Protz: Dark arts winner for Wychwood

The topsy-turvy world of modern brewing was brought into sharp focus last Thursday.

I was about to leave home to catch a train to London when I got a "breaking news" flash from the MA website: InBev's sales in Britain had slumped by 10.3% in 2007.

An hour later I was seated in the basement of a pub in Marylebone where I heard from Rupert Thompson, managing director of the Wychwood Brewery, that sales of his strong, dark ale Hobgoblin were growing by 22% a year. The cask version, he added, was doing even better: up by 24% year on year.

A few years ago, such news would have been unthinkable. The global brewers were unstoppable, giant tanks crushing all that stood in front of them. The prospects for smaller brewers were gloomy at best and many were giving up and becoming small pub companies instead.

How the worm has turned! Today it's the globals that are suffering. Premium lager, which once seemed destined to become the only type of beer brewed and consumed in Britain, is in decline.

Cask ale, once heading for the knacker's yard, is enjoying a return to growth. As the recent report from the Society of Independent Brewers (Siba) showed, its members are recording annual increases in sales of close to 11%.

The figures, of course, are relative. The global brewers would say they spill more beer than the craft brewers make. Nevertheless, Siba now represents around 450 craft brewers - some, like Fuller's, substantial producers - that have gone from the margins of the brewing industry to a well-entrenched niche.

Hobgoblin is a good example of the changing beer scene. Everything should be against it - it's dark and strong. As head brewer Jeremy Moss says, if he put much more dark malt in the beer, it would look like Guinness.

And surely no one wants to drink dark beer these days? Yes, they do, and in growing numbers. As well as notching up substantial sales on draught, Hobgoblin is doing well in bottle, too.

It's the fifth biggest-selling bottled ale in supermarkets and Rupert Thompson's aim is to make the brand, packaged and draught, one of the top-10 premium ales by 2010. Sales of the beer, with labels and pump-clips showing a goblin, go through the roof at Halloween.

Thompson says that the promotion for the beer with the slogan "What's the matter, lager boy, afraid you might taste something?" has made a huge impact. He believes the success of the beer chimes with the times: drinkers are looking for flavour and turning away from global brands largely devoid of taste.

There are now four versions of Hobgoblin. As well as cask (4.5% abv) and bottle (5.2% abv), there's a keg Hobgoblin, also 4.5% abv, for export to the United States and a 3.5% abv bottle for the Swedish off-trade, where strong beers are restricted.

The domestic cask version has been throttled back from 5% to 4.5% as a result of genuine consumer demand. Rupert Thompson says Wychwood received a stream of messages from licensees saying that 5% was too strong for a draught beer. As a result, customers were restricting themselves to just one or two pints.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Wychwood's success is that Hobgoblin is the brewery's main brand. It hasn't dabbled in golden ales or a vast list of seasonals, but has turned a dark, ruby-coloured beer into its flagship product.

And taste it has aplenty. Jeremy Moss says he uses a substantial amount of heavily-roasted chocolate malt, as well as crystal malt in the brew, to give a smoky, roasty and nutty character to the beer. Any sweetness is offset by English Fuggles and Styrian Goldings hops. To intensify the hop character, three new hops have been added in small amounts. One of these is American Cascade, which gives a tangy lemon and lime note.

Wychwood, founded in Witney, Oxfordshire, in 1983, has grown from the tiniest of micros to a substantial regional producer. It also houses the Brakspear brewery, saved when Rupert Thompson moved the plant from Henley-on-Thames after the former owners had closed it.

Raise a glass of dark beer to a brewing success story.

For more Protz visit www.beer-pages.com​.