Embracing the spirit of speciality at De Hems bar in London

Matt Nicholas, manager of Mitchells & Butlers' successful Dutch-themed outlet in Soho, reveals the secrets behind offering a wide range of customers some 46 speciality beers

Why is the pub called De Hems?

The original owner who ran the pub during both World Wars was called De Hem. It has a normal bar downstairs that sold brews such as Guinness and stout, and an oyster bar upstairs that had 30,000 oyster shells cemented to the walls.

During the wars, the bar was used primarily as a meeting point for the Dutch resistance.

The pub has focused on speciality beers since the '70s and is currently the only pub in the country that sells the original Oranjeboom from Holland a 5% lager.

Did you have much experience of the speciality beer market when you first started at De Hems?

Absolutely none whatsoever it was a bit of a culture shock when I first came here four years ago.

The range was a lot smaller then, but having come from All Bar One, my knowledge was much more wine-orientated. I knew nothing about beer, other than mainstream ones such as Carling and Grolsch, so I began reading all sorts of books, spoke to people and visited the breweries in Belgium to try the beers.

I now see beer in a completely different way you could look at it like wine really. You drink them both to appreciate the quality and the different flavours, not just to throw it down your neck like lager.

Lots of people get hung up about the percentage of the beer, but that's immaterial. It's about the drink itself, and like wine, there is no issue about the strength.

What do you think has helped grow the speciality beer market?

Sales of speciality beer have increased here by 15% in the last year, which I put down to cheap travel and weekend breaks. For example, you can get to Brussels on Eurostar in just two hours and 20 minutes which is definitely helping to evolve our culture here. EasyJet and Ryanair are also helping this. People are discovering these beers abroad and continuing to drink them back in the UK. The supermarkets are also stocking enormous ranges of beer, which people are starting to recognise.

What sort of customers does your pub attract?

Most of our customers are between 25 and 35 and have a bit of money to spare. But then there are also the beer enthusiasts who've come on a trip to London and searched us out.

We do get the odd customer who's come in looking for our strongest beer in that situation, I just don't serve them. They're just looking to drink a beer for its strength and not for its taste. Beers like Westmalle Triple are 9% but you wouldn't know it, it's just such a smooth beer. We have more men than women, the split is about 70% men and 30% women.

Does it bother you that the big boys with brands such as Stella are also producing niche beers?

Not at all, in fact, I'd say it's helped our business. The big boys have put lots of weight behind their speciality beers with big marketing campaigns for beers like Leffe and Hoegaarden.

The more mainstream beers like the new Artois Bock provide a good entry point into the speciality beer market for people new to the category, by breaking down that barrier of just going for what you know.

Hopefully this then leads people to try some of the more niche beers. For example, I see Leffe as an entry point for Maredsous which is the same abbey beer, but with a slightly different flavour.

Ironically though, the real beer enthusiasts wouldn't touch the big boys' brands. I think there is an anti-corporation thing going on that the big boys are just buying up everything, 'oh it's produced by so-and-so I won't drink that.

Are there any brands that you'd recommend watching?

Duvel's Vedett and the abbey beer Corsendonk are very popular with us. Duvel is one of the most well-known and biggest family brewers, so people are willing to give their beers a try.

The way they market their beers is quite ingenious. The Belgians are quite strange sometimes they go round taking pictures of people in bars drinking their beers and then put those pictures on their labels.

Duvel is thinking of doing a similar thing in the UK, so it won't be long till you could buy a Vedett here and have your face on the label.

What's your top-selling brand?

On draught it's Leffe Blanc, probably through its brand recognition. In bottles, Belgian Trappist beers such as Westmalle and Chimay are both big sellers.

Is it difficult to source the more niche beers?

Not really, the importers we use, Clays Direct, tend to be able to get pretty much anything. I go to Belgium once every couple of months so I visit cafes and see what they stock.

The main thing, though, is glassware, which you also get from your supplier. If a customer is spending £3.83 on a nice beer you really need to drink it in a nice glass, otherwise it just devalues the whole product. If you try drinking Hoegaarden in a normal pint glass, and then the pint pot, you really notice the difference.

Do you have any tips on looking after the different branded glasses?

You do need lots of space we have 46 different speciality beer glasses. It can get a bit chaotic as we have only six of each glass, so we have to keep an eye on things. A lot of them walk out the door, or get broken. They are worth quite a lot they are sold at £3 or £4 a glass on the internet.

One of our Belgium beers, Kwak, comes in a test tube with a rack quite prestigious glasses. We ask for a shoe as a deposit, which is hung on the bar, ready for collection when the glass returns. It adds a bit of theatre to the beer.

What are your aspirations for the sector?

A greater appreciation from the general public, and for people to come in and really taste the quality of the beer, and ask how it's made. Since the beers are quite highly-priced, some people see this as a barrier.

They don't want to waste £3 or £4 on a drink they don't like. So there is that risk factor which makes people go for what they know a glass of Stella or whatever. We are always trying to help people find out what they like, by making sure we stock every bottled beer in draught format over the course of a year, for giving tasters out. At any given time we'll have 14 different beers available on draught. That's the easiest way of selling beer to someone or moving them from one beer to another.

How important is the quality of the beer to you?

Very important, although all the speciality beers are quality beers anyway. What we look for primarily is beers that have real heritage and history. From our point of view, it's the older the better.