Trailblazing Brits

Speciality beers aren't just about unusual brews from the Continent ­ licensees can also find well-crafted gems closer to home. ADRIAN TIERNEY-JONES reports

Twenty years ago the thought of going into a pub and asking for a beer flavoured with honey, strawberry or heather would have seemed like something out of science fiction. Even though brewers in the past had used herbs, spices, honey and fruit (cherries and old ale was a Kentish favourite), beer had become bitter, lager or stout, plus the odd mild or porter.

These days, though, the likes of Fuller's and Young's have honey beers, while Charles Wells has a Banana Bread Beer and Badger produces Dorset ales infused with peach blossom or elderflower. In Liverpool, Cains has had a big success with a raisin beer. North of the border, how about the smooth and fiery Innis & Gunn oak-aged beer, which is matured in wood for a couple of months and available in Wetherspoon's pubs? And that is without the hordes of Belgian fruit beers that are becoming commonplace in stylish bars and country pubs.

The rise of the specialist beer market can be pinned on two main factors. First of all, Whitbread came up with a series of intriguing beers in the mid-1990s. There was a chocolate mild, the first chocolate beer since the days of Montezuma we were told, a Christmas pudding beer, one flavoured with juniper berries and a beer made with myrrh.

These beers didn't last long, but beyond the gimmickry they got people to talk about beer styles. Hot on their heels came a whole raft of beers flavoured with chocolate, honey, all manner of fruit (and occasionally veg), port, smoked malt, nettles and heather.

The second reason for this surge of beer innovation was the success of Hoegaarden, the naturally-cloudy Belgian wheat beer, which was flavoured with various spices. This was a beer with its own chunky, individual glass, it was reassuringly expensive, like Stella, the cloudiness was a talking point and distinctive bar fonts were produced.

These days it seems Hoegaarden appeals to the premium lager crowd, according to Pedro Aparicion at the Canal Inn, Wrantage, just out-side Taunton, Somerset. "All the young drinkers order it," he says. "It's a perfect summer drink, refreshing and full of flavour.

"When someone is having a meal, give them a sample and people then order a jug. When we first had the pub we said we wanted to sell it and Interbrew didn't want to put it in, so we had a big argument about it, with the area manager saying that it was a town or city-pub beer. We persevered and got it on and now we sell as much of it as we do of Stella."

Belgian beers have a certain cachet, what with the sumptuous glassware that accompanies each and every product, as well as the ease with which they accompany food. They are accepted in the trade and alongside Hoegaarden, it's common these days to see the likes of Leffe, Grimbergen, bottled Trappist ales and fruit beers.

However, what about their British counterparts? How do you sell the likes of Arkell's honey-flavoured Bee's or RCH's spicy Hale Mary alongside better-known foreign beers? Some publicans say real-ale drinkers are set in their ways and look askew on anything beyond their usual menu of bitter and dark beers. Though the scrum around the bar at a beer festival whenever a fruit or chocolate ale is tapped tells a different story.

One of the ways to push speciality beers seems to be to stress their compatibility with food. A lot of the ones produced by British breweries are ideal at the dinner table. Hop Back, for instance, has a bottled beer called Taiphoon, with added lemon grass. This, as you might expect, is ideal with Thai dishes, with its hints of lemon and coriander on the palate.

"Taiphoon is a niche product, of which we do 300 cases of bottles a year," says Hop Back's Richard Harvey. "Most of our 11 pubs stock it and publicans rate it highly. It's drunk by regular real-ale drinkers and we always mention its suitability with Thai dishes. In the winter we also do Pickled Santa, which has cinnamon, coriander and nutmeg in the mix. These are beers to savour rather than swig by the pint."

The latter point is something for the landlord to consider. Speciality beers are not high volume. A lot are sold in bottle and are rarely suitable for a session. Being in bottle though, means that they have a longer shelf life than cask-conditioned beer.

Most of of them also marry well with various dishes and for the beer-loving publican who wants to get his customers to see beer as the new wine, they provide an intriguing talking point. They also appeal to a broader base of drinker and, without sounding too condescending, appear popular with women. However, there is a certain amount of work that needs to be done by the licensee to promote the beer.

Gary Marshall runs the award-winning Blisland Inn near Bodmin, Cornwall. His pub is a dedicated cask-ale destination and he often has a fruit or chocolate real ale among his usual bitters, milds, golden ales and porters.

"I always talk people into trying things," he says. "I'm keen on pushing new beers on people. You name it we've had it ­ I've just ordered Skinners' Heligan Honey, which is wonderful. At this time of the year there are a lot of honey beers about.

"It gets people interested in beer and I find both men and women trying it. Because we're a specialist cask-beer pub ­ people come here to drink cask beer ­ there's always something on each month. Hanby's Cherry Bomb is excellent for instance. Some think it's gimmicky but they are usually the traditional bitter drinkers in the corner who haven't changed their beer for years. I price them accordingly as well. It's definitely worth the effort to stock them."

Over in Bedford, which is the home of Charles Wells, landlord Steve Wild is a fan of its Banana Bread Beer. This was developed by the brewery after it recognised the growing demand for fruit beers. Wild, who is the manager of the Wells-owned Park, gets through several cases of the beer in a weekend. At the moment he sells it in bottle but is keen to try it on draught.

"It is very popular with the 25 to 30-year-old crowd, both male and female," he says. "They see it as an interesting drink. The secret is to get people to try a sample and then they like it.

"I really recommend trying to sell beers like this as it opens people's eyes as to what beer is. All too often beer is wrongly seen as boring and all the same. A beer like this proves that wrong. As for food, I suggest it with a Chinese dish or accompaniment to dessert."

As the brewing industry and pub trade tries to prove to drinkers that beer is a premium and quality product, then speciality beers are one part of the argument. A few are gimmicks but most show us the broad-based flavour profile of beer.

Giving people a sample, telling the story of the beer and suggesting food-beer matches seem to be the way to move things forward. They are not great sellers, but for the discerning licensee they add an intriguing product to their range and something that gets drinkers talking about beer ­ and that is what both brewers and licensees need at the moment.