So, we have massive hikes in raw material prices, allied with global shortages of the same, spiralling (upwards, of course) fuel & energy prices, an ever-shrinking marketplace thanks to restrictive trading & too much competition (much of it from breweries that aren't run to be commercially viable, but as a 'hobby'). And if that wasn't enough, we have State Nannies hell-bent on over-demonising all forms of alcohol to stop a tiny, tiny minority who still behave like idiots even when they are sober. That is our market in a nutshell.
There is only one obvious course of action. Expand!
Whilst we have been planning this for a long, long time (longer than was planned), it is, given the above, even more important that we grow - because then we can afford to target new markets, grow successfully into the shrinking existing one, and expand our offerings in the process.
So just what are we doing then? Firstly, we are putting in a new beer store - our existing one is cramped, badly located (it was always temporary), and hard work. Not only is the new one bigger, it is at ground level - so we can use a fork lift (and that, believe me, will be a God send in itself). It will also enable us (for a variety of reasons) to allow our beer to mature in tanks, which will free up some more casks not only to help cover increased production, but it also means no more being unable to brew just because we have no spare casks. Secondly, we upgrade our cask washing facilities, speeding up that particular job immensely. Thirdly, we will have more storage space for malt supplies - so they won't be in the way (and as a side benefit, malt handling prior to starting each brew will be simplified, and easier). And last, but not least, in the middle of it all will sit a rather useful, and somewhat flash, automated bottling line. Which is of course where new markets come in. If the drinker increasingly won't go to the pub, the pub, it seems, is increasingly expected to go to the drinker. Enter Bottled Beer. And of course having a full range of bottled beers gives us the chance to look at restaurants (Beer and food? A fine match, much better than wine.), off-licences, supermarkets etc.
Yes, I did say supermarkets. I will go one further, and say Tesco. It was winning their Bottled Beer Award (East, 2008) that sparked this off, and we'll be on their shelves (if all works out to a mutual advantage) by the summer. It has been suggested, nay hammered into us in some cases, that Tesco are the root of all evil, and not very nice to be dealing with. But our eyes are open - they are a huge dominant global corporate giant, we are but a small little concern where even the vehicles have names not ID numbers. This is not good for us? Maybe not. But if we follow their requirements (and in a past life I got to learn why these requirements were needed, and their is some common sense involved), supply the sort of product we would be happy to drink, and do our best to be flexible, I think we'll be alright. And if it doesn't work? Well, we'll have had some immense exposure to the public. And we certainly don't ever intend to have any one customer so big that we can't manage without them. Yes, we'll want to court other large chains, but it will be different beers.
Of course in an ideal world, we'd all be drinking down the pub - but that is not happening, and we'd be stupid not to follow the market. Ironically, I suspect the day of the pub will return - but not in the villages that are already without, and those that quite possibly soon will be. Let's just hope in the meantime that alchohol isn't priced out of the reach of the sensible, moderate drinking majority, in a flawed attempt to control the few idiots, who, quite frankly, are only idiots because society has fromed that way. But then I guess I am missing the point. Education costs money. Alcohol brings it in. It just depends how much they think we'll pay for it, because we can't as a Nation afford to reduce tax revenues. Too many buffoons to pay for.
So all in all, I'm not worried about knowing what we are doing. I'm more worried that everyone else knows what they are doing....
Showing posts with label brewery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brewery. Show all posts
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Monday, 19 November 2007
Oh Look, Another New Brewery...
According the mighty font all knowledge brewery wise, www.quaffale.org.uk, 58 new breweries have opened so far this year, while just 7 have closed - so that's an increase of 51. In 2006 82 opened, with 27 closing - an increase of 55. Go further back and it's the late 90's before the opening/closing figures balance. Now of course at first glance this all suggests a very healthy, buoyant & expanding marketplace, and to a point this is the case. Except that the market is not actually expanding - there are less pubs each year, and the good free houses are slowly snapped up by pub chains with tied supply agreements. Of course some pubs become free, and more and more tied pubs are being allowed to by from a vastly expanded range of breweries, often local. But the crucial thing is that the market is not expanding - it's changing, yes, but in terms of cask beer outlets, there is no actual growth. That said, the sales volume of cask beer is growing each year, but that is partly through the fact that for years most small breweries sales weren't included in these figures, whereas increasingly they now are. So yes there is room for some new players - but 50 each year?
