I was delighted to be asked to judge one of the categories in this year’s awards, a new trophy for the Best Microbrewery-Owned Pub Company. Despite the clumsy title it’s a much-needed award that recognises the ambition of small brewers building pub estates, using beer and pubs to help promote each other.
I was given four finalists and had to spend a day with each, write up a report, then chair an interview panel for one final grilling.
Irrespective of the ultimate winner, spending time with each of these final four was a privilege and an inspiration.
To put this in context, I’ve been working on a new book. Six months into it, I had my laptop stolen, and had to start again. From October until February, I lived a hermetic existence, pounding my keyboard every day for as long as I could stay awake and (mostly) sane. By the time they came around, my judging duties were effectively my first contact with the outside world for about four months.
During those months, there were many times when I asked myself, why am I doing this? Why do I put myself through it?
My time with these businesses reminded me why.
The four finalists were all very different from each other and together provided a fascinating cross-section of small brewery pubs.
First up was Palmers in Dorset — not most people’s idea of a microbrewery, what with it being more than 200-years-old, but it still brews micro-sized volumes. A combination of experience and forward thinking means the pubs are moving with the times, offering excellent food and wine, but still keeping beer central to what they do.
I loved the way they got around their home town of Bridport being ‘over-pubbed’ by making each of four pubs down one street very different from the other: an ale shrine, a gastropub, a music pub and a sports bar, each targeting its very own niche.
Next I went to Leeds Brewery — as young and fresh as Palmers is old and experienced. Founded by two university graduates when they were just 22 and 23 years old, the business now comprises a 20-barrel brewery, a brewpub and four other pubs in the centre of Leeds — and its founders are still only 27.
They combine a genuine love of beer and pubs with a business nous that’s way beyond their tender years. To spend a day with them is to forget that there are any issues in the pub industry that can’t be solved by the application of energy, enthusiasm and passion. It’s actually quite scary that people so young can be so good at this.
Passion was also high on the agenda at Thornbridge, down the road in Derbyshire. The business is only a couple of years older than Leeds, but with older and more experienced men at the helm it’s grown a little faster. Thornbridge combines a beautifully focused approach to brand building with a respect for each individual pub’s character and a stunning array of eclectic, innovative and award-winning beers. You get the sense there’s nothing they couldn’t do, and that whatever they do, they have a ridiculous amount of fun doing it.
Finally I visited Convivial in London. In 2008, at the start of the credit crunch, this was a ragtag collection of unwanted pubs that had lost most of their value. Now, thanks to careful nurturing and a tight organisational esprit de corps in a small but perfectly formed business, each site has turned around, is making handsome profit and selling wonderful food and drink.
The masterstroke was turning one white elephant site, the Botanist in Kew, into a brewpub, which is now so popular it can’t brew fast enough to supply the rest of the estate.
I came away from each of these places newly excited about the passion, possibilities and simple joy in the world of pubs. Each one reminded me why I fell in love with this world, and gave up a perfectly respectable and very lucrative career to write about it.
If you’re a freeholder who is stuck for business ideas, or a lessee who is unhappy with the strictures placed on you by a large pubco, just take a look at any of these businesses, and feel inspired.