essential guide to

ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO
MARCH 2016
001 Cover FINAL Beer March 2016.indd 1
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off licenceNEWS 3
ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BEER 2016 www.offlicencenews.co.uk
COMMENT
GREAT
VARIETY
SHOW
When I was young, you drank either
bitter or lager, and always in pints. There
was little choice; any other beer style
was what they had in other countries, as
were the weird glasses they drank from.
Thankfully, that has all changed and
the UK has become one of the most
vibrant beer markets on the planet, with
record numbers of brewers pushing the
boundaries of what a beer can be.
Aroma, flavour and great packaging
are watchwords in the modern beer
world, but above all it’s about variety.
Lager and bitter have been joined by
IPAs, American IPAs, double IPAs, quads,
saisons, sours, fruit beers, coffee stouts,
milk stouts, imperial stouts, brown ales,
red ales, wheat beers, bocks, goses,
kolschs, barrel-aged beers, rye beers and
many more — with twists on each taking
the numbers way out there.
The aim of this supplement is to help
drinks retailers big or small, specialist or
generalist, to make sense of what’s going
on in a fast-moving market.
We look at the heavy issues of the day
like the big mergers and supermarket
rationalisations with retail expert Glynn
Davis, while author Jeff Evans takes
us on a whistle-stop tour of the beer
world’s current coolest countries.
There are tips to sell more beer,
the top trends to be on message with
in 2016, a look at the UK’s punk beer
revolution, the thoughts of the hottest
brewer in Britain and the beers that the
experts would choose to drink above
all others.
We hope you find it interesting,
informative and above all, like exploring
that wonderful world of beers we all
now have access to, fun.
Contents
4
THE ULTIMATE FOUR-PACK
6
HOW TO GET AHEAD IN BEER
9
CASH FROM CHAOS
14
Nigel Huddleston
A handful of trends for
retailers to look out for in 2016
Industry experts provide top
tips on how to sell more beer
16
20
23
Making sense of the
punk ethos pervading
British brewing
KEEP TAKING THE PILS
The future for big lager brands
in a brave new beer world
25
THE WORLD IS YOUR
OYSTER STOUT
The craft brewing nations
making a mark in the UK
WE MADE OUR OWN BEER
Three beer shops explain why
and how they did it themselves
SPACE INVADERS
Meet the brewer behind
Beavertown’s sci-fi creations
DESERT ISLAND BEERS
The trade’s elite name the
beers that really do it for them
Editor
MARTIN GREEN
Commercial director
SAMANTHA HALLIDAY
Publisher
LEE SHARKEY
Longley House, International Drive,
Southgate Avenue, Crawley, West
Sussex RH10 6AQ
Supplement editor
NIGEL HUDLESTON
Senior account manager
STUART SADLER
Managing director
RUSSELL DODD
www.offlicencenews.co.uk
@offlicencenews
Group art editor
CHRISTINE FREEMAN
Account manager
ERICA STUART
SUBSCRIPTION
HOTLINE:
0800 652 6512
Sub editor
EMILY KEARNS
Account exectutive
MARK GANDER
SUBSCRIPTION
ENQUIRES:
[email protected]
003 Contents March 2016.indd 3
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ANALYSIS: TRENDS
THE
ULTIMATE
FOUR-PACK
The beer market is changing faster than
at any time in its history. Here are a
handful of trends to look out for in 2016
004-005 Beer Trends March 2016.indd 4
SMALL CANS GET BIGGER
C
anned beer is nothing new of
course. At 44cl or 50cl it has
long been the favoured choice
for big lager and standard ale for yonks,
but it’s the 33cl can that’s been
demonstrating that small is beautiful.
James Hickson, owner of We Brought
Beer, independent beer retailer of the
year in this year’s Drinks Retailing Awards,
says: “Cans will continue to grow. When
we opened [in December 2014] we had
about 12 but now it’s over 60. It started
with American brewers but now there are
a lot more British ones. Brewers like Moor
and others are putting a lot of investment
into it.
“The quality of canned beer is going
up after a few wobbles at the start, but
it’s the ones that are making their own
investment in canning lines that are
doing it well.”
Leigh Norwood at Favourite Beers in
Cheltenham agrees. “As long as you can
get a good canning line or quality mobile
canner on board to keep the oxygen out
of the beer there’s no reason not to do it,”
he says.
“The beer isn’t going to get light-struck,
it’s lighter and easier to transport, easier
to stack and easier to cool down.
“The biggest barrier is getting the
customer round to remove their old
prejudices. But you find that when you
can persuade them to try the beers
they do get it.”
As long as you can get a
good canning line to keep
the oxygen out of the beer
there’s no reason not to do it
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People like the concept
of growlers and we like to
be able to offer beers that
are only available in keg
CASK V KEG
D
LINEARTESTPILOT/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
Krishan Rajput at Stirchley Wines &
Spirits in Birmingham says: “Moor
has gone from 66cl bottles to 33cl cans
and we’re selling lot more of its beers
because it’s become so much more
accessible.”
Paul Halsey, managing director of
Warwickshire’s Purity Brewing, says:
“We’ve been doing cans for over 12
months for Lawless lager, Saddle Black
and Longhorn IPA.
“There’s growth in the off-trade but
we haven’t succeeded in persuading
big grocery customers to take the cans.
They’re behind local speciality beer
shops in that area.”
Caledonian Brewery marketing
manager Andy Mitchell says that Nielsen
figures for the year to December show
cans taking 14% of sales of craft beer and
growing at about 400%.
“It’s very small but it’s growing very
quickly,” says Mitchell. “We’ll be looking at
a range of 33cl cans for later on this year.”
004-005 Beer Trends March 2016.indd 5
The 33cl canned
format is gaining
ground in craft beer
raught beer is almost de rigueur
for any self-respecting beer
specialist and there’s an
increasing trend away from cask towards
keg beer growlers. The main advantage
is in keeping beer fresher with lower
rates of throughput.
Hickson at We Brought Beer says:
“Draught is about 30% of our business,
and it’s particularly strong at the weekend
when we’ll have someone on the growler
pretty much all day.
“People like the concept and we like
to be able to offer beers that are only
available in keg and that aren’t in bottle
because it gives us something different.”
Twickenham’s Real Ale and Brewdog’s
Bottledog shop are among others buying
into keg. But Hickson advises others who
might be tempted not to take it lightly.
“If it’s done as a token addition I would
say forget it,” he says. “You need to care
for the beer and make sure you can
turn it over. You also need staff who can
troubleshoot a keg and it’s not cheap to
install — but for shops like ours it was a
no-brainer.”
THE AMERICAN HOP CRISIS
D
omestic varieties such as Citra,
Cascade, Centennial and
Chinook were what American
craft brewers turned to in putting their
own spin on the traditional British ales
that so inspired many of them.
In turn, modern British brewers have
been influenced by the US freshness,
citrus and tropical fruit flavours those
hops have delivered.
The upshot? American hops aren’t
nearly as easy to get hold of as they
once were, with British brewers largely
in the queue behind their American
counterparts.
Mitchell at Caledonian says: “It’s harder
to source American hops than it has been,
especially with so many people jumping
on the bandwagon.”