Now of course the most important part of starting any business is the advanced planning. Do I have a market place? Can I get raw materials? Will I make money? And so on. And such information is processed by the financial backers and used in the decision of whether to stump up the cash. Trouble is, most new breweries don't start with any financial help - the money comes from savings, redundancy payouts etc. Indeed this is how we started as well. So there is no need to do a full business plan, and research the market, because no-one is actually asking you to. Some new breweries are pub based, so obviously they have their marketplace, others are very small and are never intended to be commercial concerns. But the rest, well they have to play in the real world.
And herein lies a problem. We can't get guarantees on raw material supplies from our hop merchants & maltsters. And those that have got some guarantee have had to buy up front. We know that some maltsters are not accepting new customers, because they don't have enough malt to go round. This is a result of a bad harvest of both malt & hops globally, compounding the growing problem of the ever decreasing acreages grown each year. So would start up a business under these conditions? One new brewer I have spoken to recently buys all his malt & hops from the bloke who sold him the brew plant in the first place, so knew nothing of any potential shortages. And it seems he is not alone.
This industry has traditionally been very friendly - OK there has always been the odd unfriendly character, but mostly we all get on very well as we share common problems & worries, and we all look out for each other. This stems from the days of yore when a yeast infection was a greater risk, and you needed to know that you neighbouring competitor would be happy to offer some of theirs - so naturally you made sure you were happy to help them. Yeast, while still very important, is either used from a packet, or obtained from a bigger brewery with a lab to keep it clean, and hold a reserve for emergencies. So whilst the need for good relations may have diminished, the philosophy still holds true. And new entrants have always held to that. Until now. It's not only us noticing that increasingly relations are straining within the industry, all quite probably through the fact that we are all competing for an effectively shrinking share of the market,
And then we have the matter of quality. You can't learn brewing in three days. You just can't. Using a proper yeast beer can take 7 days to ferment & finish, and indeed an old brewers saying goes 'Every Brew Should See A Sabbath', which backs up the 7 day cycle. So how can three days work for training? Theory is great, but practice is the key. Now of course you don't have to have any training - I certainly never did any brewing course. But at the very least you need to work for another small brewery. I learnt this the hard way, but my time helping someone else (unpaid I might add) for nearly 2 years was invaluable. Indeed without it I wouldn't be able to be here know on my high horse, as those who have followed us from our first days will testify. But not many new brewers go this route, as they have done home brew. Oh yes. This is like comparing changing tyres at Kwik-Fit with being able to work in the Maclaren F1 pit crew.
So how do you set up a new brewery? Well, you go to the back pages of any beer-related journal, find an add for a brew plant, and buy it. Put it in a building, and let the guys who sold you the plant tell you how to use it in less than three days. Hey presto, you are a brewery. Did I say packet yeast will ferment beer in two days? No? Well it often does. But then you can also by white wine for £1.99, if you want.
Alternatively, you shop around amongst the specialist plant manufacturers, realise that purpose-built brew plant isn't cheap, but used nonetheless by all those breweries that do well, win awards, and are well known. You then look for advice, and realise that the names behind the big, successful breweries, the well known beers, the big award winners, and the the breweries that have grown over the last 15-20 years, are not the names offering to help you. And if you can't answer why, then maybe you should open a kennels instead. But first there is a simple, but very important thing to do. Make sure you can get enough dogs.
