East Anglia: Adnams' Pioneering green beer
Cask beer - could there be a greener product? Not according to Adnams.
The Suffolk brewer's managing director Andy Wood believes the local sourcing that brewing relies on, along with the minimal waste involved with dispensing the product from recyclable casks, means that "brewers are making one of the most sustainable products out there".
To prove it, Adnams launched East Green in April, a product it heralded as the country's first carbon-neutral beer. This achievement is largely down to the fact that every ingredient is locally sourced.
However, it is not where East Green comes from but where it goes to that has caused the big furore.
Off-trade outrage
Supermarket giant Tesco struck an exclusive six month distribution deal for the beer and it was only rolled out to the pub trade in cask and bottled format in June. This caused no little consternation from licensees, who saw it as a launch designed to benefit the off-trade, rather than them. Many of the comments posted on ThePublican.com displayed a feeling of betrayal from pub owners.
As Adnams extends East Green's distribution to include a keg version available in the All Bar One chain from next month, Wood defends the controversial launch strategy. "This will be a serious on-trade product," he says, "but the off-trade at the moment is more tuned into environmental concerns than the on-trade.
"Supermarkets, in particular, are coming in for a lot of scrutiny over their ways of treating the environment. The on-trade has many, many more issues to deal with."
Wood claims to have had discussions before the launch with a number of on-trade retailers, but that in a sense it's more of a risk for them.
He explains that, if disaster struck, its failure would have been much more noticeable for a pub group that had stuck its neck out and stocked it than for Tesco's huge empire. After all, it is just one of millions of product lines in the supermarket, many which would naturally always be much higher profile than a single beer.
The bold claim about East Green is that, if it is sold in comparative volumes to Broadside, Adnams' premium cask brand, it would be the equivalent of taking 65 cars off the road a year. Is this realistic?
Wood says across Tesco its rate of sale is already a quarter of that of Broadside's. Turning to the off-trade for proof of its success is not likely to impress licensees, but it does at least point to the potential for it in pubs.
What is East Green?
East Green is a 4.3 per cent ABV golden beer. According to the brewery, it is 25 per cent less carbon intensive to produce than conventionally-produced beers.
Most industrial practices emit carbon, which in excess is bad for the environment.
Collaborating with researchers at the University of East Anglia, Adnams investigated how it could make the whole supply chain carbon-neutral - from the farming of the malt, to brewing, bottling and logistics.
What carbon outgoings that are present are compensated for by donations to carbon off-setting initiative Climate Care, which organises projects such as installing wind turbines in China to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere on individuals' and businesses' behalfs.
While the bottled version is available widely to the off-trade and Adnams' freetrade, the cask version can be found in Adnams' tied estate, Orchid Group and Mitchells & Butlers pubs. A chilled and filtered version will be rolled out to the All Bar One chain in September.
