Craft Beer World - Mark Dredge

OK, I'm biased. Mark Dredge mentioned me in his book, so I'm hardly going to say it's pants, am I. Even if Mark has called me "bonkers"¹

Over and above my very real joy at seeing my beer, my brewery and a personal mention, I do think the book is good. It tackles the ever growing question of "what is Craft Beer" and admits right away that a clear definition isn't possible.

It is timely that today I was at a meeting of a new initiative called The Cumbria Food and Drink Growth Network - which is an interesting thing in itself. There was a speaker there talking about growing artisan food and drink businesses and it occurred to me that craft beer fits that quite nicely.

The speaker talked about all sorts of interesting things, many that I'll not share with you, in case you are a brewery and take away some initiative that is budding in my own mind. After all, I made the effort to go, the reader didn't. The speaker makes artisan chocolates, but much of what she said translates across. Much of what she said gave me new ideas, or perhaps more importantly a feeling of knowing that what we do here at Hardknott is good and right.

Importantly, artisan food and drink doesn't feel an intense need to define itself. OK, there are some pointers, some thoughts to indicate the difference between run-of-the-mill and artisan, but quite clearly for me there are parallels between artisan food and drink and craft beer.

Yes, there are the ingredients, a focus on quality. A real need to be innovative and creating new and fresh ideas. There was a little scepticism about passion and nonsense like that. But the speaker also touched on one thing that I really do think is important beyond the beer, but shows through very often in the beer itself; that of the people and their story. What is behind the beer and it's influences.

To me, Marks book is in the emerging style of beer writing where less focus is on facts and figures of the brewery or the beer, although there is just enough of that too. But also on the ideas, the people and the community behind what we are becoming used to understanding as the craft beer world, which is in turn part of the artisan food and drink world.

I suppose an interesting question is how long will the book be valid? Many of the beers listed, including mine, were not around even 5 years ago. I suspect there are a few beers that ought to be in even now, but missed the publishing deadline. This is an indication of how fast and exciting beer is right now.

Oh, and for the record, I'm actually a little proud to be labeled bonkers, if the truth be known. Meanwhile, I'll consider if we should label ourselves as an Artisan Brewery.

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^{1To be fair, I did show the book to the staff today, proudly showing them the entry. An appropriate level of pride, as you would expect the team to have, was evident. However, there was a tinge of amusement, with Jules stating "So, he's met you then"}

Beer Posters

One or two of our distributors have suggested that we consider getting some posters printed. I quite liked the idea. Our friends at LemonTop Creative have been busy doing some designs for me. They are quite good at doing designs for breweries, partly I suspect because Andy Mogg, who is part of the management team there, also quite likes beer.

I like these poster designs. So do most people I've shown them to. Interestingly, I have my favourite, other people choose different favourites. Please feel free to comment on what you like, or more importantly don't like about these designs. Andy and I will no doubt ignore most of the comments and print them all anyway.

The resolution here could be better, I'm waiting for Andy to send me a full resolution file....

The Apprentice

I never watch The Apprentice. I really don't care for this sort of none reality "reality TV" - it's false, contrived and in this case a poor representation of real business.

However, I do like our local paper, The North West Evening Mail and it's company, CN News, who also publish an on-line business magazine www.in-cumbria.com. They often ask me for copy, or comment, which I am always happy to give for free in return for a little bit of publicity. It's a nice partnership.

I was contacted yesterday and asked if I would watch last night's episode of The Apprentice, as it was about beer, and be prepared to comment, apparently I know a little bit about beer. I was happy to help out, although I knew I would hate the experience. I was right.

See what I thought by reading the article.

If you missed the program you can watch it on iPlayer

Booths - we're there!

It's a tough choice for a brewer to decide to put his beers into a supermarket. There is always the question about cheapening the brand, for a start. Equally, the question about supporting pubs. One of the things that can be a great selling point for pubs are beers that cannot be found in supermarkets.

And so, it was with some trepidation that we decided to explore listings in some of the better outlets. On balance, the increase in volume sales, that will in time give us the business comfort to enable us to make more of the type of beer we want to make, like our experimental Rhetoric range and our ever more famous Vitesse Noir, is a strong incentive. Extra revenue will help us to invest in ever more advanced brewing plant so we can have more flexibility in what we make.

One of the supermarkets we approached was Booths. We've been successful in getting our beers into the Cumbrian branches. We like them because they have a strong local theme coupled with a great outlook towards quality. It's not a pile-them-high-sell-them-cheap outlet, although obviously they do a little bit of the old 4 bottles for a fiver type of thing, (actually it's 6 pounds) although currently our beers don't feature in that sort of promotion.

