This year’s Stonehaven Beer Festival (28th – 30th June) raised £29,200 for charity – taking the total raised since it began in 2009 as The Stonehaven Real Ale Festival to just shy of £130,000.
5,500 visitors flocked to Stonehaven’s Baird Park where they were able to sample more than 120 different beers, as well as drink in some live music from a mixture of local artists and tuck into tasty street food – as well as bask in all that glorious sunshine of course!
Speaking to The Aberdeen Press & Journal, organiser Robert Lindsay said , “The three main charities supported by this year’s festival, Stonehaven Sea Cadets, Stonehaven Amateur Swimming Club and local Alzheimer Scotland services each received £8,000, and the rest of the cash was split between other local causes.
He added, “We are delighted to be able to help all of these good causes. Since we first started in 2009, it has always been our belief that money raised in our community should stay in our community. That we have been able to raise so much is a testament to the support the Happening is given by people in Stonehaven and from much, much further afield.”
The award-winning Grey Horse Inn in Balerno, Edinburgh, has been reopened as a gastro pub.
It now serves a breakfast, lite bite, lunch and dinner menu created by chefs Richard Ward and Joe Ward, including dishes like fresh steamed Shetland mussels, Highland lamb and pan-seared coley.
Owner Paul Ng (below) said the makeover was undertaken due to popular demand and stressed that the traditional bar, which has made the Grey Horse a real ale haven locally, will remain.
Mr Ng, who has owned the pub for nine years and previously ran its kitchen, said the change was inspired by is customers who would prefer to eat locally.
He said, “Over the years, many people have asked us about opening a gastro pub catering for families.
“People, particularly in Balerno, want to leave their car in the garage and take their family for a quality meal and then walk home.
“We also want to cater for people who walk and cycle in The Pentlands and those who fish at local reservoirs.”
He added, “This is a significant investment for us but we believe the time is right.”
The restaurant has a warm, traditional feel to complement the original bar and is decorated with pictures and memorabilia from the local area.
The Grey Horse has been a runner-up in the Lothians Pub if the Year in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, an award run by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
LAST MONTH BREWDOG OPENED A NEW BREWERY AND JOHN SMITH’S LOWERED ITS ABV… SO THERE IS PLENTY TO TALK ABOUT WHEN IT COMES TO BEER. SUSAN YOUNG REPORTS.
Beer, for years the bastion of Scotland’s pubs, has had its difficulties over the past few years. But it is not all doom and gloom, far from it. Craft beer is the category of the moment, while Scotland’s keg ale sector has livened up considerably following the introduction of Caledonia Best into the market 18 months ago. This launch heralded some innovation in the marketplace and gave licensees a real beer story for the first time in a few years. A new brand on the bar always creates interest, and when that new beer is challenging Scotland’s Champion Belhaven Best, there is even more chat at the bar. Share of voice should translate to beer sales, but unfortunately the keg ale market in Scotland continues to decline. But how much further it would have declined without the advent of Caledonia Best it’s hard to say. Figures suggest that it could be down by as much as 15%. Although it is still almost double the size of the cask ale market at 171,000 barrels compared to 93,000 barrels of cask. If we talk about beer as being all ale the league table for market share is led by Belhaven, followed by Heineken UK, Wells & Young and C&C.
Total ale sales in Scotland are now worth more than £200M at the till, and Caledonia Best, the first new launch from Tennent’s in a decade, has certainly taken a slice of the action. Paul Condron, Marketing Director at Tennent Caledonian, comments, “In little over 12 months from launch, the Caledonia Best brand has achieved 14% share of the Scottish Smooth Draught Ale market (CGA, 12 Weeks to 01/12/12) which is fantastic performance for a new brand in a mature and contracting market. Made with 100% Scottish barley, Caledonia Best is the fastest growing brand in the category and is now listed in around 1400 Scottish on-trade outlets. Based on our internal sales numbers we’re confident that, following incredibly strong Christmas period, the next issue of market performance data will show the Caledonia Best brand matching rate of sale of the market leader.”
He continued, “Performance like this in just over a year from launch has probably surprised a few people, but we’re not surprised at all – it’s a great pint and a strong brand from a brewer with an ale heritage dating back to 1556, and a commitment to invigorating the ale category in Scotland for years to come. Our focus on the ale category won’t stop with Caledonia Best and we’re already working on a number of new products to expand our offering – exciting times for the business and our customers.
