Breweries — it’s beer and it’s brewed here
A snapshot of a brewery in time. A year
before it was bought and closed Gale’s Brewery seemed to be facing the future
with confidence…
Next year is the 200th anniversary of Trafalgar and even though the spirit of the times is against fighting old battles as old enemies have long been allies, you can bet an Admiral's cocked hat that a few beers will be released celebrating Nelson's triumph. None will be more eagerly awaited in the wardrooms of what's left of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth than Gale’s Trafalgar 200, a 10.5% bottled ale, which has been quietly maturing for the past few months.
'We are going to bottle it in the next few weeks,' the Hampshire brewery's Managing Director Nigel Atkinson tells me in his office when we meet on a blustery day in September. The shelves groan with Gale's bottled beers past and present, many celebrating other historical anniversaries such as D-Day. 'It will be a collector's item and for drinking with food, especially cheese.'
Gale’s are Hampshire's largest brewery and own 111 pubs, 43 of which are managed with the remaining tenanted; a dozen of them offer accommodation under the brand name of Accommodating Inns, while 11 of them can be found in Portsmouth. Hence the RN connection. There are also 638 free trade accounts. Gales are one of the great survivors from the 20th century's cull of traditional breweries and continue to win awards for their beers, pubs and even environmental practices.
Every year they produce 50,000 barrels of beer, 80% of which is cask conditioned, while their Victorian tower brewery in Horndean is on the visiting list for any self-respecting beer buff. High up in the building, you will find the miller hard at work, watching the production of the grist. The mill is a flurry of belts, the noise is deafening and there is a powdery feel to the air. Elsewhere you might see the head brewer and his team sampling beer at various times of the day, or come across a group of Gale's licensees about to be taken on a tour; in another room another contingent are taking their British Institute of Innkeeping exams.
Gale's trading area concentrates on Hampshire though they have been expanding outwards for some time. 'We continuously buy new pubs and tend to get two a year,' says Atkinson, who joined the brewery from Courage in 1990. Recent acquisitions have seen Gale’s make their presence known in Oxford, Windsor and Lewes.
'Our geography is central/southern England,' adds Atkinson. 'It is a good area, aspirational and affluent. Our aim is to grow a profitable retail estate, both tenanted and managed, of distinctive inns.' Their turnover was £38 million in 2003/4 and they had a £5 million operating profit. This has been the 15th year of consecutive growth in profit. No wonder Atkinson says, 'this is a successful business'.
Mention Gale’s to any beer lover and they will mention HSB, their bestselling premium bitter with its exquisite balance of rich malt flavours and aromas with a delicate hop fruitiness, as well as the bottled Prize Old Ale, a 9% barley wine sold in corked bottles. This is a rich and complex beer that improves with age. There are beers to hunt out though. Earlier this year Gale’s responded to demand for a session beer and released Gale’s, a 3.9% bitter with plenty of grainy malt and fruity hop aromas and flavours. It is already performing exceedingly well and Atkinson expects it to become their bestseller in the near future.
When we speak, Atkinson stresses how important it is for the brewery to listen to both customers and pub managers and tenants. Naturally, control comes from the centre for all the major decisions but there is a refreshing spirit of independence encouraged amongst their licensees.
'The houses are centrally controlled,' says Atkinson, 'but we like to encourage individuals with flair. Although we have central control you can allow individually minded licensees. We have no shortage of licensees and we look after them. Therefore there is a long waiting list. Having won a lot of awards we get successful people applying. '
Atkinson warms to his subject, which is about the snobbery with which a career in the licensed trade is seen. 'There is a lot of work to be done in the pub industry for recruitment,' he says. 'Being a barman or woman is still not perceived as a career. In other countries it is but not here so we are working hard to create an atmosphere to help barmen and women develop into licensees if they want to.'
In order to attract the best, Gale’s run courses for both tenants and managers to help develop their skills and get professional qualifications. As food is also important they have a regular chef's day where chefs from all their managed houses are taken through food and beer matching.
Gale’s have worked hard with their beers too. Even though they are not members of the Beer Academy, the brewery supports the work of this revolutionary new organisation and Atkinson points out that Gale’s run their own similar group.
'We developed our own beer tasting school,' he says, 'and as part of the Hampshire Fair we recently did a session on beer. We had done it in our pubs before but never as part of a paid event for the public. We are also members of Cask Marque. The key now is having got the beer right is to talk it up to customers. To get people to drink more beer you have to get the environment right and when they're there the beer has to feature strongly. That's one reason we're combining it with food and marketing it properly. We spent a lot of time in training our staff to serve a glass of beer properly.'
There are plenty of other issues at the moment for pub-owning breweries. In the last budget Gale’s became liable for Progressive Beer Duty and are just starting to get the benefits, which are invested back into the brewery. There is the binge drinking and minimum pricing issue as well, though because Gales don't have a high street presence, it doesn't effect them that much except when government intervention tars all brewers with the same brush. There is also smoking.
Nigel Atkinson is not a smoker but realises that Gales are going to have to do something that will please customers and at the same time fit in with future legislation. 'In some of our community pubs 80% smoke,' he says, 'but I think we should make it more comfortable for the customers. The big area for the anti-smoking lobby is with staff and that I can't argue with. Staff are working in an area with smoke and that is a big issue and we have to look after our staff.'
Good beers, comfortable pubs and a wonderfully atmospheric tower brewery with its roots in the Victorian age make Gales a rare survivor alongside the likes of Wadworths, Adnams and Hook Norton. They have been in the same place for nearly 160 years and survived all manner of storms, even their head brewer reputedly killing himself during the 1930s in a most spectacular fashion.
'There are all sorts of stories about him,' says Atkinson, 'that he put his brewing book and pocket watch on the side of a fermenting vessel and then jumped in. Fermenting vessel number 5 apparently. That's why we always say our beers are full-bodied.'
Gales tasting notes
Butser 3.4%
Malt-accented beer with a dryish finish and a hint of citrus. Complements cured meats.
Gales 3.9%
Session beer with grainy succulent malt on the palate leading to a fresh hoppy fruitiness. Serve with spicy foods.
Festival Mild 4.8%
Strong mild style with chocolate and malt on the palate and a malty finish tempered by a brief tingling of hoppy bitterness. Excellent with sausages and smoked fish.
HSB 4.8%
Plenty of malt and hop fruitiness. Good with hearty stews and game dishes.
• In 2005 Gale’s was bought by Fuller’s and the brewery closed.
Printed in the Morning Advertiser autumn 2004
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