Products
With the rise of craft beer showing no sign of falling flat, Will Hawkes looks at how its rich and potent diversity is changing the culture of brewing
significant. On a frosty February morning, with thick snow coating the surrounding Derbyshire hills, this humble outbuilding appears more cosy than culture-changing. Nonetheless, it’s an important spot for British beer lovers. Why? Because it was here that the craft- beer revolution currently shak- ing up Britain’s brewing industry really got started. Ten years after Thornbridge Brewery was set up, much has changed. Craft beer is increas- ingly big business. The likes of Thornbridge (which now makes the vast majority of its beer in a far larger plant a few miles down the road) and Scottish brewer Brewdog are, if not exactly house- hold names, then on their way to becoming so. Pubs and bars, particularly in the big cities, are increasingly likely to offer a craft-beer option. Craft beer has reached a crossroads: will it prove to be just a fad or, as some of its more excitable advocates claim, the future of brewing? 2015 will be a pivotal year. Few craft breweries are better
placed in the market than Thorn- bridge. A stroll around its big Riv- erside brewery, opened in 2009, demonstrates the sort of assets that have to be invested in to ensure everything is as it should be. Half-a-dozen new 100-hecto- litre cylindroconical fermentation vessels have just been installed, a new bottling line is in the pipeline and, perhaps most striking of all, there’s a sizable laboratory, where the brewers can ensure that every batch is up to the required stand- ard. Quality is paramount here. Head brewer Rob Lovatt says: “I’ve been in the situation where I’ve had a beer I’ve enjoyed for quite a while and I’ve had one bad pint of it on cask, and I’ve not gone back. You have got to be consistent. People that aren’t
60 | The Caterer | 20 March 2015
The art of craft A
t first sight, the old brew- ery at Thornbridge Hall doesn’t appear particularly
Thornbridge brewer Ben Wood
consistent might get lucky some of the time, but not all of the time. I think people will get weeded out. The way to be successful is pro- ducing quality.” It’s a message that’s getting through. In North Yorkshire you’ll find Rooster’s, another brewery that has played a key role in changing British beer cul- ture since it was founded in 1994. Until very recently, Rooster’s was a cask-only brewer, but since Ian Fozard and his sons Oliver and Tom took over in 2011, there have been some big changes – not least the introduction of canned beer earlier this year. Tom, the brewery’s commer- cial manager, was won over by the benefits of cans over bot- tles. “Some people say the beer is metallic – and if you drink the beer straight from the can, it will be metallic!” he says. “But the new cans are lined; if you’re sensible, you won’t know the difference. Cask beer comes from a metal vessel. It’s not new. “There’s also no exposure to
www.thecaterer.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80