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Organic September is over for another year. We marked it by brewing Against the Grain (Extra Hazy Pale Ale 4.2% ABV) with our friends at Tap Social, their first ever organic beer.
For a few weeks, the whole food and drink trade talked about soil, wildlife and how we look after the land. Now it’s October, the banners are down and we’re all back to the day job of protecting margins in one of the toughest trading climates I can remember.
I should declare an interest. I run an organic brewery and I’m aware that a brewer asking you to pay more for his beer is about as surprising as a publican complaining about the weather. But I also run a bar, so I know the feeling of looking at a supplier’s price list and wincing.
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We win on value
When every invoice gets picked over, I understand why a landlord might baulk at a dearer cask or keg but judging organic beer on wholesale price alone misses what’s happening around us.
Our weather is getting less predictable and recent UK climate crisis national security reports have warned of real risks to the country’s food supply. Let’s be honest, too: independent pubs and brewers will never win a price war with the global giants. We win on value and an organic pint on the bar is a visible vote for British farming and for land that can take whatever the weather throws at it.
Drinkers are already there. Younger customers, especially, want to know where their pint comes from and what it cost the land it grew on. Tell them the story behind the glass and most will happily pay a bit more. It’s one more reason to come down to the pub rather than grab a multipack at the supermarket.
The story does have to stand up, though. ‘Regenerative’ is everywhere in marketing right now but it has no legal definition. Organic does. It’s protected in law, audited every year, and it bans synthetic fertilisers and pesticides outright. It works, too. A major 2014 study led by Sean Tuck at the University of Oxford found organic farms support around 34% more species with pollinators among the biggest winners.
Organic soils faring better
What really keeps me up at night, though, is the harvest. British cereal growers have had three wretched years on the trot. A sodden winter followed by a severe drought has left UK grain production facing a 5.9m-tonne shortfall against the long-term average and spring barley, the backbone of British brewing, has taken a real hit. In hot, dry summers, conventional barley often ends up with too much nitrogen in the grain for maltsters to accept and whole loads get turned away.
Organic soils fare better. Built up over years with green manures and organic matter, they hold on to more water in a drought and feed the crop steadily rather than all at once. So, what does it actually cost? The organic grain adds just 3.5p to 4p a pint. That isn’t the whole bill – and I’d rather be upfront about it. Organic hops cost more, certification means yearly audits, and organic processing runs at a smaller scale. All in, you’re looking at 40p to 50p a pint at the bar, or about 8 to 10% more for the drinker.
I’m optimistic, though. Drinkers are often ready for this before we are and the pub that gets there first has a story its competitors can’t easily copy. An organic line gives your bar something that stands apart, brings in the drinkers who care and keeps your cash margin per pint healthy rather than chipping away at it.
It also means there’ll be good barley to brew with for a long while yet. Good beer starts in the field and 40p seems a fair price to keep it that way.
