Halloween Beers

Halloween Beer

As Halloween approaches the evenings will be filled with sound of Children and families trick or treating and numerous parties will be held with people dressing up and using the occasion as a reason to make merry. In the world of beer some brewers but not all have begun the wake up to the fact that the public are looking for a themed beer to help them celebrate.

The ultimate Halloween beer is Hobgoblin. What a wonderful job Wychwood, aka Refresh, aka Marston's have done with this beer. It really took off under the leadership of Refresh where the then MD, Rupert Thompson saw the opportunity the Halloween occasion offered for their brand. Theming it to Halloween gave it a point of difference for licensees. Also the growing trend for pubs to hold Halloween parties made the beer a natural fit. Some simple in-pub POS to communicate the Halloween link and consumers began to get the message.

Of course Hobgoblin then went on to receive more heavy weight advertising especially around the goulish theme night and it's now become one of the UK's stronger ale brands. And yes, you can't build a brand around just one day, but it gave the beer that important initial standout. Why then in a saturated market do so many brewers still overlook the Halloween opportunity?

St Austell Brewery have been brewing Bucket of Blood for around five years. It has become a beer that consumers look forward too. They don't want it as their everyday pint, but they do want it for its novelty value and of course, coming from St Austell its a very good beer. At Swindon Beer Festival it has been the festival's Champion Beer in the past and this year it was again very popular and two barrels quickly sold out. Amazingly consumers remember the beer, I think its not the exact flavour they remember, but its that its good easy drinking beer with a quirky name they like.

I think what some brewers overlook is that they are servicing retailers and retailers want brands, or beers that will appeal to their customers at certain times of the year. The Halloween opportunity is a one off, once over with no one wants a beer with a Halloween name, but leading up to the event, it certainly gives both licensees and consumers a reason to buy it.

In a market where various beer styles and hops have become leading edge, a huge number of consumers still struggle to understand the meaning of them and the flavours they impart, so won't risk making a purchase. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this so perhaps brewers, rather then trying to invent the latest quirky mix of flavours should go back to basics a little and return to quirky names that suit a specific retailing opportunity. Remember, you have the give the consumer a reason to buy and a quirky seasonal name around Halloween is still a good reason!

Saltash Market

Our first excursion at Saltash market

It was a great pleasure to attend the first ever Saltash market with Craft Bottle Beers at the start of October. Saltash is the sixth largest town in Cornwall but really only separated from Plymouth by the expanse of the Tamar. I'm sure there would have been some local shops concerned about the effect the market may have had on their business, but these proved unfounded on the day.

The market took place in the town centre where a side street was closed to accommodate the stall holders, keeping them and the public safe from passing traffic. In truth the content of the market was a little disappointing with a few charity stalls, clothing and craft stalls, but a distinct lack of food and drink offerings. This was a great opportunity missed by many of the local producers as how else can you trade in a busy market town like Saltash for a minimum amount of money on a Saturday?

Diverse Events who organised the market on had done a good job attending the needs of stall holders and one hopes their efforts don't go unrewarded as this is potentially a great little market in its infancy. The reaction from the people of Saltash was certainly positive with many delighted that this new event might become a regular monthly feature. All it needs is a bit more support from the local producers and it could be really good.

For Craft Bottle Beers we did very well and certainly well on a par with other events we have attended. I've learned you can never predict the most popular beers and in true Murphys Law, the most popular beer style were Stouts and Porters, of which I had only a limited offering! The Bellinger's Gallipoli was soon snapped up with its First World War link proving very popular, whilst the Penpont Porter quickly followed to leave us with a few bottles of the tasty Hunters Pheasant Plucker, which also soon went. I guess as the colder weather approaches the darker beers have more appeal and that I should have predicted.

