Equity for Punks Revisited

Back in 2009 I became somewhat infatuated with a small but up-and-coming brewery called BrewDog. James Watt managed to capture my imagination with his promise of change within the beer industry. Personal circumstances conspired the night of the launch of Equity for Punks and I found myself with a maverick attitude. I parting with £230 for a 50p share in BrewDog. I forget the exact proportion of the equity up for sale, but whatever, I had bought a little bit of a brewery and at the time that cheered me up when other stuff was properly getting to me. I had been slowly getting tired of running a pub, and the drab "Real Ale" scene that felt like it was restricting progression of beer.

I spent the next few days, weeks even, justifying my purchase. Many people were very quick to point out that BrewDog had grossly overvalued themselves. However, I believed then, as I still do now, that the boys have a very powerful formula that was bound to find some sort of success; I wasn't purchasing their current value, I was buying into a promise of bigger things to come. If the bigger things didn't happen, at least I bought into a concept that was worthy, part of a change in the beer world that was needed, and possibly still is.

I only took brief notice of the second round of their crowd funding concept. It seemed by the valuation at the time that I might have doubled my money, but I really couldn't be bothered to do the sums. I had by that time moved Hardknott to its current location and my association with BrewDog seemed to me to be bringing me more embarrassment than benefits, so I decided to pipe-down and just get on with the job of growing my own brewery, even though there were times I overtly used similar tactics.

BrewDog became increasingly controversial, and annoyed more and more people, whilst at the same time creating such a buzz that the whole thing appeared unstoppable by nearly anything, even the most annoying PR stunt. I thought at least if they continue to grow the sceptical critiques would be proved wrong.

Equity for Punks 3 was at a time I was trying very hard to force Hardknott, and my own PR machine, to distance from BrewDog completely. I really have no idea what went on. I'm still unsure if the distance between us is good or bad, but equally, it became clear that BrewDog cared much less about me too.

What did happen, at some point in time, was that my single share was converted to 10 shares, each with a nominal value of 5p. The 5p shares seemed to be selling at that point for £95. My shares then seemed to be worth £950. Not a bad step up for the £230 I initially invested.

On looking, finally, at Equity for Punks 4 it became clear that this really had been a freight train that is quite unstoppable. The new shares are being sold at £47.5 each. BrewDog have raised over £10m already and are hoping to get to £25m in total.

When completed the new shares will be 1p shares. My 10 shares will also be converted into 1p shares and I'll have 50 of them. At least that is my understanding. My original investment of £230 seems to now be worth £2,375. A ten fold increase in 6 years. Of course, what it will mean if they fail to raise £25m I don't really know, but it still looks quite good from my point of view.

I was uncertain about writing this post. As I've indicated, I'm now in a place where I want Hardknott to succeed because we are who we are, not because we are someone who has simply copied off BrewDog. Equally, now that I have my own brewery, and BrewDog has grown beyond any projections even I would have believed, they are on the verge of being a multinational monolithic conglomerate they rail against. I've felt that there is now a tension between us that is barely tangible, but clearly we are viewed as a threat, rather than an ally. It's a shame, but not surprising I guess.

I console myself with the fact that whatever we do, and whatever our honesty in the way we operate, I have at least gained some growth in my investment with BrewDog. If we were to do the same, and go to the crowd for funding, we'd certainly not be as brash, audacious, or actually even slightly devious. The fact we don't lie to the banks, or our customers, or are quite as all out ballsy as those guys, and as a result are more content in making our own way might not bring us quite that same world domination. If we went to the crowd we'd probably be looking for people to support us because we are not going to be so controversial, but at the same time, we could not expect to make quite such dramatic gains.

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I did a number of posts around the time of the whole launch. It was, I have to admit, quite exciting. I have never regretted forking out £230, even if sometimes I did wonder if I would see the cash again. Check out the posts below.

http://hardknott.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/dog-virus.html
http://hardknott.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/dogs-share.html
http://hardknott.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/punk-equity.html
http://hardknott.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/doggy-style.html
http://hardknott.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/getting-doggeared.html

4th July, a good day to die?

Today is Independence Day. At Hardknott we think that we should observe the anniversary of an important day in world history. For us not least because Scott is helping us brew some truly stunning beer at the moment. I'd really like to take all the credit myself, but that would be most unfair to the very great contribution our American brewer is providing us.


4th July from Hardknott Brewery on Vimeo.


Generally, of course, American Craft Beer is having an increasing impact on the British Beer Scene. We take our influences from things we find over in the USA. We try to make beers similar to beers we have tasted from there, and hopefully we'll bring a bit of America to the UK without having to ship beer over the Atlantic with all the added costs, fossil fuel burning and problems of freshness.

One of the biggest antagonists in the UK beer scene is BrewDog. I bought a share way back when Equity for Punks was in its first incarnation. Folk thought me daft. Well, they have certainly grown out of all proportion since then. We now have Equity for Punks IV. Should you invest? Well, of course I'd prefer you to spend your money on Hardknott beer, or wait until we do something similar. If you have some spare cash, why not? Probably better than putting your money into a Greek bank right now.

Anyway, the guys sent me a little goodie pack including Born to Die, which has a best before date of today. We thought we'd review it alongside a few of our beers.

As an aside, and just to be clear, it is a very good beer, and certainly not in danger of going rank after today¹. I expect any spare stock will be sold off at a good price. Go fill your boots.

Which is better, Born to Die or the selection of Hardknott we tried? Well, beauty is in the palate of the beer holder, I expect, but we know which we prefer.

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¹I expect most readers of this blog know perfectly well that best before dates are only advisory. It is NOT illegal to sell beer that is after its best before date. Indeed, some beer can be better after, Fuller's Vintage, for instance (have a look at my previous blog post about yeast in beer. John Keeling points out in the comments that putting yeast into beer isn't just about bottle conditioning, it does help ageing)

It is indeed the case that many food items have best before dates, it is neither illegal nor dangerous to sell these items after the best before. When something has a use by date, then it is illegal and unsafe to sell or consume such items. Things like meat, fish, some cheeses and dairy products have food poisoning risks where the use by date is important. Beer, crisps, many cheeses, much dried food all have best before dates. Sometimes, as in the case of stilton², or Fuller's Vintage, better after the best before date.

²I have the tail end of a round of stilton I bought from the wholesaler a while ago which says it's best before 12th June. This is a lie, it is much better now than when it was bought.

Awards

I've won the occasional Award. I got one for this blog, once. I also got one for kegged Queboid at the last SIBA Craft Keg competition and another for Infra Red at the Northern festival. I think awards are important. There is the view out there that everyone is an award winner, and to some extent I can see why that view is held; most new breweries win something at local beer festivals when the punters are voting. I suspect it's a combination of novelty factor and perhaps a genuine eagerness, even if subliminal, by true beer enthusiasts to see the new guys do well, and perhaps that's no bad thing.

