2012 is off to a great start, with many people’s favourite Old Freddy Walker taking another medal at CAMRA’s Champion Winter Beer of Britain competition. This time it was a Silver in the Barley Wine category. Looks like we’ll need to fit a couple extra brews in. Thanks to CAMRA for the award and to everyone who continues to rave about it.
You’ve possibly read about the new High Strength Beer Duty. If not you can start here.
The silent majority are starting to shout and we want the government to listen. And if 100k people make their voices heard the government must listen. This is truly democracy in action. There are more than enough CAMRA members, let alone beer drinkers, to get this ridiculous tax repealed.
Thankfully someone has already lodged a formal government ePetition.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18346
It is simple to sign – no excuses! Please pass it along & have everyone you know within six degrees of separation sign it. Thanks!!!
Fresh off the success of the British Beer Experience at Mondial de la Biere in Montreal (and Fusion winning the coveted Platinum medal!), the sister Mondial fest in Strasbourg 21-24 October will raise the bar with a British cask showcase. We are very honoured to spearhead the cask experience with Southern Star, Envy, and Illusion – all of which will be UNFINED.
To up the ante even further, Alex Barlow of ALL BEER fame and I will present a panel on the new wave of British craft beer and cask ale. The talk will begin at 1830 on Friday 21 October. After the talk you’ll have the opportunity to talk and drink with us while we man the British stand and wave the flag for the best in cask ale. And there will be some bottles, too. Hope to meet you there. Sante!
I hate getting angry and negative – I really do. And I don’t want to bring anyone down but there is no silver lining in this news.
The government has introduced High Strength Beer Duty (HSBD) for beer at 7.5% and above. It is not a small tax, and is designed to combat binge drinking. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve never seen anyone sat on a park bench necking bottles of Duvel, Lost Abbey, or JJJ and getting into trouble. The culprits are the usual suspects – alcopop, cider and vodka. Where was CAMRA when the tax was going through government? How is it that a proposed cider tax not long ago was abandoned due to public pressure, but beer is hammered yet again? I could go on about the anger that is reverberating around the industry but I am afraid it will do little good.
How does it impact us? Old Freddy Walker had a bottle strength of 7.5%. It will have a bottle strength of 7.4% going forward. That scraped by – just. Fusion – there are no barrels available this year anyway to produce a 2011 Vintage (hugely disappointing!), but in the future the price will go up – considerably. I expect a bottle will retail between £15 – £20 when the next vintage is released. Sloe Walker – the sloes are picked, and you’d better drink it slowly when it’s released as a pint will put you back enough to leave you needing a drink. Grockle Grog – it was nice knowing you. JJJ IPA – many peoples’ favourite beer. We will suspend production of it for the UK market. We just released the last bottling run in September – most of which we sent for export where beer duty is not paid. Future beers -nothing above 7.4%, I’m afraid – at least not that you’ll get in the UK. So much for that wonderful Imperial Stout we had lined up.
We will certainly not be the only brewery responding in this way. I’ve already heard the same from others. You can fully expect the fantastic momentum built up in the past few years with British craft brewing to come to a grinding halt. And those simple luxury imports from Belgium, America, Denmark, Italy, etc. will need to be fit for a king because only royalty will be able to afford them. How will this impact the binge drinking morons? They will be unaffected, as they wouldn’t know what a quality beer was if it got given to them on a benefit-plated platter and will continue to remain ignorant trouble makers fueled with cheap cider, alcopops, wine and spirits.
Some may point to the 2.8% beer as the silver lining – most likely the same people that honestly believe a mild is the best Britain has to offer. And before you go on the attack I love mild. I just wouldn’t hold it up to the rest of the world as the best we can produce and consequently can’t fathom (apart from political posturing) how a mild can justifiably win Champion Beer of Britain – but that is another topic.
There are a multitude of reasons why 2.8%- beers won’t compensate for the loss of 7.5%+ beers. I am not surprised that a super-regional brewer who tries to pass off a 3.6% beer as “IPA” jumped at another misled marketing opportunity. I am very disappointed that CAMRA rolled over and took it, asking for more, rather than vigorously defending high strength beers.
If this makes you angry as well than do something about it. Lobby your MP. Protest. Drag CAMRA out of the 19th century and into the 21st or it will go the way of Society for Preservation of Beer From the Wood – out dated and irrelevant. There are splinter organisations being founded because many people feel that CAMRA has already hit the ropes. I would prefer a unified organisation CAMPAIGNING for quality BEER – not navel gazing about dispense method, cider, real fires, or some other antiquated fringe topic. These are of course my personal frustrations, but I am making them known as there are a number of drinkers, retailers, and brewers saying exactly the same thing. HSBD was the first real threat to beer drinking in the UK for decades, and frankly CAMRA watched it go past without a care in the world. SIBA did little better and needs an equally large kick up the backside.
Britain started the 21st century with phenomenal success in breweries, beer styles, events, etc. There is a real danger that it will fall as fast as it rose if we all don’t band together and tackle the real issues. You can either sit back in 10 years’ time enjoying a great beer and saying you helped make it happen, or you can reminisce about the good old days. The choice is yours.
As the song says, “If I offended you then maybe you needed to be offended.” If not, this is your call to action. Let’s unite and stop this!
You can read a bit more here.
This is an excellent article – unsolicited but much appreciated! I hope that many people read it and give it a try with an open mind.
http://eatingisntcheating.blogspot.com/2011/08/is-britain-ready-for-cloudy-beer.html
Nicholson’s are running their IPA Festival 22 August – 4 September. We are totally stoked to be a part of it with not one, but two beers. Illusion will be available as a session strength example of a Black IPA. And we were able to let our creative juices flow with the special release of Pacific IPA. Get more details here:
When we started working with Mitchells & Butlers I went off on one of my unfined beer rants. All credit to them for putting up with me, and even more kudos for having the courage to trial it in their pubs. The verdict – awesome! Unfined Revival was a huge success, and will be followed in the autumn with Unfined Confidence. Yes, Confidence is back and will be better than ever in its unfined, naturally beautiful state – just as it was intended. And it may be in a Nicholson’s pub near you…
If you haven’t got a clue about what I mean by unfined, don’t worry about it. You can read more on our About Us page.
