Author: lycee23

SIBA (the Society of Independent Brewers) says the silence from government is deafening, with no certainty on further restrictions or much-needed support for hard-hit brewers and pubs.

It says the uncertainty is keeping customers away from hospitality. Without economic support for the hundreds of breweries and thousands of pubs that rely on December trading, many more small businesses could close. 

Chief executive, James Calder, said: “We urgently need to see an appearance from the chancellor and for him to deliver new support for the beer and pubs sector — introducing a brewers’ support fund, as seen in Scotland, to the rest of the UK, prioritising the release of the £1.5 billion of business rates relief, and providing compensation for the millions of pints of beer that could be poured away if lockdown happens.

“Over the last month, small independent breweries in the UK have been ramping up production in preparation for the vital Christmas sales period. But the threat of further restrictions and a possible lockdown is keeping people away from pubs and hospitality venues, and hitting small breweries sales hard, with brewers seeing sales fall by 50% over the past week. Further restrictions would see many businesses close for good.

“The beer supply chain is not a tap that can be turned off at a moment’s notice, and beer is now sat ready to be sold with nowhere to send it. A full lockdown will make an already tough situation disastrous for small breweries, with millions of spoiled pints likely to be poured down the drain as happened during the last lockdown.”

Black Sheep Brewery has announced the return of its hugely popular Christmas brew, Blitzen, and the relaunch of York Brewery’s Snowflake.

Launched in 2014, Blitzen is a ruby ale made with Cascade and Goldings hops, orange and mixed peels, as well as Muscovado sugar. It has aromatic notes of raisins and biscuits, combined with a rich taste of dark fruits and hints of chocolate and citrus.

Along with Blitzen, the brewery is et to relaunch the York Brewery’s Snowflake. Snowflake is a 3.7% ABV pale ale brewed with a duo of American hops, offering a citrus punch with a crisp, clean finish.

Jonny Kirkham, head of sales and marketing at Black Sheep Brewery, said: “There’s a lot of confidence across the hospitality industry that pubs will be able to trade with fewer restrictions this year, after the large disruptions to the on-trade last December.

“And as the weeks got colder and people began preparing for Christmas, our customers wanted to know one thing — when will we see Blitzen back in the pubs?

“That’s why we’re delighted to announce that Blitzen will be back by popular demand this Christmas. We’re thrilled to be able to help customers enjoy a festive tipple as they celebrate the festive season this year and make up for lost time.”

CAMRA has confirmed that The Great British Winter Beer Festival, due to take place in Birmingham in February, has been cancelled.

Due to concerns from volunteers and festival-goers alike, the committee has chosen to scrap plans for a traditional single-site festival next year. Instead, it is assessing ideas for an alternative celebration, to be announced in due course.

A spokesperson said: “We were really excited to be bringing everyone back together to Birmingham in February for a physical Great British Beer Festival Winter.

“However, following consultation and concerns from volunteers and festival-goers alike, we have come to the difficult decision that this physical single-site event will no longer be taking place in 2022.

Re-imagining the festival

“​That being said, we will still be celebrating GBBFW in other ways! Pubs continue to face a number of challenges and a long road to recovery. We are now working to re-imagine our festival in a way that will allow real ale and cider lovers to support their locals and producers in a safe, comfortable way.

“More details will be released in the coming weeks, so please keep a close eye on our social media pages.

“If you have already bought advance tickets, you will be contacted directly, but please do get in touch on events@camra.org.uk if you have any further questions.”

Black Sheep Brewery has launched Yellow Black Army, the official beer of Harrogate Town Association Football Club.

Brewed in collaboration with the League Two side, Yellow Black Army is a dynamic, powerful, and fruity session IPA, packed with a blend of American hops. The launch of the official Town beer comes as part of Black Sheep’s major sponsorship deal with the recently-promoted club.

The 4% ABV beer has notes of tropical fruit leading the attack, while the robust malt blend tidies up the back, allowing the hops to take all the glory.

Black Sheep chief executive, Charlene Lyons, said: “We’re so excited to launch Yellow Black Army to fans of the Town. We’ve been working really hard behind the scenes to create a beer that perfectly encapsulates the essence of Harrogate Town AFC, and we think fans will absolutely love the final result!