I also have a degree, not in very much you see, it's called an open degree, mainly because it was done with the Open University and back then they didn't really name the subject you studied. That was good for me, as I've got a short attention span and so could hop around studying modules in all sorts of interesting, and useless subjects. I have yet to find a use for Artificial Intelligence in the brewery, although some days any intelligence would do.

Am I digressing? Sorry. The point is, I value all the awards and qualifications I've got. Like many graduates, especially the ones that went to real Universities, there is the suspicion that as more people gain ever higher qualifications the value of any individual qualification is degraded.

I volunteered to sit on the British Guild of Beer Writers committee to try and help defend the value of the runners up award I got for this blog. If I gain another award at some time in the future I'll be pleased, although I feel like I'm sort of treading water with my writing at this time. But if I don't, I still want to defend the value of our awards and so develop and improve the quality of beer writing across  the spectrum, whether it be writing for a living, writing blogs for pleasure, or as with me, partly as an aside to my business. Even corporate writing is important, be it advertising, brewery newsletters or even, perhaps, beer menus. All these can be improved if an overseeing award recognises true achievement, and helps to maintain the value of that award.

It is with this backdrop of underlying principles which causes me to be a little concerned over the recent BrewDog bar award. Yes, we all know BrewDog won massive PR well over and above what they would have got if they had been presented it fairly on the night. And of course, anyone who has been in a BrewDog bar will know, save for one or two teething troubles, the quality is exceptional. They should really have won the award.

What concerns me is two fold.

1. Of course, we know that back-room dealings happen. But, there is a concern to me that sponsoring organisations can have an influence on awards and this detracts from any award. There is no way of eliminating bias; judges are human and have opinions and preconceptions. For instance I have many times had discussions with people about a beer I think is great, and other people don't and vicer-verser. Bias comes from all sorts of influences, but are always going to affected by organisations one belongs.

But, how to ensure that sponsors cannot influence the outcome is a concern. Inevitably judges of any competition will have close ties with the subject and will inextricably have paymaster loyalties.

2. To me, a bigger concern, that of the award winners gaining enough recognition without recourse to guerilla public relations to get sufficient recognition.

I was most shocked by the lack of real information from the BII - as yet I have not found any official confirmation that BrewDog should have won the award. BrewDog say they should have, and everyone else involved is apologising. It remains, even if the facts are that Diageo did swing the events of the night, I've yet to see, in plain type, on the BII web site anything that resembles "BrewDog won, sorry" - I know The BII is a small trade organisation, but they do need to do something. The last award listed I could find was from 2011.

So for awards to count, and to mean something, they have to be made to count. Transparency and fairness in the judging has to be paramount only with one other thing even more important; independence of the judges.

One last thought on the subject; It might be right that the winner of an award is the one who should be responsible for organising any PR gains. But what if the winner is really good at PR and uses badness to gain the upper-hand? It is unfortunate that the BII have also not come out of this well, but perhaps they need to do more about their own PR. I do think that many awards fail to be worth anything because the organisers fail to put out satisfactory publicity after the event.

I did email the BII to see if I could get a comment, and to ask who actually did win. No reply was forthcoming. I do believe I have an interest. I used to own a pub and so was a member of the BII organisation. If Hardknott ever opens a brewery tap, I'd consider joining again. My considerations will certainly be more cautious next time.

Marketing and Position

Yesterday we had quite a busy day racking, doing some CIP improvements, training my new secret production technician, transferring beer and getting ready to bottle today. It wasn't until quite late I found out that BrewDog and CAMRA had fallen out.

Upon learning this HardknottAnn immediately insisted on commandeering my MacBook for the purposes of writing a blog.

Last night and this morning we got carried away with discussions on twitter regarding GBBF and how beers are selected. I touched on the subject last year as it happens, and it is interesting for me to look back at what beers were actually on. I'll admit to being surprised to see that Punk IPA was there. The fact that it was on the same bar as Cumbrian beer is a little baffling.

It may be that I have a few facts wrong about various specifics regarding GBBF, but despite that I maintain that there are interesting selection influences at play. It might well be that various officials can attempt to reassure that it is all fair and transparent. The impression I am left with is very different; There is a massive disparity between local breweries who appeal to local markets and those of us who are more successful further afield.

Besides all that, the fact that BrewDog will not be at GBBF is no great surprise to me. This was a win-win situation for them in many ways. If they got their beer there in KeyKeg it would have been a result, the fact that it eventually fell through is also a result. PR win again. I seem to remember several people, including me, forecasting that this would be what would happen.

It has been pointed out to me that BrewDog are no different to any other brewery in as much as they want to sell more beer. Spot on there, we all do. What we all have to work out is if CAMRA, and indeed cask beer, are important to us or if they are more useful in opposition.

I'm still working that one out, but it appears to me that the latter might be more successful if a brewer is looking for a gap in the market. Also, it could very well be a useful marketing and positional ploy to be quite public about the fact.

New BrewDog B Share issue

For some reason my blog statistics are showing it is being found using search terms like "BrewDog share price" and "BrewDog AGM" - That might be because I was the very first person to sign up to their "Ordinary B" shares and blogged about it. It might also have something to do with a new share issue by BrewDog.

I've decided not to extend my investment in BrewDog, I need all the money I have to invest in my own stainless steel. It does however enable me to look back at what my share has been doing. At first sight it doesn't look good. The new shares cost £95 for 4. I paid £230 for one. Hang on, what's going on?

Looking at 4.3.2 in the offer document tells us:

the existing issued share capital (following the re-classification referred above), being £51,609.50 divided into 100,298 "A‟ Ordinary Shares of £0.50 each and 2921 "B‟ Shares of £0.50 each, will be sub-divided into 1,002,980 "A‟ Ordinary Shares of £0.05 each and 29,210 "B‟ Shares of £0.05 each;

(Lets ignore what appears to be a typo in the glossary under "existing B share")

So, my one share gets divided into 10 each worth £23.75 - I've made £7.50 then as it would now cost me £237.50 to buy more of the same. The down side could be that I currently own 0.00097% of BrewDog, but because of the new share issue it will drop to 0.00089%. However, this should help the company grow still further. I'll have a slightly smaller share of a much bigger beast.

Since I invested in BrewDog the sales have increased by around 8 times. The current share issue price values the company at nearly £27m. Is that an appropriate value for a company that turns over £6.5m, looks like being able to make in excess of 10% profit on turnover and has net assets of £3.4m?

I don't know, I'm not an expert on these things, and perhaps the value is currently a little optimistic. If the plans work out, and so far I feel that everything promised (apart from my Equity for Punks password) has been more-or-less realised.

If the plan carries on with the same level of success that has already been achieved then a further 12 fold increase in the size of the business is possible. I've had people criticise me for calling my purchase of shares an investment; Call it what you want, I still see it as an investment and if I didn't need to invest in my own brewery I would certainly have considered buying more of BrewDog.

