Craft ales must seize the day
A report on the admirable MA website came like a bolt from the proverbial. According to market analysts AC Nielsen, for the first time ever wine sales did not grow in the UK last year.
Could this be - to use the jargon - a tipping point for beer? For 20 years or more, we have got used to wine sales growing and eating away at beer's dominant position. If wine has reached a plateau, it presents a brilliant opportunity for craft brewers, specialist pub operators and the various organisations supporting drinkers to boost the fortunes of beer.
I don't know why wine sales are static. It can't be price. My local Morrison's displays a banner announcing "200 wines for under £2". A half-decent bottle of wine, costing a tad more than two quid, with six generous servings, is better value than two pints of beer.
But the alcohol market is churning in unexpected ways. A brand manager for a global brewer told me last week that sales of what he quaintly calls "sparkling beers" are in decline. His company's leading lager, he admitted, had had "a terrible Christmas". I have been told by so many people in the industry that another top lager is in freefall that I am convinced it is true.
But the craft sector is booming. Even
AC Nielsen, which has downplayed cask ale for years, sees signs of revival. Last week I reported on the growth of Moorhouse's of Burnley and the success of Hawkshead in Cumbria.
Add to this list Copper Dragon of Skipton in Yorkshire. Tony Halstead, the MA's man in the north, tells me the brewery, founded only in 2003, is producing 250 barrels a week, but faces such demand for its beers that it has been forced to move to bigger premises.
Last week I went to see Alastair Hook, founder of Meantime Brewery in Greenwich, south-east London. He, too, is doing remarkably well. I didn't recognise his place from my last visit - it has expanded massively into surrounding buildings. The place is knee-deep in bottles and packaging.
Unlike most craft brewers, Alastair has not primarily gone down the draught-beer route, though he produces both cask and pressurised ales and lagers. His main attack has been on the packaged sector, with top quality beers produced to exacting standards.
His India Pale Ale and London Porter are brilliant recreations of the styles. Trained in Munich, Alastair also brews proper German style lagers, Pilsners and wheat along with fruit, chocolate and coffee beers. He supplies Sainsbury's up-market Taste the Difference range - and the beers are not cheap.
Steve Wellington at White Shield Brewery in Burton-on-Trent tells me sales of the bottle-conditioned Worthington's White Shield have blossomed since it won a top prize at last year's Great British Beer Festival. It sells well in Waitrose, particularly through Ocado, its home-delivery service.
There's hope for small brewers when people are ordering crates of White Shield for home consumption.
Craft-brewed beer is clearly chiming with the times - not in great volumes, maybe, but it sells well to appreciative drinkers who revel in beers brimming with aroma and flavour, and who want rich malt and bitter hops rather than a rush of carbon-dioxide fizz.
We have to stir the pot. We need a campaign to boost craft beer. We should revive that old Brewers' Society poster showing a tasty glass of beer with the slogan "Drink the Wine of the Country".
We have to build on the various initiatives to match beer with food. Pubs should stage beer tastings and food matching. Every Camra beer festival should do likewise: the Great British Beer Festival has splendid beer tastings every day of the week and the campaign's regional festivals should follow suit.
The constant drip-drip of articles and TV programmes about wine gives the impression that the British prefer the juice of the grape. In fact, beer consumption still heavily outstrips that of wine.
It needs a new image. Beer is modern and healthy and craft brewers, supplying local markets, are not aiding global warming.
It's the drink of the moment. Beer is best!
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