Time for change on supermarket shelves

Not a supermarket shelf but demonstrates the problem

A visit to your local supermarket and browsing the bottled beer shelves can actually be quiet fun and interesting if you are minded as such. However its not that easy for the general public to understand why a beer is on a particular shelf and position, so perhaps a change is called for in how this is done.

Supermarkets tend to order beers by brewer and traditionally that's how we have looked at the beer market. You may have a favourite brewer and buy their beers or perhaps you have a favourite brand and that encourages you to buy other beers from the same brewer. Its also true that retailers will ensure the beers that earn the most profit will be in the consumers eye-line as will the faster moving beers for the convenience of the customer. However, with the massive presence of social media and keen interest in craft beers, the term beer style as become more relevant.

Annoyingly brewers don't always make the beer style easy to understand. One brewer will call a beer a pale ale, another will call a similar beer a golden beer whilst another might use the IPA term. Brewers also don't make the style of the beer that obvious on the labelling, indeed in some cases its missing altogether or hidden on the back label which confuses both consumers and retailers alike.

Perhaps its time for the retailers to follow the way they display their wines and order the beers by style/variety. All the IPA's would sit together; all the pale ales would be one and the growing band of porters would sit alongside each other etc. What a difference this could make to how consumers buy their beer. The lucky dip element of choosing a beer to try would be gone as consumers buy from within a favourite style, or perhaps choose a new style to try. Brands will of course always be important and consumers may choose those above beers they don't know so their is still room for the brand builders amongst brewers.

A change in the way beers are displayed with retailers would also put pressure on brewers to sharpen up their game with labelling and descriptions on bottles. The latter has become a very confusing area and there is certainly room for improvement.

Some specialist beer shops do already sell by style and if you check out the online beer shops its very common for beers to be listed by beer style, so come on supermarkets and brewers, time for change on the shelves please.

Views of a Beer Sommelier

 



Marc Bishop is the Trade Marketing Manager for St Austell Brewery and a fully qualified Beer Sommelier. I caught up with him, sober, at the Plymouth CAMRA Beer Festival and posed a few questions. Interview by Neil Franklin, Plymouth CAMRA 

 

Q1. Marc, what got you started in the Brewery/Pub business?

Originally born in Oxfordshire, I fell into a job with Morland of Abingdon and discovered I had a flair for marketing. It was at the time of the 1988 Monopolies & Mergers commission report and whether that was good or bad I will leave for others to debate, but for Morland and myself it was certainly good. Luckily I grabbed the shirt tails of the then Marketing Manager, a very creative and clever thinking chap called Gerald but who was hopeless at the organisation bits necessary for any successful marketing campaign.  We were somewhat opposite in strengths and weaknesses but that worked and together we developed and brought to fruition his plan to launch the famous Old Speckled Hen.

A wonderful beer, Old Speckled Hen was one of the first successful guest ales and it quickly established itself in the market. We had some great times in the early days marketing this beer and every lunchtime involved a couple of pints at least of our favourite, well you just would not do that nowadays! I’m very proud of my time with Old Speckled Hen and the beer’s tremendous success, which rightly or wrongly, I have a small claim to fame for. Indeed at Morland I worked with some talented and fun people and it was such a shame when Greene King took them over, but…..to their credit, the Suffolk invaders have certainly taken the brand onto another greater and more successful level.

Q2.  You are a Beer Sommelier, what does it mean?

Basically it makes me an Ambassador and expert for beer (but not in how to brew beer).  I am an expert taster and sit on the St Austell Brewery taste panel, but I also enjoy bringing the beers and their stories to life with the general public. It’s not just about how the beer tastes, it’s about adding the perfume around it with a story that enhances its interest. I’m at my happiest talking about beer to a large group of people and helping them get enjoyment out of tasting beer. Training to become a beer sommelier is something you have to make happen yourself, but I do have to thank Waitrose in Saltash. I worked my way through their entire beer selection in a year, making tasting notes and holding my own private beer festival every weekend. I’m sure I became one of their best customers for that short period!

