complicated few years. We got Stubrew off the ground. And at the time I was working full time at the University on these different sustainability projects - I had seven things that we were successful for. So I was running seven projects, and over time, Stubrew took up more and more of my time, so I ended up full time for Stubrew. But in the background, Sam and I were setting our own business up. So we incorporated our business in 2016 but we didn't have a site. We didn't have our own brew kit. So we ended up cuckoo brewing. We actually did some brewing at Stubrew. But also, in the meantime, I'd been recruited by the guy who owns the Twice Brewed pub near Hadrian's Wall. Reuben, who owns the pub, knew that we were setting up First & Last Brewery, but he had money and we didn't. So we were busy trying to raise capital and find a site, whereas he already had a site and

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he had money. So he said, ‘Hang on, why don't you come and help me set this up?’ So I went and worked there three days a week, and then did three days a week at Stubrew. And then I was also cuckoo brewing for our brewery using other people's brew kits. So it was a really, really busy time. I was brewing for three different breweries. And while establishing our own brewery, we built the Twice Brewed brewery from the ground up. I was there for two and a half years, in the end. And slowly but surely wound down my days at Stubrew and at Twice Brewed as our business grew, so by 2018 I was just brewing for us.”

Are you still on your original site or did that come later?

“We originally had a site in Elsdon, which is a couple of valleys over from where we are now. It was a site, with some outbuildings, at the back of a pub. And we started to build our market. We had about 10 regular customers from when we were cuckoo brewing on other people's kits. But then, once we got our own site, we were able to increase production. Obviously, I had more time as well, because I'd reduced down the days that I was doing for those other organisations. And that was just amazing, just to be able to jump in with both feet into our own adventure. We were in Elsdon from 2018 until 2022, so we've been here for two years now. We'd had our eye on this building that we're in at the minute. It's an old ambulance station that had been empty for 10 years at least. But thank god we didn't say yes to it before Covid, because when Covid hit we were 95% cask into pubs at that point in the business, and it would have just killed us having this much debt. So, we didn't. We just survived Covid. We did lots and lots of diversification of what we did in terms of small pack, and we launched the foraged range of beers which we had time to go and pick for, and we experimented with loads of different ingredients and styles of beers. We could spend all of that time playing and nailing that range before we launched it commercially, so it was a blessing in disguise, actually, for us, because it made us look at things differently and reconsider what we wanted to do. And now the foraged range, even though it's small batch beer, we're doing more and more of it. There's definitely demand for that local provenance. People are interested in why we're pairing that flavour with that flavour, or that style with that ingredient. And it's so seasonal that when it's gone, it's gone, and people love that, they get excited by it.”

What is the ethos behind the business and the beers you brew?

“I think the ethos behind the business, its foundation really, is about how you run a truly environmentally friendly business. How do you make the right decisions? Where do you draw the lines? How do you make sure you don't compromise on things when finances are tough and tight. Because it's a small businesses, and this is why we were very keen to do it. This is the size that we will always be. This is as big as we want to get, because you can make the right decisions when you're small enough. And so we're not after perpetual growth, because then there is maybe a necessity to make some decisions which don't sit right with your heart. I think the size that we've chosen gives us enough resilience. We have a team of people who can all do multiple things now, so it's not all on Sam and I, but also we can call the shots and pay more for forest film labels, which maybe somebody who was mass produced wouldn't do because they cost twice as much. But we can sell that to the customer by saying, ‘this is why we're making that decision, and this is what you're buying’. With the ingredients that we use, and trying to promote that use of local ingredients, our food miles are as low as they possibly can be. And people, I think, love that side of our business, and they are interested in it because they know they can't get it anywhere else. With our foraged range you've got a taste of the land there. It's different to another brewery. So we do carefully look at our impact, and I know loads of breweries look at their impact, but we are willing to spend a good bit of time and money doing that. This last 12 months, we did a carbon audit over the entire business, over our delivery logistics, over our ingredients, and really nailing it down, and looking at all of our suppliers. What

Continued on page 53

With our foraged range you've got a taste of the land there. It's different to another brewery. So we do carefully look at our impact, and I know loads of breweries look at their impact, but we are willing to spend a good bit of time and money doing that.

are their carbon audits saying? Bringing all of that together, it was really interesting drilling down until we can see if we make that little change, it might be a small change, but actually accumulating over a 12 month period, it's actually huge in terms of the amount of carbon that's been put out into the atmosphere, or in terms of non-recyclable waste. So let's make that different choice. I think it's really important for people to get to the nub of it, and to be honest with themselves. So we see our three driving forces being sustainability, community and quality - and pushing for that, rather than trying to take over the world. In terms of community, it’s about giving back to our community, and being part of the community that we're in. So we get the local school kids down. It's like a field trip, we chat through chemistry and biology and business stuff and designs of labels. We've done a couple of days like that with the local schools, so just trying to involve people at that young age to think that this might be something I might be interested in doing.”

What current challenges do you see facing brewers like yourself?

“I think pubs are struggling. I think people are drinking in a different way. I think people are socialising in a different way, maybe going to the gym a little bit more, going to coffee shops. I think that a lot of the communities that we serve are extremely rural, you've got to jump in the car to get anywhere. But that makes the pub in those villages, its heart. A lot now don't have a village school, and a lot now don't have any kind of shop, they don't have a church hall. It's such a key thing for those communities to survive and for people to want to bring their children up in an area, they need facilities, they need meeting places. And we see so many pubs that are being brought out by these brilliant community collaborations and community buyouts. We support three, because it's so important that they retain at least some kind of place to get together.

That is a huge challenge for us. At the moment, it's really expensive to keep your doors open over the winter time. We see a lot of the rural pubs reducing their opening hours massively, and I think staffing costs, again, impact both pubs and us as a brewery and also the NI being raised and things like that. We have always had a policy in the brewery of paying above National Living wage. So we're paying over National Minimum because we think it's the right thing to do. But then how affordable is it? How many hours can we choose to give people? We want to be able to be good employers. But that's a challenge.”

You recently signed up to the SIBA Indie Beer campaign. How do you hope it will impact the sector?

“I'm absolutely passionate about it. I just think it's outrageous what some of the multinationals are doing, masquerading as small independent breweries. It's been a strategy for sure, to buy up some of the key cool end of the sector, and not actually have any transparent communication that is no longer independent. They've been very much cherry picking which breweries were thought of as the ‘cool gang’ and then they haven't done anything in terms of transparently saying, right, this is different now. Obviously, the customers who aren't in the know, and they're not reading the same news as we read in the industry, people are completely unaware. They just don't know. And I think that's the massive positive for this campaign, it is information for the consumer to actually make an informed decision, because people do choose with their morals a lot of the time. They just want to be able to have the information at hand when they're picking a can off the shelf or when they're choosing a pint in a pub. I just think we need to expose what's going on. The multinationals go around and offer, literally, an irresistible package to small pubs. ‘We'll pay you £1,000 to have our line in’. All we want is a fair playing field, we are not asking for the world.” Meet the Brewer: Red Kellie,

Continued on page 55

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Meet the Brewer: Red Kellie, First & Last Brewery

How should the industry be addressing the lack of diversity within its workforce?

“I think it's about opening opportunities and opening young people's eyes to this being an option for them. Because it's an alcohol-based industry, we don't open kids' eyes enough to the fact that it's something they might be passionate about. That's the kind of stuff that we're doing with the schools here. I think in the brewing industry, there are so many opportunities. But there's almost a curtain over it, until you hit drinking age. Whether it be label design or marketing or sales or logistics, planning - there's loads of different types of brains out there, but we're just not connecting with people young enough. I think mainly people get interested in it at university level, and it's all through chemical engineering, and actually we're not promoting this as a career to all of those artists out there, or all of those chefs. Why can't brewing be targeted younger? And then you would get your young girls interested. You would get anybody from any background who has a passion for that particular bit. It's about making the connection of this being a skill that you're learning in school at the minute, that you're getting really good grades at, and you really enjoy, and it's used in this way in this industry. I think we need to just connect the dots a bit better for young people.”

What are your main goals for your business?

“We've got a 10-year vision for this space, because we are going to be in the process of buying the building and the land around it. I have this vision of it having so many of the fruits and foraged ingredients that we've used in lots of different beers, and it being an external, almost tour around the seasons. So brewery tours won't all be based in the brewery. They will be showing how we've used this ingredient here, and, you can pick a bit and touch and smell it, and this is how we've processed it to get it in the beer.”

What do you think the secret is to being a successful brewer?

“I think don't be scared about trying things. But when you try stuff, record everything, so you know how to replicate it. I think you have to be quite laid back to cope with it. There's all sorts of things that can stymie you. And you just have to not give up. When you've got an idea of how you want a beer to be, and you're trialing it and trialing it and trialing it. You just have to persevere until you've got it right, until you've nailed it,

until you're happy with it. You're not going to necessarily get stuff right the first time. It's just having a vision of what you want in your head, and it's so satisfying when you get there. That's the prize. But I think you have to be quite chilled to be able to cope with that process and not give up. Recording the detail is always thing, and this is the thing with wild ingredients as well, the harvest will change from year to year. So this year's damsons are different to last year's damsons. And I've just put 2,000 litres of damsons and powder in tank. And it's tasting delicious, but it's definitely different to last year's damsons. I know everything else is exactly the same as my previous brews, because I brew that as a seasonal every single year. So I know I've nailed the rest of it. And the variation is just in that natural fruit - it was quite juicy this year. I think because of the amount of rain. But I love that. It is really exciting. And you've got to pick on the right kind of day, because anything with flowers, you've got to get out there on a warm, sunny, dry day without too much wind. Or you just lose all your aroma. If you're picking in the rain, your beer is going to be crap before you've even started. But that's also been a learning thing over years and years.”

What do you enjoy most about your current role?

“I really love the diversity, no day is the same ever. And I think we're in a space now where it's really lovely that we've got this team of people, and we've really melded well together. We've all come with different perspectives, different ideas and that's just working super well. I want everybody to feel really valued, because they all are here for a reason, and that's because they are valued for their skills and their input. And now we've got this team, Sam and I can spend more time with our kids because we've got multiple people who can do multiple jobs on every day of the week.”

What are you proudest of in your brewing career so far?

“We won double Gold for Eclipse, which is one of my favourite beers we brew. And it felt like, okay, so people are really liking this, and I know what I feel about the beer, and I know what our customers directly feel about the beer, but this was from independent people who've never come across us before. It won in keg first, and then it won in cask. And it was like, we made it! We've been part of the SIBA regional awards so long now, I think it had won a Silver once before, but then it won double Gold this year, and that felt like a real ‘boom’ moment!”

Back for 2025, and bigger than ever!

BeerX UK is the UK's biggest beer and brewing trade event and 2025 is set to be our best ever, with a huge industry trade show that’s 50% bigger than 2024 as we expand intro a third hall at the superb Liverpool Exhibition.

As well as the expanded trade show, inside you’ll find the regional beer bars and trade-only beer festival, the SIBA AGM and Members' Conference, the independent beer and business awards presentations, plus a packed schedule of seminars, talks and panel debates from the beer industry's leading voices.

Add to that an expanding schedule of fringe events and after-parties around Liverpool and BeerX UK 2025 is already shaping up to be a must-attend for anyone in the UK beer and brewing industry.

So book out your calendar now, as BeerX UK 2025 on the 19-20th March is not be missed!

www.beerx.org

BeerX is back with a 50% bigger trade show for 2025

■ UK’s biggest beer and brewing trade event

■ Industry-leading content schedule

■ Trade-only beer showcase

■ Networking opportunities and fringe events

BeerX is the UK’s best brewing trade show

Free Delegate Tickets for SIBA Members

SIBA are once again offering free Delegate tickets for SIBA Members and their staff, ensuring that brewing members of all shapes and sizes can attend BeerX in whatever capacity works for them.

In order to qualify for a free ticket you must pre-register via the website (once live) as Tickets on the door will be at the full face value.

Superb networking and fringe event opportunities

As well as the trade exhibition, BeerX is also home to the SIBA Independent Beer Awards, SIBA Business Awards (see page 18-19 for full details), and of course the trade-only craft beer showcase. Essentially a mini beer festival at the centre of BeerX the beer showcase gives Delegates and Exhibitors a great place to network with colleagues or invite customers for a beer. Outside of BeerX there are various fringe events, beer launches and parties taking place, often hosted by or in collaboration with our trade show exhibitors. These are a great opportunity to build relationships with new contacts, or say catch up with industry colleagues.

BeerX app makes navigating the event a breeze

The BeerX event app makes accessing seminar content, navigating the trade show, viewing the beer list, or even messaging a fellow delegate or exhibitor a breeze. Simply download via the app store (Android + Apple) to ensure you make the most of your trip to BeerX 2025 (please note the new 2025 version of the app is not yet live).

Thinking of exhibiting at BeerX?

Attracting 3,000 brewing industry delegates over the two day show, BeerX is the UK’s biggest beer and brewing trade event, showcasing hundreds of different businesses from across the industry - from ingredients and equipment, to business services, consultancy and agencies. Whatever your business, if you currently work with or supply breweries in the UK then BeerX UK gives you a unique opportunity to promote your business to brewery owners, head brewers and senior representatives.

Small, medium, large and new extra-large sized stands are available but selling fast, so contact events@siba.co.uk to secure your space today (custom stand spaces also available).

