Ale, Beer, Stout appreciation

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/walthamstow-beer-mile-council-cash-crisis-wild-card-brewery-hipster-blackhorse-lane-b1190229.html

Sad news ^

Sad to see Wild Card go, as the article says it was one of the originals in the area.

Heading down to Bermondsey this weekend and a lot of those seem to have disappeared too. Is the big Fourpure now open as something else or has it just shut down?

Gipsy Hill also now sold to Sunrise Alliance, owners of St Peter's Brewery.

Fourpure permanently closed. Of the original 'five', only Kernel are now still brewing in Bermondsey. First in, last remaining.

I wish they’d never stopped brewing Jack of Clubs 😢

What’s the Tottenham Hale breweries experience like? Thinking of checking it out midweek, but have no clue what’s there and if there’s a good route to hit them up.

Took delivery of a few beers, ostensibly setting myself up for Christmas.
Beautiful Beers, based in Bury St Edmonds, .put an online order in yesterday and it arrived today.

I did get a few Paix Dieu and Duchess as I am a big fan, then spread the love to try a few others.
Mostly tripels, couple of stouts and one of the big boys is a saison "magic goat"

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The Lucky Anchor on Deptford Highstreet is a welcome addition to the area. And there’s now quite a hefty cask crawl to be had consisting of Dog and Bell, Jam Circus, Lucky Anchor, Royal Albert, Shirker’s Rest. You could do it the other way but then you miss out on the escalation option of Marquis Of Granby onto Amersham/New Cross Inn/Planet Wax depending on the musical preferences for the night.

Lucky Anchor

On the premises of a former bike shop, no less. What could possibly go wrong?

Are there any Bermondsey breweries south/east of Kernel that are open on a Sunday.?

Spartan seems to have closed which is a shame and Outpost and Substation appear to not open on a Sunday.

Anspach & Hobday plus the Dutch bar in between

You mean actual Tottenham Hale or Black horse Lane?

Tottenham Hale there's only a few and probably none open midweek.

Black horse Lane there's a couple open during the week but realistically I'd say if you want to try a few then wait for the weekend or at least a Thursday.

Tottenham Hale. Was thinking about trying it out as a buddy comes through there, but the tube strike being called off means we’re just going to go to Blackhorse Road anyway - which is where we usually go 😉

Still curious about Tottenham. Am going to a record fair in a warehouse up there next Sunday so may investigate Beavertown for lunch or sommat.

They're further up towards London Bridge aren't they?

Pretty sure Beavertown is currently closed. There's Pressure Drop there and Ora a bit further up but I think that's about it (plus mother Kelly's)

It's literally a 10 minute walk down Enid Street. There's also Moor and Cloudwater that will probably be open.

Other option is to go to Deptford to Villages.

Cheers but I'm working out where to stop off on the way to the Den so they're going back in the opposite direction from Kernel.

Yeah there's not much else other than Small Beer, not sure they'll be open anyway

Bourbon Barrel Aged Schwarzbeir via Black Isle x Salt.

Tasty.

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Trouble brewing for independents by Glynn Davis

Sitting at the bar in my local pub, the Great Northern Railway Tavern, earlier in the year, I noticed the regular guest lager produced by the brewery I co-owned, Bohem Brewery, had been replaced by a specially brewed lager for the pub by Gipsy Hill Brewery.

The deal had just been struck and the sales guy from Gipsy Hill happened to be in the bar celebrating securing a new regular line, having shoved out a competitor. I grudgingly congratulated him. This little cameo was indicative of the craft beer scene for some years. At times, I’ve sat at bars and seen a procession of brewery salespeople wander in flogging their wares to managers drowning in beer choices.

It’s been so cutthroat that successes like that at the Great Northern have been insufficient to save Gipsy Hill from selling out to Sunrise Alliance Beverages Group. It has not been a celebratory exit for its founders but merely a move that helped it avoid falling into administration. The deal gave the brewery a valuation of £5m versus around £20m when it crowdfunded in 2022 as debts were mounting.

Its downfall follows that of another major London player, Wild Card Brewery, which ceased trading last month after racking up insurmountable debts. Again, it raised money through crowdfunding. These two operators are not alone in pulling in money from beer fans and accumulating debts as they seek to service pubs in an incredibly competitive market.

My experience at Bohem Brewery, in which I was a founder shareholder when investing in early 2017, has highlighted how I reckon it is near-impossible for a start-up brewery to succeed if it does not have sufficient guaranteed channels to market – namely in the form of its own pubs and bars. Selling into the on-trade is incredibly tough and few small breweries manage to achieve sustainable profits. Even the very best brewers, such as The Kernel and Burning Sky, with exemplary products acknowledge the precariousness.

That’s not to say this was not recognised by the craft brewery industry (breweries operating pubs is hardly a revolutionary strategy) but many focused elsewhere. In the rush to drive down production costs, many breweries chose to expand their capacities, which meant they needed to sell even more beer beyond their own outlets and employ more salespeople to trip over each other in pubs up and down the country. Overcapacity has been rife, new brewing kits sitting idle and businesses haemorrhaging money.

The solution to these ills over the years has been crowdfunding, which has been the equivalent of life support for many breweries, which have invariably failed to deliver on the grandiose plans they promised their new shareholders. The money has ultimately been used as working capital, which has dwindled away as losses mount.

Many breweries would have been hopeful in the early days of ultimately selling out to a bigger player and retiring on the proceeds, but that dream died years ago. Only Beavertown Brewery and Camden Town have sold out to bigger players for significant premiums, but that was years back. The latter was almost a decade ago.

The more likely and less appealing exit we have seen emerge recently is to sell to the roll-up players and private equity firms that have sniffed an opportunity as distressed assets abound in the sector. Among them are Cadman Capital Group, which has Conwy Brewery and Anglesey Ales in its portfolio, and Breal Group’s Keystone Brewing, which has snaffled up the likes of Black Sheep Brewery, Brew By Numbers, Brick Brewery and Purity Brewing.

Gipsy Hill buyer Sunrise Alliance Beverages Group evolved out of St Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk and has also bought Portobello Brewing, Wild Beer Co and Curious Brewery. The latter two were purchased from Risk Capital Partners. The Luke Johnson-led firm had originally seen an opportunity to build a portfolio of beer brands, but it didn’t happen.

Beyond the fact these brewery brands and their assets are going cheap, I’m still puzzled that there is an appetite among investors to build portfolios of breweries and beer brands. There are no examples, to my knowledge, of where it has worked. It’s normally a recipe for closures. When Johnson and Risk Capital Partners tapped out, my concerns were further heightened.

My own involvement with Bohem Brewery has shown that independent breweries without a decent pub estate to sell their beer through will face ongoing pressures, and sadly, there will be more failures. It’s why I sold out at a painful 80% loss. Along with many other craft breweries, Bohem has produced some excellent beer, but as an investment, these businesses can leave a sour taste in the mouth.

Was chatting to Evin at Kernel on Thursday evening about this. Bizarrely, he reckons Kernel is now the second-biggest independent brewer in London (behind Sambrook's, but only just).

Went to Café Kulminator in Antwerp on Saturday. Phenomenal beer list. Proper decision-paralysis inducing stuff. Was fortunately taken under the wing of some locals who shared a few of their favourites from the menu. Would recommend.

Glad to hear it's still open, the owners are quite elderly now and there were rumours it was going to close.

They are still on pretty good form, if a little slow. The locals I chatted to said they don't really need to keep the shop open any more but quite enjoy it, as long as they get to control who goes in. So fingers crossed, it'll be open a while longer.

This is excellent, probably the best non-Belgian Tripel I’ve ever had.

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