Could that signal a return to more
traditional ale styles driven by bitterness
or is the fruit here to stay?
We Brought Beer’s Hickson says: “The
hop shortage has certainly meant a move
back to English hops. Citra in particular
has been in short supply and a couple of
others we’re used to seeing in modern
craft beers.
“Moor does a couple of really good
English-hopped IPAs with loads of flavour
and English hop growers are working on
ways to get more of that American citrus
hop character into their hops.
“Consumer preference has moved
to citrussy, fruity tropical hops, but
just because they’re scarce it doesn’t
mean they’re going to start drinking
best bitter and everyone will start using
Fuggles again.”
Beavertown head brewer Jenn Merrick
says the issue has led many brewers to
reassess the role of hops in their beers.
She says: “It’s something that brewers
are talking about among themselves: is it
responsible to throw a limited resource
into a beer if you can get the same
bang for your buck by being a bit more
judicious and using a different method
to maximise those aromas?”
A SOUR TASTE — IN A GOOD WAY
T
he sour beer arc started to curve
upwards in 2015 and is still cited
as one ripe for more growth this
year by many in the industry.
Sylvia Kopp, craft beer ambassador of
the American Brewers Association, says:
“Sour beers are temperamental to brew
and are more likely to be one-offs than
national favourites, but they are highly
appreciated by discerning craft beer
drinkers and will give a range a pointof-difference.”
Hickson at We Brought Beer adds:
“Sour beer still seems to be increasing in
popularity and more people are trying
them and finding that they’re not as scary
as they first feared.
“Particularly the lower-alcohol sour
beers in the summer are fantastic, light
and refreshing — all the things that people
have to come to expect from a lager over
the years.”
Mark Payne, off-trade manager at St
Austell, says: “I love sours. We made a gose
as a one-off a while ago. They are quite
niche but they bring something different
and create interest in the market.”
Sour beers’ reliance on wild yeasts and
microbes that other beers wouldn’t like
the look of makes them tricky to produce,
but London’s Beavertown Brewery is
experimenting in a pilot plant it has
installed alongside its main brewhouse.
“We’ve been doing wood-aged sours
using microbes on that site,” says head
brewer Merrick, “but they are typically
longer-term projects that take six months
or a year before they’re ready to drink
and are made 200 litres at a time in very
small batches.
“They’ve been well-received but
they’re so small scale that not everyone
get’s to see them.”
04/03/2016 12:54
6 off licenceNEWS
KEEP IT COLD
1
Conventional wisdom decrees
that lager should be cold while
ale goes on ambient shelves —
but times are changing.
Marston’s research of shopper habits
shows that 53% of all consumers keep
golden, amber or dark ales in the fridge
— and among younger consumers this
rises to 68%.
Bob Pease, president of the US Brewers
Association, says: “Retailers should ensure
that craft beer is always merchandised in
the chiller. The colder it is the longer it will
stay fresh.”
EVENTS AND EXPERIENCES
www.offlicencenews.co.uk ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BEER 2016
ANALYSIS: TIPS
HOW TO GET
AHEAD IN BEER
The industry experts provide the top tips
for retailers to ensure that their sales froth
2
Meet the brewers nights are
among the most popular and
relatively simple to execute.
Oddbins buyer Sarah Hamilton says:
“We do regular tasting events in our
stores. There are plenty of brewers who
want to come down and engage with our
customers.”
Caledonian marketing manager
Andy Mitchell says it just needs a bit of
proactvity to get the ball rolling. “Talk to
your local brewers,” he advises. “Most will
be delighted to come in and talk about
what makes their beer special.”
Beermoth in Manchester has put a
twist on the meet the brewer idea by
getting a brewer or other beer personality
to come along and talk about beers that
have inspired them or hold a special place
in their hearts, not necessarily just the
ones they have made.
GET THE LOOK
3
We all know customers buy
with their eyes to some extent,
but what’s the best way to
attract them?
Many specialist beer shops prefer to
block by brewery because it looks good
and many producers have loyal fans that
lock on to their favourites.
Paul Warren, senior category manager
at Marston’s, says it’s a close call but the
research figures favour merchandising
by style.
He says: “People do stick to their
favourite colours and styles and by
putting them together it can make the
shopping experience easier.”
Warren says that the Tesco colourcoded shelves for different ale styles are
a positive move, but adds: “In terms of
education the big retailers could do a
lot more.”
He cites an initiative in Norway where
a retailer displays top tens of beers by
style. “It helps people find a style they like
and gives a reassurance that the product
is good.”
Independents like Favourite Beers
and Chester Beer & Wine have solved
006 Beer Trends March 2016.indd 6
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the conundrum by combining brewery
blocking and a colour-coded shelf-edge
key to indicate the styles of beers within
a block.
MIX IT UP
4
Sales of assorted packs of
bottled ale were up 23.4% by
value in the year to Jan 30 (IRI),
while lager selection boxes rose 12.7%.
Warren at Marston’s says: “People
are starting to take them to dinner
parties instead of a bottle of wine and
they’re easier to transport because you
don’t get half a dozen bottles rattling
around in the boot.”
Independents who want to put their
own spin on them can take inspiration
from shops like Beer Central in Sheffield,
which assembles its own gift boxes, or
Cheltenham’s Favourite Beers, which
sells selections of local beers in branded
hessian bags.
Sage advice: keep
the beer cold
and the shelves
looking good
HORSES FOR COURSES
5
“Understand your audience,”
says Mitchell at Caledonian.
“Who is coming into your shop?”
It’s perhaps obvious but the clamour
towards craft doesn’t necessarily apply
to all retailers, even independents.
It’s easy to forget that lager accounts for
more than £3 billion of the £3.7 billion total
take-home sales of beer, and premium
lager was up 4.4% in value in the year to
Jan 30. Stella Artois sells almost as much as
the ale category as a whole (IRI).
Fuller’s head of off-trade Liz Peck says:
“It really depends on the location. If it’s a
quick shopping mission you will want to
stick with the tried-and-tested formula,
but in some urban locations there’s an
opportunity to try something very local.”
In ale, Marston’s Warren says: “If you
only have one shelf, have a value product,
then three golden ales, five amber ales,
two dark ales and a local brewer.”
04/03/2016 12:52
ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BEER 2016 www.offlicencenews.co.uk
off licenceNEWS 9
TRENDS: BRITISH BREWS
The spirit of punk rock is
alive and kicking in the
British beer industry, but
it’s becoming increasingly
hard to make sense of it
all, says Nigel Huddleston
I
t’s the 40th
anniversary of punk
rock. The musical
heritage industry
is celebrating the
events of 1976, when
dozens of outsider youths looked at
the snarly, scruffy and barely-able-toplay Sex Pistols on stage, and
experienced the illumination of an
inner bulb with the words “I could do
that” marked on it, and went off and
formed their own bands.
Next year marks the 10th anniversary
of Punk IPA and its creator Brewdog,
the Sex Pistols of the beer world,
providers of similar inspiration for
scores of beer drinkers who’ve started
their own breweries.
Brewdog’s founders James Watt and
Martin Dickie may be far too young to
remember punk, but in naming their
flagship beer as they did they showed a
keen awareness of pop culture history.