If you are able to find unfined beer, have an open mind and try it. It is supposed to look like that. It’s why it smells and tastes so much better than ‘clear’ beer.
The UK National Homebrew Competition is coming to Bristol on 3 September. Enter here:
Alex Barlow, of All Beer fame, had the pleasure of bringing the best of British brewing across the pond to Canada to be represented at the Mondial de la Biere festival. We were honoured that he selected us as one of the few British brewers to lead the charge. While he was there I received a note mentioning something about platinum. I didn’t know what to expect when I opened it. Fusion…platinum…one of three beers at the festival awarded this top honour…
When I veered from the path of music stardom I never thought I’d earn anything platinum. Realistically, being a hardcore punk drummer wouldn’t have led to much platinum success anyway. So imagine our extreme pleasure when we heard we’d won a Platinum medal with Fusion. There were a lot of reasons to be thrilled about this – it was at one of the biggest beer festivals in the world, was judged in a blind, mixed-style setting (quite an interesting approach!), and was won amidst a host of world-class beers.
Thanks go to Alex for representing us so well and for bringing beer into the modern age with his All Beer Finder Experience. You can read more about it here:
You may have read about Ben McFarland’s and Tom Sandham’s beer travels across West Coast USA in the CAMRA book of the same name. My copy has been to California a few times already. Ben has been enjoying some of our West Coast inspired beers a bit closer to home and caught up with me about some beery (and non-beery) things. You can read about them here:
http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2011/07/brewer-qa-justin-hawke-of-the-moor-brewery/
We are very excited to have the opportunity to work with Mitchells & Butlers on their premium cask ale programme. Summer will see the national release of Northern Star in their pubs. This is a great opportunity for those outside Somerset to enjoy our beers. Based on feedback we’ve gotten up and down the land it seems you’re doing just that!
Pete Brown rated Peat Porter as one of his Top 50 beers. Read about it here:
http://www.william-reed.net/proofs/ma_petebrown_microsite/index.html
The first beer brewed on our new plant was Simplicity, a 4.2% golden ale hopped with a serious amount of Chinook (especially considering we yielded less wort than we thought we would!). Everyone loved it and wanted us to brew it again, but the call of the Stars was too great and we had to get stock replenished. If you got to try it, consider yourself lucky. But you never know, it may come around again one day.
Everyone who knows me knows I’ve been less than free for many months. And those that have an interest in following our news probably thinks I’ve disappeared into a black hole. But now the word is out. Many months of exceedingly hard work, sleepless nights, and no small amount of investment has resulted in a completely transformed brewery. I’d be lying if I said it was easy, or that everything went swimmingly, but we’ve got a lot to show for our efforts.
Our new 20 UK barrel brew plant is firing on steam and pushing warp speed. We added a few special modifications to the design, which give us the ability to have even greater control over the brewing process, and introduce new hopping techniques (amongst other things). We’ve certainly noticed an improvment in the hop aromas and depth of flavour. As we are becoming more used to the equipment we are really starting to throw it around the curves and see how far we can push it. Many jaws have hit the floor, and people that have seen our previous incarnation have all commented, “It looks like a brewery now.” Once things have settled down a bit we are hoping more people will be able to have a look and learn about some of our wacky ideas such as keg-conditioning and unfined beer.
We are also completing work on our new bottling line. Since we started bottling a few years ago we have always been unable to fulfill the demand for our bottled beer. Once complete, we will restock as quickly as possible and get our bottles into more quality beer venues around the world. There will hopefully be one near you. If not, be sure to pester your local outlet and let us know.
We are also growing the team. We have added a new member to the team and may look to add another. So if you (or someone you know) are extremely passionate about beer, absolutely festidious (another word comes to mind!), and has been dropped on their head a few too many times, get in touch.
Despite increasing our capacity and our team, we are still struggling to keep up with demand. It’s a good problem to have, but still a problem. Please be patient if we are temporarily out of stock of your favourite beer. We’ll get to it as soon as we can.
Moor is making the rounds. I got to join Emma in the BBC Somerset 95.5 studio on a lovely Saturday morning as the featured guest of her Somerset Lives programme. We had a lot of fun chatting both during the show and off air. Having seen photos of me there must be a reason why I keep appearing on radio and not TV… Thanks for having me Emma and putting up with me butchering a West Country accent. KLOS next time?
But that doesn’t mean you won’t see Moor Beer on TV. Look closely during pub scenes on Casualty (filmed in Bristol’s Famous Royal Naval Volunteer). Also, Sky is releasing a new show, Trollied, in the summer, which despite its name is not about irresponsible drinking, but is a sitcom taking place in a supermarket. You may see some sexy bottles on the shelves.
I keep waiting for Moor Beer to appear in that galaxy far, far away, but George has yet to call. One can only hope.
http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12409&Itemid=66
That’s good company to be in!
We love getting them, in part because it feels good, but more as recognition that people enjoy what we brew. We notched up many more awards (that we know about) at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011. Rate Beer Gold Medals (3 more in 2011!) are always very humbling as they come directly from the drinkers. Old Freddy Walker impressed the CAMRA South West judges at the Exeter Winter Ales Fest once again, earning Gold. But there was one award that really had a deep impact on us, and it’s one that might not be on everyone’s radar – the Beer Merchants Golden Pint, which was awarded to Southern Star. This one was particularly moving as it comes from Phil Lowry – one of the best travelled, best palleted (is that a word?!), most knowledgeable, and let’s face it, most demanding beer experts in the world. That’s saying a lot, but I know that many world famous brewers will agree with me. Thanks, Phil, for the high praise. Keep doing what you do best – bringing great beer to thirsty drinkers and making the global brewing fraternity a tighter group. And we’ll brew more Southern Star when the boat docks from NZ in a few months.