Q3. Of St Austell’s many beer awards, of which are you most proud?

A difficult question because St Austell have so many awards and I don’t brew the beer, so am not directly responsible for their excellent and consistent flavours. However I think I would pick Admiral’s Ale award as the World’s Best Bottled Beer in the International Beer challenge of 2008. I choose this because it’s still one of the biggest awards St Austell have ever received and also because I came up with the name for the beer and worked closely on the branding and launch.

Q4. Proper Job & Big Job are both great successes Why?

Well the beer is great of course, but I would say that! However, Proper Job was a cutting edge beer in terms of its flavour when launched and was one of the first truly modern IPA’s. The flavour is full of juicy citrus hops for a pineapple, lemongrass and resinous flavour with a solid bitter finish. Proper Jobs reputation continues to grow steadily as do sales. At St Austell we know Proper Job is something of a specialist beer and best sold by word of mouth, I would not see a time in the near future when it would receive large scale consumer advertising as Tribute does.

Big Job is Proper Job’s bigger brother, a double IPA, which actually uses a different blend of hops rather than just more of the hops Proper Job uses. A great beer and at 7.2% not to be messed with. The name also helps, quite quirky and with a laddish, humorous connotation.

At St Austell we are proud of both beers but realise where they fit in our portfolio of brands and each has a different role to play.

Q5. Tell us about Proper Cool

St Austell’s attempt to address the small but growing craft beer market meant that Proper Cool was quickly rebranded as St Austell IPA, a more credible option. It’s a very small brand for St Austell but has established itself and is steadily growing naturally.  We’ll see how we go on that one as they say.

Q6. Will St Austell be investing in pubs beyond their Cornwall stronghold?

I think for sure we will. Buying new pubs is a difficult and competitive area but St Austell although still steeped in our Cornish roots, are very much a South West based business from Bristol and Bath down. It would be great to acquire some more pubs in Plymouth but I don’t know of anything on the horizon at the moment. Watch this space though as you never know?

Q7. How does the relationship between Rattler Cyder and St Austell work?

Basically we have an agreement to wholesale Rattler and are their main route to market on draught in Cornwall. It’s as simple as that really; just like we wholesale many other beers, ciders, wines, spirits and minerals etc. Rattler is an amazing cider and hats off to Healeys who have made a great success of the marketing through hard work and above all innovation. They are younger people who saw an opportunity, went out and just did it. Good luck to them.

Q8. How do you feel about European beers?

Most German beers are brewed to the Reinheitsgebot (German Purity Law) which means they have to be brewed traditionally and do not contain any adjuncts or additions i.e. barley, liquor (water) and hops and not much else. I recall in my Beer Sommelier exam the specialist subject turned out to be German beers – very difficult especially as I’d swotted up specifically on Belgium beers! None-the-less I passed and having visited Munich and Berlin in recent years I do have a real fondness for them.

Q9. Do you believe sparklers should be mandatory?

At St Austell we prefer them to be used, but mandatory is too strong a word. The beer presents itself really well if a sparkler is used and at circa £3.50 per pint or more, people want their beer to not only taste good, but look good as well. Personally I think it’s down to personal choice. If I were a licensee I would certainly have a sparkler on all my cask ale taps but if a customer asked for a pint without the sparkler, I would have no hesitation in removing it. The customer is always right and this is a common sense approach that I know many licensees follow.

Q10. Tribute pasties are legendary in the Brewery Visitor Centre, any plans for Big Job pasties?

Ha, good question. None at the moment I think and I’m not sure Big Job would transport itself to make a good pasty. The really heavily hopped beers are not always great to cook with and let’s face it, Big Job is over-hopped (in a good way). It would be fun to try but the flavour could be too strong and overpower the other flavours in a pasty. I think an HSD pasty would be ideal, a much better beer to cook with. Or, perhaps a Smugglers pasty, now that really would be a wonderful pasty! Rest assured, you will be on the judging panel when we make them.