Yet it wasn’t just the original Punk IPA
DIY-style branding or the pair’s tendency
to stick two metaphorical fingers up to
the beer establishment that embodied
the spirit of punk, but their skill in being
able to manipulate the package they
created for maximum commercial
impact. Or as Sex Pistols manager
Malcolm McLaren famously put it, to
make “cash from chaos”.
And chaos of a sort is the legacy that
Punk IPA has left us.
CASH
FROM
CHAOS
MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL
Less than a decade down the line there
are more than 1,400 breweries in the UK,
more than at any time since the Second
World War, with the 2016 Good Beer
Guide recording 204 new start-ups in the
past year. London alone has 70 breweries.
The result is a fragmented market,
high on innovation and enthusiasm,
but perhaps lacking the cohesion that
allows retailers to make some sort of
sense of it when deciding what to sell
and how to sell it.
Not so long ago, the established big
regional and national ale brewers were
seen as the beer-lover’s antidote to the
multinationals’ blockbuster lager brands.
Now, the likes of Greene King, Marston’s,
Fuller’s, Shepherd Neame and Caledonian
sit at the top of a significant bottled
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ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BEER 2016 www.offlicencenews.co.uk
ale category of their own and play an
important role in signposting the wary
traveller in their decision-making within
supermarkets and convenience stores.
But many specialist beer shops and
wine merchants who dabble in beer are
quite prepared to leave their corporate
retail rivals to it and instead favour
local producers or a growing band of
producers with cult followings across
the UK. Indeed, Brewdog’s willingness to,
arguably, sell out its punk status to gain
supermarket listings has even seen some
indies turn their backs on it, too.
In the middle are a fistful of producers
— among them St Austell and Thornbridge
— big and bold enough to do business with
the supermarkets but retaining enough
credibility and sense of experimentation
to sit in what, for want of a better phrase,
we’ll call the modern craft movement.
Of course, this is a massive oversimplification of what has become a
complex market and where the lines
are becoming increasingly blurred by
the day. The launch of explicitly “craft”
brands and pilot breweries by many of the
bigger players in ale — who already regard
themselves and their core products as
essentially craft in nature — blur them
even further.
A GENUINE INTEREST
It’s easy to get dragged into trying to
define “craft beer”, so we won’t. The
important and healthy thing is that
all this is being driven by a genuine
interest in beer among increasing
numbers of consumers.
David Jones, owner of the Bier Huis
bottle shop in Ossett, West Yorkshire, says
that his customers are lapping up “pretty
much anything new that comes along
— anything that’s flash or fancy, they’re
straight on to it”.
He adds: “Anything special put out by
Beavertown, Magic Rock or Thornbridge,
such as Jaipur X, has gone really quickly.”
Krishan Rajput, at beer specialist
Stirchley Wines & Spirits in Birmingham,
finds it hard to pin down any micro trends.
“It’s just more of everything,” he says.
“There’s so much to choose from but
our problem is the lack of space, so it’s
challenging to make things fit and stay
ahead of the competition.
“We’re seeing some of the earlier
start-up breweries coming through like
Hardknott, Celt Experience and Tiny
Rebel. As the market has grown they
are establishing themselves. But, for us,
local breweries are the interesting thing
at the moment.”
James Halliday, business development
manager at Sussex indie South Downs
Cellars, adds: “Beer drinkers are quite
fickle. They want new beers all the time,
so we always have a core range which
009-012 PBA's Craft Beer March 2016.indd 10
ALE FACTS
58%
Annual growth
rate of bottled ales
defined as “craft”
35%
Percentage of takehome ale shoppers
who are women
22.7%
Combined
percentage growth
of golden ales within
the top 300 bottled
ale brands
114
Number of golden
ales within the top
300 bottled ale
brands
28.9%
Golden ale’s share
of total bottled
ale sales
121
Number of amber
ales within the top
300 bottled ale
brands
53.8%
Amber ale’s share
of total bottled
ale sales
7%
Percentage of
top 300 bottled
ales that are classed
as IPAs
SOURCE: IRI/MARSTON’S
might include bigger craft names like
Beavertown, Kernel and a local brewer,
but then we put on shelf between 10
and 30 new beers every month. People
want change.”
Oddbins has gone big on beer, even
Beer drinkers are quite fickle
… so we put on shelf between
10 and 30 new beers every
month. People want change
to the extent of opening a specialist beer
shop.
“The initial idea was to have a range
that was just local to each store, but
with the success of the category we
have mixed things up to build a more
interesting offering, including beers from
Europe and the US,” says local beer buyer
Sarah Hamilton.
“There’s such a broad range out
there and so many people making
interesting beers.
“Pale ale is the most popular but people
are increasingly looking for the more
challenging styles like wild beers, sour
beers or barrel-aged, high-abv beers.
“We’re also having success with 75cl
bottles. It’s a wine bottle size so I think it
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off licenceNEWS 11
SPONSOR Q&A
works particularly well in the context of
an Oddbins shop.”
CONSUMER CROSSOVER
Paul Warren, senior category manager
at Marston’s, says the same consumers
are buying into modern craft beers and
established ale brands like its Pedigree.
“It depends mainly on their mood at
the time,” he says. “There’s a big appetite
for well-balanced standard pale ales but
perhaps they’ll buy a stronger, modern
craft beer as a bit of a treat. It’s just the same
as people buying £3 bottles of wine on one
occasion and £10 bottles on another.”
Liz Peck, head of off-trade at Fuller’s,
agrees that there’s consumer crossover
between the two bottled ale camps.
009-012 PBA's Craft Beer March 2016.indd 11
“There are a lot of trendy people
who will try new beers but also keep
their firm favourites in their repertoire,”
she says. “They like to go back to quality
that gives them some assurance. Quality
and flavour are the main criteria they
look for, not just fad and design.”
Andy Mitchell, marketing manager
at Caledonian, argues that old firm
brewers and new upstarts are “just two
sides of the same coin”, so it’s no surprise
to see it among those launching takes
on modern craft beers in the form of its
Coast to Coast American-style pale ale
and Three Hops lager.
“Our pilot brewery allows us to
fast-track beer development,” he says.
“Coast to Coast went from the initial
idea to the finished packaged beer in
eight weeks.
“We realise we can’t live in the past.
We’ve always looked forward. When
we launched Deuchar’s IPA 25 years
ago it was very different to many other
beers in the market because it was pale
gold and citrussy. In fact, it very much
fits with some of the things that are on
trend now.”
A lager, Frontier, also sits in the Fuller’s
modern craft canned beer offering,
alongside Wild River pale ale and Black
Cab stout.
“It’s possible for one brewer to appeal
to different parts of the market as long
as they do it authentically and that the
product is absolutely great,” says Peck.
“Consumers are becoming very savvy
and they’ll see through it if it isn’t.”
St Austell is another British brewer
trying to beat continental brewers at
their own game in lager.
“British lager really has a place in
the market,” says off-trade manager
Mark Payne.
“We’re doing particularly well
with Korev and Fuller’s is out there
with Frontier — and there are others.
A few retailers are carrying them but
not pushing them in a big way. But
they are there and they should be
given a chance.”