And it's far more than just looking for a financial return. I strongly believe there is a stagnation in the British brewing industry. Sure, there are many more breweries than there used to be, but many of them are putting out beer that could do with a lot more interest. We went out last night and the only decent beer we found was Stringers Victoria IPA, we should have patronised one of the pubs that serves Hardknott, I know, but we like a bit of variety. The rest of the beer we found was nothing more than micro-brewed beer made and sold to a price rather than quality and with very poor brand image. BrewDog is one of a number of breweries that are leading the British brewing scene away from stuffy, stagnation generating tradition and into the 21st century. Indeed, without BrewDog as an example, I doubt I'd have had the gumption to do what I have done with Hardknott. I also suspect that there are other breweries who have been similarly significantly inspired, even if they prefer not to be as overt about it as me.

Call it copying if you like, call it band-wagon jumping if it makes you feel better, or just view it as a realisation of where the real market expansion in beer lies. Beer revolution or just appealing to a potential market? it matters not when comercial success is important to keeping your brewery alive.

So, if you have some spare cash, why not buy some shares? you might lose the lot, but then, you could just keep your money in the hands of the bankers if you prefer.

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Another view on the subject is written by Neil and there is also the one from The Beer Monkey

A bit of perspective

Beer is a highly scalable product. It is highly industrialiseable. It can be made in large quantities, in big breweries, with inevitable economies of scale. It can be made really economically, by faceless multinational corporations, by cutting costs on ingredients so that the result is a bland, fizzy, cold product, sold to numpties who know no better. Oh wait, I'm denigrating 90% of beer. Never mind, that's what CAMRA started with 40 years ago, it was OK to do it then.

Beer can also be made in small sheds, hand crafted by passionate artisanal brewers who care more about the flavour of the beer rather than saving a few pennies on the production costs. The consistency of the resultant beer can often be highly variable and the experimental nature often produces beers with dubious palatability. Additionally, they are mainly Real Ales which might turn out to be flat, warm and vinegary.

These two examples of denigration of various beers are still all too rife. Some commentators are prophesying that this is damaging the world of beer in general. We should all just get on with making good beer and let the beer do the talking, apparently.

Now, I like the sound of that, I really do. I'd love it if I could just get on and make beer, make sure my phone number is in the telephone directory¹ and wait for the phone to ring red hot with enquiries. This just doesn't work.

I saw recently, somewhere, someone stating that the only beer which is not marketed is made in your garage. In other words beer, or any product for that matter, cannot sell without it being marketed. Sometimes that marketing can be low key. Sometimes it can just be a micro-brewer going around a few pubs and convincing them to buy his beer. That can work, but I can tell you from experience that this does not produce sales of any significant amount compared to the effort that is put in.

I'd like to consider something, something that concerns me a great deal but doesn't come to light very often; The majority of beer that is sold in this country is lager made in relatively large quantities and marketed at the masses. The majority of it is targeted at the football supporting males of the population. I know the vast majority of football supporters are sensible, law abiding and non-violent. The mainstream press do not view football supporters in this way. The stereotype football supporter is often portrayed as a mindless thug whose choice of alcoholic beverage is dirty lout drunk until he² vomits in the street. Consider, do the large brewers do the beer industry any favours by aligning themselves with this market?

Craft beer, and in this context I include the majority of cask beer, bottle conditioned beers, various imported foreign beers and some notable non-bottle conditioned and keg beers alike, are not mentioned in main stream media to any great extent. Wine gets talked about a great deal in the mainstream media. In fact, beer is barely mentioned much at all on TV, radio or in the papers, except to point out that it gets people drunk, makes them violent and causes disorder in city centres, especially if there is a football match occurring at the same time.

Do we really think that the current spats occurring between bloggers and CAMRA, CAMRA and BrewDog, or BrewDog and beer geeks who didn't get their beer, is really making much of an impact on the overall creditability of beer? No, I don't think it's making much impact at all.

Most of the general public know about big beer brands, mainly because of sport related advertising. Most of the general public are aware of the value of cask beer and to some extent that is down to CAMRA and the quiet work done by micro-brewers and regional brewers alike along with organisations like SIBA.

How then does a brewer who wishes to make in-roads to what he/she sees as a gap in the market? With existing polarised views that beer consists either of fizzy cold keg for football supporters or cask beer for middle aged gentlemen, how does a brewer make the point that his beer is different? How does a brewer who wants to target his beers at people who don't want to drink mainstream lager or cask session beer if the brewer doesn't actually point out that their product is neither of these things?

Well, we know the answer to that one.

Meanwhile, I have been getting a little bit bemused by various notary people in the beer world being concerned about the bad image being given to beer by various marketing campaigns. Referring to the football link, I can't help feeling that nearly any marketing activity associated with beer is going to be seen by someone, somewhere, as a bad thing for beer.

Moreover, why do we think beer is different? Why do we think that it is the only market that suffers from promotion via highlighting the differences between products? I'm convinced it's not.

I asked a friend on twitter, who runs a software technology company, if the same sort of teacup based storms occur in the software industry:

"@HardKnottDave the world of Beer is a polite tea party compared to the ongoing brawl that is the software industry." - @JunkLight

Come on everyone, get a bit of perspective.

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¹Do telephone directories still exist? Do people still use them?

²Yes, he is always male.

Justifiable Extreme or Hyperbole?

I'm sat here drinking a Bitch Please. It's the second time I've drunk this beer. The first time was after I'd seen some comments about it, including a few complaining that it tasted phenolic. I had not actually realised that it was whisky cask aged, and neither had Ann when she ordered a case from BrewDog. It's a barley wine, and she likes barley wine, she thought she'd like this one. She most certainly does not like Paradox, but I do. I was keen to try it.

On this particular occasion I'd been to the pub already, so my taste buds, and perhaps synapses, were not operating at full potential. Yup it smelled and tasted of phenols, so what? I tweeted the fact to the world in general.

That got a few replies, mostly questioning the sense in making a beer taste so horrible. There is part of me wonders if that was part of the understandable BrewDog backlash that is a current theme around the beer-related social network. But I still maintain that if you put a beer in a cask that previously held a phenolic whisky then the beer is very probably going to be phenolic. It's a bit like complaining that a vindaloo is 'king hot.

And to carry on that food analogy one has to realise that most people don't like over-the-top spicy food. Indeed, I cannot remember the last time I heard anyone order such silly dishes as Vindaloo. Likewise, it is expected that most beer drinkers won't like this beer.

In any case, I've decided to drink another bottle of Bitch Please, to suffer so I can give a more considered view on what is admittedly a stupidly boundary pushing beer.

Smell: strong charcoal, smoke, TCP, typical malt whisky aromas. Dissipates as the glass is swilled around and allowed to breathe. Gives way to barley wine aromas of dried fruit, but only after some time to let the whisky dissipate.

Taste: Overpowering magic marker, solvent, alcoholic. The base barley wine has been beaten to a quiet whimper, those Scots have bloody well nigh on killed any subtlety. Sure, the base beer is still there, fighting its last breath smothered by the big clout of Jura, but I have difficulty discerning anything I can find flavour descriptors for.