Napthens recently assisted a local independent brewery in reaching the next stage of its development, enhancing its offering to customers and bringing in much needed additional income. The case brought to the fore the need to diversify business in the current climate of uncertainty and financial strain.

A business that is known for providing a unique or varied experience tends to stand out in a crowded market. It is more likely to develop a positive reputation as a lively, dynamic space where there’s always something happening, making it a go-to spot for entertainment and social gatherings.

Signature Brew, which has three locations across London, is an example of one such business. The site in Walthamstow is situated on an industrial estate and the operators pride themselves on not just brewing great beer, but providing a community hub where new music and events are part of the package. In developing this side of the business, they had been making use of land opposite their brewery to expand these activities into outdoor events.

To do this, the brewery had been operating a succession of events on temporary event notices (TENs), which had highlighted to them to success of the events and more importantly, the increased revenue that was to be gained. As a result, and looking to the future, they decided to try to licence the space on a permanent basis and therefore needed to bring in a full premises licence.

The application was for a separate piece of land to the brewery itself, which brought its own complications, but by referring the matter to Napthens the process was seamless, and the brewery now have an additional licensed space to hold as many events as they need throughout the year. This means the

Using your premises licence to make the most of business

Napthens’ Gill Sherratt takes a look at how you can maximise revenue for your brewery using the power of your premises licence…

brewery’s business operations can increase and provide financial security for the company.

Challenging Times

This case highlights that in these challenging times, relying on beer sales alone can be limiting and if operators are able to expand their business operations and provide a variety of services, it can assist with income and the longevity of the business as a whole. Diversifying activities attracts a broader customer base, increases revenue streams, and mitigates risk, making the business more resilient to economic fluctuations and changing trends.

How else can you make the most of your premises licence?

1. Understand what your premises licence allows in terms of hours of operation, types of alcohol sales, entertainment (live music, recorded music, etc.), and food service. If your licence is restrictive, you may want to consider applying for variations to extend hours or add permissions for additional activities. For example, by varying the premises licence, you can extend your operating hours, in particular to capture late-night trading, especially on weekends, which can attract more customers.

2. Offer Entertainment - If you have a premises licence for the sale of alcohol on the premises, did you know that you can offer entertainment in the form of live & recorded music to 23:00 without the need to have a licence for it? It surprises us that many people are still not aware of the de-regulation of entertainment that took place in 2015 and allows “on” licensed premises to provide live and recorded music (providing there are not more than 500 people present) until

23:00 every day. Make use of this wonderful relaxation of the law!

3. Maximise Outdoor Space – Like Signature Brew, think about maximising any space outside that you might have to use during warmer months for beer gardens, barbecues, or outdoor festivals. Adding outdoor seating can attract more customers and create a lively atmosphere. In the winter think about blankets and heaters!

4. Host Private Events - Use your premises licence to cater for private functions such as birthday parties, corporate events, and weddings. Offering food, alcohol, and entertainment packages for private hires can increase your revenue on slower days.

5. Offer Alcohol with Food - If you don’t already serve food, consider adding it as a revenue stream. You can create special offers like beer and burger deals to encourage a higher spend per customer. Even a limited snack menu (like tapas, pizzas, or finger foods) can complement drink sales and increase overall turnover.

Temporary Event Notices

If you don’t think a permanent change to the premises licence is justified or needed, remember that you do always have the option of applying for Temporary Event Notices (TENs) to host special events that go beyond your usual licensed hours. Take advantage of seasonal opportunities by applying for TENs to hold special events like Christmas markets, summer festivals, or Oktoberfest. These events can attract more customers during times when footfall is generally lower.

If you think that TEN’s might help for Christmas, and if you haven’t already, now is the time to check your hours for the festive period.

Napthens LLP is a north west law firm with a specialised leisure sector team dealing with all the legal requirements of clients in the leisure and licensing sector. The leisure team has particular expertise in licensing (through AfterHours), commercial property, corporate, employment and dispute resolution The Napthens SIBA Legal Helpline number is 0845 671 0277

Regardless of who you voted for in the 2024 UK general election, there’s no denying that the Autumn Budget set forth by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, was a blow for businesses, especially within hospitality and brewing.

As costs rise, especially in employing and retaining quality staff, it becomes crucial to maximise the value and engagement of the people you already have on your team. But how?

Understanding What Drives Retention

While employee tenure is generally increasing, about half of the workforce remains open to new opportunities if a better fit arises. Top reasons for leaving include limited career opportunities, feeling underpaid, and a perceived lack of respect. In an industry like brewing, where passion and craft are core motivators, job satisfaction can be further shaped by workplace culture and management quality. People who work in breweries, pubs, or taprooms tend to value the community and hands-on experience, making it essential to provide an environment that respects and nurtures these values.

So, the question is: what will you do to retain your brewing talent?

The answer lies in crafting a strong vision for your business (your ‘why’), operating by your values (your ‘what’), and nurturing a positive and productive workplace culture (your ‘how’).

Vision: Defining your ‘Why’

A strong vision gives your business a sense of purpose and direction, allowing everyone on your team to understand the broader mission. This is particularly important in the brewing industry, where the connection to community, creativity, and craftsmanship defines the work itself. A vision helps align your team around a goal that goes beyond profit, capturing the essence of what drives the brewery forward.

Employees who feel aligned with a brewery’s purpose and feel like they’re making their own valuable contribution are more likely to

The true hidden costs of employees: Why Vision, Values, and Culture matter more than ever

Brand and marketing guru Nick Law looks at how brewers can increase staff retention at a time when every penny counts…

stay and contribute over the long haul.

A strong vision unites everyone around a shared goal that transcends individual tasks, making each person feel they’re contributing to something to the greater good.

Employees are more likely to stay and invest their energy in a business where they see their work as part of a meaningful mission, not just a job.

Values: Defining your ‘What’

Values are the principles that guide decisions and behaviours within your brewery. They establish what your business stands for and expects from every team member, from the owner to the newest hire. Values such as quality, respect and creativity can set a clear standard for operations and employee interactions, which is especially important in brewing and hospitality settings where teamwork and trust are key to creating a high-quality product and consumer experience.

For instance, if one of your values is ‘commitment to quality’, every team member understands that shortcuts aren’t acceptable, whether in sourcing ingredients or ensuring the brewhouse is properly cleaned (which, unfortunately, still falls shockingly short in some breweries!). By creating and sticking to these standards, you set a tone that helps the team understand not only what they should do but also why it matters. When employees feel that their workplace is built on principles they respect, and they too feel respected, they’re more likely to stay committed for the long term.

Culture: Shaping your ‘How’

Workplace culture is where your vision and values come to life - it’s the how behind the day-to-day operations. A positive, healthy culture can be especially influential in smaller brewing and taproom environments, where teams often work closely together in high-demand settings. Culture influences everything from employee morale to the quality of beer, as it sets the standard for communication, teamwork, and respect.

Creating a positive culture involves more than merely talking about values; it requires embodying them in your actions. This is where employers need to set the tone, acting with integrity and modelling how to behave and treat others. Lead by example rather than, ‘Do as I say, not as I do’.

In a brewery, this might mean offering training for employees or encouraging them to learn about new brewing techniques from literature (if you can’t afford to send them on a course). Regularly celebrating successes as a team or taking time out on a Friday for an hour can help people feel like they belong to something truly special.

Why Vision, Values, and Culture are key for retention

Research suggests that the cost of acquiring and training new staff is twice as high than retaining and training existing ones. Given the economic challenges faced by the brewing industry, retaining skilled and passionate employees is more important than ever. Employees today expect more than just a paycheck; they look for growth opportunities, work-life balance, and a sense of belonging.

When employees can connect to a meaningful vision, operate within a framework of shared values, and experience a positive culture, they are more likely to stay engaged and loyal. Even if you can’t offer the most competitive salary, you can create an environment that fulfils employees' intrinsic motivations, making them more likely to stay committed.

As the brewing industry faces the road ahead, businesses that invest in building a strong vision, solid values, and an inclusive culture will be better equipped to navigate challenges and retain talented staff. By cultivating these foundations, you’re not just keeping people in jobs—you’re creating a place where they feel they truly belong. And in the end, that commitment will show up in every pint you pour… even if the customer expects it for a penny less than before!

Nick Law is the Creative Director of Hop Forward: a branding, marketing and business consultancy for the brewing industry. Find out more at www.hopforward.beer or email nick@hopforward.beer

The risk of ‘death by mediocracy’ has been talked about a lot in the hospitality industry over the last few years, and increasingly since Covid. In the past month since the budget, I’ve seen many industry commentators stressing again that being just ‘good’ isn’t good enough.

The latest Pub Roadmap research report from KAM, in partnership with the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) and supported by Brakes, is based on feedback from 1,000 UK pub-goers and 100 publicans but rather than find out what the industry can do to encourage them to visit more often or buy an additional drink, the report focus on how pubs (and other hospitality outlets) can create superfans.

Essentially a superfan is a customer who is so delighted by their experience with a brand, product, or service that they become an enthusiastic advocate. Superfans are customers who create more customers!

The research found that customers who feel emotionally connected to a specific hospitality business or brand visit them MUCH more often, are more likely to have memorable experiences, are more likely to forgive one off mistakes in venue and are more likely to recommend and leave reviews. Pretty much the ideal customer!

The new Pub Roadmap research looks at how to ensure fans discover your brand or pub in the first place, how we can deliver a face-toface experience fit for a superfan in venue, and how we create a create and nurture a strong digital connection in order to keep them coming back for more. Nobody is perfect, and in hospitality especially it’s easy to make mistakes or to miss the mark, and with such heightened competition there’s a greater risk of losing customers for good. Tighter connections with customers give us a greater leeway when it comes to slipups. Currently however, only 14% of consumers say that there are hospitality brands and businesses for which they feel an emotional connection to. And the current climate means the industry really needs to be creating stronger connections with customers because they’re much more controlled with their spending. According to latest data from HDI, the share of hospitality spend in pubs & bars has

Creating a superfan

Blake Gladman, Insight & Strategy Director at KAM, looks at how pubs and taprooms can create a loyal base of customers that are guaranteed to return time and time again, and bring their friends…

declined by 4.4% since 2019 (Source: HDI Panel, Customer Share of Wallet by Sector of UK Hospitality, 12 weeks ending 11/6/24 and % change versus 2019). The sector seeing the biggest growth in share of wallet is delivery. Many consumers are choosing to stay home.

The top occasion for consumers to leave the home and socialise with friends and family members, however, is to ‘catch up over some drinks’, so the opportunity remains for pubs to make consumers choose them over other options – but how do we do that consistently? There’s often a danger for businesses to focus on ‘types of people’ they want to attract. However, I believe that it’s occasions that drive behaviour and not demographics. Pubs needs to think about what occasions they want to deliver against rather than the type of people. Marry the target occasions with the factors that influence customer choice, and you’ve got the combination of range, service and vibe that will drive customer behaviours and deliver the expected experience.

If the on-trade can create an emotional connection with its customers, then pubs will start to unlock the secrets to sustained loyalty. 89% of publicans we spoke to for this study said that it’s important that they build an emotional connection with their customers. Larger brands often offer superficial connections through broad marketing messages, while smaller independent operators thrive by forming personal, genuine relationships with their customers.

Building a ‘digital connection’ with customers is critical. Around 1-in-4 customers now engage with hospitality brands on social media (higher for Gen Z), highlighting the potential for these platforms to enhance brand awareness, engagement, and loyalty. Building digital connections can translate into physical ones while sharing your unique values and making the experience fun and entertaining.

Building a strong digital connection starts when a customer first finds a venue when researching online and looks for information on a website, through to the ease of making an online reservation, to receiving confirmations and feedback requests, to visibility of positive reviews and of course ongoing connections

though personalised email campaigns and social media. Engaging with consumers on social media, sharing behind-the-scenes content, and celebrating the culture and history of a venue or the food and drink sold within it can help build a deeper emotional bond with a customer. Brewers should think about how they can support the wider ontrade with digital connections.

The quality of the drinks (range, serve, etc.) is the number 2 factor that defines a ‘great pub’ in the eyes of the UK consumer. As part of our research, we asked customers to name their favourite pub to visit for a drink, and the reasons why – which included ‘quality of serve 47%’, ‘range of local beers 23%’, and ‘range of draught beers 23%’. Differentiating the range from what customers are used to seeing in the supermarket and getting the basics right – clean taps, clean glassware, correct temperatures, etc. – to deliver a quality of serve that elevates the customer experience above and beyond one they can easily replicate at home.

But being a superfan of something goes beyond casual enjoyment, into emotional investment, and a desire to engage with the community surrounding it. For many, being a superfan becomes a key part of their identity, shaping their personal experiences and creating a sense of belonging within a larger group of like-minded individuals. A commonplace throughout entertainment and sport, but creating and nurturing superfans can be a boon for businesses, and there aren’t many better placed to create a sense of belonging and community than the local pub.

Pubs and taprooms are almost the perfect business model in which to turn this theory into reality, with countless customer touchpoints and community engagement giving numerous opportunities to build connections with customers. Couple this with offering a range of beers that creates a unique experience, and you can start to see how these sites can become a mecca for the superfan.

The full report is available at www.kaminsight.com/insights/pubroadmap/

The top 10 employment law changes

Lee Jefcott from law firm Brabners looks at some of the key changes to employment legislation coming in over the next two years, and what employers should be doing to prepare…

1. Increase to National Living Wage

Next year — for the first time — the cost of living and expected inflation will be taken into account in setting the national living wage (NLW). This is the hourly rate that applies to workers aged 21 years and over. The lower bands — which apply to workers aged 18 to 20 — will ultimately be abolished, creating one single adult rate. Rates for workers under 18 and apprentices will be set as high as possible without damaging their employment prospects.