The biggest drinks company of all
has even entered the craft lager fray,
with Diageo’s Guinness launching
Hop House 13 alongside West Indies
and Dublin porters and Guinness
Golden Ale, all under the banner of
the Brewers Project.
Guy Dodwell, sales director for the
GB off-trade at Diageo, says it’s been
a winner at attracting mainstream
consumers into the category.
“The Guinness brand has acted as
a signpost within a highly fragmented
category to allow consumers to enter
it with confidence before going on to
experiment further within premium
bottled ale,” he says.
FULLER, SMITH
& TURNER
John Keeling
BREWING DIRECTOR
Why is beer such an exciting market at the moment?
The beer world now is all about flavour; rather
than packaging, price or anything else. Taste is
what matters. You can see this clearly in Frontier,
where we proudly proclaim: Find Flavour. People are
experimenting with beer and brewers are rediscovering
traditional flavours and expanding on them.
How do you see the beer market developing in the future?
For me, the market is going to become ever
more premium, fewer commodity beers will be
produced and people will be willing to pay the right
price for the best beer: that beer will have interesting
and deep flavours. While people are currently more
interested in experimentation, I can see that dying
back until the trend is to become more educated
about how beer is made and what flavours appeal to
them. Another interesting concept I see developing is
that different occasions will play more of a role in
experimenting – finding a beer to fit the occasion.
What makes Fuller’s an important player in the market?
Well, Fuller’s has always been interested in
flavour, but we are also interested in the
premium end of the market. My aim as head brewer
has always been to make the beer as natural as
possible regardless of the format you drink it in –
this appeals to those looking for flavour. While we
have a great range of ales that we are proud of, from
the beautifully balanced London Pride to Oliver’s
Island, which features orange peel in the brew, we
have an ever-expanding keg portfolio, which still
keeps flavour as its primary focus.
04/03/2016 12:58
12 off licenceNEWS
www.offlicencenews.co.uk ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BEER 2016
HELPING HAND
For beer experts and enthusiasts
it’s perhaps sometimes easy to forget
that the journey into craft beer can still
be confusing and intimidating.
Retailers have a crucial part to play in
helping them, says Mitchell at Caledonian.
“The likes of Beavertown and Brewdog
appeal to the early adopters,” he says,
“but there are other consumers who are
trying to catch up, what you might call the
safe adventurers, who want to be guided
through this minefield.
“They want to try it but they don’t
want to look a fool or end up with
something undrinkable.”
Warren at Marston’s says the provision
of product information and assistance
for shoppers in helping to navigate the
broad range of styles now available are
important considerations for retailers.
He also thinks that many brewers
don’t go far enough in providing drinkers
with the tools to make better-informed
choices about the kinds of beers they
are producing.
Warren says that “brewers need to
take responsibility in giving people
information — some beer labels don’t even
tell people what style of beer it is”.
Oddbins has presented its customers
with several beer styles, all clearly stated,
in its series of collaboration brews with
smaller independent breweries.
The most recent, the sixth, was with
the Aberdeenshire brewer Six Degrees
North and was a 6.6% abv Belgian IPA with
66IBUs (the international measurement
of bitter) and six hops additions. There’s a
pattern emerging.
“We don’t really see them as own
labels but as collaboration brews,” says
Hamilton. “We didn’t want to just give
a brewer a spec and stick a label on
whatever they came up with.
“The Oddbins name is very trusted,”
she adds, “so it’s a way of introducing
consumers to the exciting world of beers
that has been changing quite a lot in the
past few years.”
The initiative has also educated staff
from stores local to the brewers who
have gone along for brew days.
The range has included a spiced
winter ale and a saison, genuinely taking
customers to new places in the market,
not just plying them with a continuous
In terms of education,
the big retailers could do
a lot more
009-012 PBA's Craft Beer March 2016.indd 12
TOP 10 OFF-TRADE ALES AND STOUTS
BY VALUE
1 Guinness
2 John Smith’s
3 Old Speckled Hen
4 Hobgoblin
5 Sharp’s
6 McEwan’s
7 Badger
8 Fuller’s
9 Crabbie’s
10 Own label
+7.1
-2.7
+3.7
+26.5
+70.5
+3.0
-7.2
-2.9
-19.1
-13.3
SOURCE: IRI, YEAR TO JAN 30, VALUE % CHANGE
stream of golden ale or IPA twists.
Marston’s Warren argues that golden
ales in particular are over-represented in
the market, accounting for a higher share
of number of brands than their combined
sales justify (see figures panel).
“Innovation for innovation’s sake is not
creating anything new or wanted by the
consumer,” he says.
“Just creating another low-gravity
golden ale is nothing new. If you look at
the golden ales that are doing well it’s the
ones that have a little bit more to them.
“Innovation is very important to the
category but we’d like to see retailers talk
about new products in store and make
customers aware of them.”
Focusing minds could help propel
a fragmenting market towards a category
goal of £1 billion in off-trade sales that
Marston’s has said could be reached
by 2020.
“It’s still on course but it’s not going to get
there on its own,” says Warren. “There’s a
responsibility on both brewers and retailers
to keep on trend with what people want.”
The retailers who make sense of the
chaos are in pole position to cash in.
04/03/2016 12:58
14
ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BEER 2016 www.offlicencenews.co.uk
ANALYSIS: BRANDS
KEEP TAKING THE PILS
Range reviews and a thirst for craft have left some big lager brands feeling a bit under weather.
Glynn Davis looks at the long-term prognosis for brewers and retail buyers
B
ig lager brands are
feeling the pressure
like never before. After
decades of unfettered
growth their collective
market share is being
eaten into by a number of factors,
making these challenging times for beer
buyers and independent retailers as
they seek to optimise their ranges.
Tina Hird, head of BWS at Spar,
says: “Are big lager brands as attractive
as before? Even though they are being
discounted by the big supermarkets
the sales of standard 4% abv lagers
like Carlsberg, Foster’s and Carling are
still declining.
“They can trade them all they like
on price but consumers are still going
elsewhere.”
As a result, Spar is evaluating whether
014-015 Big Brands March 2016.indd 14
it needs to commit the current amount of
space to the big brands and continue to
give them the necessary support.
“Tesco and Sainsbury’s have been
brave enough to stock only four-packs of
Carlsberg and until we bite the bullet [and
delist any] we’ll not be sure if it will have a
marked effect [on overall sales],” adds Hird.
“It won’t impact much — it’s a cold beer!
We need to make every
square inch count and if we
can get more from fewer
brands we’ll consider it
Above: Spar is
currently assessing
the shelf space
given to big brands
Right: craft is now
20% of Majestic’s
beer sales
“We need to make every square inch
count and if we can get more from fewer
brands then we’ll consider it. Some big
brands are interchangeable.”
Hird is referring to the range
rationalisation that the big grocers
have been undertaking. Asda has just
announced it is to axe up to 25% of
products in some categories.
Clive Black, head of research at city
firm Shore Capital, says this is being
driven by serious competition from
discounters.
“The supermarkets now want
fewer lines at sharper prices and so
we’ll see an ebb and flow in the stocking
of bulk lager brands,” he says. “If
Carlsberg dusts itself down and gets
its product and marketing right then
there is every reason for it to knock on
the door of Tesco again.”