Now of course the most important part of starting any business is the advanced planning. Do I have a market place? Can I get raw materials? Will I make money? And so on. And such information is processed by the financial backers and used in the decision of whether to stump up the cash. Trouble is, most new breweries don't start with any financial help - the money comes from savings, redundancy payouts etc. Indeed this is how we started as well. So there is no need to do a full business plan, and research the market, because no-one is actually asking you to. Some new breweries are pub based, so obviously they have their marketplace, others are very small and are never intended to be commercial concerns. But the rest, well they have to play in the real world.
And herein lies a problem. We can't get guarantees on raw material supplies from our hop merchants & maltsters. And those that have got some guarantee have had to buy up front. We know that some maltsters are not accepting new customers, because they don't have enough malt to go round. This is a result of a bad harvest of both malt & hops globally, compounding the growing problem of the ever decreasing acreages grown each year. So would start up a business under these conditions? One new brewer I have spoken to recently buys all his malt & hops from the bloke who sold him the brew plant in the first place, so knew nothing of any potential shortages. And it seems he is not alone.
This industry has traditionally been very friendly - OK there has always been the odd unfriendly character, but mostly we all get on very well as we share common problems & worries, and we all look out for each other. This stems from the days of yore when a yeast infection was a greater risk, and you needed to know that you neighbouring competitor would be happy to offer some of theirs - so naturally you made sure you were happy to help them. Yeast, while still very important, is either used from a packet, or obtained from a bigger brewery with a lab to keep it clean, and hold a reserve for emergencies. So whilst the need for good relations may have diminished, the philosophy still holds true. And new entrants have always held to that. Until now. It's not only us noticing that increasingly relations are straining within the industry, all quite probably through the fact that we are all competing for an effectively shrinking share of the market,
And then we have the matter of quality. You can't learn brewing in three days. You just can't. Using a proper yeast beer can take 7 days to ferment & finish, and indeed an old brewers saying goes 'Every Brew Should See A Sabbath', which backs up the 7 day cycle. So how can three days work for training? Theory is great, but practice is the key. Now of course you don't have to have any training - I certainly never did any brewing course. But at the very least you need to work for another small brewery. I learnt this the hard way, but my time helping someone else (unpaid I might add) for nearly 2 years was invaluable. Indeed without it I wouldn't be able to be here know on my high horse, as those who have followed us from our first days will testify. But not many new brewers go this route, as they have done home brew. Oh yes. This is like comparing changing tyres at Kwik-Fit with being able to work in the Maclaren F1 pit crew.
So how do you set up a new brewery? Well, you go to the back pages of any beer-related journal, find an add for a brew plant, and buy it. Put it in a building, and let the guys who sold you the plant tell you how to use it in less than three days. Hey presto, you are a brewery. Did I say packet yeast will ferment beer in two days? No? Well it often does. But then you can also by white wine for £1.99, if you want.
Alternatively, you shop around amongst the specialist plant manufacturers, realise that purpose-built brew plant isn't cheap, but used nonetheless by all those breweries that do well, win awards, and are well known. You then look for advice, and realise that the names behind the big, successful breweries, the well known beers, the big award winners, and the the breweries that have grown over the last 15-20 years, are not the names offering to help you. And if you can't answer why, then maybe you should open a kennels instead. But first there is a simple, but very important thing to do. Make sure you can get enough dogs.
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
Squadron Cleared For Take-Off!
Back in August we entered the bottled version of 92 Squadron into the 2008 Tesco Beer Awards. Not sure why, but we did. Previous entries into award schemes fell flat because (we have since heard) we took the decision to to filter the beer, rather than providing each bottle with a debatable sediment. You'd think we were manufacturing a pastuerised chemical substance from the reaction such a move draws from certain quarters, but we know what is best. And that is a well brewed beer, using only natural raw materials. We then filter out any protein, and bottle it (via our bottlers). There is still some yeast in the beer (albeit a very tiny amount), and the beer still ages as it should. What it doesn't have is a sediment formed of processed yeast (which may or may not be from a traditional brewers yeast...) that does little beyond add some fizz if you are lucky, bugger up the flavour, and quite likely end up in your pint. Which is nice.