When: The new rates will apply from April 2025.

Action: Plan for pay rises. Expect pressure to increase pay from workers just above these rates to remove ‘bunching’. Build increased pay into financial budgets.

2. Allocation of Tips Act

It feels like it has been a long time coming but the Allocation of Tips Act is now in force. This means that 100% of tips and service charges received by the employer (or over which they exert control) must be paid to workers by the end of the month following receipt of payment. There must be a ‘fair allocation’ of the monies to such workers and workers will have the right to request a copy

of their employer’s tipping records. A tipping policy must be made available to workers in writing. Claims can be made to employment tribunals if there are breaches.

When: From 1 October 2024.

Action: Check whether you’re affected — do you receive tips or service charges or exert control over them? Find out what’s required and ensure that you’ll be compliant with the new requirements.

3. Duty to protect workers from sexual harassment

Some high-profile hospitality brands have been on the receiving end of bad publicity as it has emerged that complaints of sexual harassment have been swept under the carpet and perpetrators allowed to quietly resign. Colleague behaviour and how employers deal with complaints has never been more under the spotlight. In October 2024, the law is being strengthened. Employers will be under a legal duty take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of their workers. If claims are brought, employment tribunals will be able to increase compensation by up to 25% if there has been a breach of the new requirements. These steps include steps to prevent sexual harassment from third parties such as customers and suppliers. Hospitality

operators will need to bear this in mind and plan accordingly.

When: From 26 October 2024.

Action: Revisit your policies and ensure that you can show effective training has been delivered to all workers and there’s a plan in place for regular follow-up training. Increase awareness of the do’s and don’ts. Create a culture where poor behaviour is called out. Ensure that staff know how to report concerns and you can demonstrate complaints have been dealt with effectively. The new requirements will cover sexual harassment from third parties (such as customers and suppliers), so consider zero tolerance warnings.

4. Day one rights — unfair dismissal

For many years, employees have generally required two years’ service to brings a claim of unfair dismissal. However, the Government has promised to give workers the right to claim unfair dismissal from day one of their employment (subject to probationary periods).

When: Likely Autumn 2026

Action: This is the most far-reaching of the new changes and will increase the risk of unfair dismissal claims. How can you make

your recruitment process more robust to reduce the need to dismiss staff? Train your managers and support them to carry out robust probationary reviews.

5.

The right to a guaranteed hours contract

While Labour has pledged to end insecure employment and contracts that provide for ‘one-sided’ flexibility, it has recognised that an outright ban on all zero hours contracts is unworkable as some workers enjoy the flexibility that this brings. Therefore it is proposed that workers on “low hours” (and on zero hours contracts will get the right to request a contract with guaranteed hours which reflects the actual hours worked in a 12-week reference period. There’s also likely to be compensation for shifts that are cancelled by the employer on a sliding scale by reference to the amount of notice provided to the worker.

When: There will be a consultation on these new provisions which are in the Employment Rights Bill – with the final changes expected in 2026.

Action: Check whether you use zero hours contracts or “low hour” contracts with staff regularly working above these hours— for example, to cover peaks and troughs in demand — and look at how hours are allocated to workers. Where you can offer contracts with a minimum number of guaranteed hours, consider how you would reduce situations where staff work fluctuating hours in excess of these.

6. Flexible working by default from day one

This is different from the right to request flexible working, which has been in place for some time with employers being able to turn down such requests. Instead, the focus will change to an obligation to offer flexibility except where it isn’t ‘reasonably feasible’. The onus will therefore change to the employer to demonstrate that a particular working arrangement isn’t reasonably feasible, with an expected increased role for employment tribunals to decide whether this is the case.

When: 2026

Action: Many hospitality businesses already

offer a great deal of flexibility to frontof-house service staff in terms of shifts. However, the new rights will apply to all jobs. Consider the types of flexible working patterns you could offer across all roles — including hybrid working, compressed hours and rotating across different sites — as well as the business case where such working patterns are impossible.

7. Pay gap reporting extended for larger employers

Labour reports that progress to remove the gender pay gap has stalled and ethnic minority and disabled employees have borne the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis. It has therefore proposed that larger employers (250 staff or more) be required to develop, publish and implement action plans to close their gender pay gaps. This goes further than the current requirements to publish gender pay gap figures. In addition, the publication of ethnicity and disability pay gap figures will be required.

When: Unknown but likely during 2026 Action: If you’re a larger employer, consider your gender pay gap figures and think about which factors are driving your gender pay gap. Work up an action plan to tackle this. Consider how you’d be able to report on ethnicity and disability pay gaps and whether such data is collected.

8.

Trade unions

Labour is committed to strengthening the role of trade unions in the workplace and making it easier for trade unions to seek formal recognition with employers. Gig workers and those in precarious work are to be given meaningful rights. All employers will have an obligation to inform employees of their right to join a trade union. The rights of trade union representatives will be improved.

When: Unknown but likely during 2026, with some provisions possibly coming into force earlier. One to watch.

Action: Start to develop an ‘employee voice’ plan. Consider setting up a mechanism for your workers to be consulted or involved in decisions that affect them.

9. Enhanced redundancy rights

For employers that need to make redundancies, the law requires collective consultation with employee representatives when it’s proposed to dismiss 20 or more employees by reason of redundancy at one ‘establishment’ within a period of 90 days. Expensive claims can follow if this duty is breached. In the past, ‘establishment’ has been interpreted to mean the particular site where the employee works — making it unlikely that the threshold would be reached. However, it’s now proposed that this will mean ‘across the whole business’. Therefore, the collective consultation trigger point will be much more easily reached leading to the risk of expensive claims if the requirements are not met.

When: By 2026.

Action: This will affect multi-site operators in the hospitality sector that must close sites or reduce their workforce. Reaching the ‘20 or more’ threshold will be more common if the numbers are counted across the business — thereby increasing the likelihood that collective consultation with employee representatives will be necessary. This is one to keep on your radar.

10.

Safer workplaces

Labour’s ‘Make Work Pay’ document speaks of updating health and safety guidance to reflect modern workplaces. Specific reference is made to people working in places where the temperature is unacceptably high. Although there are no specific references to protecting staff from abuse from customers, this is becoming an increasing concern in hospitality workplaces. It wouldn’t be surprising if this area becomes subject to specific proposals.

When: Watch this space.

Action: Keep a watching brief on this.

Brewlab’s Dr Keith Thomas looks at the applications for acid in the brewing process…

All brewers will have used acid in brewing – it’s a chemical necessity. Moreover, its impact is extensive, even critical, from liquor treatment to sanitation. As responsible brewers we are also aware of its hazards as a common corrosive, easily digesting skin and tissue giving you burns or a wheezy lung irritation when inhaled. One of acid’s less obvious uses is in yeast management through acid washing - a process entrenched in some breweries and soundly avoided in others. As such is there evidence of its effectiveness and reliable advice on its application? Yes, in part, and, more relevantly, depending on your circumstances – particularly yeast strain, storage and handling.

The acid washing process is fairly standardised, although it does require an accurate and calibrated pH meter to avoid an excess impact on your yeast. In essence though take some chilled yeast, disperse in chilled water (below 4oC) and while mixing slowly add acid (usually 25-50% sulphuric or phosphoric) to a low pH, say 2.1 - around the same acidity as an active stomach. Leave chilled for an hour, or no more than two, and pitch into your waiting ferment. All cleaned up and ready to go.

We’re not just washing its face here but giving a full immersion - which at that pH would be pretty corrosive if you took a bath in it. Happily, most yeast can survive the punishment while bacteria, being less resistant, succumb and die leaving a purer yeast for your ferment –although one suspects with a hell of a headache. Which, of course, identifies one of the procedure’s concerns. Does it not affect the yeast and its fermentation? Are we killing part of our pitch, or, alternatively, perhaps selecting

Adventures with acid

Alternatives and supplements to acid have been investigated including the addition of ammonium persulphate and noted to be particularly effective. Chlorine dioxide and antibiotics such as nisin are also possible, either alone or in combination with acid.

the most resistant and better suited for the fermentation conditions to come? Evidence for the latter is limited but some brewers are of the opinion that yeast does adapt and prefer routine washing than just when time allows.

The action of acid on bacteria is clear and well documented. Studies by Bill Simpson and others in the 1990’s confirmed acid’s effectiveness to kill many brewery bacteria, although less effectively against the wort contaminant Obesumbacteria proteus which has the ability to produce nitrosamines. Other studies confirm effectiveness, although this is less against bacteria which have become adapted to brewery conditions with acetic acid bacteria noted to be more resistant than lactic acid bacteria. It is also noted that many bacteria may be damaged and able to revive with time after washing.

Alternatives and supplements to acid have been investigated including the addition of ammonium persulphate and noted to be particularly effective. Chlorine dioxide and antibiotics such as nisin are also possible, either alone or in combination with acid. It is also worth mentioning that tartaric acid was used by Louis Pasteur as an application to wine yeast over 150 years ago.

Returning to the impact on yeast it does appear that brewing strains differ, although less so wild yeast. In most cases there is likely to be some effect on brewing yeast viability, particularly if the yeast is cropped from a high gravity wort where alcohol levels affect the yeast cell membrane. Similarly, if the yeast has been kept for some time, particularly if compacted and under pressure such as in a tall cone fermenter. Impact seems to be particularly on yeast cells’ ability to assimilate glucose so look out for a slower start to fermentation than normal.

Yeast strain and wort character also affects how well acid can impact on bacterial susceptibility. Hops seem to be particularly relevant due to the anti-bacterial effects of iso-humulone. Acid washing yeast cropped from a highly hopped beer will be more effective. In one study an eight minute exposure to just acid produced a 96% reduction in bacteria counts but to less than 0.0001% in a 60BU hopped wort.

Since yeast adsorb hop compounds onto their cell walls there may be a synergistic effect from high hopped worts. In contrast the clumps produced by highly flocculent yeast may shield bacteria making good dispersal important when mixing. Conducting an occasional methylene blue viability test on your acid washed yeast would be a useful due diligence inclusion and help identify best practice.

All this said it is, of course, essential to remember the reason for acid washing – to remove contaminating microorganisms. While acid washing may assist, depending on conditions noted earlier, it is no substitute for adequate sanitation. Having a clean brewery and process is more fundamental and, if thorough, may alleviate the need for acid altogether.

Find more from Brewlab at www.brewlab.co.uk

Loughran Brewers

Select - your connection to the best independent hop producers and growers.

It takes a lot of faith in a hop variety to mix up the recipe for your most important beer. But, that’s exactly what DEYA Brewing Company has been doing with ‘Steady Rolling Man’ for the last four years, with their annual release of ‘Steady Rolling Strata’ using Indie Hops Strata®.

DEYA first fell in love with the Indie Hops developed variety Strata® during a hop selection visit to the US in 2019. We used our unique connection with Indie Hops to bring Strata® to the UK and Europe, and, in the process, helped DEYA to become one of the first breweries in the UK to brew with Strata®. We’ve watched Strata® and ‘Steady Rolling Strata’ go stratospheric since then.

2024’s ‘Steady Rolling Strata’ was the biggest ever production run of this special beer, with a simultaneous launch of Pale Ale and DIPA versions nationwide accompanied by unique merch, venue posters, and a billboard campaign, as well as heaps of social media buzz. ‘Steady Rolling Strata’ used the freshest possible Indie Hops Strata® from this year’s Pacific North West Hop Harvest. This meant releasing a beer in the UK brewed with hops which had only been harvested in Oregon, USA a few months earlier. A tall order.

Working closely with our friends at Indie Hops, we arranged for DEYA’s head brewer Gareth to select his chosen lot of Strata® at Indie Hops HQ in Portland, Oregon. He visited local hop farms growing and harvesting Strata®, which thrives in Oregon’s wonderful terroir. Gareth watched his chosen Strata® lot pelletised - one of the first lots of the harvest to run through the Indie Hops pellet mill. DEYA’s Strata® became the first 2024 Strata® to arrive in the UK a few weeks later.

The result? Beer lovers throughout the UK enjoyed great beers with the freshest Strata® hops on the continent. From farm to glass in a matter of weeks for the most ambitious launch of ‘Steady Rolling Strata’ to date. A unique collaboration between farmer, hop developer, and brewer, and a celebration of the amazing relationships which make this industry great.

