Bethany

Aug

2020

Making Beer Accessible (Part 1 of Many)

I wrote a few weeks back about our plans to develop an Inclusion Strategy and wanted to give you an update on a few things that we’ve been up to in the meantime. As I mentioned then, there are lots of things that we can’t do because of our small size, but I really want to focus today on some of the things we CAN do, even as a really tiny brewery.

Most of these are things that we should always have been doing (and aren’t specific to the brewing industry), but sometimes we just need a moment to pause and really think about the impacts we have on the people we encounter and, perhaps more importantly, the people we don’t encounter because they don’t feel like a brewery, bar, pub or club is an inclusive environment.

We’ve identified that our online presence could be more inclusive by being more accessible to people with disabilities and to neurodiverse people. We know that there are many people who need websites to be easy to read and that a lot of people rely on screen readers to tell them the information that’s on websites.

At the same time as we signed up to Work In Progress, we were also planning a new website for the brewery. Within a couple of weeks, we should be ready to launch our new website. As we’ve been putting it together, we’ve been thinking very carefully about how we can make it accessible – this involves some give and take because things that are accessible to one person might be inaccessible to others. Therefore, we’ve had to balance out everything to try to find a middle ground that works for as many people as possible.

Luckily for us, much of this has already been thought through in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which provide suggestions for how to make websites more accessible. Many websites adopt these guidelines, but there are many that don’t. We already do quite a lot of the things mentioned in the guidelines, but we’ve not yet sat down and formally gone through them against our website.

The things we’ve considered so far in creating the new website are:

Background colour, text colour and the contrast between them
Fonts, including both the style and the size
Alt text for images
Using plain English with short paragraphs (I really need to work on this one!)
Testing it with a screen reader app, to make sure it makes sense when the app is used

Many of the WCAG principles are built into the template we’re using for the new website, but in the coming weeks (before and after launch), I’ll be working through the WCAG to assess whether we have any significant accessibility gaps. Then, I’ll make the necessary adjustments to the website to address those gaps.

We are certain that we won’t have this perfect straight away (or perhaps ever), but we are committing to try to make our website as accessible as we can. We are also committing to making our other online presences (such as social media) as accessible as we are able to – a lot of that is outside our control, but we can do things like adding alt text to images where that functionality is available.

We’ll be posting more about our Inclusion Strategy in future blog posts and we’ll put the pieces of our Inclusion Strategy on our Inclusion page as we build them.

Aug

2020

All About… Michaela!

What’s yer name and where d’ya come from?

My name is Michaela Charles and I’m originally from Cliffe in Kent although I now live in Walthamstow with my husband, Daniel, and cat, Schrodinger.

What made you decide to become a brewer and how did you get to where you are now?

Having come from a small village with five pubs it’s easy to think good beer is in my blood! I was raised on Gadd’s and Shepherd Neame and always encouraged to be curious with beer. My first job was at a certain huge pub chain. I really enjoyed the cellar management and in time I was given some very good opportunities including brewing a beer for the national beer festival.

I like to think I persuaded breweries to give me hands on experience but in honesty I probably hounded them into it! It’s entirely through the generosity, of both time and knowledge, of these senior brewers that I got a foot in the door. It’s a quality that is so often overlooked in so many other industries but sets brewers and their teams apart.

From there I gave up bar work completely and became second brewer at Clarence and Fredericks. I was trusted to release beer under my own brand, Upstairs Brewing. That took a back burner when I was asked to run the brewing operation at Pitt Cue in Devonshire Square and the real creativity started. Since then I haven’t looked back!

What’s been the most challenging thing about establishing your brewing career?

The big challenge for me was the jump between brewery assistant and brewer. I give so much credit to the willingness of brewers to teach, especially Duncan Woodhead.

There’s a lot of talk of sexism in the industry. I’m lucky enough not to have experienced much of it first hand. I think the brewing industry as a whole is much too savvy for that now; however, the pub trade has a bit of catching up to do.

What’s the best beer you’ve ever drunk and why?