We launched our first TV campaign for the Caledonia Best brand in December featuring the classic Dougie MacLean song ‘Caledonia’. Reaction to the new ad has been extremely positive and we’ll continue to invest in TV advertising for the brand in 2013. We have also just announced a major sponsorship initiative which sees Caledonia Best announced as the official beer of Scottish Rugby and we’ll be raising awareness of this around the 6-Nations matches in February and March. This builds on the success of our partnership with Scottish golfing icon, Sam Torrance and our ‘Seed Fund’ initiative where we donated 5 pence from every pint sold in the first six months to supporting grass roots initiatives in farming and brewing across Scotland. The 2012 ‘Seed Fund’ generated £58,000 and saw donations being made to seven emerging businesses. We’ve got big aspirations for the Caledonia Best brand and anticipate another great year in 2013 as we continue to grow market share.”
But Belhaven is fighting back. Belhaven is as keen to hang on to market share as Caledonia Best is to steal it. Dom South, Marketing Director of Greene King says,“ Belhaven will continue to support Belhaven Best with year-round consumer advertising through 2013 including the new topical consumer press adverts that broke recently, commenting on Burns Night and Andy Murray’s Australian Open performance. Along with a consumer campaign building on many years of accumulated brand equity, the year ahead 14 DRAM FEBRUARY 2013
will also see more emphasis on in-outlet activation, to help Belhaven stockists sell even more. Following last year’s successful launch of Belhaven Black, we are planning further innovation in ale with some great new beers in the pipeline.
“The final pillar of our plan is making sure we continue to deliver the unbeatable service that Belhaven can offer our customers day in and day out, making sure that our customers are supported to serve and sell great quality pints. With our own directly employed technical services, dray teams, customer services and of course our sales account managers, everyone involved with our customers understands and cares about the importance of the quality of a pint and is able to offer assistance and support to our customers. With the entry of Caledonia Best into the market, a lot of figures have been being quoted. One figure which is not in dispute is that Belhaven Best retains a very strong number one position in the Scottish ale market, with a 38% share of all keg ale and 24% of total ale in the on-trade. CGA data also show that Belhaven enjoys far and away the highest rate of sale among the top 5 keg ale brands in Scotland, as being able to command a higher average price per pint. That means a winning combination of volume throughput and margin for the publican and to put that into context, latest CGA data shows that each Belhaven Best stockist currently generates £100 more in sales per outlet per week than each Caledonia stockist.
Having said that, the total keg ale market volume has been in decline for some time. As the market leader, we are looking at a combination of increased in outlet activation on Belhaven Best and innovation to engage consumers and help the trade generate increased value in draught ale overall, despite the underlying category decline in keg ale.”
There’s no doubt its a win win for licensees who are benefitting from extra support from the brands… but Caledonia has a firm objective in mind. It is aiming to knock Belhaven off the top spot next year!
Although the Scottish keg ale market is dominated by Caledonia and Belhaven Best in terms of voice, McEwan’s is also a player. It was bought by Wells & Young’s just over a year ago, and it still commands around 20% of the keg ale market, with particular strong holds in the likes of Dundee, and the North East. Heineken’s John Smith’s is also a familiar font on the bar, and its recent ABV drop by 0.2% to 3.6%, will, I doubt, hardly have an impact on its drinkers, and says John Gemmell, Trading Director North, On Trade Sales for Heineken UK, “We have taken the duty savings and shared them with the licensees.” This year Heineken intends to give more support and exposure to its Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh, the home of Deuchars IPA, the most popular cask ale in Scotland.
John Gemmell explains, “We haven’t focussed on cask for a while, but due to a shift in consumer perceptions, and a new era of cask drinkers, we believe that this side of our business offers real potential. Craft brewing is huge in the USA and Australia, and when cask last had its resurgence it was a completely different type of consumer. The old fashioned idea of a cask ale drinker with a woolly jumper and a beard, is gone. New consumers are younger, and have a keen interest in the back story. It’s no coincidence that hoppier beers are becoming more popular. Younger drinkers are looking for more complex flavours and that’s exactly what cask ale offers.”