Anyway, I think they look great on the shelf, appropriately priced. Yes it's a tiny bit less expensive than buying the same beer in the pub, but then that's what you would expect. I feel confident that this isn't an example of "selling out" and I'm really pleased with the way they look on the shelf. We are hopeful that we will in time get into most of their other branches too, although that will depend on sales volumes. So, if you want to see our beers more widely available, buy them next time you are in a Cumbrian branch of Booths.

Dulcimer - music to my ears

I often get requests for information from people who want to know where to get my beers. The trouble is, mostly, they go out on pallet, far, far away. And even then, even when we deliver direct, that bit is all organised nicely by Ann, so generally if the question is asked of me, then I normally look a bit of a twit and have to say "eerr, dunno, sorry"


A Dulcimer is an interesting stringed instrument that I particularly like. The hammered version, which I guess would have been the forerunner to the piano, can create in the right hands an interesting percussive-melodic sound, slightly medieval in feel, but with a seductive embrace that does it for me. Not enough musicians play them, and I'd buy one and have a go, if it weren't for the fact that Ann thinks I have enough instruments cluttering up the house already.

There is a place called The Dulcimer in Chorlton, near Manchester. They are arranging a festival for this coming Bank Holiday weekend. They have some of our beers, and for once I am in receipt of this information, hence I am sharing it with the world.

So get along there if you want to try Dark Energy, Infra Red or Azimuth. There are other great craft brewer's beers there too. There is apparently some music, although I have no idea if there will be a dulcimer player there or not.

What's in a name?

"We've managed to change the lease to a free of tie" she said, with a mix of relief and enthusiasm. "It's been a bit of a fight, but we got there".

This particular community theatre had been developing quite nicely, but to make the whole thing work as well as it could financially, the lady in charge wanted to be able to have free choice on the drinks stocked in the bar.

"I'd like you to help me get some draught beer installed"

"Great, I'd love to," eager to help "Only, I wouldn't advise cask beers, you wouldn't sell enough and there would be a large amount of wastage. But we do put some of our beers into keg, that would be ideal".

She loved the idea. Draught beer, locally made, it'd be the best solution all round.

So, I duly set up a temporary installation for the time being. I lent them an under-counter chiller, font, gas cylinder etc and installed it for them.

The theatre is also good at social media, Twitter and the like, and tweeted "got a keg of real ale on tonight courtesy of @HardknottAnn and @HardKnottDave #properdrink"

A short twitter conversation ensued pointing out that technically, beer in a keg can't really be called Real Ale.

This is not the first, nor I doubt the last time I'll have this conversation.

It does make me wonder if we should really be getting het up about the differences anyway, after all, most of the general public don't understand and many don't care.

Propaganda or Maverick Opinion?

The Craft Keg verses CAMRA thing has kicked off this week. Poignant really, it's a bit like a certain struggle that occurred about 2000 years ago. I'm just wondering who is going to be crucified this time, and what will be the new replacement in the growing independent brewing empire.

Firstly, it seems there has been a CAMRA motion put forward to AGM proposing the banning the use of the term "Craft Keg" or similar in any CAMRA publication. I believe there is a good chance that this will be thrown out. If nothing else it would represent dangerous censorship, which I hope CAMRA would have nothing to do with.

Secondly, at Wandsworth Beer Festival, the program demonises keg in a generalised and un-knowlegable manor, and weaves into the rant various references to CAMRA.

This is all very unfortunate for all of us who care about the debate. Firstly, and a point I think that is extremely important, craft keg, micro-brewed keg beer, beer in-a-keg that has been less processed than the big brand pasteurised and filtered to death stuff, is different. The fact that it is more difficult to define than Real Ale¹ might be a problem. But to demonise this growing sector of the beer world is, in my view, helpful to neither CAMRA nor the brewing industry in general.

But, is it CAMRA's fault?

Well, "yes and no" is my answer.

The debate is important. CAMRA must allow the debate to occur, just the same as the rest of us should. There is no reason why the debate should not occur in CAMRA publications. It does from time to time, and that is healthy. For it to occur, there will naturally be opinions that differ from mine, and those of other people who believe there are a lot of good things about keg beer made by independent breweries.

CAMRA does not have to support Craft Keg if the organisation feels they shouldn't. I would like them to do so, but that's just my view.

It is not the fact that CAMRA allow the debate, and therefore the inevitable maverick opinion that is the problem. It seems to me to be that the debate is perhaps biased in favour of the mavericks. However, to censor would be just as bad as the proposed censorship being put to the CAMRA AGM.

By not condemning the examples here, it is seen by those of us who dislike Craft Keg bashing that CAMRA official line is to condemn all keg.

So, shall we continue the debate?

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¹A point that I have on many occasions disputed, but to go into that discussion detracts from my main point here.