“Given the club’s recent promotion to the Football League for the first time in its history, we felt it was only right to celebrate Harrogate Town’s success in true Black Sheep fashion — with its very own, official beer.

“Our deal with Harrogate Town is the first time Black Sheep has sponsored a football club. Everyone at the brewery is thrilled to be working alongside the club and its brilliant squad of players, as they continue their journey in League Two, with a pint of Yellow Black Army ready to toast their successes.”

Harrogate Town AFC manager, and club legend, Simon Weaver, added: “I’m sure our fans will be delighted to be able to drink our very own, official beer. Just like our club, Black Sheep does things its own way and has created a unique sense of identity in the process.

“We can’t wait to see our fans’ response to Yellow Black Army, and give them another chance to enjoy how far our club has come in recent years.”

From Monday, 8th November, Yellow Black Army, will be available in cans direct from the brewery, online or in store, and also from the official Harrogate Town AFC shop.

A pilot scheme at the Derby Live Beer Festival has paved the way towards the city transitioning to a zero-waste city.

RDS Circulayo, a sustainable technology venture launched by Derby-based RDS Global, piloted its reusable packaging system, Flow, at the event in early September.

Drinks were served to visitors in reusable cups which, instead of being thrown away, were collected, washed, and used multiple times.

During the five-day beer festival, more than 7,500 drinks were served, using fewer than 4,000 reusable cups. This resulted in a return rate of 99%, a refill rate of 48%, and 152kg of single-use plastic being saved from landfill.

Flow has been designed by RDS Circulayo in collaboration with three other organisations: Glasdon, the UK’s leading supplier of waste and recycling bins; Event Cup Solutions, the UK’s leading supplier of reusable food and beverage packaging to the events industry; and the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme via the University of Derby.

Andy Flinn, chief executive of RDS Global, said: “The Derby LIVE Beer Festival pilot has proven that a zero-waste future for Derby is possible. RDS Circulayo will continue to develop its offering to ensure that future becomes a reality.

“Our Circulayo Flow brand, and the impact that it will have on society, is also a perfect example of why the KTP scheme from the University of Derby is such a vital component of innovation within the city.

“It has been a pleasure to work so closely with Dr Vishnu Paranthaman and Dr Shahid Awan on developing this product, and I’m very excited about what we will do next.”

The success of this pilot comes at a crucial stage in the global war on climate change. RDS Circulayo has a bold mission to defeat waste, and the urgency of that mission was made clear by chief product officer, Kevin Hudson.

He continued: “We are in the critical decade, wherein the survival of human life as we know, and love it, requires dramatic change.

“However, contrary to popular belief, the change required is not behavioural change on the part of the consumer, but instead radical system design change. The habit of disposal is, within a better designed system, the most scalable route to sustainable consumption.”

Circulayo Flow is designed to facilitate this dramatic change by using technology to power a system where reusable packaging is just as easy and cheap to use as single-use disposables.

Every item, such as a reusable cup, is uniquely identifiable via a QR code, which enables Flow to track the item throughout each repeat journey along its value chain — point of sale, disposal, collection, washing, and redistribution. This process is called full-loop traceability.

In the near future, Flow will also integrate with material recovery facilities and street-level waste/recycling bins, creating a digitally connected infrastructure capable of tracking a wide range of reusable packaging.

The pilot earned the praise of one of the Derby LIVE Beer Festival honorary guests, mayor of Derby Robin Wood. He said: “We are drinking out of a glass that is not single- use plastic and this is something really good for Derby.”

Are you looking forward to a more “normal” Christmas this year? But what will normal look like? In 2020 Christmas was all but cancelled, with UK lockdowns introduced at short notice and the hospitality industry at limited opening hours or closed for the majority of November and December. However, the off-trade saw an increase in BWS sales of almost £950 million (19%) during the festive trading season of 12 weeks to January 2.

Fast-forward to now and with approximately two-thirds of the UK population fully vaccinated can we expect the return of bigger group occasions this year that did not happen last year? We only need to look at the boost to Champagne sales over the past year (up 32% on 2019) to highlight the nation’s appetite to celebrate.

That being said, having now passed Freedom Day and the on-trade effectively fully open, we are still seeing a significant uplift in off-trade sales compared with pre-Covid levels. Value sales of BWS are up 12% on the equivalent weeks of 2019, suggesting there is still some reluctance to return to out-of-home venues and some of the behaviours formed over the past 18 months have remained.