Anyway, we entered, just for fun. And would you know it, we've won. So now 92 Squadron is the winner of the 2008 Tesco Drinks Award - Regonal Beer (East). Which means that we have a listing with Tesco across 120-ish stores around East Anglia. And that is no small thing. This all starts in March 2008, and so we are now deep into expansion plans, including our own bottling line, and as investigations progress, it becomes more and more obvious that we will not be placing all our Eggs into one basket - the Tesco business, whilst important, will not be our major source of business. So, if it all comes together, we may well have lift-all round - and not just with the high-flying 92 Squadron.
And no, we won't be putting bits in the bottom. Real ale is about the the whole brewing process, not just bits in a bottle. Anyone can put bits in - it's the natural, traditional, quality & honesty of the brewing and the beer that matters.
I may even shave the beard off as well....
Anyway, we entered, just for fun. And would you know it, we've won. So now 92 Squadron is the winner of the 2008 Tesco Drinks Award - Regonal Beer (East). Which means that we have a listing with Tesco across 120-ish stores around East Anglia. And that is no small thing. This all starts in March 2008, and so we are now deep into expansion plans, including our own bottling line, and as investigations progress, it becomes more and more obvious that we will not be placing all our Eggs into one basket - the Tesco business, whilst important, will not be our major source of business. So, if it all comes together, we may well have lift-all round - and not just with the high-flying 92 Squadron.
And no, we won't be putting bits in the bottom. Real ale is about the the whole brewing process, not just bits in a bottle. Anyone can put bits in - it's the natural, traditional, quality & honesty of the brewing and the beer that matters.
I may even shave the beard off as well....
Monday, 13 August 2007
Back With A, Err, Ermm, Well, Errr, Something Mildy Interesting. Probably....
Ooh, would you look at that. It's been a month since the last blog, or whatever it's called. And I'm still not sure what to post.
I could say the previously discussed Hobby we have sighted may have been a juvenile Peregrine, according to some observers. I could mention a couple of new beers we have put out - 'Western Harrier', 'Blink Bonny' & the originally titled 'Dark' (hang on, that's three isn't it - sorry). I could even talk at length about various insects observed by the pond. But to be honest, I won't.
What I will say is that we now have the casks to sustain a more regular and intensive brewing schedule, which is keeping us busy, and as a result, and not before time, we are now three. We have been joined by our first employee, Basil. Basil has brewing experience, and is also a fully qualified herbalist - which I suspect may be another unique point in our favour. So I really must get about updating, nay including, a section on the website about the faces behind the beer. It may even make interesting reading...
Since the last post, a few more areas of the country have been flooded, although thankfully for us not round here (it remains to be seen what effects there will be on the hop & barley harvest, but fingers crossed all will be OK). But summer seems to be with us at the moment, and beer sales are for us still on an upwards trend. It seems to be the same for many of the other breweries we have contact with, despite some very downbeat feelings from publicans. The truth I guess is that many smokers are still spending less time drinking, which is affecting pub figures. Statistically though, smokers are more likely (so we are told) to be lager drinkers, so cask sales haven't been hit too hard - indeed it seems that what new trade there is in pubs is mostly folks who have a taste for 'bitters', and are keener to try something new. Again, this is good news for the small producers, and bad news for the big, over-hyped mass produced 'brands'. Which might explain why, as ever, small brewers are always 'bucking the trend' of national sales figures (small brewers sales aren't included in industry statistics...).
The downside of increasing sales is of course that in the short term the cash flow gets screwed up a bit, but hey-ho, this is part of business life. Of course it does hurt to see the cheques to the revenue increasing massively, but that is just relative - it's all based on money coming in, so in many ways it is a good sign.
The current bit of good news is that we have had a meeting with the local licencing officer, and any fears re high costs of getting a full alcohol/entertainment licence are seemingly unfounded. So a couple of hours of form filling (umpteen copies of which are to be sent to the world, his dog, and the dog's two mates), and 28 days of notices & adverts later, we might at last be able to sell to the public from the brewery door. All of which we were allowed to do under the old licencing rules...
