Castor Ales: liquid assets

[prev] …the village called the Prince of Wales Feathers. It is run by Simon and Kate Fitch who were incredibly excited about the fact there was going to be a brewery on their doorstep. The pub is marketed as the Castor Ales brewery tap and my beer is there all the time. Jim and Sharon Trevor at The Beehive in Peterborough have taken my beer from day one and have been very supportive. Again you’ll always find a pint of Castor Ales there to wash down the fine food. When I started out, launching a small brewery like mine wasn’t as common as it is now. Nobody imagined there would be a brewery here in Castor, so there was a lot of excitement and goodwill generated and that remains to this day. With that kind of support it wasn’t too difficult to sell the beer.

VERY FEW INGREDIENTS GO INTO GOOD REAL ALE, BUT RELYING ON SO FEW RAW INGREDIENTS MUST EXPOSE YOU TO PRICE FLUCTUATIONS. DID THE 2010-11 SPIKE IN COMMODITY PRICES AFFECT YOU? THE PRICE OF BARLEY MUST HAVE PUT PRESSURE ON YOU.
I hadn’t really noticed the hike in barley; it seems to go up with general inflation. I can’t say the same for hops, though, which have doubled in price. And, of course, beer duty was going up every year until George Osborne scrapped it in last year’s budget. Beer was on an escalator, which meant it was going up a percentage plus inflation regardless. Now the escalator has been scrapped there’s no commitment to increase duty. The good thing is that as a small brewer I pay half the amount of duty that the big brewers do – that was thanks to Gordon Brown when he was chancellor by the way. That’s the reason we can still exist.

YOU HEAR ABOUT THE SHOCKING RATE OF PUB CLOSURES. IS THIS DUE TO WHAT YOU MIGHT REGARD AS PUNITIVE TAXES ON ALCOHOL OR ARE THERE OTHER FORCES BEHIND THIS?
As pubs shut, breweries open. People wonder how this can be. Many of those closing pubs are probably victims of the pub companies who are asset stripping, or it could be that the pubs just can’t compete, as demographics change in certain areas. But it’s not all doom and gloom because new pubs are opening too, particularly with the trend in micropubs. For someone like me pub closures aren’t an issue. The ones I sell to probably aren’t going to close; they sell real ale and this is where the increase in sales is happening.

HOW MUCH DO YOU SELL A CASK OF ALE FOR?
Obviously pricing is a sensitive issue, and prices vary depending on the strength of beer and amount of malt used because beer duty increases as the amount of malt used increases. The price of a pint in your local probably reflects the true costs of production and the overheads that pubs face. That’s the economics of it.

HOW DO THE LIKES OF LOWER COST PUB CHAINS SUCH AS WETHERSPOON SOURCE THEIR BEER?
Wetherspoon has approached me but they tell you how much they’re going to pay. Why would I sell a cask to them for half the amount I sell to my current customers? There’s no sense in that. Some brewers will get into Wetherspoon and for them the economies of scale may work. But I don’t need them.

SO YOU ARE HAPPY WITH THE CURRENT BALANCE AND ENJOYING THAT FACE-TO- FACE INTERACTION WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS?
It suits me and my current work-life balance. I have a good relationship with my regular customers and I can provide them with a reliable and responsive service at all times.

LETS TALK ABOUT THE BEER ITSELF FOR A MOMENT. ARE THERE ANY RECENT TRENDS THAT ARE AFFECTING CONSUMER TASTES?
Real ale used to have this reputation of being a dark, warm, malty kind of drink. Then the trend started for a lighter coloured, citrusy beer, served a tad cooler. All of a sudden people were swigging this stuff back! This was a trend that was already underway when I started in 2009. Most new entrants want a light beer in their portfolio and I’m no exception. The other thing is hops. There’s a huge variety of hops out there, from all over the world, with which to make.. [cont]