Julian Grocock, Chief Executive of the Society of Independent Brewers, agrees with him and was recently quoted as saying,”There’s more of a sipping culture than supping culture with cask.” and he suggested that one of the reasons for the increased popularity of cask/craft was that it was a “middle class hobby” now, and there were less stereotypes of bellies, beards and sandals.”
There are two reasons that cask is enjoying a revival (plus 9%) one is that ex-chancellor, Gordon Brown, gave 50% tax relief to the smallest beer producers in 2002, and the second is that it has a trendy new name ‘craft’. In the US they don’t talk about cask they call it craft and its huge in the US. It accounts for some 6% of the total beer market in the U.S, (2011) compared to around 2% here. In fact there are just under 2,000 craft brewers in the States – but more than half of the beer comes from brew pubs. A trend that started here a few years ago. The most successful of which are undoubtably BrewDog’s pubs and West Brewery at Glasgow Green.
In Scotland, there is a wealth of good independent brewers who could quite comfortably fit in the trendy ‘Craft’ beer category. It’s difficult to say which brewery is the most successful, because it depends on how you judge it… Innis and Gunn certainly have the edge when it comes to exports, BrewDog has certainly engaged younger consumers and brought in new consumers to the category better than anyone else, and purely through social media and shock tactics, while West has created some great products, particularly St Mungo’s. Harviestoun is a good, solid business, which doesn’t court publicity like some others, and Sulwath also works away steadily. Obviously there are a wealth of others too – in fact 44 in total!
A new brewery which is already making its mark is the Eden Brewery in St Andrews, which is run by former Molson Coors and Glenmorangie man Paul Miller. He told DRAM, “It’s hugely exciting being able to innovate and bring new and fresh beer to the market. Consumers are looking for choice and more innovation rather than the same old. And in the craft category, consumers have a voice, and suppliers who listen to and reflect what consumers want can directly benefit.”
He continues, “There is also a great opportunity with cask/craft, especially when it comes to the tourist market – and I’m really looking forward to the likes of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, The Ryder Cup and the 2015 Open which takes place at St Andrews.”
In 2011, cask/craft volumes grew for the first time in 20 years. Variety it seems is the spice of life, and certainly cask/craft has had more coverage in the press due to the likes of BrewDog… and its aim to have the World’s strongest beers… although another Scottish brewery Brewmeister took that title in October with ‘Armageddon’, hailed as The World’s Strongest and priciest Scottish beer at 65% ABV and topping BrewDog’s ‘End of History’ brew at 55% ABV – mind you there were only a dozen bottles of the latter.
All this adds interest and gets people talking… which is where we came in.
You remember the story, right? Goldilocks heads out into the woods, barges into the Three Bears’ house, sits down to their porridge and proceeds to judge each one on its temperature. I’ll bet anything that when she grew up, Goldilocks became a real ale drinker.
Let’s face it, real ale is a real pain in the neck to the publican. It’s delicate. It’s alive. It needs its own special equipment and fiddly kit. It needs to be prepared several days in advance of serving, and then only lasts a couple of days before it begins to taste weird. And its customers are some of the planet’s biggest whingers.
Or, they can be a pub’s best advertisement – that is, when the pub’s doing everything right. But who’s to say what’s right and what’s not?
Back in the 70s, the tale goes, a group of enthusiasts used their collective hatred of kegged beer like Watney’s Red Barrel to revive the dying art form known as cask-conditioned ale. The success of European kegged lager in the UK gave British (and particularly, Scottish) breweries the idea that they could make beer this way, too, thereby cutting out the precision, expense and general bother of brewing beer in the traditional manner. These enthusiasts lobbied the industry and government to revitalise cask-conditioned ale (dubbed “real ale”) and stamp out monopolistic behaviour by big breweries, climaxing with the Beer Orders of 1989. They formed the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), whose 100,000 members have made it one of the most-successful consumer organisations in Europe.
Despite the stereotype of anorak-clad cheapskates, today’s CAMRA member is often young, professional and in search of pubs who serve real ale. The Good Beer Guide is many pubs’ single greatest source of customers, and happy CAMRA members are willing to spread the word.