So, what can we look forward to?

Christmas 2021 looks set to be a bumper year for spirits. In the six weeks after Freedom Day, value sales are up more than 14% on 2019. This, coupled with promising on-trade sales, shows the demand for spirits and represents a big opportunity to tap into the trend of cocktail making that has grown with more at-home occasions. We can expect flavoured spirits in particular to make some noise, with a wealth of NPD across gin, rum and vodka. Expect to see a strong push in stores earlier than ever as consumers look to celebrate this year.

Throughout the pandemic we have highlighted two key groups of shoppers: Insulated and Constrained. As the furlough scheme comes to an end in September, we can expect the constrained shoppers to feel the impact, leading to a Trade Up versus Trade Off situation.
Premiumisation looks set to continue as we have seen over the pandemic and, while not directly comparable to the recession of 2008, replicating the on-trade experience at home could be a lasting trend again this Christmas and into next year.

One of the barriers to a bumper Christmas could be availability. Nielsen IQ research highlights that BWS on-shelf availability has dropped over 2 percentage points in the year to date on pre-Covid levels as pressure hits supply chain. As we run up to Christmas this will be felt even more, so manufacturers and retailers who can manage demand will put themselves in pole position to have a successful Christmas trading period.

Whatever “normal” looks like this Christmas expect significant growth on pre-Covid levels as consumers look to make up for lost time.

Hophurst Brewery has taken home the overall champion cask beer award at the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) North West Independent Beer Awards 2021.

Their gold-winning beer, Love is Noise, was brewed to celebrate the brewery’s seventh anniversary this month and is the first time the brewery has produced a double IPA. The hugely aromatic and flavoursome beer comes in at a punchy 8% ABV. 

The silver award winner was another American style beer, West Coast, by Blackedge Brewing, while Hawkshead Brewery’s Windermere Pale took bronze.

The awards took place ahead of the Bolton Beer Festival, at the University of Bolton Stadium.

Hophurst founder and head brewer, Stuart Hurst, said: “To win with our first ever double IPA is just amazing, especially as we came so close last time around when we won the silver with our Porter. This was a very special beer to celebrate our seventh birthday and we wanted something big, fruity and with great body.

“The beer is chock full of hops, and we use loads of Simcoe, Mosaic, Citra, Ekuanot, and a brand new ‘cryo pop’ hop, which we’ve used for the first time. I’m delighted it’s proved a hit.”

All the winners will now go on to SIBA’s national finals at the BeerX UK event in Liverpool, in March.

Neil Walker, chair of SIBA’s competitions committee, said: “There were some really excellent beers in this competition, and brewers should be very proud of taking home these hard-fought awards.

“The judges had a very tough job separating the pack, and I’d like to say a personal well done to all of the category winners and, of course, our overall gold winners, Hophurst. What a beer!” 

Former Nottingham Trent University students and business partners, Al Squires and Will Barratt, of Just BS creative agency, have launched their own lager.

After trialling the product while running a bar project, Al and Will are launching Hockley Brew Co’s6 first product, Hockley Helles La1ger (4% ABV).

While finishing their final year of university, Will and Al recently completed their first major project, a successful transformation of Wolf Italian Street Food restaurant on Market Street, Nottingham, into a fully operational cocktail bar, called Code 34.

It was during this project, when seeking a truly local beer offering, the pair recognised there was plenty of independent craft ale, but no Nottingham brewery offered a lager. They trialled Hockley Helles at Code 34 in April, and it was a resounding success.

The team have now begun pushing the lager across Nottingham’s independent venues, and Hockley Helles is already available in nearly 20 places across the city.

Al said: “Nottingham is a fantastic city with some of the best independent and creative businesses, and our mission with Hockley Brew Co is to champion that creative spirit with a unique new product. We were tired of seeing the same lagers in every bar and wanted to develop a brand that we could relate to.

“The lager market is dominated by big brands that are owned by some of the biggest global companies. We’re entering a tough market, but we know consumers want something different and independent.”

Will added: “Hockley is currently being contract brewed, but the ambition is to raise funds and invest in our own purpose-built lager brewery and tap, with key fundamentals of being sustainable, creating local jobs, and keeping out the big boys.

