Microbrewers' Handbook

Ted Bruning

Description

A guide on the practicalities of starting your own microbrewery; from how to brew right through to finding a place of your own

Sujets

• Lifestyle
• Beers
• Cooking
• Beer

Informations

• Publié par: Paragraph Publishing
• Date de parution: 27 juillet 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780992639952
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published in Great Britain 2007 by Navigator Guides
Reprinted 2008 (twice), 2009
Second edition published by Paragraph Publishing 2009
Third edition published by Paragraph Publishing 2011
Fourth edition published by Paragraph Publishing 2013
This fifth edition published in 2015 by
Paragraph Publishing,
St Faiths House,
Mountergate,
Norwich,
NR1 1PY
www.paragraphpublishing.com
 
Copyright © Paragraph Publishing 2015
EBOOK EDITION ISBN 978-0-9926399-5-2
A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system except as may be expressly permitted by the UK 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act and the USA 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Paragraph Publishing, St Faiths House, Mountergate, Norwich, NR1 1PY.
The publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of information in the book at the time of going to press. However, they cannot accept responsibility for
any loss, injury or inconvenience resulting from the use of information contained in this guide.
Acknowledgements
The publishers would like to thank all those microbreweries who provided information for their case studies and for usage of relevant photographs, and to Ted Bruning for all his hard work and constant enthusiasm for the project.

Publisher: Damian Riley-Smith
Design: Jenny Sims & Paul Beevis
Photography on back of cover © Andy Fallon
Publishing Consultant: Rupert Wheeler
Contents
Foreword
Author’s Preface
Introduction
Chapter One: How to Brew
Chapter Two: Where to Brew
Chapter Three: Planning Your Finances
Chapter Four: Brewing Equipment
Chapter Five: What to Brew
Chapter Six: How to get to Market: Draught Sales
Chapter Seven: How to Get to Market: Bottled Sales
Chapter Eight: A Place of Your Own
Appendix: Customs and Duty
Directory of Services and Supplies
Index
 
 
CASE STUDIES
Hoggley’s Brewery
Potbelly Brewery
Peak Ales
Farmer’s Ales
Blue Monkey Brewery
Boathouse Brewery
Le Brewery
Green Jack Brewery
Bartram’s Brewery
Pitfield Brewery
Black Jack Beers
WEST Brewery
Hobson’s Brewery
Mordue Brewery
Draycott Brewery
The Half Moon Brewery
High House Farm Brewery
Rebellion Beer
Foreword
By Brendan Moore, Chairman of the East Anglian Brewer’s Co-operative and owner of Iceni Brewery

F irst of all, congratulations on buying this book! It’s the best possible start because while, like most new businesses, you can access technical help from courses and advice from local start-up groups, nothing really prepares you for the sheer amount of knowledge you will need to run a successful brewery. A good start is to read and fully appreciate this book. Take time to understand what makes a success and obviously try to avoid the many pitfalls. This book will help.
When I was asked to write this foreword I wondered what pearls of wisdom I could impart to you, and it seemed to me that as I am coincidentally celebrating my 20th anniversary in this great industry, it would be a good idea to take a look at how much it has changed in that time.
Of all my years in brewing, these are the most exciting. Gone are the days of having to look to our brewing past to find our future. The UK’s success in pioneering the small independent brewing sector sparked similar revolutions in the USA and other countries, especially Italy; and now we are benefiting in turn from their success and their incredible new vision for beer. These last few years have seen a new burst of dynamism that has cast off the narrow vision of beer promoted by traditional pubs and the Campaign for Real Ale. Real ale has never been more popular, but it’s not the only kid on the block any more. Some really fantastic new-wave beers, often referred to as ‘craft beers’, have hit the market and become firm favourites with the younger drinker. Just take a look at the astonishing success of breweries like BrewDog and Camden, to name but two. No, I’m not going to get bogged down with the question of what craft beer actually is. We all know good beer when we drink it, and it can come in cask, or keg, or bottle, or indeed can. As long as it’s made with passion, that’s one of the key ingredients.
Another is hard work. In 1995, when I first charged my mashtun, the secret to success lay in long hours and hard work. The only advice offered to newcomers was to produce as much as possible and sell it as widely as possible; and there are still some independent brewers for whom the measure of their success is that they work seven days a week, manufacturing as much as possible and selling it for whatever the market will pay. But for the most part the microbrewing industry has come of age. Today there are many, many more breweries than when I started up – but far fewer pubs. So quality and originality are key, rather than simple volume. I have personally discovered, on my 20 journey, that staying small and enjoying my brewing makes me a happy brewer, with time to craft my beers and build a real relationship with my customers. Start small and stay small – that may be the new way forward for microbrewers.
Buying – and reading! – this book is your first step towards joining one of the most creative, exciting, and vibrant industries in the UK. And if, once you’ve read it, you find your determination to pitch in is still strong, then my pearl of wisdom would be this: get involved! Offer to work in a brewery, paid if possible, free if necessary. That way you’ll gain both the knowledge and the experience to be certain whether this life – the life I love so much – is for you.