One of the main concerns of the licence application revolves around protecting society from the harms of alcohol, and how we plan to do this. Well, it's simple really. For a start we won't be selling anything at a ridiculously low below cost price, and therefore encouraging folk to get cheaply drunk before going out. What's that, someone suggesting large supermarket chains are behaving irresponsibly, with impunity? Surely not. Whatever next...
I could say the previously discussed Hobby we have sighted may have been a juvenile Peregrine, according to some observers. I could mention a couple of new beers we have put out - 'Western Harrier', 'Blink Bonny' & the originally titled 'Dark' (hang on, that's three isn't it - sorry). I could even talk at length about various insects observed by the pond. But to be honest, I won't.
What I will say is that we now have the casks to sustain a more regular and intensive brewing schedule, which is keeping us busy, and as a result, and not before time, we are now three. We have been joined by our first employee, Basil. Basil has brewing experience, and is also a fully qualified herbalist - which I suspect may be another unique point in our favour. So I really must get about updating, nay including, a section on the website about the faces behind the beer. It may even make interesting reading...
Since the last post, a few more areas of the country have been flooded, although thankfully for us not round here (it remains to be seen what effects there will be on the hop & barley harvest, but fingers crossed all will be OK). But summer seems to be with us at the moment, and beer sales are for us still on an upwards trend. It seems to be the same for many of the other breweries we have contact with, despite some very downbeat feelings from publicans. The truth I guess is that many smokers are still spending less time drinking, which is affecting pub figures. Statistically though, smokers are more likely (so we are told) to be lager drinkers, so cask sales haven't been hit too hard - indeed it seems that what new trade there is in pubs is mostly folks who have a taste for 'bitters', and are keener to try something new. Again, this is good news for the small producers, and bad news for the big, over-hyped mass produced 'brands'. Which might explain why, as ever, small brewers are always 'bucking the trend' of national sales figures (small brewers sales aren't included in industry statistics...).
The downside of increasing sales is of course that in the short term the cash flow gets screwed up a bit, but hey-ho, this is part of business life. Of course it does hurt to see the cheques to the revenue increasing massively, but that is just relative - it's all based on money coming in, so in many ways it is a good sign.
The current bit of good news is that we have had a meeting with the local licencing officer, and any fears re high costs of getting a full alcohol/entertainment licence are seemingly unfounded. So a couple of hours of form filling (umpteen copies of which are to be sent to the world, his dog, and the dog's two mates), and 28 days of notices & adverts later, we might at last be able to sell to the public from the brewery door. All of which we were allowed to do under the old licencing rules...
One of the main concerns of the licence application revolves around protecting society from the harms of alcohol, and how we plan to do this. Well, it's simple really. For a start we won't be selling anything at a ridiculously low below cost price, and therefore encouraging folk to get cheaply drunk before going out. What's that, someone suggesting large supermarket chains are behaving irresponsibly, with impunity? Surely not. Whatever next...
Saturday, 14 July 2007
Brewery News....
Well, nothing untoward to report, yet...
We've just taken delivery of 100 new firkins, courtesy of close brewery rentals, so production should soon be in a position keep up with demand.
Silence, Royston Red & Highwayman have been the main brewing activities so far this month, with a batch of 'Western Harrier' currently in one of the FV's. This is a one off pale beer, brewed mainly just to use some English trial hops('Irene') we purchased a little while back. Next week will see Challenger (in the tank already), and Highwayman going through, and as soon as space allows 'Blink Bonny', a darkish beer, again brewed just to use some stray hops whilst we have some space in the schedules.
Looking much further ahead we have been asked to re-create a mild, once brewed in the East Midlands - we already use the required yeast, so it will be a good chance to see just how close we can match the original, at the first attempt, without the use of dozens of men in white coats.