Regional Beer Competitions Scotland

Overall Champion of the Cask Beer Competition

G GOLD: Orkney Brewery Dark Island Reserve 10.0%

S SILVER: Loch Lomond Brewery Silkie Stout 5.0%

B BRONZE: Loch Lomond Brewery Gloaming 4.4%

Cask Imperial & Strong Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Ardgour Ales Gobhar Reamhar 6.5%

S SILVER: Loch Lomond Brewery Outlander 6.5%

S SILVER: Five Kingdoms Dark Storm 6.9%

Cask Speciality Amber to Dark Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Orkney Brewery Dark Island Reserve 10.0%

S SILVER: Beath Brewing Return of the Imp 10.5%

Cask Speciality Light Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Williams Bros Brewing Co. Birds & Bees 4.3%

S SILVER: Ardgour Ales Badan Fraoich 4.7%

Cask British Dark Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Loch Lomond Brewery Silkie Stout 5.0%

S SILVER: Orkney Brewery Dark Island 4.6%

B BRONZE: SaltRock Brewing Shout! 4.6%

Cask British Best Bitter

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Fyne Ales Highlander 4.8%

S SILVER: Five Kingdoms Wee McAsh 4.5%

Cask Pale Ale

Sponsored by: Crisp Malting Group

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Williams Bros Brewing Co. Joker IPA 5.0%

G GOLD: Cairngorm Brewery IPA 5.0%

S SILVER: Orkney Brewery Cliff Edge IPA 4.7%

B BRONZE: Fyne Ales Avalanche 4.5%

B BRONZE: Five Kingdoms Bay of Plenty 4.5%

B BRONZE: Born Brewery IPA 4.8%

Cask Session Dark Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Cairngorm Brewery Black Gold 4.4%

B BRONZE: Stewart Brewing LTD Edinburgh Black 4.2%

B BRONZE: Cross Borders Brewing Heavy 4.1%

Cask British Bitter

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Loch Lomond Brewery Gloaming 4.4%

B BRONZE: Ardgour Ales Gobhar Odhar 4.3%

B BRONZE: Harviestoun Brewery Bitter and Twisted 3.8%

B BRONZE: Cairngorm Brewery Stag 4.1%

Cask Session Pale Ale

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Swannay Brewery Island Hopping 3.9%

G GOLD: Tempest Brewing Co Pale Armadillo 3.8%

B BRONZE: Fyne Ales Jarl 3.8%

B BRONZE: Cross Borders Brewing Session Pale 4.2%

Keg Imperial and Strong (6.5% and over)

B BRONZE: Swannay Brewery Orkney Porter 9.0%

Keg IPA (5.6% and over)

Sponsored by: Charles Faram

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Stewart Brewing LTD Radical Road 6.4%

BRONZE: Five Kingdoms Juicy 5.8%

Keg Stout & Porter

(up to 6.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Harviestoun Brewery Nitro Engine 4.5%

S SILVER: Cairngorm Brewery Black Gold 4.4%

Keg Premium Lager (4.5 to 6.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Loch Lomond

G GOLD: Fyne Ales TA Origins Brewing Pinc 5.2%

Keg British Ales (up

to 6.4%)

B BRONZE: Stewart Brewing LTD Edinburgh Gold 4.8%

Keg Amber, Brown & Red Ales

(up to 6.4%)

S SILVER: STEWART BREWING LTD Nitro 80/- 4.4%

B BRONZE: Wasted Degrees Brewing Amber Rye 5.0%

Keg

Pale Ales (4.4 to 5.5%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Fyne Ales Workbench 5.5%

S SILVER: Cairngorm Brewery Cairngorm IPA 5.0%

S SILVER: Cross Borders Brewing Braw 4.5%

B BRONZE: Loch Lomond Brewery Bonnie and Clyde 4.5%

B BRONZE: Harviestoun Brewery Heaven Cent 4.6%

B BRONZE: Stewart Brewing LTD Hazy IPA 5.0%

S SILVER: Stewart Brewing LTD Stoats Raspberry Pale 4.8%

Keg Sour & Wild Ale

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Fyne Ales TA Origins Brewing Pinc 5.2%

B BRONZE: Loch Lomond Brewery Pretty Flamingo 8.0%

B BRONZE: Moonwake Beer Co Yuzu and Kaffir Lime Sour 4.2%

Keg Speciality IPA

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Cold Town Beer Baltic IPA 5.3%

S SILVER: Loch Lomond Brewery Bravehop Dark 6.0%

Keg Speciality and Flavoured Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Stewart Brewing LTD Stoats Raspberry Pale 4.8%

S SILVER: Williams Bros Brewing Co. Orange Ginger 3.4%

B BRONZE: Loch Lomond Brewery Lost Monster 8.4%

B BRONZE: Fyne Ales Whiskey BarrelAged Jarl 6.7%

B BRONZE: Loch Lomond Brewery Helles Glen 5.2%

Keg Session Pale Ale (up to 4.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Cold Town Beer Session Pale Ale 4.0%

S SILVER: Stewart Brewing LTD Session IPA 4.1%

Keg Session

Lager

(up to 4.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Tempest Brewing Co Modern Helles 4.1%

G GOLD: Harviestoun Brewery Ochil Lager 4.0%

B BRONZE: Loch Lomond Brewery High Road 4.0%

B BRONZE: Swannay Brewery Ola 4.2%

Keg Non-Alcoholic & Low ABV

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion:Stewart Brewing LTD Rhuby, Rhuby, Rhuby 2.5%

S SILVER: Bellfield Brewery Fire Island IPA 0.5%

Regional Beer Competitions East

Overall

Champion of the Cask Beer Competition

G GOLD: Oakham Ales Icon 5.0% S SILVER: Brentwood Brewing Co Chockwork Orange 6.5%

B BRONZE: Baker's Dozen Brewing Co. Bull Run 4.8%

Cask Imperial & Strong Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Brentwood Brewing Co Chockwork Orange 6.5%

S SILVER: Milton Brewery Marcus Aurelius 7.5%

B BRONZE: Tring Brewery Death or Glory 7.2%

B BRONZE: Leigh on Sea Brewery SS9 8.4%

Cask British Best Bitter

Sponsored by Rankin Brothers & Sons

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Baker's Dozen Brewing Co. Bull Run 4.8%

S SILVER: Grain Brewery Red Nelson 4.7%

B BRONZE: Batemans XXXB 4.8%

B BRONZE: Mauldons Brewery Suffolk Pride 4.8%

B BRONZE: Ferry Ales Brewery 49 Squadron 4.9%

B BRONZE: Wylde Sky Brewing Ltd Wylde Sky Best 4.5%

Cask Speciality Amber to Dark Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Grain Brewery Slate 6.0%

S SILVER: Elgoods Plum Porter 4.5%

B BRONZE: Norfolk Brewhouse Moon Gazer Stotart 4.5%

Cask Session Dark Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Wolf Brewery Sirius Dog Star 4.4%

S SILVER: Brentwood Brewing Co Marvellous Maple Mild 3.7%

B BRONZE: Papworth Brewery Mild Thing 3.3%

B BRONZE: Norfolk Brewhouse Moon Gazer Nibbler 4.0%

Cask IPA

Sponsored by Rankin Brothers & Sons

S SILVER: Grain Brewery Lignum Vitae 6.5%

S SILVER: Milton Brewery Prometheus 6.0%

Cask British Dark Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: 8 Sail Brewery Victorian Porter 5.0%

S SILVER: Milton Brewery Nero 5.0%

S SILVER: Norfolk Brewhouse Moon Gazer Skidaddler 4.5%

S SILVER: Ferry Ales Brewery Smokey Joe 4.9%

B BRONZE: Billericay Brewery Major Spitty's Oatmeal Stout 4.6%

B BRONZE: Mauldons Brewery

Black Adder 5.3%

B BRONZE: Grain Brewery Blackwood 4.5%

Cask Pale Ale

by

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Oakham Ales Icon 5.0%

S SILVER: 8 Sail Brewery John Barleycorn 5.5%

S SILVER: Billericay Brewery

Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll 5.0%

S SILVER: Norfolk Brewhouse Moon Gazer Cheeky Jack 5.0%

B BRONZE: Leigh on Sea Brewery Boatyard IPA 5.0%

B BRONZE: Baker's Dozen Brewing Co. Electric Landlady 5.0%

B BRONZE: Tydd Steam Brewery Maelstrom 4.5%

Cask British Bitter

Sponsored by Rankin Brothers & Sons G

Cask Session Pale Ale

B BRONZE: Woodfordes Wherry 3.8%

B BRONZE: Wolf Brewery Coyote 4.3%

B BRONZE: Leigh on Sea Brewery Legra Pale 3.8%

B BRONZE: Grain Brewery Three One Six 3.9%

B BRONZE: Oakham Ales Scarlet Macaw 4.4%

Sponsored

Crisp Malting Group

Regional Beer Competitions East

Overall Champion of the Keg Beer Competition

G

Sponsored by Yakima Chief Hops

Keg

G

Imperial and Strong (6.5% and over)

Keg IPA (5.6% and over) Sponsored by Charles Faram

Keg Stout & Porter (up to 6.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Norfolk Brewhouse Moon Gazer Skidaddler 4.5%

G GOLD: Brewpoint Genesis Bedford Stout 4.1% B BRONZE: Barsham Brewery Stackyard Dark Hour 4.6%

Keg Continental Style Beer

G

Keg British Ales (up to 6.4%)

B

B

Keg Amber, Brown & Red Ales (up to 6.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Leigh on Sea Brewery Six Little Ships 4.2%

Keg Pale Ales (4.4 to 5.5%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Baker’s Dozen Brewing Co. Ltd Undertow 4.8%

G GOLD: Woodfordes Hazy IPA 4.5%

G GOLD: Oakham Ales Citra Unfiltered 4.6%

S SILVER: Norfolk Brewhouse Moon Gazer Cheeky Jack 5.0%

S SILVER: Barsham Brewery Stackyard Hazy IPA 5.0%

B BRONZE: Leigh on Sea Brewery Boatyard IPA 5.0%

B BRONZE: Grain Brewery Ltd Sky P.A. 4.7%

Keg Speciality and Flavoured Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Adnams Adnams Blanche Witbier 5.0%

S SILVER: Norfolk Brewhouse Moon Gazer Stotart 4.5% Stotart 4.5

Keg Session Pale Ale (up to 4.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Barsham Brewery Stackyard Hazy Pale 4.0%

G GOLD: Lacons Brewery Limited encore 3.8%

S SILVER: Adnams Lazy SIPA 4.0%

S SILVER: Brewpoint Foghorn 4.3%

B BRONZE: 8 Sail Brewery Horizon Pale Ale 4.3%

B BRONZE: Baker’s Dozen Brewing Co. Ltd Acoustic Landlady 3.4%

Keg Speciality IPA

B BRONZE: Artefact Brewing Kviek Black IPA 6.5%

Keg Session Lager (up to 4.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Leigh on Sea Brewery Estuari 4.0%

S SILVER: Grain Brewery Ltd Pilsener 4.0%

B BRONZE: 8 Sail Brewery Windy Corner 4.0%

B BRONZE: Adnams Dry Hopped Lager 4.2%

Overall Champion of the Cask Beer Competition Regional Beer Competitions North West

Cask Imperial & Strong Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Bank Top Brewery Limited Herkules White Walker 6.5%

S SILVER: Bowland Brewery First Runnings 8.1%

Cask Speciality Amber to Dark Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: RedWillow Brewery Ltd Rauchbier 5.4%

S SILVER: Blackedge Brewing Company Ltd Black'ish 5.6%

B BRONZE: Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery Unbeetable 5.5%

Cask IPA

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Blackedge Brewing Company Ltd India 5.8%

S SILVER: Brimstage Brewery Brimstage IPA 6.0%

B

Cask British Dark Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Neptune Brewery Limited Abyss 5.0%

G GOLD: Joseph Holt Sixex 6.0%

G GOLD: Spitting Feathers Brewery Rested.When.Expectant 4.9%

S SILVER: Great Corby Brewhouse Corby Stout 4.5%

S SILVER:Keswick Brewing Company Dark Horse 6.0%

B BRONZE: Colbier Brewery Sonata 4.5%

B BRONZE: Blackedge Brewing Company Ltd Oatmeal Stout 6.4%

Cask British Best Bitter

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Bank Top Brewery Limited Pavilion Pale Ale 4.5%

S SILVER: Weetwood Ales Harlequin 4.6%

B BRONZE: Blackedge Brewing Company Ltd Blonde 4.5%

Cask Pale Ale

Sponsored by: Crisp Malting Group

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Spitting Feathers Brewery Mouth.Pans. Hops 5.0%

S SILVER: Bank Top Brewery Limited Palomino Rising 5.0%

B BRONZE: Ennerdale Brewery Coast Line 4.5%

B BRONZE: Lancaster Brewery Hop Storm 4.8%

B BRONZE: Big Trip Life Lube 5.2%

B BRONZE: RedWillow Brewery Ltd

V.E.I.P.A. 5.3%

B BRONZE: Wild Boar Brewhouse Hog's 54 5.5%

Cask Session Dark Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Joseph Holt Mild 3.2%

S SILVER: Bank Top Brewery Limited Dark Mild 4.0% S

Ennerdale Brewery

Bowland Brewery Deer 4.4%

Cask British Bitter

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Bank Top Brewery Limited Flat Cap 4.0%

S SILVER: Southport Brewery Eagles Dare 4.0%

S SILVER: Blackedge Brewing Company Ltd Pike 4.0%

S SILVER: Bollington Brewing Company Bollington Best 4.2%

S SILVER: Joseph Holt Bitter 4.0%

S SILVER: Wincle Beer Company Limited Sir Philip 4.2%

B BRONZE: Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery 1822 4.3%

Cask Session Pale Ale

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Weetwood Ales Turncoat 4.0%

G GOLD: Bank Top Brewery Limited Harlequin 4.2%

G GOLD: Fuzzy Duck Brewery Golden Cascade 3.8%

G GOLD: Moorhouse's Brewery Sun Worshipper 4.0%

S SILVER: Brimstage Brewery New Zealand Pale Ale 4.3%

S SILVER: Beartown Brewery Kodiak 4.0%

S SILVER: LANCASTER BREWERY Lancaster IPA 4.2%

Overall Champion of the Keg Beer Competition

G GOLD: Blackedge Brewing Company Ltd 99 Red Balloons 4.1%

S SILVER: RedWillow Brewery Ltd Godless 5.4%

B BRONZE: RedWillow Brewery Ltd Heartless Nitro 4.6%

B BRONZE: Southport Brewery Southport IPA 3.6%

B BRONZE: Phoenix Brewery Flight 3.7%

B BRONZE: Bowness Bay Brewing Fell Rider 3.4%

B BRONZE: Lakes Brew Co Pale Ale 3.4%

B BRONZE: Joseph Holt Chorlton Pale Ale 4.0%

Keg IPA (5.6% and over)