In the spirit of experimentation, enjoyment, and temporary insanity we innoculated a two-year old cask of JJJ with Brett and decided to age it for a year to see where it would go. Christening it ‘Fun’ on the day of innoculation, we honestly forgot about it as it was tucked away in a corner.
One day recently we were reminded about it and decided to see how it was doing. Much to our delight it was worth the wait. As with great non-sour beers like Orval and Harvey’s, a little Brett can really create something interesting and highly enjoyable. It is currently available at the Queen’s Arms, but you won’t see it on the handpump. If you give the secret handshake, use the magic word, and ask the right person, you just might be rewarded with a glass to enjoy. That is, if we don’t drink it all first! When it’s gone, it is truly gone. We might do another at some point, but with three plus years in the making, it’ll be a long wait before you’ll get to taste it again.
Sure, some of our beers will no doubt keep you warm during the colder months. But you can’t always have a beer in your hand (though some of you try!). To keep our most passionate fans toasty and warm we selected some outstanding garments to put our name on. You can now look cool and stay warm with a Moor Beer fleece and jacket.
The fleece is extra heavy weight 360gsm, with a zip neck and two hand-warming pockets. Of course it’s red and black, with a large Moor Beer shield embroidered on the front.
The jacket is a 3-in-1. The shell is windproof and waterproof with a hidden hood and lots of pockets. Unsurprisingly it’s red and black. The zip out fleece can be worn inside the jacket or on its own. It is black with two pockets. BOTH the shell and fleece are embroidered with the large Moor Beer shield. Yes, it cost more to do it that way, but you know us – quality first!
There are too many great pubs with roaring fires offering you our beer. Now you can wander between them undeterred by the elements. Be the first to buy these warmers at the Queen’s Arms, Corton Denham at our celebration on Saturday the 23rd of October. They will be available at a special price only on the day. What better reason do you need to come?
Our newest creation, Illusion, is nearly ready to wow everyone. Be the first to try it at the Queen’s Arms, Corton Denham at our celebration on Saturday the 23rd of October. More details about the beer will appear once we can get the page up!
Uncle Fester and I picked a bumper crop of sloes yesterday – nearly enough for 8 casks! It was a beautifully sunny day, although there was a definite autumnal feel to the weather. The sloes were nice and juicy, but I wouldn’t be drawn in to trying them au natural again! Sloe Walker should be making a festive appearance towards the end of the year in a few lucky pubs. Let us know if there is someplace extra special that deserves one of these rare treats.
2010 has been a great year – and it’s not over yet. We’ve still got a few tricks up our sleeves to finish off the year in style. In the interim, we thought it would be a good idea to celebrate Revival winning a silver medal in the Champion Beer of Britain competition. And where better to do it than at the home of Revival (or should we say Queen’s Revival) – the Queen’s Arms in Corton Denham.
Since the beginning, the sage staff at the Queen’s have been championing quality, innovation and flavour. We are delighted that they will be hosting our celebration party on Saturday 23 October, from 3pm. There will be many great beers on offer (as there always are), including something special you won’t want to miss. So please join us on the day to celebrate great times with great people. Hope to see you there.
If you made it to the Somerset CAMRA festival at Minehead the other week hopefully you’ll agree that it was the best festival yet, both in terms of quality and variety. The team really outdid themselves this year putting together such and amazing list. Well done and congrats!
Amongst such awesome beers we were thrilled to find out that Hoppiness won both the overall champion and Somerset beer of the festival for the second year running. Thanks go out to all the people who made it happen and for those that came out to celebrate Britain’s national drink. Once again, it proves the theory that Hoppiness = Happiness.
One of our fans seems to have been so moved by her love of Moor Beer that she nominated us for the BBC Food and Farming Awards (thanks Alex!). The awards received over 300 nominations, and we made it to the final 10.
Fusion 2009 went long ago (although you might be lucky enough to find a few bottles in various shops or people’s cellars). Now, with the help of our friends at the Somerset Cider Brandy Company, we have the 2010 vintage well under way. This massive feat of ingenuity and engineering should have completed fusing and be available just in time to enjoy with your Christmas pudding.
Get your mind out of the gutter! I’m talking about our new glasses.
620ml of oversized, lined (pint and half) glass beauty – perfect for our oversized bottles.
You know you want one!
As always we are delinquent with lots of news items, but this one couldn’t wait. Yesterday Revival took silver in the most competitive Bitter category of the Champion Beer of Britain competition at the Great British Beer Festival. We’re stoked, loads of people were thrilled, and we are hugely appreciative of all the good vibes at the fest. And a few very interesting conversations took place that will undoubtedly lead to future news items…
Mark is not recognised as one of the top beer experts for nothing.
http://pencilandspoon.blogspot.com/2010/06/wow-moor-revival-is-best-bottled.html
We are exceedingly delighted to announce that our bottled beers scooped 5 medals at the recent International Beer Challenge. Peat Porter, Fusion, and JJJ IPA scooped Bronze and Old Freddy Walker took Silver. Gold was reserved for our fantastic range of bottle labels in the packaging category. Having won best labels in the UK last year, we were really pleased to see that the rest of the world agrees with our good taste. Exports to Europe and Asia are continuing, with discussions taking place to get the beers out to eager drinkers on the other side of the pond. We are also looking at increasing our bottling equipment so that we stop running out of bottled beer. So if you’re thirsty for a bottle of something internationally celebrated, get in touch and we’ll point you in the right direction.