Marc, thanks for your time, effort and insight.

 

Interviewed by Neil Franklin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ladies Choice!

Having attended a number of Christmas Fayre's in the run up to the festive period, it's apparent how often beer is bought as a gift, especially by ladies for their fathers, husbands, brothers and uncles, or as that annoyingly difficult "Secret Santa" offering!

Beer does make a great gift. Speaking from experience I am thrilled when I receive beer as a gift because its very likely the beer chosen would not be something I would normally buy myself, hence I'm forced to try something new, or indeed something old - I recently received a bottle of Newcastle Brown, not a beer I'd remotely think of buying so to receive this iconic beer as a gift was very welcome. As a beer drinker receiving beer gifts is often the inroad to a new regular beer purchase of the future, so brewers and retailers should not overlook this once a year opportunity to get people to sample brands.

Choosing a beer gift can be hard as brewers and retailers tend to offer limited clues as to what the contents of a bottle might contain. Also, where a beer style is stated, if you don't understand its meaning it does little to help. For many ladies this is where the problems begin, so as a Beer Sommelier working at the point of purchase can really help. I normally ask where the gift recipient lives, their rough age, perhaps their interests and then if they do have any idea on what beer brands/styles the person currently drinks. I then try to match a beer to suit.

There are many ladies now who are very knowledgeable about beer, but for many who buy beer as gifts at these events that's not the case. So a little guidance is often much appreciated and can lead to them buying the chosen beer as part of their regular shop in the future. Remember, most shopping is done by the lady of the house and if a beer name sticks in her mind that her husband liked at Christmas, then its likely that beer will become part of the regular shop.

But back to Christmas. Another issue is that brewers tend to come at gifts from a very corporate viewpoint. The gift is a brewers box and rarely do you see gift boxes related to an occasion or season. That's not the case with other luxury items as Christmas gift boxes in the world of Chocolate are common place so there is some learning there from other product categories.

Hopefully all the gift boxes sold by myself and colleagues over the festive period will be well received by the recipients and Santa has them safely loaded onto his sleigh for delivery on the big day!

Beer Tastings

Programme of event Cornwall Food Festival

Two recent beer tastings reminded me just how much interest there is from the general public when you give them a little bit of guidance, knowledge and above all make the event entertaining.

A recent beer tasting at Cornwall Food Festival in Truro began slowly but quickly started to flow as people took notice of what was happening. Having done a number of tastings I've learned that first and foremost don't talk too much, people get bored and switch off, they are there to taste beer but some interaction between the audience and myself makes it more interesting. Having a beer and food match element helps to achieve this as its easy for people to take part and there is no right or wrong.

At Food Festivals I think its really important to select food from other suppliers at the event. I selected delicious caramel chocolate from Kernow Chocolate, rich mature creamy Cheddar cheese from Davidstow, the famous Cornish Blue cheese and finally some succulent Cornish sausages from Tamblyns of Saltash. The point is that as well as show casing some great beers, its also an opportunity to promote the excellent produce from fellow exhibitors. Ideally we want people to be impressed with both the beer and the food match, enough to buy both so everyone wins.

On with the tasting. I always start with Proper Job or an equivalent big IPA, the flavours are easy to recognise and describe. This is followed by a robust malt driven beer, normally HSD. These are two very opposite beers but they demonstrate the two main sources of flavour in beer (hops and malt) admirably. I don't go too deep into how a beer is brewed, its more about how it tastes and a little bit of history or reason for being about the beer. Add a few comical quips and interaction with the audience and this normally makes for a fast paced and interesting tasting. We tasted eight different beers ending with the quirky Belgium style Kriek beer, Tamar Creek. A wholly distinctive and challenging sour cherry beer, but matched with a rich Pate the tartness is rebuffed by the oily meat for a truly wonderful balanced taste experience.