The best beer I’ve ever drunk was a bottle of Left Hand Milk Stout some twenty years ago. It was ice cold and served in a goblet and it felt like falling into a kinder egg. Divine! Second to that is the pint of Whitstable Bay Pale Ale I’d have after work in my local. Always a pristine pint of hoppy heaven.

And what about the best beer you’ve brewed?

The best beer I’ve ever brewed is the Rauchbier I produced for Pitt Cue. It was a smoked German Lager that I researched whilst in Bamberg. It took ages to brew each batch and it went perfectly with our mangalitsa pork and pickles. Crisp, smokey, clean and conker red. An absolute beauty.

And the worst? 🙂

The bacon beer. The boss insisted we should have one so I brewed it. It was revolting. I then brewed the Rauchbier and we never discussed the bacon beer again.

If you were only allowed to keep one beer style forever, what would it be?

English pale ale. It can be everything you need between crisp and refreshing, and malty and comforting. Park beer, Sunday lunch, music festival and celebration.

Other than the obvious two (Covid and Brexit), what do you think are the biggest challenges facing the independent brewing industry right now?

Every brewery seems to need a Unique Selling Point. Great tasting beer doesn’t appear to be enough. I used to drink Whitstable Bay or Gadds, say, because I knew their beer was spot on. But now a brewery needs something extra or other to compete. I don’t mean to say that there’s anything wrong in appealing to a niche, but the beer has somehow become secondary. I would love to have a brewery that has a flying fox circus on the mezzanine and an actual squirrel on the can but I would still like people to come for the beer.

What are you most looking forward to about brewing for Beerblefish?

Yeast! It’s been a little while since I’ve exercised my creativity and a brewery team that uses blended yeast is a great place to get it going. I love the subtle manipulation to create enhanced flavours. Lots to get my teeth into.

Which Beerblefish beer is your favourite at the moment?

My favourite is Infinite Improbability Saison, it’s a yeast I really enjoy for its distinctive pep and a blooming refreshing beer too!

If you could brew any beer in any style, with no restrictions on price or quantity of ingredients, what would it be?

A pale ale with Icelandic spring water. And then the same thing with Burton and London water. That would be a nice experiment and a scenic road trip.

So, there you have it: all about Michaela. Thanks, Michaela, for undergoing this interrogation!!

Aug

2020

It’s Our Fifth Birthday!

We can’t quite believe that we’ve managed to keep a brewery alive for five whole years. The big day is actually on Monday, 3 August, but like all good folks, we’re celebrating at the weekend and not on a “school night”. We’re very sad that we can’t have a really big party at the moment, but we will do something once it’s allowed and sensible – we might be making six the new five, the way things are going at the moment, but rest assured that we’ll let you know when we’ve got realistic plans for a big birthday bash!

In the meantime, we want to thank all the people who helped us to this milestone – friends, family, staff, customers and suppliers have all had a hand in us still being here and making great beer and gin and we couldn’t have done it without your support.

If you’re reading this before 10pm BST on Saturday, 1 August, you still have time to enter our beer competition on Facebook and our tshirt competition on Twitter, so head over there to enter for a chance to win!

We’ve put together a little video of the story so far for your viewing enjoyment!

P.S. Keep an eye out on our social media next week – we’ve got a very special announcement coming up!

Jul

2020

Spotlight On… The Little Green Dragon Ale House

“Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (oh, OK, Winchmore Hill), there was a dashing knight named Richard who roamed the land on his trusty steed (yep, we know, it’s a bike) to visit all the magic potion sellers (micropubs) within these shores. On his quest, he met a little green dragon, who told him that he, too, could be a magic potion seller. So he went back to Winchmore Hill with the little green dragon, set up a magic potion shop and lived happily ever after.”

In the third of our series on our regular stockists, brewery manager Glenn talked to Richard Reeve, the founder of The Little Green Dragon Ale House in Winchmore Hill, Enfield, North London to find out all about this local gem!

Spotlight on… hatching the dragon’s egg

Richard’s background is working in IT where he managed to work around the world (although, sadly, mostly in places like Stevenage and Coventry). He was always interested in beer, even before it became fashionable. Then in 2014 a friend recommended that he check out a new thing called a “micropub” in Margate. On googling “micropubs” he found that there were a few others around too.