It happened again. We released Southern Star as a seasonal last year, and we nearly got lynched when it ran out. Then we brewed Northern Star, which went on to two big awards in rapid succession and another abrupt sell out. Clearly something had to be done if we were going to escape with our lives. The problem is, the fantastic hops we use are in such limited quantities that we can’t get them throughout the year. So we worked very hard with our good friends at Charles Farams to procure the last of the crop in the US, and plan for those coming out of NZ. So if we got our planning right (and drinkers don’t get too greedy), we should have either Northern or Southern Star available permanently. Now that’s worth drinking to!
Andy at Beer Reviews was exceedingly patient waiting for my interview. For those that want to know a bit more about our crazy journey you can read it here:
http://www.beerreviews.co.uk/beer/meet-the-brewer-justin-hawke-moor-beer-company/
Be sure to check out his reviews and other interesting articles.
We weren’t even aware it had happened. Top drinks trade magazine Imbibe was looking into the IPA beer style and conducted a secret judging, voting JJJ 3rd in the UK. That’s exciting news for JJJ, but not nearly as exciting as seeing Colin Heapy in his custom made JJJ shirt for the Maltings Beer Fest. I guess we know what to celebrate with!
Thanks to Phil at Beer Merchants Cave Direct for cheekily entering us into the judging without telling us. And if you like your American-inspired, hoppy creations, go check out what Phil is doing in his spare time at Brew Wharf in London. Too bad London is so difficult to get to from Somerset, or I’d be hanging out there regularly. Oh, and they have JJJ and Fusion (as if you needed the push)…
If you can’t make it all the way to Hong Kong for Dim Sum, how about something a little closer to home – real ale with sausage. Those experts at Ales By Mail have been sourcing some of the most interesting and highest quality sausage in the UK. And looking for the best quality, most interesting things, it’s no surprise they wanted to pair them with Moor Beer. Now you can pick and mix from their impressively extensive range of sausages and pair them with your favourite Moor Beers. Sounds like the perfect excuse for a BBQ to me!
Our reputation has extended out East. I’m not talking about just to Kent, but all the way to Hong Kong. A pilot programme was launched in April at a bar in Hong Kong to convert the masses (or at least a few of them) to the delights of real ale. And of course if you want real ale you want the best, so they demanded Moor Beer. It made sense to start with our most traditional beer, Merlin’s Magic, which will be followed shortly by Revival and Peat Porter to add further interest. The beers are unfined to give them a lovely mouthfeel and beautiful sheen, and they’re vegan friendly. So if you are in Hong Kong (or passing through), stop by the MUFC Bar for a pint of properly pulled goodness. And if you’d like to see Moor Beer in other Eastern venues just let us know.
It has been proclaimed by the great and the good – May is Moor Month. And the awesome people at the Queen’s Arms, Corton Denham should know. They weren’t judged Pub of the Year for nothing! Recognising that wonderful point in time when we had several seasonals emerging at once, they realised that every tap would need to be pouring Moor Beer if they would get to try it all. And why not? So May is now officially Moor month. There will be a good number of interesting, one-off, dry-hopped, unfined, and various other delights in cask, bottle and keg to try. Oh, and a couple mildy things, too! Whatever you do, get to Corton Denham during May. You’ll find it becomes a regular habit.
After the huge success of Southern Star, the realisation hit that we wouldn’t be able to brew that beer for another year as the special hops were in very short supply. Then we found out about a newish American hop that got the creative juices flowing, and the idea for Northern Star was conceived. There were still several months to wait before we’d receive this limited edition American hop, but boy was it worth the wait. The first batch rolled out in late March and sold out in less than two weeks. And it won the first ever Halfway House Beer Competition. Those of you that know the pub will realise both the intensity and importance of this competition. This is not just any pub festival – this is the Halfway House. And they were impressed. Thanks to all the locals (and those that travelled from further afield) for supporting us and voting us the best.
The second batch of Northern Star went on to take Silver at the Maltings in the most competitive category – Best Bitters,with many educated drinkers commenting that it was easily the beer of the festival. We hope to keep it flowing for another couple of months until Southern Star makes its appearance once again in the heavens. If we’re really lucky they might both be visible at the same time. One can only hope!
As always, more time next to the mash tun means less time for updating the site. But do not fear, our efforts do not go unrecognised. We’ve already received a number of awards in 2010, including medals at Exeter, Bristol, the Halfway House, the Maltings, and even Rate Beer. At least that’s what we’re aware of. The details are listed against each of the winning beers. Some of these we found out about purely by accident, but we appreciate the recognition nonetheless. Keep drinkin’ it!
While attending San Francisco Beer Week I had the rare pleasure of meeting another Justin. This one was even more famous and impactful on the beer world as he runs the Brewing Network. For those of you that don’t know the BN, it is THE source for global beer information, camaraderie and entertainment. The team run a series of regular radio shows, both technical and fun in nature, which aim to enhance the brewing and social skills of both home and professional brewers. Let’s face it – some of us don’t get out much! They also act as a virtual worldwide homebrew club and run annual events. Apart from their vast brewing knowledge (Justin?), they are really great guys to hang out with. And they brew some excellent beer. Producer Chad’s homebrew was some of the best beer we had on the entire trip, particularly his Helles – a style that despite living in Germany for two years I’ve never considered particularly memorable. Thanks guys for hosting us and showing us such a great time! I hope the listeners enjoyed and got something out of the show.
