Enough of the competition — let's hear it for co-operation

It's far from being a dog-eat-dog world among craft brewers. Combined effort is the way forward

I must be the only person on the planet who wasn't transfixed by the recent TV series of The Apprentice. The endless trailer showing a young woman screaming hysterically: "I wants lots and lots of money" was enough to tell me it wasn't my kind of programme.

Neither do I watch the equally hysterical and absurd programmes where judges choose people to star in West End musicals. One look at the sweat, the tears and the back-stabbing is enough.

I believe in co-operation, not competition. I grew up in the East End of London where people pooled their resources. We had frequent street parties, where everyone mucked in to provide food and drink. My mother regularly took packets of tea and sugar to neighbours who were down on their luck.

If that makes me "old fashioned" then I answer to the charge. I accept we live in a market economy where breweries and pubs compete for custom. But it doesn't have to be a vicious, scratch-your-eyes-out form of competition.

I've written recently about both Bateman's and the Derby Brewing Company in these pages. When Trevor Harris was building his plant in Derby he contacted Bateman's in Wainfleet and asked if he could have some of the brewery's yeast. The answer from MD Stuart Bateman was not only yes, but he told Trevor he could have fresh supplies whenever he needed them.

Cynics will scoff and say that as breweries produce more yeast than they will ever need, this is not exactly a big deal. But it would have been simple for Stuart to have said, "Sorry, Trev, but our yeast helps give our beers their character and flavour and we don't want you reproducing them." Instead, a bucketful of yeast makes a regular journey from Lincolnshire to the East Midlands.

A few years ago, Brendan Moore, who runs the Iceni Brewery in Norfolk, set up the East Anglian Brewers' Co-operative (EAB). Norfolk alone has 30 small craft breweries and Suffolk has more than a dozen. They find it difficult to get their beers into pubs in the region, as many of them are owned by giant pub companies that demand ruinous discounts. The small producers are also up against the might of Greene King, an East Anglian colossus.

So Brendan and his colleagues formed their co-op to combine their efforts. They have a database of genuine free-trade outlets in the region. They offer deliveries using trucks and vans that carry beer from several breweries, rather than from individual ones. It's an important contribution to cutting down on petrol and diesel fumes being pumped into our fragile atmosphere.

Equally important, EAB buys malt and hops and then divides them up among its members according to their needs. It's cheaper to buy in bulk, especially at a time when

the costs of raw materials are increasing alarmingly.

At a national level, the direct delivery scheme run by the Society of Independent Brewers (Siba) is another heart-warming example of craft breweries pooling their resources to get their beers into outlets run by the big pubcos. It doesn't mean that Siba members are any less competitive in seeking new business. But at least they are not sharpening knives to plunge into one another's backs.

I discovered a couple of weeks ago yet another encouraging development in the West Country. I was giving a talk and beer tasting at the Cheltenham Food & Drink Festival where I bumped into old friends and new from the craft-brewing fraternity in the area. They told me they had created Gloucestershire Craft Brewers (GCB) and their leaflet outlines their philosophy well:

"These progressive micros recognise that although they are competing for the same market there are benefits from working together to promote Gloucestershire beers and the breweries that produce them." The leaflet quotes Greg Pilley of Stroud Brewery: "People are increasingly interested in locally-produced products and, with the need to reduce our energy use, products that have not travelled far will also be an important part of our strategy for a sustainable future."

To aid their endeavours, GCB has produced a guide book called Gloucestershire Ale Trail that lists all the known outlets for craft-brewed beers in the county. It costs £9.99 and is available from The History Press (www.thehistorypress.co.uk).

It's yet another stirring example of how the craft-brewing revolution is transforming not only the beer we drink, but also the manner in which it is delivered, with due regard for consumers and the environment.

And now it's time for a cuppa. Hold the Sugar.