As for many of you out there, 2009 truly dawned for me on January 4. As I poked my head out of the duvet at another new year, the world seemed to reflect how I felt - about as brittle as a box of broken biscuits. The harsh reality of life without turkey and tinsel banged away unceasingly from Mr Humphrys and his henchmen on Radio 4.
Banks in meltdown, Punch shares in free fall (oh dear me!), Woollies loosing its wonder, and, oh, pubs closing like mad. I nearly pulled the covers back up for the year. But then, struggling on through the midst of this bleak mid winter, a little cheering news began to break through – and it was nothing to do with the Obama coming.
For instance, up in Lancashire, Moorhouse’s staff were recovering from a right rare old session. Once again they had smashed seasonal sales records to see turnover up some 20 per cent – with a staggering 1300 plus barrels dispatched in December. And the Burnley brewer is still going ahead with a £3.5m development this year despite everything. Ecky thump, we should all raise a glass of Black Cat to that.
And it wasn’t just Moorhouse’s that raised some festive cheer.Craft brewers throughout the land did very well. Down in Shropshire the estimable Woods Brewery also enjoyed a terrific sales success, selling completely out of some lines. Worth tasting drop or two of Shropshire Lad, methinks. Over in Yorkshire too, Acorn Brewery - now in its sixth year – saw more glad tidings with sales also up 20 per cent on last year, another record of course. Fancy a Barnsley Bitter?
For yours truly there was a bit of cheer in the diary too – with a call to judge some ale at the SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers) North Beer Competition. So soon I was heading for a less than sunny Southport as resolution to give up the beer in January fell at the first hurdle. Of course I didn’t want to go, but well, work is work after all.
And if the parlous state of the nation was on anyone’s mind at the amazingly buzzing Scarisbrick Hotel they managed to conceal it well. Yes, it was a fair old do, with more than 100 beers in the contest from all over the north of England. Fortunately, I didn’t have to taste them all, although I did make a very good effort.
Overall winner from the blind tasting sessions was the extremely quaffable Golden Sands, amazingly enough from the very local Southport Brewery set up by Paul Bardsley in 2004. Runner up was Oz Clark’s new pal and recent star of the small screen, Wigan's fledgling brewer Patsy Slevin (see photo) of the Prospect Brewery with Nutty Slack. Patsy brews in her mother-in-laws garage! Third place went to Mossley’s six year-old Millstone Brewery for True Grit; a five per cent ale I must have enjoyed as this was in my tasting section. Put on strong ales and specialist beers - not really my forte – I was sort of pleased to see that I generally agreed with my fellow judges, apart from the guy who favoured the one with the TCP provenance. Oh yes, there were one or two of a dubious nature - judges as well as beers. This, you see, is what goes on behind closed doors while the rest of the world buckles down again to the daily grind. But, fun apart, the powerful message from the competition was, once again, that the craft beer industry continues to thrive while the big boys retrench (witness Tetley Brewery closure blog below).
What, we pondered into the night, is in store for the fortunes of cask ale in 2009? Well without doubt the variety of ales you can expect to see is only going up – as still more novice brewers from all sorts of past lives want to hit the beer. So that is, at least, something to look forward to in these turbulent times.
We also briefly deliberated on the prospects for the more the edgy ales from the likes of Stef Cossi, at the innovative and expanding Thornbridge Brewery and the adventurous Alastair Hook of Meantime in Greenwich.
Several of my colleagues in the Beer Writers' Guild have been heralding the delights of 'extreme beers' for some time. Well, it’s no doubt a good thing for brewers to push the envelope - but is the drinking public ready for this yet we asked? It's true that this sort of ale plays well in the states, with their recently burgeoning micros pouring high gravity beers down some eager throats. But then, the Yanks didn’t have much decent to sup for a long time. They must have been ready for a drink. As the top two SIBA wins at Southport reflected, good tippling ale is, generally, still what we like best in the UK.
Will we see some breweries go to the wall with the combined effects of the credit crunch, swingeing taxes and the lingering fall out from the smoking ban?
Not too many, hopefully, if they are brewing good ales. It's a firmly held belief in the industry that pubs selling quality cask ale will survive and even thrive - witness the aforementioned Christmas figures. The nation's craft brewers can look to the future with a little optimism despite the doom and gloom. We should all do our bit for that. And what better way to do it than enjoy a pint of cask as we contemplate our festive excesses. Go on, it's well past 'Blue Monday' so you must be ready for one.
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