Spotlight on… fledgling pedal power

Fast forward a few months and Richard decided to cycle around all of the micropubs, of which there were about 100 in 2015. He incorporated a fundraising element by raising money in support of those affected by Alzheimer’s.

Around three-quarters of the way around, Richard had a Eureka moment and realised he could do something similar. Although his background wasn’t in running pubs, he had helped at beer festivals, so he wasn’t flying completely blind. He started to piece together the necessary equipment and was keeping an eye out for an appropriate space.

Richard with his wife, Sujal, and their daughters Jasmin and Anya

Richard says, “Somehow, small but concrete achievements such as obtaining my personal alcohol licence and accumulating equipment seemed to help psychologically, and reassure me that I would make it happen and it wasn’t just a pipe dream.”

Spotlight on… taking flight

A local pub called “The Green Dragon” had closed and Richard wanted to preserve its heritage by incorporating the name into his pub. A few people questioned his rationale for starting up a micro pub, and the concept itself, but Richard had done his research and firmly believed that the community would enjoy the new format

The Little Green Dragon will be celebrating its third birthday in August. The pub was crowned CAMRA’s Greater London Pub of the Year in 2018. Richard feels that a big part of his success is the great community feeling that he has helped foster, although we think that his excellent beer selection is also critical.

Spotlight on… the magic potion

Richard enjoys dark beers, especially a dark smoky porter. Richard was worried that customers might not share his taste in beer, but the local community gets behind his selections.

“I wanted to offer something different to the mainstream pubs. This begins at the beer menu (which features some local breweries as well as beers from larger regional players), but homely furniture conveys the feeling that you’re in a friend’s living room. Strangers walk in and feel comfortable here. We rotate our beers, although we do get some beers back on a regular basis. Our biggest selling beers are sessionable pales and bitters.”

Richard says, “I like dark beers so it will be no surprise that my favourite Beerblefish beer is the Blackbeerble Stout!”

He thinks that younger people are starting to explore traditional ales, but isn’t sure if this is a natural evolution of their taste in beer or whether traditional styles have evolved and now appeal to younger drinkers. There’s also a lot of interest in sour beers, which seem to be particularly popular with the pub’s women customers.

Glenn asked Richard what the coming year holds for The Little Green Dragon. “Your guess is as good as mine! We miss the community that we’ve built up so we will keep on with takeaway and delivery, we’re restarting onsite sales and we’ll also look at doing outdoor events.”

Spotlight on… dashing knights and beautiful maids

We always like to ask if any romance has blossomed at a venue. Richard says, “Haha. Loads of people have met others and have become good friends, although I’m not sure on the romantic side. It would be really nice if a couple met at The Little Green Dragon”.

Spotlight on… fairy tale endings

Richard told Glenn that the Little Green Dragon is featured in a movie about the rise of micropubs, although the launch date has been postponed due to Covid-19. A local poet and a local singer have both incorporated the Little Green Dragon into their work.

The Little Green Dragon is gradually reopening its doors after the lockdown and has a range of different events going on from fundraising through to guided beer tastings, so keep an eye out on the pub website and social media for all the latest.

Jul

2020

Let’s Go Pan Galactic!

We get asked all the time how the brewery got its name – there are two general starting points that enquirers have: “How on earth did you come up with such a weird word?” and, “It’s got something to do with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, hasn’t it?”

The answer to the first question is long winded and very much off-topic, so I won’t trouble you with it here (maybe one for another day). The answer to the second is, “Not really, but we’d be lying if babelfish sounding a bit like Beerblefish hadn’t influenced our decision to finally go with the name we have, and then in turn influenced some of our beer names.”

Back in February (or eleventy billion years ago, which is what it feels like now!), I wrote about our Infinite Improbability Saison, which was actually the second of our beers to have a H2G2 name. The first was Pan Galactic Pale Ale, named partly for the gargleblaster of Douglas Adams fame, but also in honour of the Galaxy hops that make up a large part of its hop bill.

Pan Galactic started out as an experiment. Our brewers wanted to try using the same recipe for two beers but treating the water in different ways to see what, if any, difference it made to the final product. Pan Galactic was given its name and the other beer was called Goldfish Pale.