One hopes that the success of the first Saltash market, but more importantly its potential as a regular monthly event will start to interest more producers. Farmers style markets and craft fairs can have a significant benefit to small towns bringing in customers who visit specially for the market and also spend time and money in local shops so everyone wins. I'd just say to any potential stall holders, do book into the remaining events before Christmas, Saltash was very welcoming and you might be surprised how well you do.

Nourish Festival

Visitors to the Nourish festival

A lovely day at the newly established Nourish Festival in Bovey Tracey. Fine weather always helps and this event was certainly blessed in that respect but there was also some good organisation and some wonderful local food and drink to enjoy.

Nourish was professional, good branding giving the event an identity, plus it seemed some strong pre-event marketing had taken place. The day was very busy with lots of people all keen to engage with traders. Selling bottled beer you get used to a slow start to the day - beer does not appeal to the mind set early in the day and its also heavy to carry around. However Nourish was different, it began at 10am and we were very quickly busy.

We sampled two great beers in Tavy Ideal Pale Ale and Dorset Brewing Co Durdle Door. Two different styles, the IPA is brewed with cascade hops and is rich in citrus grapefruit flavours with a good bitter finish. Durdle Door is much fatter on the palate, more biscuit and sweeter.  At events we've found it pays to sample your best beers or those that fit with the local market. The Tavy IPA was one of the most local beers to Bovey and very quickly sold out, a nice refreshing beer it was perfect for the hot day.

Craft Bottle Beer stand at Nourish 

There was also a great deal of interest in the Hunters Brewery beers we had on offer. Following on so soon from the BBC's programme "The Fixer" with Alex Politzzi, lots of people were aware of it with many keen to try the Royal Hunt alongside the Devon Dreamer, the two beers that Hunters had put forward for development. 

These craft/food festivals are springing up in different towns now. They are great places for traders to bring their wares to market and trade in the high street without the added cost burdens of a premises. Its' not always fun, there is a lot of hard work and wet windy weather can really ruin a day, but all told I'm very much in favour of more of these events. They are the fledgling ground of small businesses, many will not progress but for some its a good place to test your offer, do the ground work for building a brand and developing early signs of a consumer franchise for your products.

From the consumers perspective they also provide a wide variety of choice, offering brands and gifts you cannot buy in shops. Its the chance to buy something a little different. They are certainly not always the cheapest places to visit with lots of premium items on offer but there are some real gems of gifts waiting to be discovered.

A Day at the Races

A day at Salisbury races earlier this summer was thoroughly enjoyable, I'd recommend it to any racing enthusiast, good quality racing, friendly staff and good pubs locally, in fact we go every year. However this year was a little disappointing on the day and it has bothered me ever since. Nothing wrong with the racing or the service from the course staff etc, but previous visits have always been accompanied by a pint of Hopback Summer Lightning. Sadly, this year the only ale offering was a pint of the ubiquitous Doombar!

To a beer enthusiast one of the fun things about visiting other towns and counties is the enjoyment of drinking the local brew. I confess that Summer Lightning is a long held favourite of mine and a few pints have always helped to offset a bad day with the bookmakers at Salisbury. This year it had to be Doom and coming from Cornwall it was bit like coals to Newcastle and not a particularly welcome sight.

One thing that Doombar was doing, or should I say Molson Coors, was sponsoring a race on the card. Great that they were doing this and I have noticed a number of race meetings subsequently that have Doombar sponsored races in the card. The recent meeting at Goodwood being a good example. I am delighted to see Doombar using racing to build brand awareness, its a good medium and if they are investing in marketing the brand, then it will encourage drinkers to the overall ale category and not just to Doombar.

My concern though is that I hope it does not come at the expense of choice in the racecourse bars. The drink supply deals at courses are part of much bigger agreements, not just for ales, perhaps covering a multiple of courses and certainly different drink categories (lager, cider etc).  Also, Molson Coors will also want Doom to be available if they are sponsoring racing at a course which is only fair. However, there still has to be choice for the consumer so surely there is room on racecourse bars for the local ale to sit alongside Doombar?

