March dawned with the big bash for independent brewers – the SIBA Annual Conference. Sadly, I didn’t make it this year. This is a great shame. I have been to quite a few trade conferences in my professional life, but this is the only one where it is actually more or less compulsory to have a few beers.
At most other events you have to wait until the end of the day - and even then you are stepping carefully until it all goes into free fall early in the wee small hours. No such qualms exist at ‘Conference’ with SIBA - and you get to drink fantastic beer. Not that I would want to give the impression that it is just one big booze up. On no, certainly not.
It’s serious. For a start, hangovers nothwithstanding, you have got to spend time closeted in the hall while various speakers update you on the state of the industry, the price of malt and hops, and rather more esoteric matters. This year saw he return of a motivational speaker who appeared two years ago. I was reporting the conference then but it was almost impossible to pin down his ‘act’ – such is his dark art. Nevertheless, he seemed to brighten things ups a bit.
But the interesting stuff for us is the National Beer Competition. To get there involves a tough procedure. Each of the seven SIBA regions has its own contest.The winners of each category go on to the national final. Just ten winners are picked by 50 judges from the 56 cask and seven bottled ale finalists selected from an initial 1,400 beers.
Cartwheels
This year the boys of Saltaire Brewery of Shipley, West Yorkshire, did cartwheels when they pulled a hat trick - a first for this prestigious contest.
First their splendid Cascade Pale Ale took the Champion Premium Bitter accolade. This is an American style pale ale with the floral aromas and strong bitterness of Cascade and Centennial hops.
Then its Triple Chocoholic (4.8%) chocolate stout won the Gold Award in the Champion Speciality Beer category before it went on to snatch the Supreme Champion Beer 2010title. The four year old brewer tells me that 'chocolate malts, real chocolate and chocolate syrups make the stout a ‘real chocolate bomb’!
Bearing in mind this is an award from the UK’s craft brewers – not geeky tickers, scoopers and the assorted rag-tags of the beer world - this is a pretty interesting phenomenon. Especially considering that one of the criteria for selection is the commercial viability.
After receiving the award Tony Gartland, head brewer at Saltaire Brewery said it all: "I thought we stood a good chance in the Speciality Beer category, but to win the overall title was a real surprise and shows that the UK’s beer drinkers are ready for new, different tastes.”
Well, he may be right. But I find it all rather startling. As a youth, drinking Massey's bitter (long defunct)in industrial Lancashire, chocolate was something we consumed after our beer. We believed that it cleared the niff and maybe sobered us up a bit in case you had to face the parents. We used to desperately raid those machines which, back then, were left unmolested outside of newsagents shops.We would never have dreamt of having choccie with our beer – that would have been extremely ‘girlie’ (if that word had been in use then).
But back to the SIBA champ. One brewery executive I know, who has a first class portfolio under his belt, was impressed – yet he couldn't could drink much. It is probably doubtful that we will be quaffing this sort of ale in any sort of quantity. But maybe that isn’t the point.
We have some 700 hundred or so craft brewers in the UK these days and they are all producing ales in several different styles and varieties. It means we can change our ale to suit our mood and inclination. And more women are drinking cask ale and probably will be more open to new styles (interestingly, blind tastings show females have an inclination towards darker beers.)
Personally, probably because of my traditional roots, I generally don't much like beer that has been 'messed with'; I tried a bottle of honey beer from a very good brewer with dinner the other night, but chucked it half way down. That said, a bottle of chilli beer from enterprising tiny Crown Brewery in Sheffield went down well. So best to keep the options open eh?
Saltaire's mission
Saltaire Brewery is one of this new wave of brewers bringing those styles and varieties to us and this is a great result for a brewery that has been quietly brewing excellent beer for four years, but generally been little heralded.
It was established in 2005 at The World Heritage Site of Saltaire, famous for its Victorian industrial heritage. This is home to Salt’s Mill, a showcase for a range of Yorkshire talents such as David Hockney.
Situated in an old generating hall that once provided the electricity for the Saltaire trams, the lofty Victorian architecture provides a perfect home to the specially commissioned 20 barrel brewhouse and visitor centre.
The boys say they are on a mission to inform drinkers about what makes a great beer. The visitor centre includes an exhibition that explains the science and history of brewing!
2009 saw Saltaire enjoy a cracking year, with the business running at full capacity and the company racing to keep up with demand.
Sales were up by 20% year on year. Accordingly, the brewery has invested in extra brewing vessels. This will result in a 33% increase in output - from 17280 pints to 23040 pints a week.
Now they can brew four times a week with lots of specials on top of the core range, including the very popular Saltaire Blonde - another cracker, I think.The increase in capacity also resulted in the recruiting of another member to the brewhouse team. Such is the attraction to craft brewing these days that there were 150 applications for the role!
The team is an interesting example of the mix of individuals attracted to craft brewing these days. Paul Simpson,managing director, has spent many years in the drinks business with all the big boys – including Whitbread and Holsten. Tony Gartland was a lawyer for twenty years who decided to take a different route to the bar! Derek Todd was a chemist with GlaxoSmithkline Beecham when he met Tony on a Brewlab course in 2004. Rashly, he gave up his job, sold his house and moved from his beloved North East! Now he slaves in the brewhouse. And to cap it all he supports Darlington F.C.!
Here's the full list of results from SIBA:
Supreme Champion 2010: Triple Chocoholic, Saltaire Brewery.
Champion Milds (up to 4% ABV): Dark Mild, Bank Top Brewery, Bolton
Champion Bitters & Pale Ales (up to 4%): Lord Marples, Thornbridge Brewery, Derbyshire
Champion Best Bitters (4.1-4.5%): Darwins Origin, Salopian Brewing, Shrewsbury
Champion Premium Bitters (4.6-4.9%) Cascade Pale Ale, Saltaire Brewery
Champion Strong Bitters (5.1-5.5%): Big Chief Bitter, Greenmill Brewery, Rochdale
Champion Strong Ales (over 5.5%): Dorothy Goodbody's Country Ale, Wye Valley Brewery
Champion Porters, Strong Milds, Old Ales & Stouts: Guerilla, Blue Monkey Brewery, Derbyshire
Champion Speciality Beers: Triple Chocoholic, Saltaire Brewery
Champion Bottled Beers: Proper Job, St Austell Brewery
Let's just get out there and give them a whirl.
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