04/03/2016 13:00
off licenceNEWS 15
7
He also says the supermarkets
determine the timing of the promotions
and if the beer brands want to run an offer
any other time then they will have to pay.
“Those that don’t play the game get
less shelf space,” says Dennis. “The cost to
service the likes of Tesco is now expensive.”
This has made it attractive for them
to supply the discounters because Aldi
will likely only want to stock the fourpack format and will pay a single price
to the supplier.
This avoids the uncertainty to brands
of pricing around promotional periods
and means the discounters are having a
significant impact on the overall market.
Matt Pym, head of buying at Majestic
Wine, says those retailers are doing some
“crazy things” and have driven down the
prices of premium bottled ale.
“Absolutely everyone who sells PBAs
has been impacted by this,” he says,
citing Old Speckled Hen and Doom Bar as
brands that have been heavily traded.
“It’s with these big beer brands
that we’ve suffered. We’re therefore
trying to move away from real massmarket brands and go to medium-sized
breweries,” he says.
This is not to say Majestic eschews
some of the bigger brands, with Pym
highlighting Peroni, Asahi, Pilsner Urquell,
Samuel Adams and Corona as big sellers.
He expects this to continue, although
things could change as a result of the
inevitable fallout from the mega deal
between SAB Miller and AB-Inbev.
+7.8
WHAT NEXT?
TOP 10
OFFTRADE
LAGERS
BY VALUE
1
STELLA ARTOIS
+1.8
2
FOSTER’S
-6.8
3
BUDWEISER
+1.2
4
CARLING
-3.7
5
CARLSBERG
-14.0
6
KRONENBOURG
+1.5
This will come as good news to Kasper
Elbjørn, director of international media at
Carlsberg, who takes a positive view and
says: “Obviously we’ve been affected but
not necessarily negatively. There are many
ways to reach consumers these days.”
BIG BRANDS AT RISK
But what is clear is that the other big lager
brands remain at risk.
Mike Dennis, managing director
of consumer research at Cantor
Fitzgerald, suggests that if the remaining
lager brands on the shelf fail to deliver
an increase in volumes at the lower
prices agreed with supermarkets, then
the delisted brands could be brought
back in — for a fee of course.
014-015 Big Brands March 2016.indd 15
PERONI
8
SAN MIGUEL
+14.3
9
CORONA
+77.9
10
BECK’S
-7.5
SOURCE: IRI, YEAR TO JAN 30,
VALUE % CHANGE
Already we have seen AB-Inbev line
up the sale of Peroni, Grolsch and
Meantime to Asahi. The question is:
what happens next?
“If the combined group employs the
same strategy with its premium beers as
before then there is no reason for there to
be any effect on us,” says Pym.
“We are happy with these brands but if
[the new owners] heavily trade them then
it will be a potentially different future.”
Martyn Railton, director of beer
importer Euroboozer, does not expect
much to change as a result of the SAB deal.
“There will just be a shuffle of shelf
space,” he says. “SAB is buying access to
shelf space as much as brands. The deal
will cement its place.
“After a year or so it might look to
convert some of the space into highermargin brands that will involve a move
of its own brands, rather than other
brewers’ brands being lost from the
shelves. The deal is about safeguarding
shelf space.”
Carlsberg takes a global view of the
shelf, with Elbjørn suggesting that it’s
important to be number one or two in the
countries in which you operate and that
Carlsberg has that position in most of its
markets.
It will need to fight to hold on to these
positions, because, as Hird says, consumers
are trading up to premium and so-called
world beers such as Peroni, Budweiser and
the heavily promoted Corona, as well as
buying into the craft category.
“We dabble with mainstream craft
beers such as Brewdog as it is available
nationally,” she says, adding that the
challenge for retailers is that they have
to “over-face” craft beer on the shelves
in order to have any credibility with the
customer.
THE RISE AND RISE OF CRAFT
The expectation is that craft sales will
continue to grow. Euroboozer supplies
Whole Foods in the UK, which only sells
craft beer, and the retailer bumped up its
spend by 100% in the past year.
Majestic also recognises the
opportunity and Pym says that unlike the
major grocers it is benefiting from its store
managers sourcing locally brewed beers,
which has bumped up its total listings to
500 SKUs against 100 at Waitrose.
Of these, craft has become more
important with sales up 55% over
Christmas and it now accounts for nearly
20% of total beer sales.
Carlsberg has been proactive in this
area and set up the Jacobsen brewhouse
more than 10 years ago to focus on
craft beers in response to interest in
the segment, but there is no escaping
the prospect that sales of big lager will
continue to decline as craft continues to
grab market share.
Black says: “The craft market share is
now lapping up against the big brewers
and their answer is to buy them out.”
Hence we have seen the purchases of
Meantime and Camden Town breweries
in the past year and a bit, initially by SAB
Miller and AB-Inbev respectively.
Andrew Morgan, owner of the Bottle
Shop, says the situation represents a
challenge for the big supermarkets and
the large brewers.
“If SAB could start selling craft to the
supermarkets at the same wholesale
price the small craft brewers achieve
when selling to retailers then the margin
per unit would be very attractive,” he
says. “Maybe this is why they’re selling off
Peroni and instead buying higher-margin
craft breweries.”
Whether or not this is part of some
grand plan is unclear but what is obvious
is that the beer market has become very
dynamic and for buyers at large operators
and independents these are challenging,
but interesting, times.
i Glynn Davis is a beer writer and editor
of BeerInsider.com and RetailInsider.com
04/03/2016 13:00
16
ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BEER 2016 www.offlicencenews.co.uk
TRENDS: WORLD BEERS
THE
WORLD
IS YOUR
OYSTER
STOUT
New and exciting breweries from
all corners of the world are redefining
the UK’s expectations of imported beer.
Jeff Evans explores
016-019 New Wave March 2016.indd 16
Curious brew:
beer drinkers are
increasingly looking
to more interesting
world beers
BROWN54486/ ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
I
n the old days, it used
to be easy. Filling a
shelf with world beers
meant simply calling
up the well-known
names — the Belgian
greats, the early American pioneers, the
famous German and Czech lagers.
But, such is the clamour for novelty
and excitement these days, that formula
is no longer satisfactory. You certainly
can’t ignore the classics, but shops are
now under increasing pressure from
curious customers to find room for the
next generation of imports.
The supply of interesting beers from
overseas used to be the domain of only a
few wholesalers, but now an increasing
number of specialist distributors serve
the market, with beers that may be less
familiar but are bringing in business.
“When I opened in 2010, I was using
just three big wholesalers for my foreign
beers,” says Leigh Norwood, owner of
Cheltenham’s Favourite Beers. “Now I
pick and choose from about 20.”
Last year, Norwood’s shop introduced
25 new beers from the US alone, and
that seems a perfect starting point for
a look at where the foreign beer buzz is
coming from these days.
04/03/2016 13:02
off licenceNEWS 17
USA
The influence of the American craft beer
movement is obvious today in the work of
our own brewers, but there’s clearly still
an appetite for transatlantic imports, too.
