Flying the flag for Freedom

There's a new beer lobby group called, conveniently, LOBI. It stands for Lagers of the British Isles and its aim is to give producers of lager beer greater recognition and appreciation.

LOBI is the brainchild of Mike Knight, sales manager of the Freedom Lager Brewery in Staffordshire. He organised a festival of British lagers at the White Horse, in Parson's Green, south-west London, earlier this month. The choice was significant: Freedom was launched over the road from the White Horse in 1995, where the head brewer was Alastair Hook, who learned the skills of making proper lager in Munich.

Hook now runs his own Meantime Brewery, in Greenwich, and Freedom has changed hands. The brewery moved in 2004 to Abbots Bromley near Lichfield in Staffordshire. It was owned at first by Brothers Brewing Co but the plant was sold in 2007 to Ed and Susan Mayman, who live locally.

The Maymans and head brewer Ian Ward use brewing kit imported from the USA and China, and produce beer according to the Reinheitsgebot, the German Beer Purity Law dating from 1516. The law says only malted barley, hops, yeast and water can be used to make beer. The fact that Freedom adheres to these strictures has encouraged the company to launch LOBI.

Once all lager beer was produced by a classic system of cold fermentation and maturation — lagering — at low temperatures. It meant that, rather like malt whisky, a lot of cash was locked up for several months while beer quietly matured and improved in ice-cold cellars beneath breweries.

That doesn't suit modern global brewers, who want to produce and sell beer as fast as possible to get a good return on their investment. In recent years, I have visited breweries in Poland and Russia, owned respectively by Heineken and Carlsberg, where the entire production of so-called lager takes just 21 days, not much longer than warm-fermented ale. Craft brewers in the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland still make proper lager but the market is dominated by beers that are made quickly and also use rice and maize alongside barley malt, in contravention of the Reinheitsgebot.

Freedom has been joined in forming LOBI by two Scottish brewers, Harviestoun and WEST, and Cotswold, Hepworth and Rebellion in England. They are carving a small but distinctive sector in the beer market. As Ed Mayman says: "We can't match the global brewers. Customers have to buy into what Freedom is about. If people want something cold, yellow and fizzy, then that's not an outlet for us."

The Maymans are producing around 2,500 barrels a year and have seen sales rise by 30% this year — a significant success amidst recession and pub closures. They have no background in brewing — Susan worked in London marketing jewellery while Ed studied mechanical engineering and then sold computer software — but they have quickly learned how to make and sell beer. Success has led to five new fermenters and two maturation tanks being bought from China. A bottling line has been added in order that all costs are contained and every part of the production process can be handled in-house.

Production is divided 50:50 between draught and bottled beer, with 75% of sales going to pubs and the rest to restaurants. Most beer is sold in London and the south-east, and Freedom also has outlets in Manchester and Glasgow. Draught beer is a major investment, involving cellarcooling equipment, pythons and bar dispensers and it's vital for the brewery that staff know how to handle proper lager. "Training is vital," says Susan. "If a draught outlet goes wrong, that's a big loss for us."

To encourage appreciation of their beers, the Maymans and Knight are keen to see pub and restaurant chefs matching beer with food. "Chefs appreciate flavour and can put serving notes with their dishes," says Ed.

Freedom produces three beers: Organic Lager (4.8% abv) is the main brand, followed by a 5% abv Pilsner and Organic Dark (4.7% abv). Organic certification from the Soil Association is a major cost but it stresses that Freedom is reaching out to a more discriminating audience than the average lager drinker.

I toured the impressive brewhouse with Ian Ward. He uses special pale lager malt from Warminster Maltings in Wiltshire but his hops are all imported from the Czech Republic, Germany and the US to give floral and citrus notes, rather than aggressive bitterness. After mashing, boiling with hops and primary fermentation, the beers are lagered just above 0°C for a minimum of one month. Ian Ward prefers to give the beers as long as possible in the lager tanks, with his Pilsner in particular improving with age.

British lager may seem an oddity, but there is a long tradition of making cold-fermented beers here. Tennent's in Glasgow was making lager in the 1880s and at one time there were lager breweries in such surprising places as Tottenham in north London, Shepton Mallet in Somerset and Wrexham in Wales. The Somerset brewery went by the imposing name of the Anglo-Bavarian Lager Brewery but the German connection made it unpopular during World War One and the company went out of business.

In common with cask-beer producers recreating India pale ales and porters, Freedom and other LOBI members are bringing back an old British lager tradition. The trend may not worry the likes of Carling and Carlsberg but it should please drinkers who relish flavour in beer, whether it's cask or lager.