Sponsored by: Charles Faram

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: RedWillow Brewery Ltd Perceptionless 6.6%

G GOLD: Big Trip Big Bada Boom 6.2%

S SILVER: Lakes Brew Co West Coast IPA 5.6%

Keg

Stout & Porter (up to 6.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: RedWillow Brewery Ltd Heartless Nitro 4.6%

S SILVER: Blackedge Brewing Company Ltd Paint It Black 5.5%

Keg Premium Lager (4.5 to 6.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: RedWillow Brewery Ltd Godless 5.4%

G GOLD: Colbier Brewery Dynamics 4.8%

G GOLD: Weetwood Ales Vienna Lager 4.8%

S SILVER: Blackedge Brewing Company Ltd Helles 5.0%

Keg Amber, Brown & Red Ales (up to 6.4%)

B BRONZE: Lancaster Brewery Lancaster Red 4.8%

Keg Pale Ales (4.4 to 5.5%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Lakes Brew Co NE SESSION IPA 4.7%

G GOLD: Lancaster Brewery Hop Storm 4.8%

B BRONZE: Bank Top Brewery Limited Snap Back 5.0%

B BRONZE: TJ Morris Brewing Ltd Love Lane Pale Ale 4.5%

B BRONZE: Big Trip Life Lube 5.2%

Keg Sour & Wild Ale

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Blackedge Brewing Company Ltd 99 Red Balloons 4.1%

G GOLD: Lakes Brew Co Pie in the Face 7.0%

S SILVER: Colbier Brewery Accent 4.0%

Keg Speciality and Flavoured Beer

S SILVER: Neptune Brewery Limited Velas De Lima 4.7%

B BRONZE: Lakes Brew Co What's The Buzz 8.4%

Keg Session Pale Ale (up to 4.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion:Keswick Brewing Company Thirst Quencher 4.3%

S SILVER: Beartown Brewery Inception 4.4%

S SILVER: Lakes Brew Co DDH PALE 4.0%

B BRONZE: Big Trip Kill Them With Kindness 4.3%

B BRONZE: Brimstage Brewery Trapper's Hat 3.8%

Keg Session Lager (up to

4.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Beartown Brewery Beartown Lager 4.0%

S SILVER: Lakes Brew Co Raise 4.0% B BRONZE: Joseph Holt Crystal 3.8%

Keg Non-Alcoholic & Low ABV

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: RedWillow Brewery Ltd Less is More Mosaic 0.5%

Regional

Cask Imperial & Strong Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Grainstore Brewery Nip 7.3%

Cask Speciality Amber to Dark Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Shipstone's Beer Company Ltd Krubera Stout 5.2%

G GOLD: Titanic Brewery Plum Porter 4.1%

G GOLD: Resting Devil Kaldi 5.3%

B BRONZE: Front Row Brewing WOT IT'S CHERRY 5.0%

B BRONZE: Loose Cannon Brewery Portered Porter 5.0%

Cask Speciality Light Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Titanic Brewery Raspberry Pale 4.7%

G GOLD: Peak Ales Chatsworth Gold 4.6%

S SILVER: Milestone Raspberry Wheat Beer 5.6%

S SILVER: Liquid Light Brew Co Pink Moon 4.0%

Cask IPA

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Brampton Brewery Speciale 5.8%

S SILVER: Alter Ego Brewing Co Incognito 5.8%

B BRONZE: Blue Monkey brewing ltd Infinity plus1 5.6%

B BRONZE: Liquid Light Brew Co Loomer 6.5%

B BRONZE: Peak Ales IPA 6.0%

B BRONZE: Charnwood Brewery IPA 5.8%

Cask British Dark Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Peak Ales Black Stag 4.8%

S SILVER: Alter Ego Brewing Co Vigilante 4.8%

S SILVER: Milestone Hammer Head Stout 5.6%

B BRONZE: Brampton Brewery Brampton Mild 4.9%

B BRONZE: Lymestone Brewery Stone The Crows 5.4%

B BRONZE: XT XT10 4.4%

B BRONZE: Vale Brewery Black Beauty 4.4%

B BRONZE: Birmingham Brewing Company Stout Brummie 4.8%

B BRONZE: Uttoxeter Brewing Company Paddock Porter 4.8%

Cask British Best Bitter

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Loose Cannon Brewery Something Wonderful 6.4%

S SILVER: Lymestone Brewery Stone Edge 4.5%

S SILVER: Liquid Light Brew Co Blue Jay Way 5.5%

S SILVER: Brampton Brewery Wasp Nest 5.0%

S SILVER: Milestone Newark Castle Brown 4.5%

B BRONZE: Front Row Brewing ESB (EGG SHAPED BALLS) 5.0%

B BRONZE: Little Brewing Company Ltd Albion 5.0%

B BRONZE: Rebellion Beer Co. Ltd. Roasted Nuts 4.6%

B BRONZE: Everards of Leicestershire Old Original 5.2%

B BRONZE: Grainstore Brewery Ten Fifty 5.0%

Cask Pale Ale

Sponsored by: Crisp Malting Group

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Liquid Light Brew Co Less Dangerous 4.5%

S SILVER: Brampton Brewery Mount Washington 4.5%

S SILVER: Milestone Pacific Islander 5.0%

S SILVER: Welbeck Abbey Brewery Cavendish 5.0%

S SILVER: Vale Brewery Gravitas 4.8%

S SILVER: Blue Monkey brewing ltd Infinity IPA 4.6%

B BRONZE: Titanic Brewery White Star Golden Ale 4.5%

B BRONZE: Shipstone's Beer Company Ltd Ajanta IPA 4.2%

B BRONZE: Castle Rock Elsie Mo 4.7%

B BRONZE: Dancing Duck Brewery Beaky Blinder 4.5%

B BRONZE: Lymestone Brewery Ein Stein 5.0%

B BRONZE: Uttoxeter Brewing Company Question Mark APA 4.5%

B BRONZE: New Brew New India 5.5%

B BRONZE: Loddon Brewery Dragonfly 5.2%

B BRONZE: Towcester Mill Brewery Ltd Steam Ale 4.5%

Cask Session Dark Beer

G

GOLD -

Titanic Brewery Classic Mild 3.5% S SILVER: Liquid Light Brew Co Dark Hollow 3.7% B BRONZE: Dancing Duck Brewery Quack Addict 3.8%

BRONZE: Vale Brewery Red Kite 4.3%

Cask British Bitter

G GOLD: New Brew NPA 4.4%

S SILVER: Dancing Duck Brewery 22 4.3%

S SILVER: Castle Rock Preservation 4.4%

S SILVER: Everards of Leicestershire Tiger 4.2%

S SILVER: Amwell Springs Stay Jammy 3.8%

S SILVER: Langton Brewery Inclined Plane 4.2%

B BRONZE: Charnwood Brewery Vixen 4.0%

B BRONZE: Front Row Brewing TRY 4.2%

B BRONZE: Burton Bridge Brewery Massey's Golden Bitter 4.1%

B BRONZE: Uttoxeter Brewing Company Bartley Bitter 4.1%

Cask Session Pale Ale

Sponsored by: Rankin Brothers & Sons

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Liquid Light Brew Co Day Tripper 4.3%

G GOLD: Shotover Brewery T/A Oxford Brewery Trinity 4.2%

G GOLD: Rebellion Beer Co. Ltd. Overthrow 4.3%

S SILVER: Grainstore Brewery Zahara 4.2%

S SILVER: Green Duck Beer Co Session 4.0%

S SILVER: Derby Brewing Company Single hop sessions - lemondrop 4.3%

S SILVER: Dancing Duck Brewery Ay Up 3.9%

S SILVER: Charnwood Brewery Blue Fox 4.2%

B BRONZE: XT Hopkitty 3.9%

B BRONZE: Welbeck Abbey Brewery Skylight 4.1%

B BRONZE: Loose Cannon Brewery Bombard IPA 4.2%

B BRONZE: Vale Brewery VPA 4.2%

B BRONZE: Amwell Springs Rude No To 4.0%

B BRONZE: Castle Rock Highway To Hell 4.2%

B BRONZE: Milestone Cathedral Gold 4.3%

Keg IPA (5.6% and over) Sponsored by: Charles Faram

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Attic Brew Co. Signals 5.6%

B BRONZE: Liquid Light Brew Co Loomer 6.5%

Keg Stout & Porter (up to 6.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Rebellion Beer Co. Ltd. Rebellion Black 5.2%

B BRONZE: Shotover Brewery T/A Oxford Brewery Nitro Porter 5.0%

B BRONZE: Titanic Brewery True Stout 4.5%

Keg Premium Lager (4.5 to 6.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Green Duck Beer Co Hammerhead Helles 4.8%

G GOLD: Milestone Milestone Helles 4.7%

S SILVER: Loose Cannon Brewery Oxford Pilsner 5.0%

S SILVER: Liquid Light Brew Co Volume V 4.5%

S SILVER: Braybrooke Beer Co Pilsner 4.5%

Keg Continental Style Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Loose Cannon Brewery Dubbel Bubbel 6.4%

S SILVER: Braybrooke Beer Co Keller 4.8%

B BRONZE: Everards of Leicestershire New World IPA 5.1%

Keg British Ales

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Loose Cannon Brewery Something Wonderful 6.4%

B BRONZE: Liquid Light Brew Co Blue Jay Way 5.5%

Keg Pale Ales (4.4 to 5.5%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Castle Rock DDH Pale: Citra 5.0%

S SILVER: Birmingham Brewing Company Hazy Brummie 4.5%

Keg Sour & Wild Ale

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Liquid Light Brew Co Freak Out 4.2%

Keg Speciality IPA

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Thornbridge Brewery AM:PM 4.5%

G GOLD: Liquid Light Brew Co Jumping Jack Flash 6.3%

Keg Speciality and Flavoured Beer

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Blue Monkey brewing ltd Cinder toffee 5.0%

G GOLD: Loose Cannon Brewery St Amand 6.4%

S SILVER: Liquid Light Brew Co Pink Moon 4.0%

S SILVER: Titanic Brewery Plum Porter 4.9%

B BRONZE: The Indian Brewery Juicy Mango 5.5%

B BRONZE: Langton Brewery Lemon & Thyme Saison 3.8%

Keg Session Pale Ale (up to 4.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Rebellion Beer Co. Ltd. Hazy Pale 4.3%

S SILVER: Green Duck Beer Co Remedy 4.0% S SILVER: Blue Monkey brewing ltd Mosaic session Pale 4.2%

S SILVER: Langton Brewery Tiny IPA 3.2%

S SILVER: Loose Cannon Brewery Session IPA 4.1%

B BRONZE: Charnwood Brewery Blue Fox 4.2%

Keg Session Lager (up to 4.4%)

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Rebellion Beer Co. Ltd. Rebellion Lager 4.3%

S SILVER: Thornbridge Brewery Lukas 4.2% S SILVER: Loose Cannon Brewery 676 Lager 4.0%

S SILVER: Milestone Pilsner Lager 4.0%

S SILVER: Birmingham Brewing Company Stirchley Lager 4.4%

G

G

B BRONZE: Alter Ego Brewing Co Force Field 4.5%

B BRONZE: Little Brewing Company Ltd L'amore te Jour 5.5%

B BRONZE: Green Duck Beer Co Foam Party 4.5%

B BRONZE: Milestone Pacific Islander 5.0%

B BRONZE: Attic Brew Co. Forward 4.2%

B BRONZE: The Indian Brewery Pekok Lager 4.0%

Keg Non-Alcoholic & Low ABV

G OVERALL GOLD - Champion: Birmingham Brewing Company Sober Brummie - Stout 0.5%

Keg Imperial & Strong Ales

Stroud Brewery’s beer debuts in the Houses of Parliament

Having been in the heart of Stroud’s five valleys for 18 years, Stroud Brewery’s beer has made its debut in the heart of Westminster.

Its award-winning, signature beer, Budding, was served in September as a guest beer at the Strangers' Bar in the Houses of Parliament. This is the first time one of the brewery's organic cask beers has appeared in Parliament and was a key event in the brewery’s activities for Organic September.

The guest appearance of Budding is the result of an official request made by Simon Opher, MP for Stroud, who is a long-time supporter of the brewery and its commitment to organic and sustainable practices. Greg met Simon in the Strangers Bar to mark the occasion and serve a pint behind the historic bar. Mr Opher expressed his excitement at seeing the beer available to MPs, peers, and staff, saying: "I’m delighted that I can get a pint of Budding here in Parliament. It’s a little bit of home in what can be quite a challenging environment. It’s also great to be able to help spread the message about the importance of organic and sustainable food. We have to do everything we can to tackle the climate emergency, and having organic beer from Stroud Brewery available here helps to keep that at the forefront of all our minds."

