| I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how the UK, and by extension, Europe’s beer market and brewery behaviour differs to that of the USA. You may (or may not) know that lots of American craft breweries are built upon the ‘direct to consumer’ model – whereby they sell most of their beer straight from the brewery itself to the customer via cans, bottles and draft pours. In contrast, the UK (and much of Europe to my knowledge) simply doesn’t have the mentality yet where people are willing to drive up to several hours to buy some beer from their favourite brewery. Some in the UK are, however, trying to adopt a version of this US model where they combine direct sales with online sales. DEYA really spring to mind – I can’t think of any other brewery in this country that is held in such high regard who are as steadfastly, resolutely adhering to this model. With nearly all other breweries in this country we can usually get our hands on their beer for our shop. But not DEYA. Not regularly anyway. It obviously makes it more sought-after and keeps the hype rolling (whether intentional or not). More power to DEYA though if they can keep selling out of their beer, making more money and growing with this model. It’s an interesting one because we would be nowhere near the bottleshop/bar we are if many more of the UK’s finest adopted this aforementioned US approach. We pride ourselves on our wide selection – it’s our range that could be argued is more fun than picking up one or two new cans direct from a brewery. Whichever way things swing though – we will evolve and move with whatever happens and continue to provide the best beers we possibly can! |
It’s great to have some Verdant back in our fridges this week – and we’ve got no less than FOUR cans for you right now. From the classic Lightbulb to new pale ‘The Most Effective Way’, to West Coast IIPA ‘Too Many Opinion….’ to DIPA ‘Your Limitation….’ we got them! It’s a really solid week for Burnt Mill.
There’s a seriously, seriously hopped IPA collaboration with Cloudwater(BIIIIIG juice), as well as the latest iteration of their ‘…Fog’ series, in this instance showcasing citra hops. We got a re-up of Pintle pale and Green Path IPA too! Speaking of Cloudwater – we’ve got a great range of fresh brews in by them right now from table beers to pales to IPAs to DIPAs to light lagers to pilsners. We’ve also got their new Doppelschwarz in collaboration with Northern Monk, Track and Wylam – a cross between a Doppelbock and a Schwarzbier – “rich, rounded flavours of caramel, raisin and plum, with a little chocolate and roasted malt accents thrown in.” 😋
Alphabet beaver away quietly up in Manchester, consistently producing great and interesting beers. This week we’ve got two new cans from them – Busy Earnin’ is a NEIPA and Honeytrap is a honey infused Imperial Stout! We’ve got some of their core beers too, including the ever great Flat White. These should be arriving with us Thursday/Friday. Eyes peeled! New brewery (to our fridges) alert!
Mothership are an all female brewery hitting the ground running…..sometimes you just know shit is gonna be good when someone’s got their branding and website on point. Not always the case – but much like an album with great artwork, often a good indicator. They’ve given us a brut pale ale, a cardomom [sic] and rose summer stout as well as a straight up galaxy-hopped IPA. Sahhhweet.
Quick-Fyre:-
-Brew By Numbers have given us their latest DDH Pale cans (Number 5, no less) as well as a stonking farmhouse pale with Duration.
– Stone have collaborated on a grape ale/IPA hybrid with Lambrate from Italy…..
– Rogue have given us a blackcurrant sour in big cans and its awesome.