“Independently owned, Hockley Brew Co embodies all things Hockley, from its creative and innovative core, through to its focus upon championing community and supporting local businesses.”

New research has suggested that a third (34%) of consumers have or are considering stockpiling for Christmas before the end of October.

Numbers released by Lumina Intelligence this week suggest that 56% of consumers are “somewhat worried” following media coverage on people stockpiling food and drinks for Christmas already, due to concerns about product shortages as a result of Brexit, Covid and the lack of lorry drivers.

Alcohol is among the top categories on the stockpiling list, with 55% of consumers citing alcoholic drinks as products likely to be purchased before the end of October.

Blonnie Whist, insight director at Lumina Intelligence said: “Christmas this year will be incredibly different to last, when travel restrictions and last-minute regional lockdowns ended most people’s festive plans. Consumers will be looking to make up for lost time and with no restrictions surrounding gatherings we can expect big celebrations.

“However, media coverage surrounding product shortages due to the HGV driver shortage, Brexit and Covid is concerning shoppers, with some already stockpiling ahead of Christmas and many more likely to follow suit. Retailers need to be prepared for Christmas preparations to start early this year and should expect a bumper year for sales, but also need to communicate clearly with shoppers to ensure purchasing behaviours do not hit the extremes of April 2020 when the pressures on the supply chain peaked.”

The research comprised an online survey conducted with a nationally representative sample of 1,001 UK adults between 24-27 September. 

Innis & Gunn has unveiled a 0.0% alcohol version of its award-winning Innis & Gunn Lager Beer.

Innis & Gunn 0.0% Lager has been brewed at 0.0% without producing or removing any alcohol from the process. This innovative new method is rarely used and helps create a beer that’s as close as possible to its 4.6% parent. It is yet another point of difference for Innis & Gunn 0.0% Lager, in what is an increasingly popular and growing sector.

Initially available in 4x440ml can format from mid-November in 106 Tesco stores throughout Scotland, Innis & Gunn 0.0% Lager is brewed to deliver the same full-bodied flavour and refreshment as Scotland’s favourite craft lager  – Innis & Gunn’s 4.6% Lager Beer.

The hops in the new Innis & Gunn 0.0% Lager are exactly the same varieties of Styrian Goldings and Super Styrian as in the 4.6% but added at slightly different rates, as the zero percent Lager is lighter bodied: But the unmistakably uplifting citrus zing of the two hops is true to both.

The malts in Innis & Gunn 0.0% Lager vary from the 4.6% recipe by using only pale ale malt as its base, instead of a blend of lager malt and ale malt: The ale malt in the zero percent Lager Beer promotes a reassuring maltiness, which is often hard to achieve in alcohol-free drink products.

The Innis & Gunn 0.0% Lager recipe has also substituted flaked oats for the golden naked oats of the 4.6%, as the flaked oats bring smoothness to the zero percent Lager Beer whilst giving some additional body to the beverage – a characteristic not often needed in standard Lager.

A final element of the recipe was a small amount of roasted barley for adding some golden highlights to the beer. This allows Innis & Gunn 0.0% Lager to mirror the colours of the 4.6% Lager Beer as brewing beer at such a low abv makes the beer extremely pale!  The 0.0% uses a “non-saccharomyces fermentation.”

Dougal Gunn Sharp, Founder and Master Brewer, Innis & Gunn said: “We have been working on brewing a strictly 0.0% version of our award-winning Lager Beer for some time and I am thrilled to finally be able to announce this beer along with news of initial listings with Tesco across Scotland.

“We have once again used pioneering innovation and the skill of our talented brew team to create this premium non-alcoholic Lager, which does not compromise on flavour or refreshment and which is totally Innis & Gunn.

“This is a much anticipated release from Innis & Gunn, and an extension to our hugely successful Lager Beer. It is part of our strategy to grow the brand and to offer consumers more choice on more drinking occasions in different categories.”

There are no plans at present for either bottle or keg formats.

Innis & Gunn 0.0% Lager will be available on-shelf in 106 Tesco stores throughout Scotland from 15^th November and in all Innis & Gunn Brewery Taproom bars, as well as from the online shop from 8^th October 2021. www.innisandgunn.com