Brendan Moore
Iceni Brewery
www.icenibrewery.co.uk
Author’s Preface
T he microbrewing scene has changed beyond recognition in the eight years since the first edition of this book was published. For one thing, the sheer number of small independent breweries at work up and down the land has more than doubled to around 1,500 – and if that figure seems vague, it’s because it’s almost impossible for observers such as this author to keep pace with the rate of growth.
This proliferation has astounded some of the more established independents. Their main concern for more than 40 years has been trying to break and batter their way into a tied house system which even survived the 1990 Beer Orders that broke up the Big Six; and when the number of microbrewers reached a mere 500 there were plenty who thought that the market was saturated.
But it’s never happened. Comparatively few new independent brewers have suffered business failure – far fewer than their close kindred in the restaurant trade, for example – and that’s because they’ve found a new style and a new excitement that circumvents traditional sales channels and flows via the internet, via bottle-shops, via micropubs, via stylish new beer-bars directly to a large and enthusiastic audience.
The inspiration – and even the new name, craft brewers – has come from America. Craft brewers delight in experimenting with all sorts of new ingredients and beer styles, as much as their mainly younger fans delight in sampling them. They have eagerly embraced the keg and the can, much to the horror of Campaign for Real Ale diehards. Their marketing is modern and slick – no Old Gaffer’s Ale mummerset for them! – and they are claiming the same ground for themselves that celebrity chefs and indie rock gods have occupied for years.
But they still have to have what it takes. The painstaking, near-obsessive dedication it takes to brew a cracking pint day in, day out. The ready wit, winning charm, and bloody-minded ruthlessness it takes to get out there and sell. The imagination, intuition and insight it takes to spot and seize new opportunities. The single-minded attention to administrative detail and faultless form-filling, the accountant’s grasp of figures, the bottomless well of energy.
These personal qualities, though, are the basic requirements for success in any sort of business. In microbrewing, there are compensations. One is that everyone loves you because everyone loves beer. Another is that you’ll be operating in an almost uniquely successful sector of manufacturing. Don’t believe me? Just go out shopping and look for widely available brands of cosmetics, confectionery, meat and fish products, biscuits, condiments, shoes, pharmaceuticals or power tools from small independent makers. You may find a few, but mostly in small independent retailers. Microbrewers, though, have torn themselves a niche in the national retail chains that few other small manufacturing industries can rival. There may be trouble ahead – okay, there will be trouble ahead – but in choosing brewing you are giving yourself a far, far better chance of success than most
This book is a road atlas, not a street map. It will, I hope, direct you up the motorway of hardship to the edge of Success City while leaving you to find the precise route to Fulfilment Avenue for yourself. More prosaically, it aims to set out the challenges and rewards of a new life in small clearly enough for you to make up your own mind whether it’s for you and you’re for it. All I hope is that I have supplied you with a good long look before you decide whether to leap.
This book would not have been possible without the help of many people. I particularly thank the brewers who submitted themselves to interrogation to provide the case histories you will find within. Others who have given their time and patience include David Smith, David Porter, Arthur Bryant, Keith Thomas, Brendan Moore, Lucy Hunter, Carola Brown, Chris Garrett, Paul Corbett, Richard Shardlow, Peter Amor and Nina Bates. I have also been helped by the