Goldfish was treated very lightly – more or less London’s finest tap water – while Pan Galactic had lactic acid added to the strike water and the sparge water to lower the pH. We also treat our water with magnesium sulphate because the water in our area is low in magnesium, which is needed by the yeast for a healthy fermentation. We use sulphate instead of carbonate or chloride because the water already has a high carbonate level and a fairly high chloride ion level.

When the beers were ready, they were both good, but we each had our own opinion on which was better. So, to decide it, we entered both into the Drinks Business Global Beer Competition in 2018.

When the results came out, it was close – Goldfish was awarded a bronze and Pan Galactic was awarded a silver, and we decided to keep Pan Galactic in our range. In 2019, it went on to win a one-star award in the Guild of Fine Foods Great Taste Awards.

Pan Galactic Pale Ale has a typical pale malt bill. We use Crisp’s Maris Otter as the base and add a small amount of Weyermann’s CaraAroma for a slight caramel twist. We’ve been through a few variations of the hop bill since the first edition of this ale, but we’re currently using EKG as the bittering hop, with Galaxy and Ella providing the flavour and aroma. Galaxy really is the star of the show here, giving peach, passionfruit and citrus notes to the beer.

The imagery that “Pan Galactic” can conjure up in the mind was grasped upon by our friends at Art By Volume, who created a beautiful representation of the beer as an LP cover. I’ve always wondered what would be on that album!

We’ve had a few blips along the way with this one, as there was a period when it was very difficult to get hold of Galaxy hops, which are really central to both the recipe and the name! We also only very recently settled a two year “discussion” on whether the beer’s name should have a hyphen and/or a space between “Pan” and “Galactic”, as we have written it several different ways over the last couple of years.

We’ve finally settled on “Pan Galactic Pale Ale” and the next stage of its journey is a revamp of the bottle label and pump clip – watch out for those coming soon!

Pan Galactic Pale Ale is currently available in cask (firkin), 5 litre mini casks and 500ml bottles.

Jul

2020

We are a Work In Progress Brewery

This week we learned from our friends at Brewgooder in Glasgow that they, along with Mondo Brewing Company, are setting up an initiative to try to help make the brewing industry more inclusive. It’s called “Work in Progress” and as soon as I read about it, I knew we had to sign up.

What is it?

‘Work In Progress’ is an open, de-centralised group of breweries that aspire to a more inclusive and representative beer industry, committed to taking action in our businesses and forging links with communities to increase opportunities and promote collaboration between brewers and under-represented groups in our society.

Why sign up?

Since we are already a social enterprise brewery with aims that include helping military veterans into civilian work and supporting educational charities, these ideals fit in with our business values and we want our involvement in this group to help us to think about more ways that we can be inclusive and serve the various communities we operate in.

What are we doing?

To start with, we’ll be doing a lot of thinking and discussing! As a member of Work in Progress, we’ve committed to act on the following core areas of inclusion: Anti-Racism and Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Representation – LGBT+ Representation – Female Representation – Disabled Persons Representation.

However, the group leaves it up to each brewery to develop their own unique approaches to inclusion, put them into action, and then report on them – sharing successes and failures with other members and the wider world. The group doesn’t believe there is a right or wrong way to begin a Work In Progress journey. All that is asked is that we hold ourselves and others to account, and support other members on their own journeys.

We believe that all the core areas listed above are important, but we also realise that we can’t change the world overnight, so over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be developing an inclusion strategy that focuses on what we think are realistic and achievable aims for our (very small) business, along with some aspirational ideas that we’d like to take on some day in the future.

What will we be focusing on?

All of the core areas of representation are important, and we can think of quite a few more that we want to look into as well. However, there are a few things that we’re particularly interested in:

As our founder and Managing Director, James, is dyslexic, inclusion relating to invisible disabilities is a key focus. We would like to explore the inclusivity of our branding, labelling and marketing in this regard, and we already have a number of ideas we’re mulling over.
We’ll be thinking about gender representation in a slightly less binary way. While female representation is extremely important, women are not the only underrepresented group in this category.
As one of our social enterprise aims is to help ex-military personnel to get back into work, we’re also interested in social inclusion and helping people to reach their potential.
One of the ways in which we’re already proud of being inclusive is that all of our beer and gin is vegan, allowing more people to get involved and enjoy our products.