It's hoped that having Budding on the bar helped make MPs aware of Organic September, the UK’s annual celebration of all things organic, from food and drink to cosmetics and clothing. Led by The Soil Association and UK Organic, the campaign promotes the benefits of organic products for health and the environment. Stroud Brewery’s involvement in the campaign underscores its dedication to organic brewing and sustainability.

Greg Pilley, founder & MD of Stroud Brewery, said: "We are thrilled to have Budding featured in such a prestigious setting, especially during Organic September. As a brewery committed to sustainability and organic principles, it's wonderful to see our beer representing these values in Parliament. We hope this will spark conversations around the importance of supporting organic and sustainable producers."

Stroud Brewery has become a leading advocate for organic brewing, using only the finest ingredients to produce high-quality beers while minimising its environmental impact. Budding, named after the inventor of the lawnmower, Edwin Budding, is a pale ale with a delicate balance of malt and hops that has earned numerous accolades.

Its appearance in the Houses of Parliament is not just a win for Stroud Brewery but also for the growing movement towards organic products, further raising awareness about the crucial role sustainability plays in tackling climate change. For more information visit www.stroudbrewery.co.uk.

Rooster’s appoints new Sales Director

Rooster’s Brewing Co is delighted to announce the appointment of Ian Galbraith as its new Sales Director.

Joining from Kirkstall Brewery, where he has held a similar position for the past five years, Ian will also become Joint Managing Director along with Tom Fozard, Rooster’s Operations Director.

Commenting on the appointment, Ian Fozard, Rooster’s Chairman said: “We’re delighted that Ian is joining us – he has a strong track record in growing craft beer sales in what is a tough market. Ian’s appointment will enable me to step back from much of the day to day detail I have become involved in and I’m very much looking forward to working with him as we aim to grow the Rooster’s and Daleside brands utilising his experience and knowledge.”

Ian brings a wealth of experience to his new role at Rooster’s having previously worked as Head of Take Home sales at Black Sheep Brewery, prior to joining Kirkstall. Upon joining Rooster’s Ian said: “I’m really excited to be able to take up this position with the team at Rooster’s. They are true innovators in beer and have been a respected fixture on the beer scene for many years so, helping them develop and grow is a great opportunity.”

With a focus on sales, Ian will work with Tom Fozard as Joint Managing Director in helping the business take the next step along as the brewery enters its 32nd year since being established in 1993. Tom Fozard said: “I’m looking forward to be working alongside Ian and I’m extremely pleased that we’ve been able to attract and appoint someone of his calibre. Not only does Ian bring a wealth of experience and a high level skillset that will help both Rooster’s and Daleside take strides forward, he also quickly passed the pint test, which is almost as important in this industry!”

Find out more at www.roosters.co.uk

Hogs Back Brewery celebrates 10 years of hop growing

Hogs Back Brewery marked the 10th anniversary of growing its own hops this year, by harvesting its three hop varieties.

Fuggles, used in its flagship traditional English Ale, Tongham TEA; English Cascade, used in its Hogstar lager and Surrey Nirvana Session IPA, and Farnham White Bine, a heritage variety, local to the traditional hop growing region of Surrey.

The harvest provides around 60% of the brewer’s hop requirements.

Rupert Thompson, Hogs Back managing director, said: “Over the decade, our hop garden

has gone from strength to strength. Although this year’s crop wasn’t our biggest ever, largely because of wet weather early in the growing cycle, the quality of the hops is excellent, and they will add a distinctive flavour to our beers.

“As always, we are enormously grateful to our band of volunteer Hoppers who now number more than 70, and who help us year-round in the hop garden. Thanks also go to estate manager Matthew King for his skilful and dedicated care of our hops.”

He added: “We planted our first hop garden in 2014 to help us become a more sustainable brewery, to bring hop farming back to the

Farnham region, and to build ties with the local community. It gives me great pleasure to see how we have achieved all these goals, with the Hop Harvest celebrations a wonderful reflection of the community’s support, as local businesses and volunteers helped to make the event a success.”

The hops from this year’s harvest will be entered into the Institute of Brewing and Distilling’s annual hop growing competition, with the brewery hoping to replicate last year’s success with medals in three categories and winning the coveted Le Mays cup.

Find out more at www.hogsback.co.uk

Gosnells launches revolutionary Blueberry Velvet Nectar

Just in time for the cooler months, Gosnells has introduced its newest creation: Blueberry Velvet Nectar. This limited-edition, on-trade exclusive is set to add a splash of warmth and colour to winter drinks lineups.

Available from the end of September, this industry first product is only available to buy in pubs and bars in pints, due to how it is dispensed.

Gosnells Blueberry Velvet Nectar (4.4% ABV) is 100% Blossom Honey blended with sweet, crisp blueberries and served through a cream filter for a velvety smooth, blueberry flavour. Unlike its range of sparkling Nectars, Gosnells has brewed this Velvet version with nitrogen gas, creating much smaller bubbles. The smaller bubbles in turn create a much tighter foam for the head and also, once drunk, a smoother feeling on the tongue giving more creaminess and better mouthfeel - hence the name 'Velvet'.

“We’re really excited about Blueberry Velvet Nectar,” says Gosnells Sales Director, Cameron McKenzie-Wilde. “It’s a unique blend that’s both bold and comforting - just right for the colder months. The nitro keg style gives a comforting luxurious mouthfeel and Blueberry Velvet has a lovely matt pink colour, making it a really eye-catching pour. Like all our Nectars it’s brewed with 100% natural ingredients, is gluten-free, sulphite-free and has no nasty chemicals. Plus, it’s lighter in calories compared to most fruit ciders, so it’s a great option if you’re looking for something delicious but not too heavy.

“The new Blueberry Velvet Nectar will debut at Gosnells’ Bermondsey Bar on Enid Street from September 27th. It will then be available exclusively to pubs and bars only, across London, helping to support the hospitality trade, driving footfall by creating a drinking experience that consumers cannot replicate at home."

Find out more at www.gosnells.co.uk

Hogs Back Hoppers at their celebratory evening, which was hosted by Hop Estate Manager, Matthew (front row on the right)

Sheffield based Abbeydale Brewery has become an Employee Ownership Trust, strengthening the commitment to its talented team, safeguarding its longstanding values and securing the legacy of the business.

This change of ownership covers the whole business, encompassing the brewery itself and its pub, The Rising Sun in Nether Green. Both the brewery and pub are now 100% employee owned, with a company name chosen by the new employee owners of Sheffield Beerworks EOT Ltd.

Since its foundation in 1996, Abbeydale Brewery has always utilised a people-focused ethos, growing organically over the past three decades and being open to learning from the team.

The business, which employs over 50 staff (split between the brewery itself and the pub) has always been firmly rooted within the community. It benefits from an engaged and committed workforce, all of whom reside within the local area.

Employee ownership will ensure that the business can continue to drive forwards with the values of independence, community and teamwork which it holds as key - overall

Abbeydale Brewery becomes 100% employee owned

retaining, building upon, and further developing the principles held for the past 28 years.

Selling owner Sue Morton says: “As well as trying to grow the business safely and organically, we have always tried to maintain an inclusive and supportive culture with the people who work with and for us. The future of the business is important to us, and we have always said we would not sell out to the ‘big boys’. We can think of no better option to secure the legacy of Abbeydale Brewery than to trust our team with the business they have helped us to build, together – we’re looking forward to seeing the exciting new developments they will bring forward.”

A limited-edition beer will be released to commemorate the occasion. With a recipe that was democratically chosen by the team. “Trust” will be a sessionable pale ale, intended to capture the essence of the beers that have enabled the business to reach this milestone. Brewery founders Pat and Sue Morton will continue to be involved with Abbeydale Brewery – whilst they will step back from the day-to-day running of the business, their positions on the Board of Directors will remain, and they will continue to play an advisory role

in the management of the business.

The new Board of Trustees will be comprised of Jon Conroy who will be the independent chair, Pat Morton (selling owner), Dan Baxter (Co-Managing Director of Abbeydale Brewery Ltd and Abbeydale Inns T/A The Rising Sun), and two employee representatives - Finlay MacDonald who is a bartender at the Rising Sun and brewer Christie McIntosh representing the manufacturing side of the business.

Dan says: “I could not be more proud of our team and everything we have achieved together over the years. We are a humble bunch, mentored by Pat and Sue, and have a vast skill set amongst our staff at both the brewery and the Rising Sun. The future for the business is very exciting! The support of our customers and our community is paramount as it always has been. So a massive thank you for enjoying our beer. We will continue to do what we do best.”

Abbeydale Brewery joins a growing movement of EOTs that also includes companies such as Aardman Animations, cosmetics supplies Lush, and fellow Sheffield based Gripple and Swann Morton.

Find out more at www.abbeydalebrewery.co.uk

Abbeydale

Brewery’s Jim Rangeley named Brewer of the Year

Sheffield’s Abbeydale Brewery’s Lead Brewer, Jim Rangeley, was named Brewer of the Year at the 2024 Brewers Choice Awards.

Jim was presented with the prestigious award at a London ceremony, where he and the team celebrated alongside hundreds of their brewing industry peers at the annual industry event. Jim, 35, who hails from Sheffield and this year celebrates a decade of working in the beer industry, heads up Abbeydale’s small batch, mixed fermentation “Funk Dungeon” project, alongside being a valued part of the brew team.

Jim says “I’m privileged to have a job I truly enjoy, working as part of a brilliant team for a company that puts its trust in me. To have even been shortlisted was incredibly humbling and it’s a true honour to have won.”

Paul Savage appointed Managing Director of Docks Beers and Docks Academy

Docks Beers in Lincolnshire has appointed Paul Savage as its new Managing Director.

Paul joins the Docks team from ASM Global, the world’s largest venue management company. He spent the last seven years as Head of Sales and Marketing at Connexin Live in Hull. During his time in Hull, the team won multiple national and international awards, bringing 700,000 people to the 4,000-capacity venue. Artists such as Bob Dylan, Noel Gallagher, Sean Paul, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Kaiser Chiefs and Blondie have performed there since it opened in 2018.

Previously, Paul spent 10 years as Marketing Manager at The Baths Hall in Scunthorpe, part of the senior leadership team which attracted the likes of Arcade Fire, Florence and the Machine, Courteeners, Paul Weller and Romesh Ranganathan to the town.

As part of his new role, Paul will also take on Managing Director duties at Docks Academy.

As Managing Director, Paul will oversee all aspects of Docks Beers and Docks Academy, including strategic planning for brewery and events, sales and marketing, product development, further developing commercial partnerships and will focus on strengthening the brand’s position as the best brewery in Lincolnshire. He will also work with the excellent programming team to attract more events and gigs to the venue.

Paul said: “I am incredibly excited, and feel hugely privileged, to be given the opportunity to work with the Docks team. Docks Beers and Docks Academy have become some of the most iconic brands in the region thanks to the hard work of everyone within the Docks family and I cannot wait to join them in November. Having spent most of my career working in other towns and cities, I’m very much looking forward to coming ‘home’ to work in Grimsby and to grow Docks even further.”

"We're thrilled to welcome Paul to the Docks

family,” said Will Douglas, Docks Beers Director and co-founder. "His extensive experience as Head of Sales and Marketing at Connexin Live, and the fact that Grimsby runs through him thick and thin, stands him in excellent stead to take our brands forward. His proven track record of driving growth and innovation in the entertainment industry brings a fresh, strategic vision to our business and we're excited to see where this will take the brewery and venue as we continue to expand our reach and enhance our offerings to customers and audiences alike. I'm confident that his experience and passion for the brands will ensure that the company remains focused on delivering exceptional products and live experiences, while also embracing new strategic opportunities. As part of the leadership transition, I will remain in the business and work closely with Paul in a supporting role for the foreseeable.”

Find out more at www.docksbeers.com

Sussex brewer installs ‘first of its kind' heat pump

Sussex-based Hepworth Brewery is ramping up its long-standing sustainability drive by becoming the first business in the UK to trial a pioneering new heat pump which can cut carbon emissions by up to 90%.

The Greensteam heat pump from Futraheat cost-effectively recovers low grade waste vapour from the brewing process and delivers it back as steam with a temperature of 130°C - far higher than most heat pumps, which typically deliver hot water up to around 80°C. This is the first time a steam-generating heat pump has been installed in the UK.

Initially operating on just the boil stage of brewing at Hepworth Brewery, the heat pump could, if rolled out across the brewery, replace the oil boiler completely, enabling the brewer to cut carbon emissions by up to 90% and reduce its fuel costs by around 40%.

The new heat pump is the latest in a long line of sustainability measures undertaken by

Hepworth Brewery, which is on track to fulfil its ambition of becoming 85% carbon neutral by the end of 2025.

Later this year, it is installing an ‘industriWASE' anaerobic digester, which converts the organic matter in wastewater into biomethane, a renewable energy source. It expects to eventually treat 7,800 cubic metres of wastewater a year and save over 100 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Hepworth Brewery chairman Andy Hepworth said: "Sustainability has driven the way we do business from Day 1 and the heat pump, if successful in trial, will be an important next step on our journey to carbon neutrality. With heat such a vital part of the brewing process, finding a solution that delivers the heat we need, while also cutting our emissions and costs, promises to be transformational.

"Futraheat and WASE are both pioneers in sustainable technology and we are delighted to be partnering with them to realise our shared ambitions for a cleaner, lower carbon future."