We have also installed a new PC. Coming from the IT world I had some trepidation about moving over to Windows Vista, especially as at it would have to talk to two XP machines (desktop & laptop), plus a shared printer. Quite frankly, I was amazed. It just worked it all out for itself. Maybe Microshaft have got it right at last. No complaints, no battles to get Vista to see the printer, the network or the internet. I might even end up actually really liking Windows at last....
But in order to balance things somewhat, we have just broken one of our brewery pumps. And it would be the last of the 'odd' ones. Which means plenty of kerfuffle in changing fittings etc to make it fully interchangeable (like the other pumps) or getting adaptors and make existing piping fit it. Much like I expected when I switched Vista on for the first time....
We've just taken delivery of 100 new firkins, courtesy of close brewery rentals, so production should soon be in a position keep up with demand.
Silence, Royston Red & Highwayman have been the main brewing activities so far this month, with a batch of 'Western Harrier' currently in one of the FV's. This is a one off pale beer, brewed mainly just to use some English trial hops('Irene') we purchased a little while back. Next week will see Challenger (in the tank already), and Highwayman going through, and as soon as space allows 'Blink Bonny', a darkish beer, again brewed just to use some stray hops whilst we have some space in the schedules.
Looking much further ahead we have been asked to re-create a mild, once brewed in the East Midlands - we already use the required yeast, so it will be a good chance to see just how close we can match the original, at the first attempt, without the use of dozens of men in white coats.
We have also installed a new PC. Coming from the IT world I had some trepidation about moving over to Windows Vista, especially as at it would have to talk to two XP machines (desktop & laptop), plus a shared printer. Quite frankly, I was amazed. It just worked it all out for itself. Maybe Microshaft have got it right at last. No complaints, no battles to get Vista to see the printer, the network or the internet. I might even end up actually really liking Windows at last....
But in order to balance things somewhat, we have just broken one of our brewery pumps. And it would be the last of the 'odd' ones. Which means plenty of kerfuffle in changing fittings etc to make it fully interchangeable (like the other pumps) or getting adaptors and make existing piping fit it. Much like I expected when I switched Vista on for the first time....
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
And In This Tank...
After 3 - 4 hectic weeks trying to keep up, we have again run out of empty barrels. So it's a quiet week this week, with just a fresh brew of Royston Pale Ale (RPA to it's friends) gently fermenting away. We have a good stock of Challenger & Highwayman in the cellar, but both are getting alarmingly low - but then that is good, we don't brew it to keep it sat in the cellar! Next week will be a double brew week, but only if we get enough empties back. Or we get the 100 new ones we are waiting for. And at the moment 100 firkins is just enough for a double brew week.
Such fluctuations in our brewing volumes marks out the increasing number of 'tour groupies' we seem to be getting. We have noticed for a while that some faces in tour parties were familiar, but this has now been confirmed when someone asked why we had full tanks a few weeks ago, but now had empty ones. When he was answered, he sagely agreed that we had mentioned cask shortages in the past. He then had to admit he was on his fourth visit this year. So far. So it's not just rock bands that have groupies, breweries have them too. And do you know what, I think it's great. I am sure that some Rolling Stones groupies offer more services than ours do (thankfully), but ours certainly do us great benefit in raising our profile in the local pub trade. And whilst I don't want to sound ungrateful, the more I thinka bout it, a few screaming females would certainly add a bit of extra cheer that middle-aged men just can't provide.
Such fluctuations in our brewing volumes marks out the increasing number of 'tour groupies' we seem to be getting. We have noticed for a while that some faces in tour parties were familiar, but this has now been confirmed when someone asked why we had full tanks a few weeks ago, but now had empty ones. When he was answered, he sagely agreed that we had mentioned cask shortages in the past. He then had to admit he was on his fourth visit this year. So far. So it's not just rock bands that have groupies, breweries have them too. And do you know what, I think it's great. I am sure that some Rolling Stones groupies offer more services than ours do (thankfully), but ours certainly do us great benefit in raising our profile in the local pub trade. And whilst I don't want to sound ungrateful, the more I thinka bout it, a few screaming females would certainly add a bit of extra cheer that middle-aged men just can't provide.
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