What are the challenges?

The main challenge is our size – there are only three (soon to be four) of us working in the business and only half of the team is full time. This somewhat limits the amount we can do, and spend, on inclusion initiatives. But we really believe in doing what we can, so our strategy will include lots of little things that individually may have a small impact, but will add up to making a difference.

We’re also limited by the size and layout of our brewery – we’re not in a position, for example, to install a ground floor loo, which limits how disabled-friendly we can be (for now – but not necessarily for ever).

Another thing we’ll need to work through is balancing the different core areas against each other. There may be times when making a decision that benefits one underrepresented group means that another group is relatively disadvantaged or there is a delay to their inclusion – we’ll need to work through that as we go, but I think being conscious of the issue gets us a long way towards addressing it.

How will we stay accountable?

We’re planning to be transparent about this whole process. We’ve committed to reporting at least annually, but I’m going to add a page to this website with details of our inclusion strategy, which I’ll update as we make progress. I’ll also be reporting on the things that haven’t worked so well and looking into ways that we can measure the impact of the inclusion steps we take, so that we can report in a holistic way once a year.

How can you help?

Talk to us! If you have ideas or suggestions for things we could explore, please let us know using our Contact form or via social media. We’ll also solicit feedback after we’ve implemented something, to help us work out whether it’s had a positive inclusion impact.

We’re in this for the long haul – we can’t promise that everything we do will be perfect straight away, and we’re bound to make some mistakes along the way – but we believe that the brewing industry and the beer-drinking community can and will be more inclusive and we want to be a part of that change.

Jul

2020

Thanks for all the love!

The last few months have been a really hard slog for loads of small businesses and we’ve had moments, like many other small business owners, where we’ve been disheartened and wondered whether there would ever be a road out of the shutdown. As we’ve mentioned before, we’ve been fortunate in many ways, but the uncertainty can really take its toll.

However, the love we’ve been shown by customers old and new has been phenomenal! Yesterday, I took another look through all the messages we’ve received through the Contact Us form in the last couple of months and, apart from the odd marketing blurb, they were all from customers or potential customers asking how they could get hold of our beer and support us during the difficult times. “I want to support local businesses,” was the gist of most of them.

This has given us a great boost and helps us to know that there is a place for micro breweries, independent businesses and small enterprises despite the stranglehold that bigger operators sometimes seem to have over our industry.

So, we want to say thank you to all of you for sticking with us or even seeking us out for the first time while the world has been at a standstill – we really appreciate it, not just financially, but also in what you’ve done to help us see hope and a way forward. We’ve got some really exciting plans for the future, including our upcoming fifth birthday celebrations, so watch this space for some announcements in the next few weeks!

Jun

2020

Support your Local Pub with the Campaign for Pubs

As brewers, our business is heavily reliant on pubs that serve their local communities. Whether they are traditional buildings with brass fittings and original Victorian tables or new micropubs slotted into unlikely spaces, pubs were already suffering before the COVID-19 crisis hit and the last three months have hastened what for some has been an inevitable swansong.

As drinkers, we also love our pubs! While having a beer at home or a friend’s house is a great pleasure, for us, nothing beats the hustle and bustle, social interaction and experience of having a good pint in a pub, especially a pub where the landlord or landlady knows how to keep the beer in tip-top condition and the highly-trained, customer-oriented bar staff know how to pour it.

We are really fortunate to count many such great pubs among our brewery customers and also to have them close to where we live so we can enjoy a drink in comfortable (even comforting) surroundings.

But the pub’s future is at a dangerous juncture – the combination of our change in drinking habits and the COVID-19 closures has put many pubs (a lot of which are small businesses) in jeopardy, so a group of interested parties has started up a new grassroots Campaign for Pubs to try to protect the British pub trade and the group has published 10 points to save pubs – calls to government and the pub trade sector to help pubs and publicans and prevent pub closures.