If you don’t know the BN you need to open another browser and go to www.thebrewingnetwork.com. You can listen to the Moor Beer interview at http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/603. On it we discuss real ale, CAMRA, pubs, beer festivals, sample JJJ and Fusion (along with a couple Jesus beers), and generally have a good laugh. We were joined by James from the Queen’s Arms, Corton Denham and Phil from Beer Merchants. Also, don’t forget to join the BN Army. Details are on the site. If we can get a large enough unit in the UK perhaps we can organise some competitions and events…
If you’re interested in SF Beer Week, by far the most comprehensive set of beer events globally (run early February), you can check it out at http://www.sfbeerweek.org/. If you’re in the SF Bay area there are more places to sample excellent beer than you’ll be able to get to, but there are a couple brewpubs not to miss. Under Rodger’s excellent brewing leadership you must brave the BART journey to Berkeley to visit Triple Rock. Since taking over the kettles he has put on tap a range of amazing and interesting beers. I was particularly fond of many of them, including IMAX and SHE (Single Hop Experience – we had the great joy of Chinook). Another high recommendation is Gordon Biersch (make sure it’s the SF branch by the Embarcadero). Never a fan of their beers when I lived in SF, John has really turned the place around, brewing clean, highly flavoured beers. And they make a nice change from the typical West Coast styles. Rodger and John are masters of their craft and great guys. Go check them out.
There are also a number of world class micros (yes, I know a couple have brewpubs up north). There would be too many to mention, but our top three would have to be Bear Republic, Russian River and Drakes. If you come across any of their handles or bottles you won’t be disappointed. Now join the BN Army, listen to the show, buy a ticket to SF and get stuck in!
You already knew it, but Moor Beer officially brews some of the best beer in the UK. This wasn’t one of those awards where you pay to enter, or a festival with a limited selection. This was voted on by consumers that searched out and judged our beer throughout the year on Rate Beer. We brew two of the top 20 beers in the UK, with JJJ IPA ranking #9 and Old Freddy Walker ranking #16 in the Rate Beer 2010 Awards. Thanks to all those that parted with their hard-earned cash to buy the beer and took the time to rate it.
Also, we would like to ask those looking at Rate Beer and other rating sites to ignore ratings prior to 2007 (good, bad or indifferent). You may not remember that the brewery was bought and relaunched by award winning brewer Justin Hawke at the tail end of 2006 and that he did a complete overhaul of the plant, recipes, and consequently its reputation. Long gone is the vinegar that was churned out under the previous regime. These awards are the best endorsement we could ask for so thanks again for your continued support.
Happy New Year and best wishes to all you happy drinkers in cyberland. You may be wondering why we’ve seemed to be a bit out of touch in the past few months. Those a bit closer to the brewery know that we’ve been doing some pretty amazing things and haven’t had time to get the good word out a bit further. ‘No Excuse!’ I hear my old roommate shouting. And he’s right.
But we’ve got some awesome fans that have taken matters into their own hands. Hence the new website, Facebook page, Twitter and Flickr accounts, all set up with their own initiative. Talk about a great group of friends! Thanks Phil, Ben, Dan, and everyone else who goes that extra kilo for us.
We’re trying to get everything updated and running as quickly as we can from a content perspective, starting with the beer pages, then the news and social networking technologies. Rest assured we’ll keep the comms flowing much more timely in the future. In the interim, please have patience if this machine isn’t perfectly oiled yet.
Keep drinkin’ it!
Cult beer JJJ IPA has been gaining attention from more than just its hardcore fans. It was a finalist for Champion Winter Beer of Britain, and once again will be a finalist for the SIBA National Champion – the second year running, and the second year it was eligible. There was a lot of great feedback from the drinkers in Manchester, and we’re hoping for a great turnout from the fans at Nottingham in February. Enjoy!
Merlin’s Magic has always been a high-flying beer and a favourite of many regular drinkers. It’s flying even higher now, on board an Agusta Westlands Merlin’s helicopter. To commemorate 100,000 flying hours of their iconic Merlin’s helicopter, they asked us to produce a limited edition version of Merlin’s Magic. The new label was designed by Agusta Westlands, blending the award-winning Moor Beer image with their corporate colours, and of course, the Merlin’s helicopter. Sadly, they were not collected by helicopter but driven to Yeovil. However, we are sure they will be enjoyed nontheless, and the bottles cherished for a long time to come. Well done to everyone involved in the Merlin’s project at Agusta Westlands and congratulations on your milestone. Keep up the Magic!
Judges and fellow brewers had a look and agreed – we have the best pump clips, bottle labels, and branding in the UK. To recognise this, we were awarded the SIBA Brewing Business Award for Best Point of Sale.
Feedback on our beers was extremely positive. We won a number of regional and national awards, but feedback on our branding had not been so positive. People loved our name and slogan, ‘Drink Moor Beer’, but felt our visual imagery was not in sync with our beers. Drinkers felt our beers were big and exciting, while our branding was old-fashioned, boring, and inconsistent. In addition, our old imagery was very graphic intensive, which meant that launching short run specials was difficult and expensive.
One of our local consumers worked with us on the branding, with a two-word ethos: Modern Classic. We wanted something that was fairly classical looking, modern enough to appeal to a trendier audience, but not so trendy that its usefulness would be short lived and it would alienate our traditional drinkers. The overall image had to be instantly recognisable as Moor Beer, no matter what brand it was on or what format (bottle, pump, print, etc.). It also had to be simple and easily changeable so we could launch short run specials with minimal time and investment.
We decided to use colour and text to alter the brands, but leave the overall Moor Beer image bold, strong, and consistent. The concept came from a church hymn board, with interchangeable numbers. The centre of our imagery would be the canvas we would use to convey our message, but the frame would remain the same throughout.
