Earlier this month, the brand added Felt, a 4% ABV gluten-free peach lager, to its core keg range for the on-trade, joining its other beers, including Jute 4.2% ABV Session IPA.
Managing director Edd Simpson told The Morning Advertiser (The MA) Felt had been designed to appeal to a new wave of drinkers seeking lighter, sweeter and more accessible options.
With the fruit beer category having grown its share of the total on-trade beer market by 0.4% over the past year, according to data from CGA by NIQ, Simpson said the brand aimed to establish itself as a “key player” in the market.
“Fruit beer is not new,” Simpson explained. “You could argue the craft movement got people to experiment with new fruit flavours and we’ve done lots within our range, but it’s a category with really rapid growth and we’re seeing a younger generation moving towards fruit beer.”
He added: “It has become clear this isn’t a short-term movement. It feels like something that’s going to be moving in a positive direction of growth over the next five or so years… we wanted to be at the front of that and put our hat in the ring.”
Simpson said while brands such as Jubel and Radler had done a great job of paving the way for fruit beer, SALT, which was a finalist at the Publican Awards this year, wanted to craft something distinctively “sessionable and sweet.”
Refreshing and sessionable
To do this, the brewery used base malts and natural peach flavouring, added on the cold side of fermentation to preserve the fruit’s delicate aroma and minimise bitterness.
“People are veering towards having something sweeter, it’s a bit of a gateway beer, but we wanted it to be really refreshing and sessionable and we’ve struck that balance. We’re really excited about it,” the managing director explained.
“We tried a few flavours but peach just seemed to hit the mark and it’s had success in the market already. It’s proved itself and so we thought, let’s have a go.”
Simpson – who took part in The MA’s Cask Webinar recently, which can still be watched here – added the team worked hard to create a beer that delivered an authentic fruit character.
He continued: “I’ve tried others and they just haven’t hit the mark for me in terms of having that really stand up, strong aromatic and authentic peach expression, which this does well.
“We really looked at how we could balance the sweetness and did numerous trials to make sure it was a sessionable beer first. The sweetness is subtle but very much balanced out. It stands up to the challenge.”
Simpson also hoped the new brew would open the brand, which is part of the Ossett Brewery family, up to a wider demographic as on-trade trends continue to evolve.
Textile heritage
As with the rest of SALT’s core range, the beer’s name pays homage to the brewery’s textile heritage in its hometown of Saltaire.
“All our beers are named after textiles, with Saltaire being the home of Sir Titus Salt, who was a textile magnate, that’s the heritage. But when you think about the outside of a peach and the texture, Felt seemed liked a really nice reference,” Simpson said.
Looking ahead, the managing director said the business planned to keep pushing boundaries with new flavours and styles, with lemon and cherry beers currently being considered.
Despite rising costs putting pressure on brewers across the sector, Simpson said trade had been “really good” for SALT in 2025, with the success of Alpacalypse in January driving “incredible growth.”
However, he called on the Government to provide clarity and support for the pub and brewing sectors ahead of the Autumn Budget later this month.
“The rapid rise of [these costs] for businesses is not easy to deal with, especially in what is currently a difficult market,” he continued.
“People are generally going out to the pubs less and drinking less, so it’s a fairly flat market and we’re doing well to achieve growth, which is fantastic. However, the last two Budgets have seen significant cost increases so we need to exponentially increase sales just to try to stay level.”