We support this initiative and we are particularly aligned with the Campaign on needing a firm date for pubs to be allowed to reopen – while pubs can’t plan their reopening, breweries can’t plan their brewing schedules and there’s a real risk that pubs that would otherwise be able to open won’t be able to because they can’t get beer, or that pubs will open, but with mass-market beer that they wouldn’t otherwise serve, pushing out the independent breweries who may struggle to regain their foothold.

The 10 Points include the call for an immediate announcement confirming July 4th as reopening day, for clear guidance to be published next week, and for an announcement that social distancing will be set at 1 and not 2 metres.

The 10 Points to Save Pubs calls for a mandatory Covid-19 rent code for to stop the exploitation of (all) tenants not the weak voluntary code produced by the Government, and also calls for a statutory right to a rent review for all pub tenants, all of whom will be facing restrictions on their ability to trade.

It also calls for 5% VAT for 12 months, to help pubs and the hospitality and tourism sectors get back on their feet. It also calls for the Government to announce hugely overdue business rates reform to commence by April 2021, and for business rate relief for pubs until a new system comes in.

In addition, with pubs now facing the very real threat that property owners and large pubcos will look to close and redevelop many pubs at this difficult time, a 12-month moratorium on all change of use for pubs is called for to protect and preserve valued community locals up and down the country. This is especially vital considering the very worrying recent news that the Government is considering moving to a “zonal” planning system where key decisions are taken away from local councils and handed to development corporations, something which is absolutely opposed by the Campaign for Pubs. There have even been suggestions that developers could be given “complete flexibility” by Government over changes of use, a decision which would be truly catastrophic as it would open the floodgates for mass pub losses with communities unable to stop them.

The Campaign welcomes the financial support given to many pubs so far, but much of it is not going where it needs to go. Some pub-owners, including regulated pubcos, have relentlessly demanded that publicans hand over Government COVID-19 support grants in full or partial rent, denying those pubs a vital financial lifeline whilst closed and with zero revenue. In addition, many larger pubs were excluded from receiving any grant at all. The Campaign for Pubs backs the #RaisetheBar campaign which advocates grants for pubs of all sizes, and also the #NoPubNoRent campaign which highlights the continued scandal of punitive rent demands for closed pubs.

The full list of the 10 Points to Save Pubs is:

A definite date for opening NOW! (by Friday 19th June)
Social distancing of 1 metre – not 2 metres (or most pubs simply cannot open)
Clear full guidance for pubs and insurance companies to be issued by Friday 26th June – pubs need real clarity about any physical infrastructure requirements, and also about specific responsibilities and liability issues, so that they can be properly insured under fair policies which will be honoured
Relaxation of licensing restrictions where extra spaces would help smaller pubs operate more viably and safely
A strong mandatory Covid-19 rent code of conduct including a statutory right to a rent review for all pub tenants
A rent-free period for all pubs, and an extended period of protection from landlords if rent cannot be paid
Continued financial support for staff – extended fully-paid furlough where pubs are unable to viably/safely trade due to continued Government restrictions
VAT to 5% for at least 12 months – the only sensible way to help with reduced margins, as any price increases would reduce trade even further
Business rates reform – announced now and implemented in April 2021 – and rates relief for all pubs until a reformed system comes in
A 12 month ban on all change of use for pubs – pubs need protection in the planning system now even more than eve

The Campaign for Pubs is urging all pub lovers to back the #10PointstoSavePubs to stop many pub closures – and to call on their MPs and the Government to back them too – and save pubs.

The Campaign for Pubs is a dynamic mass membership group, open to all who love and care about pubs. Unlike any other sector organisation, it unites publicans, pub campaigners, customers and suppliers, including some of the UK’s leading smaller brewers. The Campaign for Pubs exists to provide a #realvoiceforpubs and to campaign for a better, freer and fairer, more sustainable pub sector. The Campaign for Pubs’ mission statement lays out this powerful vision.

The Campaign for Pubs costs £25 a year to join, or £40 for a couple and members become part of a national network of those who care about pubs and their future.