Other sustainability initiatives at Hepworth Brewery include installing solar panels; using reed beds to clean its low-grade effluent; taking heat from beer chillers to heat the brewery offices, shop and tap room and installing rain recovery equipment, with the water used for cleaning. The brewer also strives to minimise its food miles by sourcing barley and hops as locally as possible.

At the same time, Hepworth Brewery is introducing a new logo and strapline of ‘great beer, naturally' to encapsulate its ethos of brewing great-tasting beer from natural, high quality ingredients, while continually striving to become a more sustainable brewer.

Hepworth added: "All brands evolve over time and it became clear that we needed a new strapline. ‘Great beer, naturally' really gets to the core of what Hepworth Brewery is all about and will help us to communicate more effectively to all our audiences."

Find out more at www.hepworthbrewery. co.uk

Titanic Brewery commits to support its community

The Titanic Brewery Foundation has been launched to support the communities around the Titanic Brewery and its pubs and bars.

The Foundation has an independent board and is part funded by Titanic Brewery and will support projects and causes within 10 miles of any Titanic pub or bod Café Bar.

The foundation will work to support charities, community interest companies and grassroots projects that are dedicated to carrying out activities that benefit residents local to Titanic’s brewery, and its pubs and bod café bars.

Community groups and causes will be invited to apply for grants between £250 and £2,500 to help fund equipment, activities or projects that will have a positive impact for local residents.

“Since we first started brewing in 1985, we have been committed to bringing people together with great beer,” explains Dave Bott, a Director at Titanic Brewery. “Our business wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for these communities, which is why we’ve decided to establish this foundation as a way to give back and support some of the incredible charitable work that happens on our doorstep.

“Pubs across the country are at the beating heart of their communities and we have always tried to support the amazing people who live near our outlets. The Foundation will mean that some of the proceeds from every pint we sell will go straight to the people we care about most. Those customers who want to will also be able to convert their Titanic Loyalty Points into donations that will go straight to the foundation.”

Bays Brewery triumphs at Food Drink Devon Awards 2024

Torbay-based Bays Brewery is raising a toast to the news that it has won six accolades across three categories at the prestigious Food Drink Devon Awards 2024.

Its much-loved Devon Rock Craft Lager tickled the taste buds of judges, winning the family-run business a much-coveted Platinum award in the ‘Producer’ category.

Meanwhile, its well-established Devon Dumpling and Pure Gold ales were given silver in the same category which recognised the county’s most passionate food and drink producers.

But it wasn’t just the Devon brewery’s awardwinning beers that triumphed, with Bays also honoured with a Gold accolade in the ‘Sustainability Pioneer’ category.

Given to local producers who demonstrated ‘quality, sustainability and provenance’, the award recognised the brewery’s efforts in flying the flag for local beer crafted the Devon way.

In its first wave of funding, the Titanic Brewery Foundation has already awarded £9,300 to seven organisations. Grant recipients include Newport Cottage Care, who received £1,000 to create a new quiet room to support dementia day care services; and St Vincent Explorer Sea Scouts, who received £2,500 to purchase new tents and outdoor campaign equipment.

“The idea with these grants is not that they’re used for day-to-day running costs,” continues Dave, “but instead are used to help make those purchases and investments that have always just been out of reach. We want the foundation to be there to help organisations to enrich the lives of local communities, and we’re excited to watch these groups flourish and continue to do the vital work they do.”

More information can be found at www.titanicbrewery.co.uk/ foundation

(from L to R): Bays Brewery Director, Peter Salmon, Administrator Sam Wicks, Sales Advisor Sean Beeson and Operations Manager Jo Pottinger.

Completing Bays’ awards haul was a Gold accolade in the ‘Best Online Retailer’ category, recognising the success of its online shop in delivering local beers to doorsteps across Devon and beyond.

Bays Brewery Director, Peter Salmon, said: “We are hugely proud to have walked away from the Food Drink Devon Awards 2024 with not just one but six accolades – it’s a huge testament to our amazing team who have proven that they

really are the best in the beer business.

"We’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge ‘thank you’ to all our customers and industry partners who continue to support us and champion our Devon beers, all of which we are proud to say are brewed right in the heart of Torbay."

Find out more at www.baysbrewery.co.uk

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Arran Brewery, which acquired Flying Firkin, is looking to boost SIBA members’ participation in beer festivals

UK wide

By setting up a network of Independent Brewery hubs, Flying Firkin is now able to supply beers from outside of any beer festival area.

Working on the assumption that beer festival organisers will be sourcing local beers directly, and therefore only looking to source interesting beers from the rest of the UK to provide their visitors with a variety of beers not normally available locally, by using SIBA Beerflex, SIBA members will be able to drop their beers of locally, and collect empty casks but have their beer feature in festivals anywhere in the UK.

Flying Firkin will also let brewers know if their

beers picked up any awards at the festival. While one way casks are best for festivals, as they remove the need to return casks, there are cost implications to balance against the cost of cask hire. Although there is a caveat in that festivals are notorious for not returning the right casks to the wholesaler providing the beer so, even if you do supply your own

Lakes Brew Co to open new taproom in the heart of the Lake District

casks, a number of them will get lost only turning up via Kegwatch with the associated recovery fee needing to be paid.

For further information on getting your brands enjoyed further afield or to be considered as an additional hub contact Gerald@flyingfirkin.co.uk

With its new taproom coming to Ambleside in early 2025, Lakes Brew Co aims to create a vibrant, inclusive, family friendly social space for locals and visitors, which blends the modern and traditional parts of the area.

Offering and showcasing a wide range of the brewery’s own award winning craft beers, all brewed and packaged at the brewery within 14 miles of the premise, these will sit alongside other new and exciting drinks, creating a comprehensive offer to suit all tastes.

The brewery said: “We are constantly being asked when are you going to open a permanent taproom, and that time is now. A flagship venue, in the heart of the Lakes.”

For the last two years the team has successfully run a pop-up tap space once a month, in the brewery on the Mintsfeet industrial estate in Kendal, and these will still go ahead. The pop-up weekends have engaged locals, and the initiative has grown with every passing month.

The team don’t want to give up the personal interaction with the loyal following who have supported them from the very beginning.

The Lakes Brew Co team has invited Toast of Windermere to join them as their on-site food vendor, in this exciting new venture. Toast in looking to expand on its current site in Windermere and take its street toast to the next level, using locally sourced produce to create new and exciting food offerings not currently readily available in the Lakes, with the plan for interesting weekend menu changes to keep the offer fresh, modern and exciting.

Michelle Gay, Co-founder, said: “The hope is to create a space where everyone can go, feel relaxed, drink some great beer and eat some amazing food, by two modern, local independent businesses. The space and offer will be something completely different to what you can currently get in Ambleside at the moment.”

Find out more at www.lakesbrewco.com

NEXT COURSE: 30 MARCH 2 APRIL 2025

Rob Smith, Hayley Young & David Smith Office Telephone: 01904 233418 enquiries@brewingservices.co.uk www.brewingservices.co.uk

Nirvana Bests itself

Nirvana, the UK’s first dedicated no/low brewery, has launched Nirvana Best, its first-ever Amber Ale (0.5% ABV) and its take on a quintessentially British best bitter.

Available in 500ml bottles and keg, the beer also features Nirvana’s new bold look – soon to be featured across its now eight-strong range.

Nirvana Best is the brewery’s fourth release of 2024, following its most recent, the successful launch of Pils in June.

Described as full-bodied and a ‘homegrown classic’, Best features a rich, malty, backbone of Maris Otter and Amber malts. These are complemented by a touch of oats and classic English Goldings hops, which bring earthy, floral and spicy notes for balance. The combination results in a complex, yet refreshing, bitterness with subtle caramel undertones. With its launch, the brewery now has four beers available in 500ml format – one that works well for both stockists and drinkers across multiple categories, whether on or off-trade.

Becky Kean, founder and brand ambassador, said: “Since we started back in 2016, we’ve had requests from customers for a ‘real ale’ or traditional best bitter. Now, as we approach our 10-year anniversary, we’ve brewed one that ticks all the right boxes – an outstanding homegrown beer, featuring classic ale malts and hops.”

Find out more at www.nirvanabrewerry.com

St Austell Brewery has released its first low-alcohol beer

under its flagship IPA brand, Proper Job

Launching from October, St Austell Brewery has been perfecting Proper Job 0.5% ABV for over two years.

The independent and family-owned 173-year-old brewery has been meticulously tweaking its recipe to create a beer which celebrates Proper Job’s famous flavour profile. St Austell Brewery has high ambitions that its 0.5% equivalent will become one of the best no/low IPAs on the market.

Proper Job 0.5% ABV is brewed with Cascade, Willamette and Chinook hops - the hops in Proper Job – giving those signature citrus, grapefruit and pineapple flavours in a clean and crisp low-alcohol version.

Brewing Director for St Austell Brewery, Georgina Young, said: “Low and no-alcohol drinks have been around for decades but there’s been a significant increase in demand over the past five years.

“Knowing how loved Proper Job is amongst beer drinkers, we opted to respond to this demand by bringing the big, vivid flavours of our flagship brand to the low-alcohol market. “Whilst it’s been a long time coming for St Austell Brewery to release a low-alcohol beer, we took time to evolve a brewing method that would create a naturally authentic IPA, worthy of being branded Proper Job 0.5%. We wouldn’t settle for anything less than a well-bodied, tasty IPA without the alcohol, and we’ve finally perfected a recipe which has nailed that.”

Georgina added: “Consumer testing was the final stage in our journey and we were thrilled it was deemed the overwhelming favourite against many of our competitors in extensive taste tests.”

Find out more at www.staustellbrewery.co.uk.

Lyall Dew, Director of Brewing at

Rude Giant looks back on his brewing journey…

“In 2022 I was called by a friend who had made the heartbreaking decision to close his brewery after six years of blood sweat and tears. A combination of family pressures, increasing business stress caused by the pandemic and everincreasing costs left little option as a sole trader.

He knew that I had felt down and out after being forced to leave the industry during the end of Covid in 2020 and wanted to know if I’d like to take the brewery on myself.

My interest was immediately piqued, and I got straight onto an old friend of mine to see what his thoughts were. We’d been chatting on and off for years about the idea of opening a brewery to supply his hospitality venues and we agreed to go and take a look round before making any further business plans. When we visited the familiar space my future business partner had brought a familiar face with him; a local business owner with big ambitions that it turns out I used to teach. We couldn’t be a more local bunch. After a wander and chat, we headed to a cosy pub for a debrief; I turned to them both and asked, ‘So what do you think?’

Much to my surprise, not only did they think the idea was a goer, but they also thought we needed to think bigger. Start anew with a new brand, new brewery and new vibe for our local town of Salisbury.

I was blown away by their enthusiasm; it was infectious. For the next few months while we churned through business plans, potential premises and branding it was all I could think about, while trying to act normally in my 9-5 office job.

Finally, we found the Holy Grail – a small local brewery that was looking for a change. Better a small part of something big than a big part of something small…

With our brand and business plan hashed out over evening Zoom meetings and a quick call to a friend, keen to get out of hospitality, we had it: Rude Giant Brew Co, complete with branding, premises, brewkit and a handful of recipes I’d been toying with for the past few years. We’d staff it with just myself and Henry and smash into the local market with our proper, tasty beers.

Despite being an eternal optimist, even I had expected there to be a ‘But then…’ but (still to my joy and amazement) the journey continues on this trajectory. 18 Months in from founding Rude Giant we have just brewed our 100th 30HL batch and are now supplying over 50 local pubs, restaurants and hotels with our beers. We’ve opened a live events venue, resurrected a village pub and picked up a Gold Award for our best-selling lager all while creating a perfect range of core beers that put the mass produced beers to shame.

Who knows what will happen over the next year, but I, for one, can’t wait to see.”

Find out more at www.rudegiantbeerhouse.co.uk

Croxsons teams up with SIBA to support independent brewers with Indie

Beer crowns

Leading glass packaging company Croxsons has recently teamed up with SIBA to support the Indie Beer campaign, an initiative designed to promote and protect the UK’s independent brewing community.

As part of this collaboration, Croxsons, a SIBA Gold Member, will supply bespoke Indie Beerbranded crowns (crown corks) that help breweries show their support for the campaign and highlight their status as independent producers of high-quality, handcrafted beer.

To make the campaign accessible to as many breweries as possible, SIBA is providing a 50% subsidy on the first 500,000 crowns, encouraging breweries to proudly display their support for the movement.

The Indie Beer campaign seeks to make the Indie Beer mark a trusted symbol for consumers seeking quality craft and cask beer, brewed passionately by independent brewers. With support from key industry groups the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), the Independent Family Brewers of Britain (IFBB) and the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII), the campaign advocates for independent brewers and encourages a deeper connection between brewers and beer lovers.

“SIBA is delighted to be working with Croxsons to provide new Indie Beer crowns for breweries to signify themselves as a part of the campaign and a genuine independent brewer,” said Neil Walker, SIBA Head of Comms & Marketing. “By working together, independent brewers and suppliers can help consumers make a more informed choice, ensuring they’re buying beer handmade by real people who truly care about the quality and flavour of the beer they produce.”

Commenting on the campaign, Croxsons’ CEO, Tim Croxson, added: “By using Croxsons’ Indie Beer crowns, breweries can proudly showcase their commitment to quality and their independent status, helping consumers make conscious choices that support local businesses, protect pubs and contribute to a more sustainable beer industry.”

