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Breweries — it’s beer and it’s brewed here
The beer revolution in Salisbury continues as golden ale specialists Hop Back launch a dark beer… Since then, Hop Back has become one of the most popular cask beer producers and developed their own pub estate. They moved from the Wyndham in the 1990s to a purpose-built plant, while their portfolio of award-winning beers have included a Lemongrass flavoured ale (excellent with Thai food and one of the first beers to really dine for) and a rich and roasty Entire Stout. However, landlords throughout the country will know them mainly for their light coloured beers, especially their bestseller Summer Lightning, which is 60% of their output. Given this, it is interesting to see them launch a new beer at the start of the summer that was a departure for them: it was dark. Odyssey, a malty, ruby red best bitter with a strength of 4%, was launched at the brewery's Duck Inn on the rural outskirts of Salisbury with help from Time Team stalwart Phil Harding, a regular at the Wyndham and a shareholder in the company.
The launch of Odyssey with Richard Harvey (left), Phil Harding (centre) and Grieg Futcher Having spearheaded the golden ale revolution when the common wisdom was that drinkers liked their beer the colour of an old sideboard left to you by ancient Auntie Blanche, Hop Back seem to know what drinkers want. Now, that everyone is going golden (Fuller's Discovery anyone?), Hop Back have taken a step in the other direction. Do they know something other brewers don't? Is dark the new black? 'I felt that the range of our beers had something lacking,' says Hop Back's young and enthusiastic Sales and Distribution manager Greig Futcher. 'We were missing a slightly darker beer. Our Best Bitter, from which we have developed Odyssey, was doing ok and a lot of our landlords were taking it but we wanted a brand name. With Odyssey you could identify with the brand. We are known for GFB, Crop Circle and Summer Lightning, which are all light, so I also felt that there was a need for something which was not distinctly Hop Back to offer to our landlords and the free trade. I went to the board and suggested it. I also fancied bucking a trend which we had done when launching one of the first golden ales.' Even though Hop Back emerged during the wave of micro-breweries in the 1980s, there's no way that you could call them micro now. They have ten pubs, 21 employees and 18,000 brewing barrels of beer are produced a year, which is more than some of the so-called regional brewers who have been around since the days of the Ark. Summer Lightning is definitely the top prize in their portfolio and is equally at home in free houses and pub co establishments. Hop Back have a good relationship with the likes of Wetherspoons and Enterprise and Greig is working on Punch, but he was also chuffed to get the award-winning Fat Cat of Norwich to take Summer Lightning on a regular basis. As for their own houses, what makes them so interesting is that in the age of gastro and theme pubs, they are wet-led with only one of them — the Duck — doing food. 'If our pubs have any theme,' says Futcher, 'it is that they are cask beer led and have a bank of 4-5 hand-pumps on the bar. The majority do not do food, apart from pickled eggs and crisps. The other thing that connects them is that they are up to 10 minutes from a station and basically back-street boozers. We would definitely like more if they became available and we'll buy from anywhere. Some pubs might be down on their luck, others might need a spot of vision or they might not fit into a pub company's portfolio.' All the pubs, apart from one are tenanted and as you can imagine one of the stipulations to run a Hop Back house is a passion for cask beer. 'Our terms for tenants are fairly straightforward,' says the brewery's MD Richard Harvey, 'we believe in working with them to enable to drive their business forward and move beer volume through the pub. With our formal permission we also agree to "guest" ales from other brewers/suppliers if we believe that they will help the overall performance of the pub. However, the tenant will still have to achieve their Hop Back barrelage targets!' Back at the launch, pints of Odyssey are being supped by the guests, including the mayor and assorted journalists. Preparing a new beer takes time according to Futcher. 'There is a lot of preparation,' he says. 'I think it took about 12 months for Odyssey. It started with me think about what I wanted, choosing the style and then going to the board with the idea. You have to be able to spot the gap in the market and tell the brewers what to do. We did a lot of test brews, tried these out on everyone in the brewery and then put it out to the pubs as a blind beer. Then we looked at the feedback from that, and did another tasting. You have to think about the launch, speak to wholesalers to make sure they will do a promotion on the beer. Then there's the design for pump clips, drip mats and beer towels. It is crucial to consult pubs and our staff.' So far the signs are good. Odyssey has been going down well with Hop Back's landlords and meeting with approval from wholesalers. 'Slowly but surely is the catchword,' says Futcher, 'I think it will come into its own in the autumn. Like Summer Lightning it is available all year round, but we wanted to launch it now because it is a busy period and this means we can give it a bit of a push.' As for the name, have Hop Back gone all Greek with the connection to Homer's epic tale? Not really, says Futcher. 'It's a kind of golf putter.’ Very Salisbury.
HOP BACK PUBS
Tasting notes Odyssey 4% Crop Circle 4.2% Taiphoon 4.2% Entire Stout 4.5% Summer Lightning 5% Printed in the Morning Advertiser summer 2005
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