Our first milestone was to launch our new bottles at the Bath & West Show. We started with three brands, distinguished on the bottle by their text, colour, and cap. As an early adopter of Cyclops, we wanted to include it prominently on the label as well. Unlike most bottles, we went with an oversized 660ml with an oversized label. We also chose to go with a matte rather than gloss finish to give it a classic, high quality feel. The labels were die-cut to ensure the new Moor Beer image stood out. Due to the high specification and small quantities they are very expensive to produce, but we feel they are worth it. They arrived just in time for us to date stamp and apply them the morning of the show!
Displaying at such an important event meant we had to have more than just bottles. We needed new brochures, business cards, t-shirts, stickers and a banner. Once we had the overall branding complete, rolling it out to the other formats was relatively straight-forward (although it did not feel that way as the show approached!). The event was a huge success and consumer feedback was very positive. Our stand won third place for the Celebrating Somerset area, and our branding helped us get noticed by BBC Somerset Radio, which has had us on air twice since the show.
When the show finished we turned our attention to sourcing our new pump clips. We fell in love with the wooden hymn board idea, which was truly innovative, and found a producer that would laser etch wooden boards for us. It is a huge investment to produce these clips, but once a pub has our pump clip board, the ongoing cost of rolling out a new centre card is minimal. It has a couple of added benefits as well. Firstly, if a landlord doesn’t have one of our cards or lost one they can make their own. Secondly, if they want to rebadge a beer for a special event or make their own they can easily do so. On the bar the clips truly stand out and become a talking point for both consumers and bar staff.
For labelling miscellaneous items such as take-away Jerri cans and beer boxes we needed a generic sticker. As our main logo gave us the flexibility to alter the middle, we decided to produce simple stickers with the middle blank. We could then hand-write whatever we wanted to put on any type of package. They were also used at the Bath & West show as a giveaway for children to write their names on. This was popular with both the children and parents, although we did have to challenge a few children who would have preferred beer but made do with a lollipop.
Our new t-shirts have proven very eye-catching and popular. With a bold ‘Drink Moor Beer!’ in the centre, and differently coloured garments, they always attract attention. Despite only being at the GBBF trade day for a few hours, several consumers have written to us requesting shirts, and many came up to us at the festival, who subsequently tried and enjoyed our beer there. Bottle shop owners and publicans have also bought shirts to sell at their premises because of consumer demand. Our shirts, clips, labels and other future items will be available to order. Details are on the site or write to us at info@moorbeer.co.uk.
It’s been a great period for Revival. For the third year running it’s won one of the top medals at the CAMRA Devizes Beer Festival. This year it was Silver, so we’ve now won all three top medals. We’re very pleased that the drinkers continue to enjoy it that much. Also, it was quite exciting for us to make it to the finals of the Champion Beer of Britain competition. Disappointingly we didn’t win, but to be amongst the very top of the thousands of British beers is quite an honour (and quite an achievement for a beer launched two years ago). Keep enjoying it and we’ll keep brewing it.
Another interesting venture for us has been exporting – and we don’t mean north of the M4! For those not following global beer trends, one of the major innovators of beer in recent years has been Denmark. Apparently word got back there that we are doing some pretty cool things over here ourselves, so with the help of Morten and team at Danish Beerhouse we shipped over Somerland Gold, Old Freddy Walker and JJJ. To meet local dispense requirements the beers had to be in keg rather than cask. This led to its own set of technical challenges and personal preferences. Having lived and travelled all over the world, we knew that excellent beer can be delivered in keg format. The trick is to pack it full of flavour and leave all the goodness in. Flavour is not something we are ever short of, so that was not a problem. And the solution to the goodness was to let the beer condition in keg just as it does in cask. The result is keg conditioned beer, unfined, and gloriously opaque – just like a fine yeast beer you would get in Germany, Belgium, the US or Czech. To prove to ourselves that we weren’t mad we did a side by side sampling of Somerland Gold at the Queen’s Arms – cask versus keg. It was a hot, sunny afternoon, which perhaps helped, but the keg conditioned version went down a storm (so did the cask, if you’re wondering). There have been requests for more kegs in the UK, so perhaps in the future…
The spirit of radio has infected us recently (thanks Neil, Geddy and Alex!), but it’s not just on the listening side. BBC Somerset listeners were keen to understand why someone would move from California to Somerset – and if I could learn to speak with a West Country accent. Unfortunately my poor pronunciation of ‘tractor’ means I need to work a bit harder. But they were pleased enough with the story to bring me back to voice my opinion on the state of pub closures. There are too many valid reasons why pubs are closing, but if we all remain positive and active in the state of global, local, corporate and governmental adversity we can stem the tide. What can be done? Landlords – develop a positive attitude, provide quality products and services that make your patrons want to spend their limited funds in your establishment, and take a long term view on turnover / profitability. Easier said than done, I know, especially for tenanted houses with unfair deals, but it can be done. Punters – work with your landlords to help them tailor their offerings to your needs, accept that you need to pay a fair price for quality (you get what you pay for), and use your local.
Our new pump clips just arrived and look completely amazing and unique. Imitators are sure to follow. Look out for them in West Country pubs as they replace our old clips. Unfortunately the exorbitant cost precludes us from delivering them through wholesalers, but customers and collectors can order them directly from us. We also have our new shirts in so you can look cool whilst supping that glass of JJJ. Bottle labels can also be purchased.
We don’t make many more than that, and they’re pretty much all gone at the moment. We’ve been pretty amazed at the response and caught off guard by the level of demand. Today one very happy drinker said that they were the best bottles of beer he’s ever had – the only ones that actually tasted as good as the cask version. Thanks Mike! The secret is down to our bottling technique, which is entirely done by hand (much to our dismay at times).
What started out as a simple requirement – get some bottle labels, quickly took on a life of its own. We were exceedingly fortunate to have some amazing help from our design and branding friends at Big Fish. They worked tirelessly to ensure we had some amazing items in time for the Bath & West show. Thanks so much to all the team there for pulling out all the stops.
