An ale of the highest order

A few weeks ago Fuller's launched a new limited edition beer that had been four years in the making. After a lengthy process of experimentation, ageing the beer in 30 year old whisky casks, sampling it, testing its ABV and then diluting it with fresh beer, head brewer John Keeling had cracked it. Brewer's Reserve, a rich 7.7 per cent ABV amber coloured beer with subtle whisky flavours was born.

The 500-day aged beer marks, according to Beer Company managing director John Roberts, the first edition of a new venture for the brewer into the world of super premium beers. "We are really excited about the emergence of a fine beer category and want to play our role in it," he said at the launch.

Super-premium?​

Indeed Fuller's is not the only brewer that has focused its attentions recently on brewing beers that could be described as 'super premium'. But what exactly are they?

They can roughly be defined as beers that have been aged, have a strong craft element to them, have a high ABV and are generally bottled. As a premium product they can be sold at a premium price, something advantageous to brewers and licensees alike.

Greene King launched bottled beer Old Crafty Hen - a mix of Old Speckled Hen and Old 5X - a 12 per cent ABV dark ale, in September. Cornish brewer Sharp's released Honey Spice, a beer fermented with local Cornish honey, conditioned with spices and aged for between four and six months, back in April. And Shepherd Neame is currently in the process of working on a new aged beer.

So why the interest now? In some ways these beers are nothing new. Innis & Gunn Original Oak Aged Beer (6.6 per cent ABV) has been around since 2002, Brakspear Triple (7.2 per cent ABV) since 1995 and indeed Fuller's launched its first Vintage Ale back in 1997.

According to Roberts, the trend has been consumer driven. "I think in any market place there are opportunities for very premium produce," he says. "Beer until recently has been relatively starved of them… But the Great British public are voting with their feet. The market is demanding them."

Fiona Hope, marketing director for Greene King Brewing Company, agrees. "The recent Intelligent Choice report points out there is a resurgence of people drinking cask ale and there are more macro consumer trends about provenance and ingredients and so on too," she says. "People are becoming more aware of what beer in its broadest sense has to offer, and that includes super premium beers too."

Catalyst for growth​

The demand for these products may well be the catalysts for the category's growth. But they have so far been predominantly launched and sold in the off-trade. As they tend to be bottled and come heavily packaged, often in individual boxes, they can be tricky to display in a pub environment. So, is there a market for super premium beers on the bar?

"The opportunity in the on-trade is definitely there," says Hope. "I don't think any of us brewers have been that good at picking up that opportunity and making something happen with it. It's a lot easier to do in the off-trade.

"We are all slightly on the back foot with getting it into pubs. But having new and interesting stuff for the on-trade is part of getting people off their backsides and into pubs again. It's absolutely our job to do that."

It may be tricky to market this category in pubs, says Sharp's director Joe Keohane, but it is not impossible. Sharp's is set to launch a cask version of Honey Spice in the new year. Previously the beer has only been available in a bottled format in the off trade. The brewer already sells its 6.8 per cent ABV bottled beer Chalky's Bite, in pubs.

The pub occasion​

"I would say there is a lot of opportunity for pubs with these beers as they allow food driven outlets to offer a wide range of beer," says Keohane. "It's about the route to market. When people are having food they are more likely to try a stronger beer, otherwise strength can be a bit of a barrier."

To encourage the link to food Sharp's has worked with chef Rick Stein to create food matching, and also promotes its beers on menus, blackboards and beermats.

Fuller's Roberts, meanwhile, says he sees this new category as a luxury drinking occasion. The brewer has previously sold its Vintage Ale in its pubs and Roberts says it is not difficult to sell these products in the on-trade, provided they are treated as a premium experience.

"There is no difficulty putting them in bars. I think the beers can just sit there in the same way that you have a product like a Dom Pérignon in a pub," he explains. "You might sell a bottle a month or you might sell two in a night. You never know when the right client might come in."

But Hope from Greene King says that the trade should be doing more to encourage people to try these beers in the first place. "I think the first step for us as a brewing industry is to make sure that we educate the people behind the bar so that they know what the stories behind the beers are," she says."That will then lead to getting greater presence as it is an absolute car crash behind the bar when it comes to bottled beer in general.

"You are scrapping it out with some really big brands. I think it is for us as brewers to go out and demonstrate that there is a great profit opportunity in super premium bottled ales."