Brewers with a taste for publicity

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A historic country hall in Derbyshire is home to an exotic band of brewers who together are a leading member of a new wave of micros innovating and...

A historic country hall in Derbyshire is home to an exotic band of brewers who together are a leading member of a new wave of micros innovating and marketing their way to growth. But not without criticism from the traditional brewing scene.

Thornbridge, brewing in Thornbridge Hall, has a young team comprising an Italian, a New Zealander and two Englishmen responsible for Jaipur, an IPA picking up distribution and plaudits. The most high-profile praise has come from TV's Oz Clarke and James May, who covered Thornbridge in their Drink to Britain prime time show.

It is, of course, good news that people like these are putting beer in the spotlight with some all-too-rare positive PR.

Along with Risky Business, the series charting efforts by celeb chef Richard Fox and actor Neil Morrissey to run a pub and brew their own beer, they have made prime time TV - and that can only be good news for the pub trade.

On the other hand, there are more established cask brewers that accuse Thornbridge and their ilk of brewing wacky, weird and wonderful beers simply for the sake of generating newspaper column inches, rather than any desire to come up with quality products that satisfy market demand.

One head brewer told me that Clarke and May's researchers chose the brewers with the most novelty value, and beers that were extreme but not necessarily any good.

A tasting at which Thornbridge was showing off brews involving fresh hops, champagne yeast, sherry and Madeira was a perfect opportunity, then, to question the brewers on their voracious appetite for self-promotion.

Before I get to speak to brewers Kelly Ryan and Stefano Cossi, Thornbridge marketing manager Alex Buchanan stresses the fact that the team's disparate background, their country hall headquarters and the nature of their beers forms a nice marketing story is not by design, but more down to "serendipity".

He insists: "I can honestly say we didn't set out to make that kind of promotional noise."

However, talking to the brewers, it sounds as if the plant in Thornbridge Hall is, at least to a certain extent, a personal plaything rather than a serious business.

"We almost brew beers that we want to drink ourselves," says Ryan. "It's an added bonus that people like them and are impressed enough to give us awards."

But they certainly recognise the importance of marketing in getting this produce out there. "People don't drink a beer for its taste, necessarily, for how it is perceived," says Cossi.

On the other hand, he believes marketability can become too much of a priority. Cossi points to his native Italy, where brewers are often recognised as "geniuses" for brewing novelty beers.

He says: "Instead, beers should be accessible."

So what do they make of accusations that they themselves put marketing above satisfying market demand?

"We have pushed our products, but only because the quality was there in the first place," says Ryan. "Marketing is the easiest thing in the world to do if your product is good."

With that, it was off back to their country hall for the brewers. And it seems safe to assume this will not be the last column inch generated from there.

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