Beer: Thwaites thinks again

There comes a time when if you're a 204-year-old business, you have to decide whether you're gloriously old-fashioned and cash in on your heritage or you want to be a bit, you know, modern. Get it wrong and you disenfranchise those who've been with you for the long haul. Get it right, and you win yourself a new customer base that can secure the future of the company.

But that question becomes a lot trickier when your product is beer. Messing with the recipe of old favourites can prompt an impassioned backlash. So what do you do? You bring a new line of beers in. Something a bit crazy.

"There has been an impression that we are a huge northern brewery that brews northern beer. Consumer research said it's what your dad drinks," says Sue Allen, commercial director at Thwaites. "We want to change hearts and minds. We want to see people try a beer and say 'Blimey, who makes that?' We want to surprise a few people."

And so a wind of change has swept across the Daniel Thwaites brewery in Blackburn.

While adamant that old favourites will remain unchanged, the brewer is looking forward to a more innovative period in its brewing history.

A 20-barrel micro-brewery will open in September to allow the brewing team to get creative. But before that, the first two beers of 13 in a new range of seasonal ales, the Signature range, is already out in the trade. OBJ is a 6.5 per cent ABV dark ale and Crowning Touch is a ruby red ale for the Six Nations rugby which uses goldings and bramling cross hops. The sleek pumpclips and the range of unusual ingredients are a clear statement of intent.

"We want to make our beers, not necessarily more challenging, but more interesting," says Ian Bearpark, production and distribution director. "People want not necessarily more strength, but more flavour."

The buoyant and daring American craft brewing scene has been a strong influence on Bearpark's decision for how he wants to take the brewer forward.

"It's fun. They're uninhibited. It's what we're missing," he says. "I've bullied the company into letting me do an American-style pale ale." That beer is Triple C, a single-hopped IPA brewed with cascade hops for a citrus finish. "Triple C - one hop used three times. I don't know what it tastes like but that's what we're going to do."

But inspiration has also come from closer to home. Local microbrewers such as Copper Dragon have proved influential. "The microbrewers are great," says Allen. "They've brought innovation and made us sleepy brewers wake up a bit. We want our brewers to have afternoons or days to just experiment."

But where does the brewer ultimately want this refocus to lead? "We wanted to revive cask," Bearpark says simply. "The North West region is very much dominated by Carling.

"We have an estate of more than 350 pubs. It's not where the market is in the North West."

It has also just opened its second 'Beer Hero' concept pub - the Oaks in Ramsbottom, Lancashire - to champion cask ale. The offer is focused on a variety of regular and seasonal draught ales and lagers from around the world.

And the 1807 Cask Club, an initiative that will enable its top cask ale pubs access to 32 seasonal beers including 16 "artisan" ales from other brewers including Fullers, Batemans and Tyme Hill, will run until the end of this year.

But it is looking nationally too. The hope is one of the seasonals will capture the imagination of drinkers and become a national brand like Fuller's London Pride, Sharp's Doom Bar or St Austell's Tribute. Indeed, its one-time seasonal ale Wainwright has just sold its 1.5 millionth bottle.

"Why shouldn't we?" says Bearpark.

"We've just been a bit lazy so far."