A second tasting took place at the Rashleigh Arms in Charlestown for Cornwall CAMRA, again based on beer and food. A similar format to the previous tasting I added a beer related quiz to get people talking at the start of the event. We had around 60 people, many of them new to a CAMRA meeting so well done to the our friends at CAMRA who promoted the event to attract new people and were rewarded with an excellent turnout.

CAMRA members are quite knowledgeable about beer and love to discuss their favourite brews, but we struck a happy balance tasting the St Austell range of beers together and matching them with some excellent food choices supplied by the pub. A great evening was had and we enjoyed a few guest beers as well including Westmalle Dubbel and Flensburger Pilsner.

All told at both tastings it is likely we had over 100 people combined for these events. I'm convinced the format of focusing on beer and food rather than the technical brewing process is more engaging and entertaining for members of the public. As a Beer Sommelier my role is to be an ambassador for beer and I think I was successful in both talks here.

Reflections on Plymouth Beer Festival 2015, Cracks, Cooling and Chris Farlowe!

Saturday Night entertainment at Plymouth

A well established Beer Festival, Plymouth was once again a bastion of cask ale for the folk of South Devon. However, for all the PR, positive talk, fine beer and good fun that was had, there was perhaps the odd crack starting to appear in one of the South West's premier beer events.

Regretfully, some old stalwarts of the organising team have either sadly passed away or are unable to continue for other reasons. However, fresh willing people have picked up the mantle and although they don't yet have the knowledge that comes from years of running such an event, new blood brings new ideas so is not a bad thing. Hopefully it will be good in the long run as the new organisers get their teeth into the event and start to bring their own ideas to fruition. The latter is what Plymouth really needs so good luck to them for next year.

 So, here are my thoughts on the 2015 event.

Firstly, held at Plymouth Pavilions, this is a superb venue but it is a large cavernous area that can lack atmosphere and soul. It needs a bit of window dressing to make it look good for a beer festival and in 2015 this was a little thin on the ground. The Pavilions has a lot going for it as a venue, not least because it is in central Plymouth and easy to get to for most, so I'd like to see the event continue here. It just needs a large splash of beer related colour and paraphernalia to help it along the way!

Secondly, and I'm sorry to repeat an old bug bear, the beer quality here could be improved with some proper cooling equipment. CAMRA rely on overnight air conditioning to bring down the temperature, but come Saturday afternoon many of the beers are at less than perfect temperature and certainly not show-cased at their best. It's easy to lay the blame for this at CAMRA's door but I think the responsibility lies as much with the brewers and wholesalers who sell CAMRA the beer.

In my view they should ensure their beers are always served at their optimum temperature and supply the correct equipment to do this. This is potentially a huge investment but some of the larger brewers could do this. Not supplying cooling is a short term saving, BUT, potentially much longer term pain is being done as consumers try the beer, have a disappointing experience and then don't choose cask ale in a pub. The long term losers are the brewers, pub operators and wholesalers, not CAMRA or Plymouth Beer Festival!

Thirdly, more pre-event advertising needs to take place for the festival. CAMRA need to whet the appetite of the Plymouth public. I'm not sure how much that really happened for 2015 and as a result numbers were down on the previous year. Its easy to say this and we should remember CAMRA is a voluntary organisation and their members try their level best, but they don't always have the time or the skills to make this happen, so it's a difficult challenge to overcome.

Finally, and perhaps this is most contentious, apart from the quiet session the event would really benefit from some more entertainment/music. Perhaps its a good opportunity to let some fresh untried local bands to have a go. So long as their sound is controlled and they are not too loud, they could attract a whole new audience to the event.

To finish it would not be complete without commenting on how good the music choice on Saturday night was. Some old stagers of the 1960's, the music was foot tapping, good quality and some great old favourites. Not least the star of the show was Chris Farlowe, he of Handbags and Gladrags fame. Still a wonderful voice sir, you were a highlight of an entertaining evening.

Reflections on GBBF 2015 - its not just about the Beer!