So, what's the point? It is just a crazy idea designed to do nothing more than send the beer geeks crazy and raise the profile of an already over-hyped brewery. Isn't it?

And yes, I'd agree, but I still like it for some bizarre reason. But then I like phenols and I like those mad extreme single malts. To be fair, there are plenty of people that don't. Paradox works because the base stout still works in balance and isn't nearly beaten to death in the process. Bitch Please starts to question the sense in spirit cask ageing, and I'm drawn to love it just for that, despite its faults.

What really interests me is not so much how successful the beer is in its execution; there are plenty of reasons to say that there are flaws. What really interests me is how it fits with the developing esoteric beer market.

It is our view that the traditional cask market is becoming somewhat stagnant and saturated. With an ever increasing number of breweries, and with us all fighting for front-bar font space, back-bar fridge space and off-sales shelf space we all have to fight for a part of that market.

Looking at keg, crazy stunts, fun poking, deliberate institution unsettling and the odd bit of stepping-over-the-boundary might well be something we will all have to do more of.

Bitch Please might be over-hyped, but over-hyping is the way to get your brewery noticed and grow up into a success. Furthermore, despite the current backlash, BrewDog continues to grow.

Right, now we've got that out of the way, I'm going to finish the glass..... and as I do, it's growing on me and the barley wine is fighting back.

Growing a Brewery to be viable

The beer market is incredibly sensitive to price. It might well be possible to sell a very limited amount of beer at an increased price, but basically, the vast majority of beer can only command a price that falls within fairly tight limits. The off-sales market seems to show significantly greater variation as a rule, than the on-sales market, but even so, these limits are in my view quite tight. For the purpose of this discussion I'm not intending to criticise that position. It is a fact, and one that has an influence over the economics of businesses that make beer; the breweries.

I guess beer is a bit like bread, they are both made from grain and yeast is an inherently important part of the processes. But they also share other traits on an economic level; bread is a staple food and as such its price has upper limits beyond which demand drops to zero. Of course the same could be said of potatoes, carrots, onions, rice, milk.....

Beer has one great benefit, much the same as bread; it can be made at industrial scales. Massive plants, with massive tanks, in huge buildings can ensure highly efficient processes. This has always put micro-brewers at a disadvantage. We have small brewers beer duty to help us out in that respect. The key reason for the proliferation of micro-brewers is as a result of the small brewery beer duty. Without it a brewery of the size of Hardknott would just not be economically viable.

Actually, as we currently stand, our brewery isn't really viable anyway. To make enough beer to earn an honest living we need to make more beer. We don't actually need to do very much to what we already have, but we still need to make and sell more beer if we are to make any profit. It's all to do with overheads.

Progressive beer duty starts to reduce rapidly when a brewery starts to sell more than 5000hl of beer. That's about 3000 barrels a year or about 230 firkins a week. Putting it into context that's an exclusive VAT turnover for the brewery of around £700k per year. About 24% of the turnover goes out in beer duty - £170k, and an equal or greater amount goes on raw materials. There are then some variable overheads in the form of energy, costs of ownership of the building and plant¹, rates, transport and for a brewery of the size indicated there would have to be employees and so a wage bill. To achieve and maintain the level of beer sales there would be essential cost of marketing the products. It is highly likely that net profit would be less than 10% of turnover. Perhaps a £50k per annum profit is reasonably achievable, and is an above average salary, although conversely it is unlikely that a business of this size is owned by a sole individual. By today's standards this is in no way a large business. Indeed, many successful town centre pubs turn over much more and probably make much more profit than a brewery under 5000hl production.

This probably represents a sweet-spot of operating size. Above this there is a steep drop off as Progressive Beer Duty is increased steeply. Below this size overall margins can shrink due to dropping efficiencies of scale and simply because percentage net profit for any brewery is unlikely to increase above the 10% mentioned above. Reduced turnover represents reduced profit.

With the stainless steel I have in my brew house I probably have a maximum achievable turnover of around £100k. At an overall net profit of 10%, the maximum we can reasonably expect to achieve, we might earn £10k a year between us. I don't know about the reader, but I think this is insufficient for a reasonable standard of living in the 21st century. This is dependant on us successfully and efficiently brewing to capacity and selling every last drop. Bearing in mind the fact that any business person is risking financial ruin should it all go very wrong, the fact that actual disposable income available is achieved due to a determined and consistent dedication to the operation rather than just turning up 9 to 5 and doing a bit.

I don't want to appear to be complaining too much; running a business has many rewards beyond financial recompense. Some of us do it because we have tried the working-for-someone-else game and don't get on with the concept. Additionally, brewing beer is extremely rewarding. Positive comments from people who drink my beer almost, and note I say "almost", compensates for the poor rewards that today's modern competitive market creates.

It does baffle me, as a result of the key financial issues above, why there is an inherent misunderstanding of the need for breweries to grow. When I have discussed the BrewDog growth or our own plans for growth there seems to be objection to the plans.

I'm aiming for the 5000hl sweet-spot. Going above that would require world-domination plans of BrewDog proportions. However, at that level there are key problems that could reduce the overall profitability. I want to use more hops. If I increase my hopping rate by 1kg per hl, which is not overall a great increase which may seem a lot to the reader, but is what I need to do to compete with the best breweries, at current prices it would represent an increased cost of £40k per annum at this proposed level of trading. That would eat away at my profitability. The only way to negate this would be to increase production and sales, by quite some quantity, overcome the initial disadvantage of the hump caused by the onset of variable beer duty.

My chart here has a logarithmic scale for production. It makes it easier to show the full range of sizes of brewery from nano to regional breweries. It does however mean that the effect of the variable duty rate across the range 500hl - about 2000hl looks less steep than if shown on a linear scale. Either way it can be seen that any increase of capacity above 500hl is going to be incredibly significant for any expanding brewery.

BrewDog are now in this range. In a recent document, sent to me by James Watt, they state that their prices are going to have to increase to account for this increase of beer duty.

"In 2010 our production increased from 8700 HL to 14500 HL meaning the beer duty we have to pay increased by, for example, £5.50 on a 50L keg of Punk IPA."²

As the company gets bigger the increases of beer duty will become less significant therefore I would expect further economies of scale to cut in and help to counter the effects of the duty. From a business point of view, having broken the 5000hl barrier it makes sense to carry on growing.

When talking about specfic problems with the operation over the last year; things that I've also heard customers complain about, BrewDog state:

"The positive thing is that all of these is caused by the demand for our beers."

Again, more reason to carry on growing their enterprise.

So, I hope the reader might now see why the most successful breweries have to grow.

In fact, if Adnam's have their way, those that don't grow will fall foul of proposed changes to progressive beer duty anyway. However, that particular issue is another blog subject.