I write with a marketing background so can see the benefits of promoting Doom via the horse racing world but I am also a consumer so I want to see choice and ideally, a choice that gives the local brewers a chance as well. Doombar will continue to grow for sure and hopefully racing will benefit if they choose this as part of any sponsorship strategy. Doom really does seem to have taken the country by storm and quite literally every other pub seems to stock it. Its an ok beer, very commercial in that the flavour will not challenge you too much, so is acceptable to most palates and quite consistent in its quality. But, exciting and interesting? No it certainly is not.



With Lisa at Salisbury Races

So how long will it last? I'm sure Molson Coors have not bought the brand for fun and they will have aspiration's to make it the UK's largest ale brand which they surely will achieve. However history has numerous examples of bigger brewers acquiring regional brands to turn them into national brands with mixed success. Courage of course with its "Best" was a huge brand in the 1980's/90's, but where is it now? Whitbread once owned the marketing rights of Wadworth 6X, but where is that now? Perhaps the biggest example is Boddingtons, the "Cream of Manchester", a massive brand from the 80's/90's, but again not what it once was. Will Doom go the same way? Only time will tell, but for certain Molson Coors will not want to fail.

So finally, back to Salisbury races - we'll be going again next year so a request would be to please offer a another ale in addition to Doom, Summer Lightning would be lovely but so long as there is a choice I will be happy.

GBBF 2014

Starting to get busy at GBBF 2014

What a fine event GBBF turned out to be this year. Over 800 different beers were available plus many ciders. Beers were featured from not just the UK, but also beers from around the world including a bar dedicated to American cask ales and also a German beers bar.

I had the privilege of working on the St Austell Brewery bar for the week and saw first hand the success of the event. Perhaps we have become too accustomed to the craft word and its innovation, but have forgotten just how much interest there is in good old fashioned cask ale - its just huge. Sure, this years event had its share of older more mature people but there was also a refreshing intake of much younger people. Also of note was the balance in choice of beers by abv. In regional festivals you tend to find the choice dominated by higher abv beers, but not at GBBF. There was a good selection of beers less that 4.0% abv. Perhaps peoples drinking habits are changing as they look to try more beers with great tastes rather then just topping up on alcohol.

Belgium style Blonde

Also, who says innovation is contained just to the mystical world of craft beer, no there's lots of it going in in the cask area and anyway, is cask beer not a craft beer? Of course it is! There are so many small brewers now all producing great beers, infact the only way the traditional regional brewers can be sure of getting their beers to the festival is by having their own bars (as with St Austell). I looked at all of the CAMRA run bars and pleasingly all were busy. I knew only a small number of the brewers on show, let alone beers which I think is great as its recruiting new younger brewers into the market many with fresh and interesting ideas.

This years winning beer was Timothy Taylor Boltmaker, a beer I've not heard of before and not a beer I had a chance to try. The good news is this beer is produced by a traditional regional brewer so they should be able to produce plenty of it so that all of the CAMRA regional festivals can acquire a barrel to showcase the UK's champion beer.

CAMRA work really hard to make this event a success and although they can sometimes polarise opinions with some of their views on beers and brewers, you can only give them credit for putting on such a great event. In the brewing industry we tend to forget that CAMRA is comprised mainly of volunteers who do it just for their love and interest in beer and pubs. Indeed, some brewers are all too quick to dismiss them but actually they do great work in promoting the sector and creating interest in cask ales. So to conclude, good luck to CAMRA and their members and long may the GBBF continue!



Having fun with CAMRA volunteers

Beer Judging

Judging at Plymouth Beer Festival

I had the privilege to sit on the beer judging panel at the recent Plymouth CAMRA Beer Festival and it reminded me as to how hard it is to judge beer. It sounds really easy, tasting beers and saying which one you like best, but actually trying to rank 6 plus different beers is harder than you think.

