A Tribute to Cornish spirit

If you brewed a beer called Daylight Robbery you would expect a loud, collective raspberry from media and consumers. It confirms the ancient belief that brewers exist only to rip-off drinkers.

But this beer, brewed in 1999, probably saved one of Britain's oldest family brewers from eclipse. Eclipse is an apt word. The St Austell Brewery in the Cornish town of the same name had just taken on a new head brewer, Roger Ryman. The first beer he made was a one-off special brew to mark the total eclipse in August 1999.

Ryman had made a long journey to St Austell from his previous job as assistant head brewer with Maclays of Alloa. "I was used to producing new beers every two months. They were made, they were sold, we moved on.

"With Daylight, I just thought that's a nice pint, that's good, and then it just went ballistic. A month after its launch it was the brewery's best-selling beer and sales just carried on."

Quietly but tactfully, the name of the beer was changed to Tribute. The 4.2% ABV beer is now St Austell's biggest-selling brand by far, accounting for 75% to 80% of annual production. It has moved out of its West Country heartland and is a truly national brand, one that has put the brewery's name on the map and restored its fortunes.

The brewery was founded in 1851 by Walter Hicks in St Austell's Seven Stars. The brewing side prospered and in 1893 Hicks built a new brewery on a hill overlooking the town. In 1912, the brewery had a major expansion, enabling it to brew 150 barrels at a time — still the case today.

Its fortunes were boosted in the 1920s when a bridge was built over the Tamar river, linking Devon with Cornwall. The West Country was now open to tourism courtesy of the train. Up to the 1970s, when European package holidays took off, St Austell was a major brewing force, producing 30,000 barrels of beer a year.

But the brewery declined in step with the steep fall in visitor numbers to Cornwall. When I first toured the brewery in the early 1990s, it had the air of a company in almost terminal decline. The beer portfolio was tired and the entire enterprise was kept afloat by its substantial tied estate, which stands at 169 pubs today.

Roger Ryman confirms my view. When he joined the brewery in 1999, annual production had slumped to 16,000 barrels. "All profits were coming from pubs," he says. "The board of directors had to decide whether to get out of brewing and become a pub company. The decision was taken to remain with the family brewing tradition. But the directors knew they had to invest in new brands."

St Austell has recovered, revived and forged ahead due to the arrival of Roger Ryman and the appointment of James Staughton as managing director. Staughton is the great-great grandson of Walter Hicks and represents the fifth generation of the family to run the company.

Ryman and Staughton are young, vigorous, passionate about beer and have a vision for the future. Together they set St Austell on a new course that has seen production rise to 55,000 barrels a year, the biggest in its history.

While the pub estate remains its bedrock, the beer brands are now widely available in the West Country freetrade while Tribute has gone national. An annual Celtic beer festival in the brewery vaults attracts large numbers and features beers from other breweries in the region. A visitor centre and shop, opened in 1992, has been expanded to incorporate old brewing vessels and a display of the brewing process.

The growing bottled beer sector is not being overlooked. The old bottling hall closed in the early 1990s and beer was trucked long distances to Robinsons in Stockport and Thwaites in Blackburn for packaging.

Tribute​

But James Staughton is a keen environmentalist and wants to curtail the brewery's carbon footprint. So, £1m is being invested in a bottling hall, which will soon bring the pleasures of the main brands to an even bigger audience.

The success of Tribute is due to its unique taste. Roger Ryman is a well-travelled brewer. He has visited several American craft breweries and as a result uses American hop varieties in some of his beers, including Willamette in Tribute. From Germany, he acquired a taste for Munich malt, a variety that gives both an appealing bronze colour to beer and a rich juicy and biscuity character.

Ryman has encouraged farmers and maltsters in Cornwall to develop a variety of malting barley similar to Munich. The result is Cornish Gold, a type of malt unique to St Austell.

Tribute has been joined by Proper Job, an excellent interpretation of India pale ale, and Smugglers Ale, a strong barley wine. Deep in the cellars of the brewery I discovered a version of Smugglers that's matured for three months in malt whisky casks brought from Speyside in Scotland.

The 11% ABV beer has oak, vanilla and whisky notes alongside malt and hops. It's an amazing beer and a bottle, available only from the brewery shop, will set you back £9.99. But the regular cask beers in St Austell pubs are keenly and attractively priced: no sign of daylight robbery.