With just a hint of irony, however, the very revival of real ale has led many publicans to throw up their hands in despair. Whilst CAMRA has been dogged in their pursuit of creating a market for real ale, they have been rather loose in their approach to how it should be handled by the publican. With so many variations on the real ale theme, and so little agreement among those who monitor it, drinkers are left to decide which pint they prefer based on personal taste, which might be counter-productive to the revival itself.
In the beginning, there was real ale. Lager hadn’t been invented yet, neither had refrigeration nor forced carbonation. It was served out of a barrel with a spout stuck in it, at whatever temperature Mother Nature decided. No doubt, Joseph Bramah’s 1799 handpump was the single controversial development of beer’s first several hundred years here.
But with today’s mod cons, things previously-unthinkable are now possible. No, Susan, I’m not talking about whisky-resistant lipstick. I’m talking about filtration, refrigeration, forced carbonation, micro-sparklers – in short, anything to make real ale real ale taste more like kegged beer. And as we look to CAMRA for guidance on these points, the guidance is not clear. As a result, there is a wide range of conflicting opinions among real ale drinkers about what constitutes a “proper” pint of real ale. Enter Goldilocks.
Some publicans – let’s call them Cask Nazis – are dedicated to preserving the ancient methods of real ale dispense. Casks kept in the cellar at ambient temperature, lain horizontal on stillages (old-fashioned name for racks), vented for requisite number of days, poured by gravity (un-chilled lines and handpumps grudgingly tolerated), and kept overnight under a hard spile (old-fashioned name for wooden peg). CAMRA is fine with all that. Goldilocks Risk: complaint that the real ale is too warm (summer) or too cold (winter, sound familiar?).
Unfortunately, Cask Nazis have to move their beer within three or four days to keep it fresh-tasting or pour the remains down the sink, and not every pub can do that. Some publicans take to using “cask breathers,” little devices to inject low-pressure CO2 into the cask to keep it from oxidizing and thus extending its shelf life. CAMRA is not fine with that, however, because it retards the natural evolution of the beer through oxidation. Except now CAMRA are in bed with Cask Marque, self-appointed watchdogs for real ale management in pubs, who see nothing wrong with cask breathers, probably because they do not want to jeopardise their vast pubco membership. Goldilocks Risk: no risk, really, as long as your casks are properly vented before serving.
When a cask breather’s pressure is turned up, however, some of the CO2 can become dissolved in the ale, thereby giving it a little more “fizz,” thus more allure to the punter who’s last pint was a Fosters. CAMRA still no, Cask Marque doesn’t really address the issue. Goldilocks Risk: too much carbonation might lead to a short pour, which is roughly equivalent to murdering the customer’s first-born.
Some other publicans take to refrigerating their casks and/or lines to avoid comments that their real ale was too warm, a modern complaint (see above), but a complaint nonetheless. Although refrigerating a cask can slow down or stop the secondary fermentation that distinguishes real ale from other beers, CAMRA says this is okay, as does Cask Marque. In fact, Cask Marque has gone to all the trouble to design pump clips to declare that a particular real ale is actually being poured un-refrigerated – the implication that refrigerating your real ale is normal, and that serving it otherwise is something that might only appeal to the lunatic fringe. Goldilocks Risk: complaint that the real ale is too cold (even worse, pint cupped in hands with scowl on face or shaking head slowly whilst looking downward), deadening malt flavours at the same time heightening bitterness.
A side-effect of over-chilling real ale (a natural progression from chilling it) is what’s called “chill haze,” in which proteins in the beer begin to come out of solution and make your pint cloudy, which is an absolute CAMRA and Cask Marque no-no, even though it was not uncommon during winter months in virtually all pubs in the Old Days or today in pubs run by Cask Nazis (see above). This effect has led some brewers to sell “tank-conditioned” ale, that is, ale which has undergone its secondary fermentation in the brewery conditioning tanks, then racked “bright” (filtered) into the cask, and ready for over-chilling. And we’re right back to kegged beer, aren’t we? Goldilocks Risk: rejected pint, as very few real ale fans will survive the sight of a cloudy pint, even if it tastes fine.
So, as a publican, if you choose to serve real ale how should you serve it? Should you use a cask breather, should you chill your casks, chill your lines, buy it bright or go the caveman route? Don’t worry, suit yourself. It doesn’t really matter, because whatever you decide, you can bet Goldilocks will drop by to tell you that your beer is too warm, too cold, too hazy or too old.