The format is well organised and credit to CAMRA and their volunteers for the way they run this. Usually there is table of 6 to 8 tasters with a chairman. Jugs of beer are bought to the table one by one and the judges mark the beers for various attributes. Each judge fills in sheet and sums up the scores at the end. Now for the actual tasting and that's where it starts to get harder for there is no right or wrong and there are sometimes opposing views around the judging table.

Firstly, in my view its a mistake to try and identify beer brands as you judge. invariably you are usually wrong. That's not what its about, what does it matter what the beer is called or who brews it, that will only colour your judgement as you start to associate brand or brewer values with the beer you are tasting. Better to focus on the beer itself, the colour, condition, aroma, taste and linger.

Everyone tastes with their eyes. A cloudy beer should not really make it to the judging table but a beer lacking condition could well do so. This is an instant negative and some well known brands can find themselves falling at the earliest of judging fences for this reason. Now it starts to get more difficult.

As a judge you are normally looking for a beer that stands out from the rest. This usually means more hops, more malt, more chocolate, more fruity flavours etc. Not always does it mean the best balanced beer which actually is usually what makes a popular beer with the general public. Having been a judge I can really see how the beers that do the best are the ones that are the most distinctive flavours. The best balanced beers don't always stand out, whereas those with lots of certain flavours do.

I'm not sure there is a right or wrong as any sort of guidance from CAMRA could result in a skewed result, I think its better to just let things take their course. However this does often mean the winning beers at a festival can be the odd ball tasting beers or those with strong flavours that don't always appeal to the masses.

How wonderful it would be if at this years Great British Beer Festival a well known, well balanced tasting brand could win the ultimate prize. Quite how we get to that point I'm not sure, but maybe judges should try to be aware of drinkability when they judge. How often do you here, tastes nice but I could not drink a pint - if that's the case then that's the sort of beer you would not want to win. I for one have my fingers crossed that the winning beer is something I've heard of before and brewed by a reasonably sized brewer.

Plymouth Beer Festival 2014

Having fun at Plymouth Beer Festival

Another fine event, Plymouth Beer Festival did not disappoint for 2014. Perhaps the largest beer festival in the South West south of Bristol, the festival claimed 150 different beers plus ciders and foreign beers on top for consumers to enjoy.

A highlight for me of this years event was the quality of the local brews. The St Austell Brewery beers as ever were exceptional, aided by a remote cooling system. The latter is a major benefit and the St Austell beers stood out. If only CAMRA could afford to cool all of their beers. One of their objectives is to promote the sales of cask ales and beer festivals are ideal opportunities to show case cask ales. Much effort goes into pubs serving cask ales in perfect condition, however its sad to say that's not always the case at beer festivals.

It's great to try lots of different beers, but for some the beer festival experience might be their first in tasting cask ales. Such a shame then that CAMRA might be serving it's beers at less than perfect temperature. At Plymouth they are fortunate that they can turn the venue air conditioning down overnight and this certainly helps keep the beers within touching distance of the correct temperature. However we've all seen in the past at other festivals no cooling or even wet bar towels draped across casks to try and aid cooling!

My view is that CAMRA could do worse than invest in some cooling equipment for its major regional beer festivals. The festivals are there to showcase the ales where they deserve to be seen at their best, both for the pride of the brewer and the enjoyment of the consumer. Having used remote coolers, saddles and jackets myself its not entirely straight forward to the novice, so CAMRA would have to have an expert on hand to aid the installs and comply with health and safety rules.

Another problem would be the cost involved, remote coolers are not cheap and they don't like being moved around a great deal.  Alternatives are ice jackets but using lots of these in one go is not practical - there are only so many you can fit in your freezer. However I do think the issue of serving cask ales at their best in your premier events is something CAMRA need to think about and funds permitting, that might mean a major investment in cooling equipment and training.

Having highlighted a potential issue, its great to report the festival at Plymouth was its usual huge success. Keep up the good work and I am already looking forward to 2015.