One of the more ambitious importers is
Left Coast, which has found success with
around a dozen breweries from California
and Seattle. Beers from Devil’s Canyon,
Pine Street and Acme appear on its list,
with among the best performers North
Coast’s Old Rasputin imperial stout and
Heretic’s Evil Twin, a red IPA.
Left Coast’s first shipments came over in
2013. It was a brave move as the featured
beers came from breweries previously
unheard of on this side of the pond and
customers needed some persuasion.
“It was a matter of getting the beers
in front of people for tasting,” says
national sales manager Andy Young.
“But people are now starting to see past
Sierra Nevada, Flying Dog and Anchor
Steam. They’re great beers but people
already have these.”
Importing some US beers has been
made more affordable by the switch
from bottles to cans, with Oskar Blues
driving the change.
The Colorado business took a punt
with canning back in 2002 and its success
has seen hundreds of breweries follow
suit. Now in the UK we can judge for
ourselves how clever that experiment
has been by tasting Dale’s Pale Ale and
other Oskar Blues offerings imported by
Vertical Brands.
For beer aficionados, one downside
of the success of the US craft beer
movement has come through
multinational brewers taking over
some of the best young breweries.
However, this does sometimes increase
the availability of certain beers. Belgian
brewer Duvel Moortgat’s acquisition of
Ommegang, Boulevard and Firestone
Walker may prove to be a good thing
for anyone wanting to try their highly
rated beers.
Boulevard’s highly impressive Tank
7 saison, for instance, is now available
016-019 New Wave March 2016.indd 17
in the UK, through Cave Direct, James
Clay and Nectar Imports, while Firestone
Walker beers can be sourced from
Vertical Brands and others.
There are so many good US breweries
shipping beer that it’s hard to know
which to highlight, but James Clay has
just started bringing in sour beers from
Cascade Brewing in Portland, Oregon,
and Left Hand, celebrated for its luscious
Milk Stout, is another brewery that James
Clay stocks.
Brewer Doug Odell is a regular visitor to
the UK, so it is good to see a number of his
Odell Brewing beers following him over
through Vertical Brands. His Colorado
brewery’s beers in the UK include a fullbodied, Scotland-inspired 90 Shilling and
the classy, reliable Odell IPA.
NEW ZEALAND
One of the surprise packages of the
world beer scene is New Zealand, where
brewers are proving they can make beers
as good as any. The UK has been on the NZ
target list for a year now, ever since half
a dozen small producers pulled together
and set up the New Zealand Craft Beer
Collective to market their wares, with
UK distribution through Instil Drinks.
“The way people have reacted to our
beers, and perhaps our love of having
a great time at events and festivals, has
meant the reception has been amazing,”
says general manager Todd Nicolson.
“We have definitely made more noise
than we have brought over beer so far,
but that’s all about to change.”
One of the breweries, Yeastie Boys,
has also taken to brewing here, using
Brewdog in Scotland, so
ales such as Gunnamatta,
an Earl Grey IPA flavoured
with tea, and Pot Kettle
Black, described as a South
Pacific porter, are not
technically imports but still
give more than a flavour of
what Kiwi brewers can do.
Another brewery in the
NZCBC is 8 Wired, whose
Hopwired IPA is a big
beast of a beer, rattling
around at 8% abv, and
brimful of both New
Zealand malt and
hops. There’s also
Renaissance that
has dared to send
us back a Scotch Ale
called Stonecutter
that includes no
fewer than nine
malt varieties,
and Three Boys,
which produces a
lemony Belgian-style
wheat beer.
But, for an understanding
of the complexities of the
New Zealand hop harvest, the
beer to go for is Tuatara’s APA.
The letters initially stood for
American Pale Ale, but then
the supply of US hops dried
up and home-grown Pacific
Jade, Nelson Sauvin, Motueka
and New Zealand Cascade
took over.
SCANDINAVIA
Nøgne Ø has been leading
the way in putting
Norway on the beer map.
Co-founder Kjetil Jikiun
has moved on, to open
the Solo microbrewery in
Crete, but Nøgne Ø’s beers
— available through James
Clay — still command
attention. The company’s
Saison is a particularly fine
exponent of the Belgian
style, and its Brown Ale
similarly puts other beers
bearing that name to
shame.
Less easy to pin down is
Denmark’s rock star brewer, Mikkel Borg
Bjergsø. Through his company, Mikkeller,
he creates some of the world’s most
sought-after beers, often in collaboration
with other brewers. And yet he doesn’t
own a brewery. He just takes over another
site and comes up with magical creations
such as … well, who knows? There’s always
something different around the corner.
Vertical Brands can supply.
Mikkel’s formula is so successful that
his twin brother Jeppe has followed
him into the industry. Jeppe’s Evil Twin
company also brews at other breweries
and, again, the beers come and go,
although one of the most noted is Pappy’s
Imperial Biscotti Break, a 10% stout.
Mikkel was once a teacher and he
is still inspiring former pupils. Tobias
Emil Jensen and Tore Gynther learned
to brew with him and now also have
their own “gypsy” brewery, which they
call To Øl (meaning “two beers”). Liquid
Confidence, an imperial stout spiced with
chillies, and Sofa King Pale are two of its
noted offerings. Both Evil Twin and To Øl
beers are imported by the Bottle Shop.
From Sweden, the standout name
is Omnipollo, a partnership between a
brewer and an artist, hence the colourful
labels. Beers such as Pineapple Gose and
Mazarin Pale Ale are available through
Cave Direct.
ITALY
Italy’s Birra dell’Anno (Beer of the Year)
competition has been running for 11 years
and it’s been fascinating to see it grow
04/03/2016 13:02
ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BEER 2016 www.offlicencenews.co.uk
off licenceNEWS 19
REST OF THE WORLD
Brewers in other countries are
understandably targeting the UK. There’s
been a lot of interest in Bellerose from
the Brasserie des Sources in France,
especially after medal success in the
International Beer Challenge. Available
from Boutique Bar Brands, it is a beguiling
beer, a cross between a Belgian blonde
and a saison, filled with perfumed,
peppery and mostly sweet flavours, with
hints of lemon and other exotic fruits.
The Netherlands beer scene has
improved markedly in recent times and
leading the way is De Molen, whose beers
are imported by Bacchanalia. Now 12
years old, De Molen originally set up in a
windmill and turns out a new beer every
six weeks, often collaborating with other
brewers. Its labels are plain white and
loaded with information, which doesn’t
seem attractive in retail terms, but the
quality of the beer inside does the selling.
Expect unorthodox takes on styles as
varied as tripel and imperial stout.
More Dutch breweries are following
De Molen over, including Jopen, based
in Haarlem, whose rye pale ale, Jacobus,
and other creations are imported by
Vertical Brands.
Young breweries from renowned
beer countries like Belgium and
Germany are having less success,
being overshadowed by the classic
names. However, retailers should
be aware of the likes of Belgium’s
Struise and De Ranke, available from
Beer Direct and other suppliers,
and the interesting And Union, a
Bavarian company that dispels the
myth that German brewers are stuck
in the past with beers such as Friday,
described as a “Bavarian take on the
American-style IPA”. Its beers can be
sourced from The Beer Collective.
as the Italian small brewery scene has
flourished.
It’s astonishing to discover that there
are now around 1,000 small breweries
in Italy, where there were none just
over 20 years ago. Several of its leading
breweries are now prepared to share
their best creations with us.