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¹I don't owe any money on the stainless steel I currently own, however, it represents capital tied up. If I had not bought the plant and put money in an ISA instead then I'd earn some interest. We rent the building and so there is a cost there. We are likely to have to borrow money if we are to grow, this will have a cost implication.

²If my readership is as clever as I expect you all are you will realise that BrewDog turnover for that level of brewing doesn't match my earlier figures. At 14500hl, from my model, they should be turning over less than £2m rather than the £3.7m. I expect the main reason for this is that a large volume of their beer is stronger and bottled, both putting an acceptable increased price on the product.

Additionally the company also now has retail outlets, further increasing gross margins.

The ever-fragmenting beer-world

Just over a year ago, the other side of his 50 week reign as beer writer of the year 2009, Pete Brown complained about fighting within the beer industry. I could see why he felt it was a problem, although some weeks later he then accused us bloggers of becoming complacent and boring. I notice that in that post I was number 7 in the Wikio rankings. I'm now 13th which is simply due to a much lower number of postings this year. I could blame Pete for confusing me and creating my reduced frequency of blogging, after all, one minute he wants us to stop arguing about the issues and the next he wants us to start again. I'm kidding of course, I've just been busy and now I am trying to ramp up my blogging frequency.

I've always been more interested in writing about the issues surrounding beer rather than writing about a specific beer and how awesome it might be. I do sometimes think about writing a bit about beer and food matching; I think I could be quite good if I only put my mind to it. But, the things that are bound to get me most fired up are the various issues surrounding beer, beer drinking, brewing, pubs and the way various people perceive all of this.

This post was inspired by the piece in The Publican by Caroline Nodder which seems to be somewhat scathing about the current phase of modern brewing. BrewDog are of course named, and as much as I don't wish to be labelled as another BrewDog fan club blogger, they are going to feature in this post a little as well. Tandleman posts in response to Caroline too.

When Pete complained about the beer industry fighting with itself I understood what he was saying. At the same time I felt a little worried that some of the issues he claimed we shouldn't be fighting about were the very issues I myself was concerned about. We all have our own perspectives on these things and being able to discuss them is no bad thing. So its good that he later said, we should tackle issues again.

This is the thing; we have to be able to be open, we have to be brave enough to discuss what we feel about our own view of the beer world. Caroline of course does that with her attack on the beer geek world, I don't agree with her particularly, but perhaps I'll come back to that later, as certainly there are some points to pick up. To me, and this is the key thing, it highlights a broadening of the beer industry in a most exciting and provocative way, that can only be a good thing, providing we can all learn to get along rather than feel the need to get the digs in.

BrewDog has had a go at SIBA¹ earlier this year. I'm with them all the way. It is perhaps something that comes out on this blog from time to time; the fact that I have a suspicion that the organisation has matured into something that is less than entirely useful to the micro-brewer. SIBA, as one commentator has put it to me, the Society of Increasingly Bad Acronyms. It would seem the club likes things the way they are and new comers are not particularly welcome, especially if they seem to be having some success. Even worse if they question what is happening.

So it seems to be the case across the industry. BrewDog find themselves in a fight with SIBA, the beer geeks run hot and cold about them and many ask why they want to be as big as they are getting anyway. This comes from the same people who support similar larger breweries who would fail were it not for the tie system. Or the same people who fight for the survival of long since milked-to-death brands that would be better off left to pass into history with dignity. The same people who fight to keep pubs open despite the fact that it is obvious that the market is shifting and some will inevitably shut as a new wave of Indie Beer Bars open up in Sheffield, London, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

I love cask beer and I love the old fashioned country pub. I don't particularly care for the type of pub that manifests itself in town and city centres. Some are still good I'll grant you, but it takes an exceptional one to impress me. The reader might like them, that's fine, good for you, but beware of hanging onto a bygone age that has a limited future. There is a danger, and it worries me, when observations are made about the beer world having too much reverence for the very substance that we care about. Is it really just a low down drink that shouldn't be described with passion? Is it really just a middle of the road drink suitable for the common man only? Does it only deserve to be found in seedy places, so low is its self esteem? Are we, the writers who care about it, not allowed to use whatever language we want to describe it to the very people who we believe should be able to understand it well: educated intellects with refined palates who may well like home-made scotch eggs, but would never dream of putting ketchup on them? Or perhaps we are too scared that we might actually end up being bettered?

Of course the vast majority of beer made will be made by the large brewers. I don't care about that. Some of them actually prove to me that they care as much as I do, and I hope I give them a nod when I think they deserve it. Even if it is not by making great beer, but caring about me the beer drinker - although normally caring about the beer drinker does result in better than just acceptable beer.

This brings me to promotion of the product. Many beer communicators complain about the way that beer is promoted. Perhaps it is done in a sexist way, perhaps it is silly childish puerile fashion that undermines the seriousness that beer deserves. Or perhaps, as BrewDog does, it is brash and sensationalist and sometimes even offensive. The fact is, it is not good enough just to brew great beer. I know many brewers who brew beer better than me but are stuck because they can't, or perhaps don't want to promote more than they do. If they are happy that way then great, leave them be. However, building a brand is about making a good product and telling people about it, somehow and in the most cost effective way. BrewDog might well be sensationalist with their marketing, but they also make beer that is good, and because they don't actually spend much on advertising their brand, they have more money to spare to make the product good. Why do we hate that so much?

What of the brewers that want to make bigger waves? Like BrewDog, perhaps like me? Are we somehow wrong to want to get our names out there? I don't think so. Publicity stunts are the best and probably only way to do it. I bet many in the music industry hated Richard Branson when he started Virgin Records, but look, whatever you think of the brand now, it probably wouldn't be where it is without the occasional record breaking balloon flight.

What is wrong exactly with making the strongest beer in the world? Or for that matter any other gimicky product enhancement. Every industry does it, like for instance, putting bubbles in confectionary? Why do we think we shouldn't have a bit of exciting diversification in the beer world, we don't have to believe it will ever become mainstream, but if it adds interest then why should we be scared of it?

I like the increasing diversification and the challenging of perceptions that we are seeing. I like the fact that some regional brewers are scared that at least some of the "breweries in sheds" kick out some good stuff and are taking part of the market share. It is also good that some long established brewers understand this and don't join in with the try-and-kick-the-new-idea, but instead go for the I'll-have-a-bit-of-that-too approach.

So, by all means lets have the discussions, it's good. The sparklers argument and the cask verses keg argument will continue for ever I suspect. The best way to describe a particular beer is perhaps a more important one but we will never agree and choosing between good quality and imaginative beer descriptions, accessible beer tasting notes or simple and condescending pictures of noses, eyes and mouths I'm sure will divide us for some time to come. What we expect from a pub or bar, how to market beer and many more important discussions should take place. But why do we have to have a delineation across the beer world and keep falling out over it? We're on the same side are we not? Are we not all beer enthusiasts in some way or another? There is another type of beer drinker, I call them pissheads.

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¹There is background to this on the BrewDog blog.