Find out more at www.croxsons.com/our-products/indie-beer-crowns/

Croxsons announces formal commitment to charitable giving

Croxsons has placed an emphasis on its rich heritage of charitable giving, by joining Giving What We Can's 10% Pledge and committing at least 10% of its net profits to effective charities.

The move formalises Croxsons support for both local and global causes, which it has maintained for over three decades and across two generations. It also reinforces the company's core purpose of making a difference.

Giving What We Can is a global community that encourages businesses to pledge at least 10% of their profits to charities. Founded in 2009, it helps people and companies make impactful donations by combining evidence and reason to address major global challenges like poverty, education and climate change.

Tim Croxson, Croxsons’ CEO, said: “As a team, we have shown our commitment to charitable giving every year by supporting great causes close to our hearts. By signing the 10% Pledge, we affirm this generational commitment, reinforcing our values to make a difference wherever we can.”

Charles Faram’s hop Harlequin® wins big at the US Open Beer Championship

Harlequin Dancer, brewed by Three Wide Brewing in Fort Worth, Texas, has taken home the prestigious gold medal at the US Open Beer Championship.

This achievement is a testament to the quality of the beer but also celebrates the unique characteristics of the British hop variety, Harlequin®, which have captured the hearts (and taste buds) of beer lovers.

“Harlequin was really a breath of fresh air,” said Joshua Mercer from Three Wide Brewing. “Having a hop at my disposal which gives me orange, lemon, and stone fruit, all in a more subtle way than your typical American hop variety, allows me to create beers with more nuance and gentle character.”

Harlequin, grown in Herefordshire, hopped to the top of the Charles Faram Hop Development

Programme and was first offered commercially in 2019. As the daughter of Godiva™ and granddaughter of Jester®, Harlequin bursts with New World aromatics, offering bright citrus and tropical fruits, while maintaining that distinctive subtle hint of UK terroir.

Will Rogers, Technical Director at Charles Faram, highlighted the significance of Harlequin, stating: “In Harlequin, British hop growers have a hop that can compete on the International stage. Brewers can rely on a consistent, reliable source of this exciting new variety, being grown sustainably in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and now Kent. Growers have responded extremely positively and planted additional acreage to guarantee plentiful supplies.”

Find out more at www.charlesfaram.com

INDEPENDENT FAMILY MALTSTERS SINCE 1809

• Manufacturing Quality Malts for Over 200 Years

• 30 Different Malts

• Roasted & Floor Made Malts

+44 (0)1977 552490

www.fawcett-maltsters.co.uk sales@fawcett-maltsters.co.uk

Eastfield Lane, Castleford, West Yorkshire, WF10 4LE, United Kingdom

Vigo and Comac –a winning partnership

Vigo has announced it has partnered with Comac, one of the world leaders in kegging and counter pressure canning equipment.

This partnership brings together Comac’s precision craftsmanship and innovation, with Vigo’s breadth of engineering services, from installation and upgrades to servicing, maintenance, and breakdown support.

Comac kegging machines range from semi-automatic clean and fill systems (15-35 kegs per hour) to fully automated lines, capable of handling up to 1000 kegs per hour, ensuring efficiency for producers both small and large.

The rotary counter pressure canning lines are engineered for top performance, accommodating production speeds from 3000-82,000 cans per hour. Each is highly customisable, with a variety of depalletising and conveying options allowing the flexibility that is essential to the modern drinks producer.

In addition to kegging and canning equipment, Comac also offers a range of additional equipment manufactured in-house which includes advanced equipment for Clean in Place (CIP) systems, carbonation, and both flash and tunnel pasteurisation.

This Comac range is backed up by Vigo’s in-house team of nine highly skilled engineers. The UK-based team brings a diverse range of skills to the table, encompassing mechanical, electrical, electronic, and fabrication expertise. This means that whether it’s a simple installation or a complex upgrade, servicing and maintenance or support, expert guidance is just a phone call away.

If you’d like to find out more about the Comac range, or to discuss your canning and kegging requirements, call 01404 892 100.

Niche Solutions elevates brewer support with postage-included 24/48hr gluten testing and free Lumista Gold® enzyme

Niche Solutions, a premier provider of specialised products for the brewing industry, is thrilled to introduce a new service aimed at supporting commercial brewers.

The new service features 24 or 48 hour gluten testing that includes free sample collection and a complimentary supply of Lumista Gold®, a top-tier gluten and chill haze reduction enzyme, in every test pack.

This offer exemplifies Niche Solutions' dedication to advancing quality and innovation in brewing while providing unparalleled convenience to brewers.

Niche Solutions is renowned for its extensive catalogue of products, tailored to meet the diverse needs of the brewing industry. The offerings range from essential ingredients like yeast and fermentation aids to advanced filtration and hygiene products. This new service makes gluten testing far more convenient, enabling brewers to swiftly cater to the increasing consumer demand for gluten-free options.

The service not only provides 24 or 48 hour gluten testing, but also emphasises convenience. Brewers receive everything they need for sample collection, including sample bottles, a return box, and track 24-hour postage labels. This streamlined process eliminates the need for brewers to arrange packing and shipping themselves, saving time and effort while ensuring samples reach the testing facility swiftly and securely.

Incredibly, each gluten test ordered includes a free supply of Lumista Gold® that reduces gluten and chill haze in beer by targeting haze-active proteins rich in proline residues. This maintains the beer's stability throughout its shelf life. The process won't affect the beer's fermentation, taste, or foam stability either, making it a reliable solution for brewers.

This service underscores Niche Solutions' dedication to making high-quality commercial brewing efficient and hassle-free. The service spanning gluten testing, free enzymes, and easy shipping, provides brewers with peace of mind and the ability to focus on crafting exceptional beers.

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

Craft Beer is Dead, Long Live Beer Craft

WPA Pinfold’s Myles Pinfold looks at the evolution of the term ‘craft beer’…

“The craft beer revolution erupted in the USA around the beginning of this Century, at a time when the big, macro brewers dominated the market and volume over variety prevailed.

The American craft brewers had largely graduated from the ‘school’ of homebrewing and many had taken their inspiration from the traditional ales of both the UK and other European brewing nations. It was thanks to these early pioneers that the eponymous term ‘craft beer’ came into being and the craft beer revolution that ensued has become a textbook case of how to reposition a category from commodity to high-end.

The Brewers Association (BA), formed in 2005, was fundamental in helping these brewers unite in transforming the habits of a nation. According to BA stats, in the space of two decades craft’s share of the American beer market had grown to 13% by volume and a whopping 25% by value ($30 billion).

Not only had these craft brewers reinvented many of our own traditional beers (IPA being the exemplar) they also discovered the transformative power of branding – Milton Glazer branded Brooklyn Brewery, Ralph Steadman created the Flying Dog packaging and Odell was reinvented thanks to its rebrand.

The smart brewers invested in brand design to create a unique positioning for their beers and their packaging became their guerilla

The UK faces a similar dilemma in understanding the meaning of ‘craft beer’. Some of our most successful craft brewers have monetised their investment and become part of bigger entities. Supplier Viewpoint

tactic of choice – no need for mass media campaigns. The UK duly followed suit, eschewing the traditional beers that had so inspired the Americans, and a new generation of breweries came about – peaking at over 2,000.

However, the term ‘craft beer’ is a nebulous one and very much dependant on the mind of the beholder. Even the Brewers Association had to keep redefining its measures for what constituted an American craft brewer (‘small and independent’) as its members grew to national scale. Many of those successful craft brewers now exist simply as a part of larger brand portfolios owned by big brewers, who followed the American business ethos of ‘if you can’t beat them, buy them’.

The UK faces a similar dilemma in understanding the meaning of ‘craft beer’. Some of our most successful craft brewers have monetised their investment and become part of bigger entities. Whilst the off-trade retailers (accounting for approximately 60% of our beer sales) have adopted their own

categorisations. For example, if you check out the Tesco website for ‘craft beer’ the leaders of the pack are: Guinness, Beavertown, Brew Dog and Camden… Moreover, what of the consumer. The craft brewers have changed our drinking habits – we have become more experimental and promiscuous in our choice of beers, and many of us are hooked on hops. We are also willing to pay considerably more for our pint. However, the market has gravitated towards the middle ground (big brewer territory) and most ‘craft beers’ have evolved from the hop forward, high ABVs of earlier times to being more sessional, with ABVs plummeting. Cask conditioned beer, the inspiration for the American craft revolutionaries, is being rediscovered by a new generation of drinkers, as are our traditional and authentic breweries too.

The Craft Beer Revolution is over and we are all the revolution now (to misquote Napoleon). At the end of the day, beer is beer, it is a part of our social culture (as are our pubs and bars) and the democratic drink of choice for many. The legacy is that we have a greater appreciation for beer craft - quality, taste and variety of choice. Small artisan brewers are here to stay and there is a propensity for consumers to buy local.”

WPA Pinfold has branded over 100 beers and won over 160 global brand design awards. Find out more at www.wpa-pinfold.co.uk

SIBA Gold members

BrewMan

James Gardner james@premiersystems.com

Breww Ltd

James Collier hello@breww.com

Charles Faram

Any of the team sales@charlesfaram.co.uk

Close Brothers Brewery Rentals

Becki Mason Rebecca.Mason@closebrothers.com

Crisp Malting Group

Colin Johnston colin.johnston@crispmalt.com

Kegstar

James Bleakley jamesb@kegstar.com

Loughran Brewers

Select

Digby Fullam marketing@malt.ie

Murphy & Son

Frances Maud frances.maud@murphyandson.co.uk

Napthens LLP

James Allison

James.Allison@napthens.co.uk

Rawlings Group with Vigo

Tom Wood thomaswood@rawlingsbristol.co.uk

Thomas Fawcett & Sons

James Fawcett james@fawcett-maltsters.co.uk

William Croxson & Son Limited Sales Team sales@croxsons.com

SIBA Silver members

Anton Paar Ltd

Tertia Rimell tertia.rimell@anton-paar.com

Beatson Clark Ltd

Charlotte Pike sales@beatsonclark.co.uk

Beer Box Shop

Simon Hulse sales@beerboxshop.co.uk

Core Equipment Ltd

Jonathan Chaplin claire.white@core-equip.com

Festival Glass

Kelsey Cheesbrough sales@festivalglass.co.uk

GEA UK

Micro Can Ltd Canning Lines

Warren Stanley info@microcan.co.uk

Muntons PLC

Vanessa Makings vanessa.makings@muntons.com

Pneumatic Scale Angelus

Tom Bowdige tom.bowdige@bwpackagingsystems.com

Rankin Brothers & Sons

Jim Rankin sales@rankincork.co.uk

Paul Leeman sales.unitedkingdom@gea.com

Glassware Branding

Richard Ross richard.ross@cnc-group.co.uk

IGC Engineering Ltd

Chris Hamlett chrishamlettigc@onetel.com

Konvoy

Christian Barden konvoy@konvoykegs.co.uk

Lallemand Brewing

Andrew Paterson apaterson@lallemand.com

Lemon Top

Creative

Andy Mogg hello@lemontopcreative.com

Rastal GmbH & Co KG

Timo Leukel timo.leukel@rastal.com

Saxon Packaging

Mike Impson mike.impson@smurfitkappa.co.uk

Simpsons Malt

Richard Simpson orderoffice@simpsonsmalt.co.uk

Vale Labels Ltd

John Riches john@valelabels.co.uk

Willis Publicity

Carl Andrews carl@willispublicity.co.uk

Wine Box Company

Marketing Team marketing@wbc.co.uk

LALLEMAND BREWING

SIBA Head Office: 01765 640441

SIBA Team

Andy Slee Chief Executive andy.slee@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

Elle Spencer-Blanchard

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

Emma Guneyogullari

Membership Services Assistant emma.guneyogullari@siba.co.uk

Megan Brecken Events & Marketing Officer megan.brecken@siba.co.uk

All General Enquiries contact 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 Richard Naisby

Vice-Chairman of SIBA Anthony Hughes

East

Chair Richard Naisby Milton Brewery (Chair of the Board)

Ian Rydings Leigh on Sea Brewery

Matthew Ashford Oakham Ales

John Cussons Ferry Ales Brewery

Midlands

Chair Anneli Baxter Loose Cannon Brewing Co Ltd

Anthony Hughes Lincoln Green Brewing Co Ltd (Vice-Chair of the Board)

Sam Back Attic Brew Co Ltd

Tim Wilkins Bewdley Brewery

North East

Chair Joe Joyce Harrogate Brewing

Ian Fozard Rooster’s Brewery Ltd

Alex Balchin Wold Top Brewery

North West

Ben Croston Fuzzy Duck Brewery

Paul Jones Cloudwater Brew Co

Northern Ireland

Chair William Mayne Bullhouse Brewing Co

Chris Morris Modest Beer Brewing Co

Scotland

Chair Fiona MacEachern Loch Lomond Brewery

Jamie Delap Fyne Ales

Ian McGrath Beath Brewing

South East

Chair Andy Hayward Thames Side Brewery

Dave Hayward Indie Rabble Brew Co

Andy Parker Elusive Brewing Ltd

South West

Chair Paul Arrowsmith Isca Ales Ltd

Alan Collyer The Exeter Brewery

Paul Dimond Branscombe Vale Brewery

Wales

Philip Thomas Bragdy Twt Lol Brewery

Sara Webber S A Brain & Co

PO BOX 136, Ripon, North Yorkshire, HG4 5WW