Acknowledged as the first new brewery
in Italy when it opened just north of
Milan in 1996, Birrificio Italiano is run
by Agostino Arioli. His Tipopils is widely
noted as one of the best lagers brewed
anywhere on the continent.
It’s now available in the UK through
Vertical Brands, as are beers from Birra
del Borgo — best-known for an ale called
Re Ale — and Toccalmatto, noted for Zona
Cesarini, an IPA featuring both southern
hemisphere and American hops, as well
as Re Hop, a crisp pilsner.
016-019 New Wave March 2016.indd 19
JAPAN
The craft brewing scene in Japan has
been developing strongly for quite a while
and Japanese beers could be far more
common here in coming years.
Coedo beers, brewed in Saitama,
near Tokyo, are now available through
Amathus Drinks. These include the
hefeweizen clone Shiro and a beer called
Beniaka that features sweet potatoes.
More commonly found are beers from
the Kiuchi brewery, better known under
the brand name Hitachino Nest.
The longest established is White Ale,
which is an easy-drinking, but tasty,
almost Christmassy witbier. There’s
also Red Rice Ale, which has an unusual
strawberry-like fruitiness and a creamy
texture. It also makes the toffee-apple-like
Saison du Japon and a richly malty Amber
Ale. James Clay is its importer.
i Jeff Evans is author of So You
Want to Be a Beer Expert? and
writes at Insidebeer.com
IMPORTERS:
WHERE TO FIND THEM
AMATHUS DRINKS: amathusdrinks.com
BACCHANALIA: winegod.co.uk
THE BEER COLLECTIVE: thebeercollective.co.uk
BEER DIRECT: beer-direct.co.uk
THE BOTTLE SHOP: bottle-shop.co.uk
BOUTIQUE BAR BRANDS: boutiquebarbrands.com
CAVE DIRECT: cavedirect.com
JAMES CLAY: jamesclay.co.uk
INSTIL DRINKS: instildrinks.co.uk
LEFT COAST DISTRIBUTION: leftcoast.co.uk
NECTAR IMPORTS: nectar.net
NEW ZEALAND BEER COLLECTIVE: beercollective.nz
VERTICAL BRANDS: verticalbrands.co.uk
04/03/2016 13:03
20 off licenceNEWS
www.offlicencenews.co.uk ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BEER 2016
TRENDS: RETAILER-BREWERS
WE MADE OUR OWN BEER
Collaboration brews are all the rage — and retailers are getting in on the act.
Three of them tell Nigel Huddleston how they went about it
REAL ALE, TWICKENHAM
ZEPH KING
“We approached Buxton Brewery to do
a beer with us for our 10th anniversary
[in 2015].
“We set up the Ubiquitous Brewery
Co brand and the whole idea is to find
the best brewers and make beers and
launch them in a way that is very much
in partnership with the brewery.
“The first one is an easy-drinking
pale ale, really fresh, lots of hops and
what the market really wants.
“It’s in bottles in the shop and we’ve
also got it into 72 Marks & Spencer
branches in London [Real Ale has a
sourcing role on British bottled beers
for M&S].
“We’ve got it on keg in the shop and
it’s been in a number of pubs and bars
around London, where there’s been big
growth in keg.
“It’s interesting to be able to tell
people that we’ve brewed a beer and it
strengthens the ethos of the business
around working with good breweries.
“If you do one it almost needs to be
a range so the aim eventually is to do
three.”
It’s interesting to be able to
tell people that we’ve brewed
a beer and it strengthens
the ethos of the business
020 Made our own Beer March 2016.indd 20
WE BROUGHT BEER, BALHAM
AND CLAPHAM, SOUTH LONDON
JAMES
HICKSON
“The first was three months after we
opened in December 2014, with our
most local brewery, Belleville. It was
good to give the staff an insight into
how to brew – and it’s also just really
cool to have your own beer label.
“We chose the type of beer we
wanted to do and they designed the
recipe, which was really hoppy with
west coast US hops. We went down
there and did everything you do when
you’re brewing a beer, from assembling
the malt bill to cleaning out the vessels.
“We called it Bear of Hildreth, after
the street the shop is in and our logo,
which is a bear. We did our own label
design and produced about 3,000
bottles and a handful of kegs, as well as
a few casks which went into local pubs.
“The intention was to do one every
quarter but one thing got in the way
of another so it was September 2015
when we did the second.
“We did that one with London Beer
Lab, which brews, but also runs brewing
classes and is all about encouraging
people to make their own beer. It’s a
red IPA called Bear of St John, referring
to the street the second shop is in, and
we made about 4,000 bottles split
between the two shops.
“If you tell customers you brew
your own beer pretty much everyone
will buy one, but it’s also about
getting the brand out there and doing
something a bit different.”
BEER CENTRAL, SHEFFIELD
SEAN CLARKE
“Our first was with Steel City, which is a
cuckoo brewing company based locally,
a 7% mango and passion fruit pale ale
called Mango Fruit Machine. It was very
good for publicity for the shop and it’s
nice thing to be able to get your sleeves
rolled up and get stuck in.
“It’s important not to saturate the
market with constant collaborations,
It’s a case of coming up with good
quality and picking the right moment.
We’ve just done our second, which is
called Parallel Parkin, with Lost Industry,
a new local brewery. We decided to go
with someone else just to spread the
love around and keep everyone happy.
“We had a lot of ideas including a
pineapple sour and an imperial biscotti
stout, but we liked the parkin recipe
because of its links with Yorkshire.
It’s got fresh ginger and black treacle
added to the boil.
“We toyed with the idea of calling
it Parking Fine but the Parallel part of
the name conveyed the idea of working
together but doing our own thing, and it
went beautifully with Parkin.”
It’s important not to
saturate the market with
collaborations. It’s a case of
coming up with good quality
04/03/2016 13:04
off licenceNEWS 23
ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BEER 2016 www.offlicencenews.co.uk
Q&A: BEAVERTOWN
SPACE
INVADERS
London’s Beavertown Brewery has
shaken up the beer scene with its
sci-fi branding and bold flavours. Head
brewer Jenn Merrick explains how it
does it and what makes her job so great
MY FIRST JOB WAS IN A STONEHEARTH BAKERY. I started my shift at
4am baking the bread for the day before
going to the high school across the road.
I loved the craft of the live product, the
yeast, the subtlety, the science and the
physical hard work involved. And how
tasty and nutritionally different the
product on the shelf was. I feel the same
way about beer.
Merrick: making
other people’s
dreams come true
YORK BREWERY WAS A VERY SMALL
TEAM, hard work physically and an
old-fashioned traditional education in
brewing cask ales. We top-cropped the
yeast with a sterilised snow shovel. Being
from the American craft beer school it
was so glamorous because the brewing
culture in my home town, Salt Lake City,
was referencing British brewing.
Rocket or Gamma Ray, which sometimes
means we can’t have the toys to play with
for our fun new beer. We love doing new
creative stuff and want to do it regularly.
At the moment we’re doing it as often
as capacity will allow. Sometimes the
brewers will suck it up and come in on
a Sunday if they want to do something
special, out of love.