BrewDog AGM part three

We had not really eaten since breakfast. We shared a platter of cheese and meats in the BrewDog bar at lunch time but as that was between three of us. On this winter day we'd have even started to consider deep fried pizza by the time we got back to Aberdeen after our trip to the brewery. James suggested we visited his restaurant called Musa, only a short walk away. Back to the street next to the hotel we'd just come from.

Musa is in a building that used to be some sort of church or chapel, it's a great use for this sort of building. We have many underused religious buildings in Cumbria that really should be turned into some other form of use. I'm sure however that there are people resisting the change of use, certainly there are several such examples near us where planning permission has been refused and the buildings are becoming increasingly derelict. I have a feeling it is on a point of principle; rather a church fall down than it be used for something that might bring enjoyment. A bit like the pointless resistance of pubs closing - if the congregation isn't attending then why resist?

In this case the inside of the building is nice and friendly. Much of the original feel of the building is maintained, although I suspect the desire to stay is enhanced by the lack of homily and the need to kneel or stand. Best of all 5am Saint, even kegged, beats communion wine any day.

The food is nicely eclectic with a nod to Scottish tradition. Hardcore IPA duck stovies, Stir fried crayfish, chorizo and olives or Chilli poached smoked haddock all appealed to me. Each dish was matched with a beer, normally a BrewDog beer although the wild mushroom risotto with rocket was wisely matched with Orval.

Desert would have gone well with either Paradox or Tokyo*. Blue cheese ice cream, Dark chocolate and chilli pannacotta or christmas pudding tart. There were three of us, it would have been silly not to try all three. Sadly, the earlier business meeting, which we missed, cleaned them out of the obvious desert beers.

I don't think I've ever had as good a selection of beers with such good food except at decent beer dinners. Normally good restaurants have a reasonable selection of wine and the usual omni-present beers. I think that places like this could really work and I would love to see more of them.

Onwards back to the bar. By now it was after 9pm and the bar really was very busy indeed. James ensures me that the majority of the AGM crowd had long since left. Certainly it was a much younger looking crowd compared to the earlier shareholder people. James says the place "rocks" every Friday and Saturday. "If we put in handpulls it would be full of stuffy real ale drinkers" James explains to me. Certainly there were a lot of younger people, mid 20's - mid 30's I'd say. The place buzzed, perhaps in some ways a little too much for my liking, but once I'd got a seat, which didn't take long, I really enjoyed the atmosphere.

James and Martin joined us and we shared bottles of AleSmith Speedway and Lost Abbey Angel's Share. James asked me to choose which I preferred. Comparing an espresso imperial stout with a barrel aged barley wine? When they are both very good examples it is hard to choose.

If I sit at a beer festival and I drink with brewers and all they drink is their own beer I worry. Part of the definition of a craft brewer for me is an inherent desire to brew beers as good as their peers. As good, not better, few good brewers think that their beers can be as good as their role models, very few indeed. But many aspire to do so. Martin, James and Stuart are examples of this. Bringing out beers they wished they had brewed and sharing them with me, enthusing about them and sharing that enthusiasm is proof to me that they are interested in making the very best beer they can.

The bar started to thin out. The licence was only until midnight so the bar manager kicked us all out, James, Martin and all. It was the end of a very enjoyable day getting to know better what I had bought into.

I promised some information, here's some bare facts:

• Sales doubled in 12 months (£1.7m - £3.4m)
• Keg in more than 25 outlets using own brand fonts
• 5.25% ownership of Anchor Brewers and Distillers
• Anchor to handle US sales and distribution
• US production by late 2011
• Expected to open three more bars in 2011
• Expect to increase turnover in 2011 to £6m
• Broke into profit in 2010 all of which will be reinvested

There are loads more exciting things going to be happening. New beers, more collaborations, increased on-sales distribution. Expect more BrewDog beers near you soon. Of course, in Cumbria, Hardknott can help if there is a pub you know that you'd like to see some in.

Meanwhile I'm still comfortable with the money I invested in the brewery. If you want to tell me it's not an investment then go ahead, but I still think it is. Call it a craft revolution, artisanal beer or, as a someone suggested to me today, an Indie brewing movement, that's what I've bought into, and my buy-in extends much, much further than BrewDog, but more on that later. Much more later still.

BrewDog AGM part one.

My relationship with Brewdog has no real rational explanation - but then that's beer for you. Beer makes you do things that you really shouldn't. It would be easy to blame the alcohol content; after all, anything over 7.5% ABV is so stupid as to melt your brain and send you off into a crazy train of irrational actions that really should be controlled by some sort of draconian taxation that will prevent us ill-informed mortals from harming ourselves with such dangerous substances.

The weekend, and even the year just gone, is proof of how I desperately need the guidance of the authorities and their sensible caution. A little over a year ago I bought a share in BrewDog. It wasn't a great deal of money and there have always been sceptics that question the sense in such a move. But still, I recognise kindred craziness when I see it and in a flourish of my 16 digit credit card number it was done, I owned a bit of BrewDog. I blame the beer. Wine wouldn't have done it, whisky? well perhaps, vodka? no way, gin, brandy, rum or port, as tasty as these things can be, none of these would have puddled my brain sufficiently to part me with such amounts of money for a pointless investment.

We had always figured that the BrewDog AGM would at the very least be good fun, and the promise of good beer is very tempting bait. But the snow has come somewhat early this year. Actually, the amount of snow that has arrived is already of staggering proportions for any winter. We wondered if travelling to Aberdeen was a sensible proposition, but then we remembered, sensible wasn't something we did, so we set off anyway. Aberdeen is well connected with roads, and at the very least most of the journey would be motorway or dual carriageway. What could go wrong?

Friday was brewday; it was not until we had an FV full, temperature control set up and the brew house clean and tidy did we want to set off for the Caladonian land to the north of our island. We packed our passports, phrase book and a collection of winter equipment, and, as advised by Jeff Pickthall, Mars Bars for bartering¹.

Our first stop was to be Glasgow. A tentative arrangement to meet Barm in some establishment seemed a good idea. The M6 over Shap and the M74 through the borders could well have provided some challenges. Indeed the journey through Cumbria got to be something of an interesting adventure. The snow was falling thick and fast as we travelled north so that the first 70 miles were slow and difficult. Amazingly, as we crossed the border, it abruptly stopped and our journey through Dumfries and Galloway, onwards towards the Central Belt, was smooth and easy.

A quick visit to West Bar was in order upon arrival in Glasgow. Setting the SatNav to what we thought was the correct location took us spookily straight to the front door, although the snow made it impossible to know if we were parking on double yellow lines. Inside the building is a nice airy mix of Victorian splendour and contemporary renovation; apparently it was the winding house for a rather splendid carpet factory - there must have been lots of money in carpets in the 19th century. Most importantly all the beers at West are keg. Another example of this very rare craft keg then? To be honest, some of it was a little over-carbonated, but generally good stuff.