We were absolutely thrilled with our success at the Maltings. In case you haven’t heard, Somerland Gold won Bronze and JJJ IPA won Gold for the second year running. Winning the awards was amazing, but the real buzz was the very enthusiastic response from the crowd when the JJJ award was announced. Clearly there was a lot of love in the room and we thank everyone dearly for it.
Congratulations to Kav and all the team at the Stapleton Arms for winning Heart of Wessex CAMRA Pub of the Year. We were on hand to watch Cav accept the award and were pleased to be greeted by the site of two milds on tap – very rare these days, especially in the south. If you’ve never been to any of the events at the Stapleton you are missing out.
There have been a few concerned calls regarding someone in a Moor Beer shirt seen about who has more hair on his chin than on his head. One person even noted that he had a California brewers’ beard. These increasingly frequent sightings of Uncle Fester have brought joy to many drinkers’ hearts, and don’t worry – he doesn’t bite very hard! If you offer to buy him a drink he might even tell you a story or two.
Congratulations are due to Rupert, Victoria, James, and the rest of the team at the Queens Arms in Corton Denham who were recently named AA Pub of the Year. It has always been a personal favourite and big supporter of the brewery, so we were very pleased to see them get the recognition they deserve. If you’ve not been there before you need to stop reading this and get down there. In addition to top quality drink and food, rooms are available – so there’s no excuse!
If you didn’t make it to the Maltings you missed a great event – and awards! We were thrilled to win three awards this year. Milly’s won Bronze for Mild. JJJ IPA won Gold for Strong Ales, and was Silver Overall, making it 2nd out of nearly 300 beers. The news was in several local papers and across the web. I was ecstatic, to say the least. I always felt this beer is really something special, and I was so pleased that the judges agreed. We only released it a few months ago, so to win such high honours is an amazing feeling. Most importantly, I love the great reaction from the drinkers.
And the reaction has not been confined to the Maltings. It has quickly gained a cult status across the UK. Many people have felt so inspired by the beer that they email us their comments. Below is one from Phil:
“Just to let you know that I travel for beer 22,000 miles so far this year! I work in the beer trade, I have lived and breathed it all my life, and your JJJ IPA is one of the best UK beers that I have ever had – and I have just noticed from your website that you have a Californian on board! That explains the sheer authenticity of that beer. I believe that it would more than hold it’s own at the DIPA/IIPA fest at The Bistro at Hayward., CA. ”
To support his claim, it was pointed out to me that JJJ IPA is one of the highest rated beers on www.ratebeer.com, both in its category and in the UK. Thanks so much to all those who support us and take the time to rate our beers. It really makes it all worthwhile.
Las month I had the privilege to attend a beer tasting in London and brought along a few hand-filled bottles to sample. There were about 70 beers from across the world at the tasting, which was a fabulous evening (thanks Chris and Ruth for hosting such a motley crowd!). People even came from Denmark. When it came time to try JJJ IPA everyone was really excited and it proved to be one of the hits of the night.
The new crops of hops and malt have begun to arrive in the brewery, which bring both good and bad news for all of us. On the positive side, the quality of the new season’s hops is incredible. They are exceptionally fragrant and a joy to brew with (and drink). On the down side, global warming has played havoc with most crops, and hops were badly hit. There is a 30% global shortage forecast, with some varieties being completely unavailable. Consequently, prices literally tripled over night. Malt didn’t fare much better, and prices have risen by 30%. I’ve read predictions of the £4 pint in 2008 from people across the industry. We haven’t fully analysed the price rises on our business yet and will hold our prices as long as we can. However, while other breweries are reducing their hop usage to save money, we commit to brewing our beers as we always will – full of flavour and full of hops. We will not cut corners or alter our recipes to save money, so you can continue to enjoy our award-winning beers as you have come to love them.
That has translated to rising prices, lack of availability, and a number of breweries (not us) cutting back on their hop usage. If you’re a fan of our more heavily hopped beers – particularly Revival, Confidence, and JJJ IPA, you’ll be pleased to know that we just purchased enough supplies of those critical hops to last us through the year. Let’s all hope that this year’s crop is better. It was a major expense for us, and a storage nightmare, but at least we can continue to bring you our signature beers unaltered. Please continue to drink and enjoy them.
Unless you’ve been spending the holidays on Mars, you will probably have heard of the JJJ IPA launch. To say it was fantastic is definitely an understatement. The pub was packed with locals and CAMRA members, who organised a bus so people didn’t have to drive. As with everything at the Queen’s Arms, the beer was served in top condition in appropriate glassware, the food was excellent, and a great time was had by all – even if some of it was a bit hazy towards the end! Many thanks to the entire staff at the pub for hosting such a wonderful event, and also to everyone who attended. I hope one day to get a photo on the site, as well as the hillarious video of the cask being tapped. The Western Gazette was even on hand to report on the event, which took up nearly a page in the paper a fortnight later. To view the article go to: http://www.thisiswesterngazette.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=164284&command=displayContent&sourceNode=164267&contentPK=19234743&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch
The British Guild of Beer Writers has been very kind and published an article about us and JJJ IPA. You can read it at:
http://www.beerwriters.co.uk/news.php?x=1&showarticle=666&PHPSESSID=3fa8c2dd1f239a2a995fa4d688a39a57
We don’t like to brag, but there are three more awards to report. The first was for Somerland Gold, which was beer of the festival at the Square & Compass, Worth Matravers. This pub is justifiably famous as one of only ten to have been in all 35 editions of the Good Beer Guide. It was quickly followed up by two awards in the same week for Old Freddy Walker. Both were CAMRA beer festivals where Freddy was joint runner up at Westmorland and overall silver at Barnsley. Thanks to all for their praise, and especially to the punters for enjoying it!