St Austell Brewery bar team

It would be remiss of me not to write about the hugely popular GBBF (Great British Beer Festival) in London. I've attended the event for the last three years now as part of the St Austell Brewery bar team and 2015 was equally as good as previous years.

It never ceases to amaze me of the organisation that goes into producing any large beer festival but GBBF is something different. It's not perfect, it has its flaws, but its run by an enthusiastic group of volunteers who without fail manage to put on a festival to be proud of and one that showcases some of the best beers available. Congratulations CAMRA and all its willing volunteers for making this happen.

However, it's also true that Beer Festivals should be fun as well as giving people the chance to try some great beers. Working on my bar it was clearly apparent, that fuelled by some fine Cornish ales and equally great mix of music, customers where having fun.

The "m" word (music) is one that other beer festivals often over look. Music and beer go hand in hand as much as beer and football, so I think its only right that more festival organisers should take their entertainment offering as well as the beer a bit more seriously. On the St Austell bar we had a resident DJ who played a mix of tracks appropriate for the time of day and customer age groups - that's really important as who wants to hear heavy rock early on a Wednesday!

At other regional beer festivals CAMRA tend to book bands to play in the evening sessions and the remaining times are quiet. Although I respect the need for a quiet session I think its time CAMRA started to add to the atmosphere of their events with more background or regular music slots. It does not need to be a band blasting your ear drums, a DJ mix of 60's, 70's or 80's classic tracks are great for raising the atmosphere and getting the feet tapping . Also, one thing that CAMRA and real ale needs to do is to appeal to younger people so the introduction of more music would surely help with this.

Dare I add there might also be a place for a sports screen at some festivals. If there is a good match on the TV then why not employ a large screen for this to be shown. If this attracts more people, or keeps people at the event, costs permitting its worth considering.

So for me, although GBBF 2015 was a very enjoyable and successful event, the popularity of the St Austell bar with its music made me aware that's "its not just about the beer"!

When Craft Beers Attack!

I get to try lots of different beers, most of which are wonderful, taste good, look good and have a nice aroma. However I've also experienced a number of poor beers recently and sad to say they seem to have a couple of things in common. They masquerade under the "craft" name and disappointingly they are often produced by small micro brewers.

Recently I tasted an IPA that definitely had a strong rasping hop bitterness, but sadly it was overpowered by an immense diacetyl off flavour, the sort that the first sip tastes good but you know the second will be a sip too much. Another lager was full of phenolic flavours (that's most unpleasant), whilst an IPA was infected with acetaldehyde. The branding on these beers looked great and very appealing but sadly the beer just did not live up to that resulting in an attack on the taste buds of an unwanted kind!

What is a little concerning is that it seems possible to hide behind the word craft and produce beers that are less than great. To some it's perhaps the charm that there is a bit of funkiness going on, but actually I really want to taste the malt, hops and fermentation enhanced flavours that the beer should have, I'm not so keen on flavours that should not be there!

If you read the descriptions on these bottles they make no mention of the off flavours experienced above so they should not really be present and are unwelcome guests. Regretfully, the layman cannot easily identify some of the promised flavours that should be there let alone off flavours, so they become the norm and acceptable. Also many are packaged in the smaller 330ml bottle and this too might be a smokescreen to indifferent quality, as most people are used to drinking the larger 500ml so expect the smaller bottle and the word craft to offer a different experience.

So where do I stand on this. I am all for encouraging choice and innovation from the brewers but it should not come at the cost of quality. The word craft has invigorated the beer category, recruited new younger drinkers and forced many established brewers to innovate. However, I think too much can go into trying to make a beer standout with unusual or higher than normal levels of ingredients, rather than working on balance, quality and above all making sure the beer that's offered for sale is consistently good and drinkable. To this effect perhaps some of the smaller brewers should take a leaf out of the larger brewers quest for quality and consistency, add that to their armoury and an attack of craft beers brewed by the small brewer would always be welcome!