I could write lots more on this place, so perhaps I'll have to return sometime. But I have to move on to the real subject - The BrewDog AGM in Aberdeen and the hope we might get to Fraserburgh to see the brewery. Off to bed we went to prepare ourselves for what we were told was the worst part of the journey.

We set off from Glasgow in the morning expecting the road to be icy and difficult. In actual fact, although the overtaking lane was often very narrow where the snow had drifted, or even worse, unexpectedly covered with snow just in the middle of overtaking manoeuvres, the journey went really well. We made good time to the outskirts of Aberdeen and then proceeded to be grid locked for about two hours due to the sheer volume of traffic. Eventually we made it to a car park just around the corner from the BrewDog bar, but it was one car in and one car out making for patience thinning experience; after all, there was beer to be drunk.

Eventually making it into the bar we found Martin Dickie doing a "beer and music" matching session that was interrupted by James Watt doing a "money shot" tasting of Punk IPA. All quite amusing, although I think it was one of those situations you had to be there to understand.

We'd missed the first trip to the brewery and also the first business talk. I know I can get all the relevant numbers stuff elsewhere and I really wanted to get to see the brewery so we headed off up to Fraserburgh on the Brewdog bus to see where the beer is made.

I think that is enough for one post. Later I'll give a more in-depth run-down on what I found out and what I now think of my relationship with the brewery that thinks cask beer is past history.

Although my trip to the brewery meant I missed the business talk I've still managed to get the inside low down on some numbers and startling facts that I'm sure many of you don't know. James emailed it out to me earlier so I'll start writing about it just as soon as I've posted this.

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¹No, you are right, for battering.

The Burgeoning March of Craft Keg

I'm really not keeping up with stuff that is happening these days. It's very frustrating because there is a lot happening it would seem. BrewDog have gone and done it again and got everyone all worked up about stuff. James is reported to have said that there is no future in cask beer and keg is the future. His comments, which are a little derogatory regarding CAMRA and suggesting that cask beer is stuffy and a poor way to introduce people to beer, have got some all properly insulted.

During my trip to the deep south last week I picked up a copy of The London Drinker. It's the rather well put together magazine of the London CAMRA branches. Towards the back there is a somewhat vitriolic rebuke to Mr Watt's comments¹.

I'm somewhat bemused. First of all, what is the most common form of dispense for beer in the UK, or for that matter, in the world? Yup, it is keg. So of course keg is the future, silly.

Secondly, is it the future for craft beer? Well, what is craft beer anyway? Why is crap cask made by major national brewers, like Marston's for instance, considered craft? It's pants. Give me the choice between a pint of Pedigree on cask or a pint of Trashy on keg which do you think I'd choose? Which would you choose? Which is craft? And who cares if it is craft if it tastes good anyway? Or perhaps tastes crap?

Of course there is a future for cask. Of course there is a future for keg, that one ain't going away. BrewDog, Lovibond, Meantime and Thornbridge all produce keg. Summer Wine brewery is playing with it and we will be too before long.

Although we sell some BrewDog we haven't sold any of their keg, yet. We're not stupid, this is conservative² Cumbria and the market for craft keg is yet to be developed. Here they tend to like a Guinness and blue WKD³ cocktail. So we make do selling cask and bottle. I need to develop my own craft keg market before I start letting James in on that.

But whatever, I am becoming increasingly amused at this "war" between cask and keg. I'm absolutely sure that James has deliberately set out to wind up some cask hard-liners. It's worked; in this case he's gone and got his logo in a CAMRA mag - for FREE.

Really, you have to tip your hat.

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¹I can't link directly to the on-line version. A shame that, but at least it is on-line.

To access the article select publication year "2010" then select Edition "Volume32 No6" and then scroll down until you see the logo for "....this latest threat to cask ale......" that is BrewDog.

²Take care to note capitalisation, it is so important. Alfie, are you listening?

³No, really, there is one bloke in our "local" who drinks nothing else. He even puts up with a short pint of Guinness so he can still fit in his WKD - there is really no accounting for taste.

The Swedish Love Their Nanny State

The reader might not be aware that Hardknott has started acting as a wholesale agent for BrewDog. It makes quite a lot of sense really, I like BrewDog and I own a tiny¹ bit of their company. Besides, I'm not clever enough to dream up my own world domination plans, so I might as well be part of someone else's. Our first experience of the arrangement was quite positive; We've managed to get rid of a whole palate load of Brewdog beer and are looking to put in another order.

The first delivery was mostly right, just one case of Nanny State instead of Hardcore IPA. Easy mistake to make, there isn't that much difference between the two.... is there? We managed to get the Hardcore delivered later and progressed to sell the Nanny State in addition to the forward orders we had already taken. Mostly the bottled stuff went out in mixed taster cases, a good way to introduce new pubs to the concept and see what sells.

Early results showed that Punk IPA and 5am Saint goes quite well in bottles. Probably not surprisingly the higher ABV beers sell slower. The shock was that Nanny State started to fly out from a couple of places, so much so that we got orders for whole cases. "My customers can't believe a 0.5%² beer can taste this good." said one publican.

The UK beer geek scene completely slated Nanny State when BrewDog released it. We didn't like it and I was just as vocal as everyone else about how it just tasted of "hop tea" and completely unbalanced. I seem to remember even Mark Dredge, who normally can't say anything against BrewDog gave it a big thumbs down.

Recently Jeff Pickthall popped in to one of the pubs we had supplied and drank a bottle³. He'd guessed we had supplied it and commented to me about how pleased he was to have found the beer. Unfortunately I have been unable to try this latest incarnation as it's always sold out when we socially visit the pubs we've supplied.

So, better put an order in for some more, quick like. 6 cases of that on top of all the other beer. A mix of cask and bottles will do nicely, please.

The reply came back from Fraserburgh, in that lovely Scottish accent;

BrewDog "No, you can't have any more the now"

Hardknott "What?"

BrewDog "I mean, erm, most of the order is OK but we messed up properly last time and you shouldn't have got the case of Nanny State you did get, you can't have any more, sorry"

Hardknott "Why's that then?"

BrewDog "We don't sell it in this country because Mark Dredge⁴ said it was crap and so no one buys it."

Hardknott "So how come we got the last case?"

BrewDog "It was a mistake, that's what you get when you employ penguins as casual labour -Although they were distracted by the fear of being chased around by Bracken, so you can't completely blame the penguins.......... "

Hardknott "Ok, ok, enough about penguins.... so, if you can't sell it how come you had some, and why can't we have some more?"

BrewDog "It was part of a consignment that was being shipped to Sweden, it's the only place we can shift the stuff after Dredgy had a pop at it. In fact we sell loads of it out there....... It's all gone there we're afraid....... "

So, there you have it. The beer geeks don't like Nanny State because we don't drink beer with almost no alcohol in it. It turns out that normal people⁵ really like it. We have customers who want to buy more of Nanny State than they want to buy Punk IPA or 5am Saint. It's probably because, which ever way you look at it, Nanny State is much better than Cobra Zero⁶.