Commenting, Paul Crossman, Chair of the Campaign for Pubs said:

“We need Government and others to really acknowledge and address very real threat currently facing thousands of much-loved community pubs up and down the country. We need urgent action to support and save pubs that have already incurred huge losses due to the COVID-19 crisis and that are still facing the dire prospect of hugely reduced trade going forward. We urge the Government to listen and act and back the Campaign for Pubs 10 Points to Save Pubs. We also urge all who value pubs to join the Campaign for Pubs and to help us get the message to Whitehall that we need real action now in order to save the UK’s hugely important and beloved community locals”.

Commenting, Campaign Director of the Campaign for Pubs, Greg Mulholland said:

“The Campaign for Pubs is hearing from many licensee members how worried they are with an uncertain future and ongoing restrictions. Already publicans are being forced out of pubs through rent demands, and soon unscrupulous developers and pubcos will inevitably be looking to develop and convert pubs. This must be stopped via a 12-month ban on any change of use. We now need concerted action from the Government and from the pub sector to save pubs and preserve a hugely important part of our country’s history and heritage. The Campaign for Pubs 10 Points to Save Pubs is the way to do this”.

Commenting, Dawn Hopkins, Vice-Chair of the Campaign for Pubs said:

“Pubs have been closed since mid-March and most pubs and publicans have had no trade and no income, yet costs have continued and worse still, pub-owning companies, including regulated pubcos, have continued to charge commercial rent which is outrageous. We need real action now to stop publicans being forced out of their pubs and to stop pubs being developed and converted. So we urge everyone who loves pubs, publicans and their customers, to back the 10 Points to Save Pubs!”

Jun

2020

Today is World Gin Day!

How are you celebrating World Gin Day 2020? Maybe you’re trying some delicious socially distanced gin cocktails in the garden or savouring a traditional gin and tonic in front of an old favourite film. Or maybe you’re keen to try something new, like baking with gin!

We’re going to be raising a glass or two for the occasion later on, and they’ll be charged with our Limited Edition Hopped Gin, probably neat with a single ice cube. We might add a dash of a quality tonic such as Fevertree Elderflower, which blends really well with the subtle hoppy finish of the gin.

Don’t forget that you can get your Limited Edition Hopped Gin straight from the brewery (along with a selection of our beers in bottles and mini-kegs) every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 12 noon to 5 p.m.

Wherever you’re getting your ginspiration from, we hope you’re having a great World Gin Day in spite of the lockdown restrictions!

Jun

2020

Business as Usual. Sort of.

Hello everyone and welcome back to our blog. We’d put it on hold for a little while – it was difficult to know what to say at first and then we became extremely busy with preparations to reopen the brewery.

While we felt we had to close the brewery temporarily at the start of the lockdown, we made sure to put the time to good use by applying for a premises licence so that we can open more often than once a month. This probably completely confused the local council – someone applying to be able to open more, just as all the pubs had shut – but they were extremely helpful and we got our licence through in late April.

Many of you will know that we’ve been opening for takeaways three days a week since early May. It was a slow start because we didn’t have much stock that was ready to go out, so we only had our larger bottles and gin available, but now that the brewery is properly up and running again, we’ve been able to package the beer that was in tank and, now those tanks are freed up, start brewing again. We consider ourselves extremely lucky that our focus on heritage beer styles means that beer sitting for a bit longer in the tank is actually a good thing, not a bad one, and we haven’t had to ditch any beer so far.

We’ve found this period really challenging, as have so many businesses during the lockdown, but we’re keen to make the most of the opportunities it presents too. We’d been planning to get a premises licence for ages, but this forced the issue and we’re thrilled that we can see our lovely customers more often, albeit in a socially distanced way. It’s also made us think about packaging in a new way, and moving into mini-kegs so that you can have a draught beer experience at home has been fantastic. Please let us know if there’s anything more you’d like us to do that we aren’t yet doing – we’re always open to new ideas!

