Brakspear has quickly established itself as the country's premier brewer of organic beers. Phil Mellows investigates the reasons behind its success.
They don't look any different. They don't smell any different. They don't taste any different. Contrary to popular belief, if you drink enough they can still give you a hangover. Yet consumers appreciate organic beers to the extent that they form the fastest expanding sector of the market.
As last year's explosive growth has slowed to a more sensible pace, it has given brewers the chance to catch up with demand. The first UK organic beer festival, held at the Anchor pub in Digbeth, Birmingham, in the summer, offered a dozen draught ales, while in November the Society of Independent Brewers' (SIBA) organic beers competition attracted no fewer than 38 entries from 18 breweries.
It was a daunting task for the 13 judges, tasting blind across three categories and then choosing an overall champion. At last year's inaugural contest there were only 22 beers, and in the opinion of those who had judged in both, standards have generally improved, too.
So it is probably significant that the first champion organic beer held onto its title this year. Not only that, Brakspear Live Organic was one of only four beers that all-but swept the board at the 2001 competition for the Henley brewer.
Its Vintage Roots was runner-up to Live Organic among the ales, its Naturale won the lager category and its Stone Bottled was joint second to Pitfield Stout among the specialities.
This cannot be luck. The truth is that it isn't easy to produce an organic beer that can match the best non-organic beers for quality.
While organic malt has become relatively plentiful, with several varieties now available, hops are still posing a problem. For a beer to be certified as organic, you have to prove that all the ingredients have been grown without artificial aids - and the hop plant is notoriously vulnerable to disease.
According to Brakspear head brewer Peter Scholey, "there is little choice of organic hops".
"About the only varieties that are easily available are Target in the UK and a New Zealand hop that is ferociously bitter," he said. "The quality of the hops was very important to us and we weren't happy with such a limited choice. We didn't see the point of making an organic beer that was not as good as a non-organic beer."
His solution, four years ago, was to commission a farmer to grow organic Goldings. To do that, he had to guarantee that Brakspear would buy all the hops even though under the rules of the Soil Association, the body which certifies most organic produce, a crop cannot be "organic" until it has been in the same soil for three years.
"That period, called 'conversion', is usually when the farmer suffers financially," explained Peter. "Organic hops have a terrible yield, a half or less of that for non-organic, and yet for three years they can't get an organic price for them.
"We couldn't even get a British grower to do it, so we had to do a six-year deal with a Belgian farmer. We buy his hops at the organic price, even though for the first three years we couldn't use them in organic beers."
There is now a small surplus of these hops, which Brakspear sells on to Pitfield Brewery, the East London microbrewery run by Martin Kemp. It is, presumably, no coincidence that Pitfield Stout took the only SIBA title Brakspear didn't.
On top of the hop complications, the brewery itself has to be registered. "If you want to go organic you have a choice of bodies that will accredit you, but the Soil Association is considered to be the toughest," said Peter. "You literally have to account for every gram of your ingredients, show where they came from, which brews they were used in and you have to prove you clean the plant between every brew."
Brakspear actually started selling an organic beer as a trial in 1998, a year before the brewery was registered.
It appeared as a seasonal ale, but of course it couldn't be called organic and couldn't command the 10p premium on a pint or bottle that is typical for organic beers.
Microbrewers, which often need to find a distinct niche in the marketplace purely as a matter of survival, have also been quick to exploit the demand for an organic product.
Among them is the Marble Brewery, the Manchester brew-pub which hosted this year's SIBA competition and apparently put up a strong challenge to Brakspear in the ales category, although it didn't come away with any prizes.
The brewery has served three tied pubs, the Marble Arch Inn itself, the Bar and the Marble Beerhouse in Chorlton, plus the freetrade, since 1997. It went all-organic in October 2000 when a local grocer challenged it to make an organic ale.
For head brewer James Campbell it was a question of refusing the challenge or converting the brewery entirely to the production of organic beers - it being impractical for a micro to mix the two.
While doing that, it also went vegan which meant not using the usual finings made from fish swim-bladders to clarify the beer.
Instead, James uses a longer brewing process to allow the beer to drop bright. Even so, Marble's cask ales have names like Chorlton-cum-Hazy and Cloudy Marble to get drinkers used to the idea that they may not be as clear as they expect.
The orginal range of five beers was joined by an alcoholic ginger ale in March, a particular challenge according to James.
"Organic ingredients are very limited and Ginger Marble contains a whole hotch-potch of spices and has a high wheat content. It is already one of our best sellers."
He believes that Marble's beers sell on their quality rather than through being organic, although vegetarians do seek out the pubs.
"One chap came in who hadn't drunk beer for 10 years because he'd become a vegetarian. The look of pleasure on his face when he found us was by itself worth all the trouble of converting the brewery."
Organic beer is likely to establish itself as a small but permanent sector over the next few years. Ingredients should get cheaper and there is some excitement that a new British organic hop, a version of First Gold, will soon become available.
Brakspear will continue to try to stay ahead of the game and is to launch the bottle-conditioned Live Organic on draught next February as well as making Ted & Ben's, its organic draught ale, available in bottles.
For Peter Scholey, however, winning a third title in 2002 would be "wishful thinking" as other brewers improve their own contenders.
James Campbell predicts a shake-out of inferior brands as standards rise, but does not expect a mass market to materialise. If it was true that organic beer promised hangover-free mornings the sector could have more potential, but he has given his creations what he calls "the 10-pint test" and suffered the consequences, albeit to a milder degree.
"It shows how passionate I am about my beer!" he said.
SIBA'S winning brews
- Organic Beer of Britain 2001 - Brakspear Live Organic
- Champion Organic Ale - Brakspear Live Organic
- Runner Up - Brakspear Vintage Roots
- Champion Organic Lager - Brakspear Naturale
- Runner Up - Broughton Angel
- Champion Speciality Beer - Pitfield Stout
- Joint Runner Up - Black Isle Porter
- Joint Runner Up - Brakspear Stone Bottled
Brewers entering - Arkell's, Bateman, Black Isle, Brakspear, Broughton, Caledonian, Ceredigion, Freedom, Fullers, Greene King, J W Lees, Marble, Meantime, Organic, O'Hanlons, Pitfield, St Peters and Wychwood