Perhaps us beer geeks are a little detached from reality. So please James, we'd like some more, go on, give Nanny State another chance in the UK.

Update: Apparently James is in Tokyo and can't comment on the issue. However, Tom Cadden, who is BrewDog's London sales rep tells me that Nanny State has had it's IBU rating⁷ dropped from a whopping 225 down to 45.

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¹OK, so "tiny" is perhaps exaggerating; "infinitesimally minuscule" might be better.

²I thought Nanny State was 1.2%, but I suspect this is a alcohol duty thing that differs from state to sovereign state.

³He was showing Pete Brown the delights of Cumbria. I have this image of them trying to scale Scafell Pike or water skiing on Ullswater....

⁴Yeah, OK, I'm making this conversation up, .... but.

⁵which by inference places Jeff Pickthall in the normal bracket - I really didn't intend this to turn into a work of fiction loosely based on fact.

⁶Why do I have to put in my DoB when I am looking at a web page for a non-alcoholic beer?

⁷IBU = International Bitterness Units. It is generally accepted that over 100 is going to strip the lining from your stomach. A standard UK bitter might be 30-50 IBU. However, as the ABV of a beer drops so the IBU should to balance it out. It's not so much the actual ABV as the residual unfermentable sugars which are in proportion to the original fermentable sugars. Have I lost you yet?

Anyway, 225 IBU in a beer with nearly no alcohol is just crazy. A beer with 225 IBU and 10% would be very flavoursome. 45 sounds much better for a low ABV beer.

Now, please can we try some?

The End of History

Many a beer enthusiast does not see the point; a 55% beer? what's all that about then? It can't be beer, yeast can't ferment to that sort of alcohol concentration. Of course it can't, this is a beer that has been concentrated by freeze distillation. OK then, it's not a beer, it's a spirit - that's the declaration. For goodness sake, it's even been stuffed inside a dead animal, that just can't be right.

Whatever the reader thinks of the hype, and I've wondered at times about the way BrewDog whip up controversy, but it is conceptual in my view, and the packaging could be considered art, although I respect those that disagree. When I criticised the naming of their 41% beer I was promised a sample by James, it never came, which miffed me a little more. I remained curious about an IPA amplified, it seemed that it might be an idea too far, but I was willing to try for myself before passing judgement. It has yet to happen.

Time overtook things, James and Martin surpassed themselves by producing The End of History but at £500 a bottle there was no bloody way I was going to buy one. I really wanted to try this. Having tried Tactical Nuclear Penguin and enjoyed it, even if I thought it a little expensive for what it was, I was keen to have a go at The End of History, and to my pleasure they organised an event in The Sheffield Tap which we decided to attend.

I've already mentioned that there were some very good keg beers available. There was some delightful cask available to enjoy too. For a Wednesday night there was just far too much jolly exciting beer for the good of my health. Just to add to this weekday nights debauchery some of the beers we got to try were completely free, really, do these people not care about my liver?

I can't remember all the beers I had, but three stood out as being exceptional, if a little controversial. These were; Bashah Reserve, I Hardcore You and, of course, The End of History.

Bashah Reserve is a Black Belgian Double IPA and controversial in itself due to the fact that this is such a mashed up style. I know that many beer aficionados will criticise this sort of nonsense, without actually realising that that's the point, it is nonsense. My god people, is it that important?? and no, I don't think it is. It's a tasty black beer, well hopped and fermented with some sort of Belgian yeast, that's it.

The fresh beer I enjoyed around 18 months ago, or whenever it was. It was a little harsh perhaps and Jeff Pickthall suggested it needed some ageing. Perhaps BrewDog got wind of this, I suspect sometimes they do bring out ideas that Jeff and I have already thought about, we really should stop hanging around thinking and drinking and do more, well, doing. That way perhaps Hardknott will be first instead of us being accused of copying BrewDog. Either way, James and Martin stuffed some of this iconoclastic beer into a couple of whisky casks along with soft fruit and left it to fester for a while.

The results? Looking back at my tweets from the evening I seem to get confused about what fruit is used in one, but the other was raspberries. I prefer the one that was matured with the fruit that wasn't raspberries, tayberries perhaps. Both had fantastic vanilla flavours and aromas that I love very much in these styles of barrel aged beers.

I Hardcore You was on keg, if I remember correctly. I've not had either Hardcore IPA or I Beat You and some seemed to think this blend fails to be even as good as either of the base beers. I don't know about that but I liked it, bordering on the barley wine IPA at 9.5% it is very hoppy but balanced with a sweetness and alcohol that was very satisfying, even if it's not a beer to drink much of.

Interestingly, this style of beer is often condemned by the fans of session beers. However, it's just the sort of beer that HardknottAnn likes to drink, I continue to wonder if the mainstream beer world misses a trick by not promoting barley wines to women. We can argue the toss about why women tend to prefer these stronger sweeter styles of beer, but be it a different gender palate or just some social conditioning the fact remains it is there. It's still beer and it's liked by women.

The End of History, that's why I was here. There was a bit of a scramble for this one, and I was just as keen as everyone else to get my hands on it. James, who was pouring out the measures, caught my eye and I swear he gave me an extra large measure, cheers James, guess that's an end to the Sink! argument then.

But what is this spirit-beer like? Well here are my spontaneous tweets;

1. Hop flavours balanced with barley malt sweetness to make a powerful spirit very different, but at the same time similar to whisky.9:49 PM Sep 15th via ÜberTwitter
2. Hot spirit taste but with powerful hop flavours; not overly bitter. Very definitely hop rather than brutal bitterness.9:47 PM Sep 15th via ÜberTwitter
3. Fruity smell reminiscent of a good liqueur like Benedictine.9:45 PM Sep 15th via ÜberTwitter
4. End Of History - nose is Belgian and spirity.9:42 PM Sep 15th via ÜberTwitter

There, I don't think in hindsight I can improve on that. But what is the point? It cost £500 a bottle I am told. Sure, you get a roadkill stuffed animal thrown in, if that does it for you, but at the price it's around £38 a 25ml shot and that's not with any mark-up if you bought it in a bar. I think the most I've ever paid for a single malt is about £8 for 25ml measure. This is really a little over priced.

But then again, it is very different to any other spirit I know. It's hoppy flavours and aromas are very interesting and I think the comparison is a good Islay whisky; very few would have much more than the occasional dram. I think there is a future for this type of drink, whether it is a spirit or a beer is academic in my view, it's what it is and it's link to beer due to the hop connection is fine in my view.

On a closing point a comment was made about aromas that seemed wrong. Esters in a spirit would normally be associated with impure distillation but if you freeze distil a belgian beer then it perhaps is not so strange, in fact, I'd go as far as to say that's one of the things I liked about the drink, I could have just sat with my nose in the glass and taken in the lovely fruity banana and spicy aromas, had there actually been anywhere to sit on this busy night.