IT BLEW PEOPLE’S MINDS when I
first worked at York Brewery because
I was a woman, an American and a
lesbian. I was the first of any of these
things they’d worked with. The fact that
I was competent at my job was the only
measuring factor. People respected me
and became my mates — and we made
some great beer together.
I GET APPROACHED REGULARLY BY
PEOPLE WHO WANT TO ADVANCE THE
COURSE OF WOMEN IN BREWING, who
think it’s a strange and delicate thing that
needs to be pushed forward. I believe
that beer and brewing is for everyone
but it’s something that’s going to happen
organically. I’d be really happy to help
out women who want mentoring, but
it doesn’t need to be coloured pink and
called women’s brewing.
I’M THE ONE WHO OPENED MY BIG
MOUTH and said we’d promise our
customers they can have our core beers
every day. Now we’ve said that we have
to make sure we don’t run out of Smog
023 Q&A Jenn Merick March 2016.indd 23
Our signature
is to take
the flavours
to that
next level
ONE OF THE GLORIOUS THINGS ABOUT
THE INDUSTRY is how collegiate and
sharing it is. We have good friends all over
the world making beer and if there’s a
problem there’s always someone who’s
been there before and knows the answer.
No [modern craft brewers] had really
done canning in the UK before but we
had tonnes of friends in the US who were
prepared to help, even to the point of
coming over to lay eyes on what we
were doing.
THERE IS A BEAVERTOWN HOUSE
STYLE; our signature is to take the
flavours to that next level. That’s what
consumers want from us. We have a lot of
dry-hopped beers with multiple additions
of hops and long exposure times, and
the fact that the beers are unfiltered
means all the flavour compounds are
left behind in the beer. When we do a
special like a double bock or a quad we
take that and do something quirky with
it, bung something weird in it or stick it
in a weird barrel and twist it in some way.
In competitions it means we can’t always
find a category where we fit.
I GET TO DO GREAT STUFF like going to
beer festivals and designing beers, but
the best bit about the job is that I get to
make other people’s dreams come true,
by hiring people and giving them projects
or teaching them about brewing. We
have to do a lot of internal growing of our
employees because there’s not a mature
craft brewing industry in the UK. I can’t
just hire people who’ve done this before.
I HAVE A FEW BEER NAMES THAT I
HAVEN’T GOT BEERS FOR YET and
some beers that I haven’t got names for.
London’s Beavertown Brewery was
Supreme Champion Brewer at OLN’s
International Beer Challenge last year
and Jenn Merrick was the 2015 British
Guild of Beer Writers’ brewer of the year.
Interview: Nigel Huddleston
04/03/2016 13:04
off licenceNEWS 25
ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BEER 2016 www.offlicencenews.co.uk
TRADE VIEW: TOP BREWS
DESERT ISLAND BEERS
We asked brewers, wholesalers and retailers to name the beer that they couldn’t live without
SIMON BARTLETT, BRISTOL BEER
FACTORY
St Austell Tribute. Just enough
hop aroma and flavour to be
refreshing but not overpowering and
a smooth malt backbone. At 4.2% it
would be possible to enjoy a few of
them without feeling too rough when
the sun comes up the next morning.”
ROB PATCHETT, LEAMINGTON
WINE CO
Sleck Dust by Great Newsome
Brewery in East Yorkshire. It
reminds me of home, a great session
beer and loads of good memories.”
ANDREW MORGAN, THE BOTTLE
SHOP, CANTERBURY AND LONDON
Brooklyn Sorachi Ace:
fantastic Sorachi [hop] flavour/
aroma of mouldy oranges and funk.
Utterly gluggable when thirsty but
many elusive notes to discover if you
have the luxury of time.”
LEIGH NORWOOD, FAVOURITE
BEERS, CHELTENHAM
Goose Island Bourbon County
Stout – rich, dark and
boozy, with loads of
gorgeous aromas
and tastes of
salted caramel, vanilla, bourbon and
chocolate. It wouldn’t matter if there
wasn’t a fridge either.”
JENN MERRICK, BEAVERTOWN
Somebody who always makes
a great pint is my old boss at
Dark Star, Mark Tranter, who has
Burning Sky now. His saisons with
different botanical infusions like
rosehip and nettles would be my first
choice.”
NIKI DEIGHTON, THE BEER
COLLECTIVE
Yeastus Christ Supersour by
To Øl from Denmark is an
outstanding lambic-style sour beer
and the name would keep me smiling
on my lonely desert island.”
ZAK AVERY, BEER PARADISE
Magic Rock’s High Wire.
Dazzling hops on a crunchy
pale malt background, and I know
from rueful experience that my desire
for its flavour pyrotechnics far
exceeds my capacity.”
GIUSEPPE DERIU, EAT 17,
HACKNEY, EAST LONDON
Sun? Beach? You definitely
need a refreshing and light
beer, and you can’t get anything more
refreshing than a Corona with a
slice of lime in it.”
DAVID JONES, BIER HUIS,
OSSETT, WEST YORKSHIRE
Ossett Treacle Stout.
Lots of flavours but not
overpowering, not too thin
and not too heavy.
It’s a beer I always go
back to.”
THE TEAM AT REAL ALE,
TWICKENHAM
Nick Dolan: “Oakham Citra.
A delightful pint, bursting with
Citra hops.”
Richard Sharp: “Russian River’s Pliny
The Elder IPA. One of the greatest
IPAs known to man.”
Tom Ganf: “Beavertown Gamma Ray
because it’s in a can and I could chill it
down quickly in the sea.”
Zeph King: “Beavertown Quelle has
a great saison signature, spiked with
bite from the hops, including one of
my favourites, Simcoe.”
Tim Peyton: “Drie Fonteinen Oude
Geuze. Different every time so I
wouldn’t get bored – and it would
never go off.”
JAMES HICKSON, WE BROUGHT
BEER, SOUTH LONDON
The Kernel Table Beer. For me,
it’s the ultimate session beer,
tons of flavour packed into a low-abv
pale ale – not an easy thing to do.”
JIM HELSBY, YORK BEER & WINE
SHOP
The wonderful pints of
Brakspear Bitter that I used to
enjoy in my youth in its pubs between
Oxford and Henley. All that flavour
and aroma with a very modest abv
was a miracle of brewing skill.”
SEAN CLARKE, BEER CENTRAL,
SHEFFIELD
Redchurch Brewery Great
Eastern. It’s a real lip-smacking
IPA, juicy and incredibly moreish. The
tropical fruits you get from its US
hops are perfect for a desert island.”
DAVE CALVER, CHESTER BEER
& WINE
Adnams Ghost Ship: at 4.5%
it’s not an outrageous abv.
The fresh citrus flavours are not
overpowering but are refreshing
and most enjoyable.”
KRISHAN RAJPUT, STIRCHLEY
WINES & SPIRITS, BIRMINGHAM
SCUKROV/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
025 Desert Island Beers March 2016.indd 25
Bathams Best Bitter, a classic
example of a Midlands bitter
and the perfect thirst quencher while
hanging out with my imaginary friend
waiting to be rescued.”
04/03/2016 13:06
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001 Cover FINAL Beer March 2016.indd 2
04/03/2016 13:09