We’ve got some great news to share. At the recent Wessex Beer Festival held at the Bath & West Showground we won two gold medals – for Merlin’s Magic and Old Freddy Walker. There were around 130 beers at the festival. Winning one medal would have been great but winning two golds was fantastic. The organisers are coming to the brewery to present the awards later this week. This year five of our regular beers have won awards at festivals across the country. We couldn’t be more pleased, especially considering the new plant just went in this year.
There have been a number of important losses in the beer world over the past year, but I was particularly saddened to learn of Michael Jackson’s death this week. It’s probably not much of an overstatement to say that without his pioneering work in print, television, and online, the beer revolution that occurred at the end of the last century would not have happened. It was Michael who toured the world, hunting out great beers and educating us about the numerous styles and flavours to be found in the corners of every country. Writers and travellers have followed in his footsteps, some gaining a reputation for their knowledge of particular countries or styles. But none of us would have known to make the effort had Michael not led us there first.
I still have my Dad’s 1982 copy of Michael’s Pocket Guide to Beer – the bible as I was growing up, along with a number of his other books. Of course, no self-respecting beer lovers bookshelf would be complete without his Great Beers of Belgium and New World Guide to Beer. But it’s a simple piece of paper that holds pride of place to me. I was fortunate enough to hear Michael speak and meet him on a few occasions at the Great British Beer Festival. The first was on 7 August 1998 when he gave us a fantastic tutored tasting on Lambics. Following the talk I (sadly) asked him to sign my tasting notes, telling him that his books were an inspiration as I was growing up. So he signed it, “To Justin – stay inspired!” His inspiration led me to live in several countries, hunting my own favourite beers and finally brewing some that I hope inspire others. I am particularly sad that I was never able to host him at the brewery.
I wonder what beer Michael ordered first when he arrived at the great pub upstairs. As a fellow beer lover I encourage you to raise a glass of your favourite beer in honour of the man who brought the world of beer to all of us.
Those that attended the Great British Beer Festival will have certainly enjoyed themselves, especially those that attended our tutored tasting. The room was fully packed with 70 thirsty enthusiasts. The line up of brewers was quite impressive. In fact we were the only micro brewery there. The tasting kicked off with Woodfordes, followed by Hook Norton, Okells, Titanic, myself, and finally Fullers. It was a real treat for me to share the stage with such fantastic brewers. I presented Confidence, which seemed to go down very well with the tasters. One person asked if I thought there was a market for extreme beers in the UK. I think Confidence, and several of our other beers, have extreme flavour, but I wouldn’t label them as extreme in the way American craft brewers do – i.e. extreme alcohol, bitterness, etc. However, I was recently in discussion with an esteemed landlord about a double IPA, so you never know… But back to the question. I do think there is a market, in the UK and globally, for well crafted beers, whatever their outstanding attributes are. Interest in flavourful, fresh food and drink continues to grow as people demand better than mass marketed, bland products. Long may it continue.
I am happy to report that Big Momma is now in the house – not drinking the beer but helping make it. Big Momma is not a person, but our new-to-us mash tun, with a whopping 20 barrel capacity. Considering we only have a 10 barrel brewery, why would we want such an oversized mash tun? To bring you bigger beers, of course! Our old mash tun just could not take the strain of brewing Old Freddy Walker (and we know how much you like Freddy), let alone the even stronger beers we want to bring you. So after a lot of hard work and expense, the brewery is now back together. During the down time we had a huge demand for beer and sold out of more than we expected, so we ask you to be patient for a couple weeks while we restock.
Cyclops – not the mythical creature but a new system to describe beers. The brewing industry and CAMRA have come together to provide a simple way of introducing beers to people. Each beer is rated across five areas: See, Smell, Taste, Bitter and Sweet. The first three areas are “Simply Stated”, in about five words each using everyday language (not beer geek speak as I would normally be accused of!). It is more difficult than you think to describe the unique character of a beer in so few, simple words. How do you distinguish between straw, golden, copper, and amber? Bitter and Sweet are rated in intensity from 1 – 5.
Six of our core beers were assessed by Master Brewer Adrian Wood of Wadworth and approved by CAMRA. We had a very enjoyable session with Adrian and he really seemed to like all the beers. In addition to the fun, some great work managed to get done. Some comments that didn’t make the Cyclops descriptions, but you might find interesting were:
“A brash New Yorker of a beer – really in your face” – Confidence
“A really rich middle” – Merlin’s Magic
Once the Cyclops artwork is together we’ll post it on the site. It will also go on the back of our bottles.
We are very pleased to report that we won the Bronze Medal at the national SIBA competition with Milly’s in the Mild category. This was our 3rd brew on the new plant, which proved that our emphasis on flavour, quality and consistency has been carried forward. It was especially pleasing to see a Southwest brewery win a category that is traditionally dominant in the Midlands. Long may it continue. A full story is now available on the SIBA website. The story has also been run in the local press.
New sheriff, brewer, owner, and spirit-meister Justin Hawke has taken over at Moor. Long gone is the old Moor – better known for poor quality, service and image than its success as Champion Winter Beer of Britain brewer. It’s a real shame as there was such potential, but when you saw the way things were done – well…
We don’t do things like that around here anymore. Out with dirt, in with an anally-festidious focus on cleanliness. Remember those really bad recipes? They’ve all been discarded, overhauled, updated, and improved. Drop and run service is history, as is not answering phone calls and emails. What will remain? Some of the beer names will stick with us as they reflect the local heritage that we respect. And of course, our famous slogan – Drink Moor Beer – can’t be beat.
We will be bringing you a host of great beers, designed to be intensely flavoured, in a range of beer styles. It’s time to bring excitement and fun back to beer. And this sheriff will do it for you. Measure us by our future successes and you will be glad you threw away your previous impressions of Moor and joined the posse!