Our taproom and bottle shop (at the brewery) is open for takeaways on Thursday, Friday and Saturday every week, from 12 noon to 5 p.m. We prefer cards, but will take cash. We publish our weekly menu midweek on social media, and usually have a range of 5 litre mini-kegs, 500ml and 750ml bottles and a cask or keg for bring your own growler/sealable bottle (or you can use one of our 2 pint cartons) – plus our award-winning Limited Edition Hopped Gin. Please observe social distancing measures when you visit – there’s a sign on the door showing the process for getting your beer and gin.

Finally, in a couple of weeks we’re planning to do a “your questions answered” blog post – so, if you have any burning questions you’d like to ask us about our products, our brand, the brewery, the awards we’ve won or beer and brewing in general, please contact us and we’ll include as many as we can!

Apr

2020

Did someone say cake?

I’m pretty sure that no-one else has a much better idea of what day it is than we do, other than that it’s approximately Easter and probably still 2020! While we’re all busy staying at home and washing our hands, we’ve found some time to bake. “What’s this got to do with Beerblefish?” I hear you cry. Well, we’ve been baking with gin. Our award-winning Limited Edition Hopped Gin, to be precise.

Usually, we would strongly suggest drinking gin (in moderation) rather than baking with it, but these are different times, and different times call for a different approach. We’ve heard about many gin and tonic cakes over the last couple of years, some more successful than others, so we wanted to see if we could create something to suit the slightly citrusy flavour of our Hopped Gin.

Most of the G&T cakes we’ve had in the past tried to incorporate the gin and/or tonic into the cake itself (often meaning you can’t taste them) or put them into a rich buttercream, which can be a little overwhelming. We wanted to try to preserve the delicate flavours and some of the heat of the gin, so we got down to some serious research and came up with Hopped Gin and Tonic Drizzle Cake.

Here’s the recipe for you to try at home. However, please shop responsibly and don’t stress yourselves out trying to find ingredients that might be a little scarce in some places right now – the recipe will still be here when this is all over!

Ingredients

For the cake:

200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g butter
100g light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
3 tbsp milk
Zest of 1 lime

For the drizzle:

75g granulated sugar
5 tbsp Beerblefish Limited Edition Hopped Gin
5 tbsp tonic water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180℃/170℃ fan/gas mark 4.
2. Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper (all the easier if you have a loaf tin liner).
3. Put the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and rub in the butter (or use an electric mixer).
4. Add the light brown sugar and mix.
5. Mix in the beaten egg and add milk until the batter is smooth and will drop from a spoon.
6. Stir in the lime zest.
7. Put the cake in the oven and bake for 1 to 1¼ hours, until golden brown on top and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. While you allow the cake to cool a little, mix the Hopped Gin, tonic water and granulated sugar together in a small bowl.
9. Use a skewer to prick holes in the cake to about half the cake’s depth and pour the drizzle over the top of the cake – the liquid should run into the holes, leaving the sugar to form a crust on top. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin.
10. If you feel like it, decorate the cake with some lime slices.
11. Serve with a Hopped Gin and tonic!

We hope you enjoy your gin and tonic cake and we wish you all a very Happy Easter!

Apr

2020

World Class Gin!

Right from the first sip of the first bottle of our Limited Edition Hopped Gin, we knew we were onto something, but we were still thrilled and a little surprised to learn this week that it had been awarded a Silver Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Competition in the gin category (and it classes as a straight gin, not a flavoured gin, because of the way it’s made) is fierce, but it was tough enough even getting it to San Francisco in the first place, with a lot of paperwork and planning and, of course, a last minute rush! On top of that, we knew the judging was taking place over 13 to 15 March – just as the USA started to close down due to coronavirus – so we were constantly checking to make sure there were no announcements of a cancellation!

This was the 20th San Francisco World Spirits Competition; it was founded in 2000 as a way to recognize exceptional products in the spirits industry. The 2020 Competition had almost 3,000 entries. The 51 judges of the 2020 Competition are established spirits-industry experts and the SFWSC is considered to be the most influential spirits competition in the world.

A Silver Medal means that our Limited Edition Hopped Gin is outstanding in its category, it shows refinement, finesse and complexity and it’s among the best examples of the gin category. That’s right, it’s a World Class Gin!

Are you old enough to be here?

Bethany

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Did someone say cake?

World Class Gin!

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