SIBA: Secret Beer Police or Ale Angels?

At a time when the beer and pub industry is constantly beleaguered and battered by the government, interest groups and - not least - certain mischievous sections of the media, I thought it appropriate to bring you news of a beer organisation that glories in the sobriquet ‘SIBA’.

Could this be a Secret Intelligence Beer Authority perhaps? A mysterious quango set up by Mr Brown’s goody-two-shoes Gestapo as we charge in leaps and bounds towards the perfect nanny state?

Idle speculation at the bar just the other night led some of the more ‘creative’ minds to speculate that soon – in the looming cashless society- there will be some sort of all-seeing master computer linked to a new generation of pub super-tills. The ultra-pc system will automatically disqualify your drinking credit card after the second half (of beer that is, not the rugby final). Has SIBA has been set up to lay the ground for that nightmare scenario? Amid the present anti booze and pub hysteria, you may well wonder. (You see, Mr Brown, that’s the sort of dangerous nonsense people get up to in pubs - it should be stopped!)

Your blogger at work - note the delicate drinking style

Well don’t panic; your blogger has once again ventured fearlessly into the unknown to investigate on your behalf. And I return with encouraging news. This is a benign acronym. Far from being dedicated to the downfall of drinking life as we have known it, SIBA is a rapidly burgeoning band of men and women working hard to give us good beer and stand up for the ale drinker. The prevailing notion that if we enjoy a beer or three we will all go to hell in a hand cart, is not going without challenge.

Yes, indeed, this is the august Society of Independent Brewers; the fact that the moniker doesn’t actually match up is, presumably, just to confuse the enemy. But it’s far from a secret society; going for twenty odd years - starting out as the Small & Independent Brewers Association - it now boasts several hundred members, not just brewers but many others associated with the industry.

It is quite a body. Not that long ago there were a few big national brewers supported by the regional and family brewers, where brewing had been passed down through the generations. Many - though not very innovative - sold decent beer. Several did not. A few abused their market strength.

Onslaught of Micros
The onslaught of micro brewers has changed all that. Now there is a myriad of beers of all styles out there, quite a few excellent, a lot very good and some that could withstand improvement. But,largely, they are thriving and giving us, the real ale drinker, the time of our lives. The local brewing sector is now worth some £320m a year.


SIBA has been at the heart of this revolution. It advices and nurtures new brewers, it finds and develops new routes to market, it lobbies and fights the government on tax. And it achieved something called PBD (Progressive Beer Duty)- sounds like a bad illness - for small brewers that, through tax relief, gave them a better chance against the big boys, allowing brewers to invest and expand and encouraging new entrants.

Also SIBA's pioneering Direct Delivery Scheme has made cask ale from small brewers much more accessible, even in the monster pub chains. This clever scheme allows local brewers to serve local pubs no matter who owns them. It was even recognised as the Best National Retail Initiative in the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards. All good stuff. But OK, I admit, the organisation was unable to halt a pummelling for beer in the most recent spat with Brown’s hit man, Alistair Darling – 4p duty on a pint, blimey! A real shocker.

Nevertheless, SIBA is now a real force to reckon with. The other day I sat for several hours at their Annual National Conference bash in York, looking forward to a pint. (This is the only trade conference I’ve ever attended where beer drinking is not just desirable but downright compulsory). Many issues were explored, covering provenance, localism and other weighty matters.

Pete Brown tells it straight

As we listened there was a sense that here was a real champion of the brewing and pub industry ready to face off the mindless rants and raves of the Daily Mail on binge ‘24 hour’ drinking or challenge the doom and gloom merchants who constantly foretell disaster for ale drinking.

Now, no-one in their right mind would dismiss the issue of serious binge drinking (though the government’s definition is somewhat dubious). It has blighted nightlife in many town centres for years; but the message from the conference came through loud and clear - it is not the fault of the much fabled ’24 hour drinking’. That is a spectre that lives in the imagination of some national newspaper editors and TV producers. They don’t get out much, poor things. It is, of course, quite ironic, that it was Fleet Street that first invented bingeing - and lived it - for many years.

At the conference the blame was laid quite squarely at the door of cut price off-trade booze – the guilty know who they are – and the practice of ‘pre-loading’, so eloquently described by Eric Illsley, Barnsley Central MP. This, said Eric, more or less, was how youngsters get hammered before they go to the pub or the club. An issue ignored by Chancellor Darling in his swingeing budget. Eric is working with the shadowy All Party Parliamentary Beer Group (oh yes, there is) to tackle this thorny problem.

Highlights at the conference included platform appearances from beer elder statesman Roger Protz, a founder member of the Campaign for Real Ale and editor of the Good Beer Guide, together with marketing man and beer author Pete Brown. Wacky ex -advertising executive Pete recently travelled to India by ship with a barrel of IPA under his arm (India Pale Ale) - taking the old trade route of the East India Company – just to see if the beer survived OK! Now that’s dedication.

Roger hits back

Roger, no stranger himself to the bad old ways of ‘the Street’, told conference that it is open season on pubs and that 24 hour drinking was "a load of baloney' - the relaxation of drinking hours had led to an average extension of only 20 minutes. Pete made the point that the National Statistics Office recently reported that binge drinking was, in general, in decline. And the really good news was that cask beer is outperforming the overall beer market - goodbye nasty smoothflow - and is set for real growth.

Once again, you will not have read any of this in your daily paper or even heard it on the Today programme; as I have pointed out before, the national media, largely, has a firm mind set against reporting anything positive on beer associated matters

Not too long ago, Roger Protz, was given his cards by what I can only kindly describe as a somewhat misguided Guardian commissioning editor after several years of writing about ale and pubs for the liberal broadsheet. The reason, Roger was told, was that the paper had ‘done’ beer.

Well, perhaps not much point in a conference about the industry beer then? But hang, on a minute, who was that balding character I saw mixing in the merry conference throng? Yes indeed, it was the old wine guzzler himself Oz Clark no less. And he looked like he was enjoying a pint or two.

Ozzie tries a beer or two

Summing up Roger Protz had this to say to the hundreds of conference delegates:"You are chiming with the times. You are the future. Be bold and be brave"

So, maybe that querulous newspaper editor may rue his words yet? SIBA is going from strength to strength and it’s coming to knock on your door me old chardonnay quaffing matey.