I want it all, I want it now.

Busy week this week, what with Christmas comming faster than a very fast thing, we have a lot of things on our plate.

Monday has turned into accounts day, problem day and fustration day, as a problem has occured with the labels for bottled Ironworks Ale, the supplier has wound them on the wrong way so that everything is in the wrong place for the label machine......

Tommorow is looking good, but I have to make sure that everyone has their Christmas orders in, so if you want some brilliant Craft Beer for Christmas, you'd better get hold of us soon as it's going fast.

The madness begins Wednesday as I collect this week's order of Ironworks Ale and deliver it to the pubs in East London that have it on draft. It's not a huge quantity, but then we are still waiting for the people at Wetherspoons HQ to cross the T's and dot the I's on the paperwork that will see it in The Millers Well and Barking Dog as well as some other Wetherspoons pubs in East London and Essex. We expect a big increase in sales once that deal is finalised.

After that we are meeting the good people from Brewdog at their new bar in Camden Town to have a look at what they have done there. Looking forward to trying some more of their beers there.

Then it's back to the South West via our friends at Ramsbury Brewery, and I hope to have time to drop in on Devilfish and Plain Ales as well. Once back in the office it's back to the search for a good quality lager producer that can provide a short run to test market an Ironworks Lager for January.

Phew.

Liberty Beer's Latest baby.

Steve and I have been hard at work with the pencil case and crayons recently, and we are proud to announce the arrival of another new idea from the fertile minds of liberty beer.

The concept and all the artwork is by liberty beer, and we are very happy with the result. The beer is available all over E13 and in some of the better outlets in Essex, and will imminently be available by mail order for those fans who don't get to the Boleyn Ground as much as they would like.

we also offer an outsourced design and marketing service for brewers or Publicans who need a helping hand with their design work or production of merchandising materials. we also do websites.

You can learn more about Ironworks and see more of our work at www.ironworksbeer.com

Beeriodical: The Seven Stars Bristol, first monday of the month.

Last night saw liberty beer supplying their first Seven Stars Beeriodical.

As our regular readers will know, we have been out hunting London based craft brewers over the last fortnight or so, and this is the first real evidence of our efforts. Paul, the manager at the Seven Stars, asked if it was possible for us to find them 22 London beers for their monthly 'beeriodical', so we set to work.

Although there has been a major resurgence of brewing in the Capital, there where a few obstacles in our way, not least that the two largest and possibly best known brewers on that list, Camden Town Brewery and Meantime, don't actually do a lot of cask beer. Camden Town only produce cask products for their own pub estate, prefering to concerntrate their efforts in the market on their excellent keg products, and Meantime are focused on keg and bottled products, so it was a challenge to obtain something from each of those producers, although we are happy to say that we suceeded.

The other thing is that some of the brewerys that are most talked about in the beer blogs and online are actually incredibly small. For instance we would dearly have loved to have supplied some beer from the excellent Kernel brewery in South London, but at the moment they are still working off a 4BBL plant, and have sold every drop they can produce well ahead of our time frame. You'll have to wait until the new year if you want some of Kernel's beer on your bar, but once they have sorted out their new facillity it will be available from liberty.

But enough of the can't, what about the things we did do?

We put together a list of 22 fantastic ales from 9 different breweries (would have been ten, but one let us down at the very last minute.) By the horns, a brand new brewer from South West London came up with three really interesting beers for us, 'Bobby on the Wheat' is a crisp and refreshing wheat beer that has a subtle citrus edge and a good finish, whereas their Christmas Porter was a big powerfull bag of fruit with a pronounced hint of Cloves for a real nod toward the festive mulled wine. East London Brewery weighed in with three beers, including their new baby, 'Nightwatchman' a beer that until the begining of this week was only known at 'the 4.5% ruby red'. We even managed to beat them to the launch of their own beer by bringing it down to Bristol before they launch it in London this weekend.

Ha'Penny provided their excellent and very moorish 'London Stone' and the marvellously named 'Spring Heel Jack' Porter which although I didn't get the chance to try, was very popular with the other punters. But perhaps my favourite of the evening, should I allow myself the indulgence of having a favourite from such a great list, was the big hopped monster of an amber ale from Redempion, 'Big Chief'. Andy at Redemption did us proud, with a list of 5 great ales all of which flew off the bar.

Finally, a mention has to go to Paddy at Windsor and Eton. we cheated slightly and slipped outside the cordon of the M25 to bring down some of their beer, and it was definitely worth the effort. Any brewery who brews a 7.4% Black IPA like their Conqueror 1075 has to be worth including, even if it bends the rules a little. It's also on at The Gryphon up behind the Colston Hall if you are in Bristol, well worth checking out.

There we go then, December's beeriodical well underway, and we are proud to have brought so many new beers to Bristol for the locals to try. One fella told me that he had added no less than 8 beers to his 1200 beer list of 'stuff i've drunk' which made me smile.

It's all go at liberty beer.....

Oh my, it's nearly a month since I last updated....

We've been busy fellas in the last month, deliveries have started in Bath and Bristol and we have been working hard to bring the very best of the West Country's craft beers to our customers. We are really happy with the way that things have gone and look forward to expanding out of the City centres and out to more customers in the BA and BS postcodes.

As well as the West Country beers, we've also be scouring London for the best of the Capital's craft beer. We have set up supply agreements with several brewers who will be added to our list very soon, including a couple who are brand new to the market.

Talking of London, we are in talks with a pub company with a good few sites in the Capital, so will let you all know about that soon I hope.

Back in Bristol, I'll be on the train soon to go and put my head around the door at The Seven Stars near Temple Meads Station, this great little ale house puts on a monthly showcase of regional beers, and today's will feature 21 casks of London's finest, all supplied by liberty beer.

Finally, we are proud to announce that the first sales of liberty's 'Ironworks Ale' went on sale on Saturday in various locations in East London and Essex in advance of West Ham's game against Burnley. The match wasn't one that I want to reflect too much upon, but the interest in the Ale was stunning. On Saturday morning we received a Facebook message saying that despite the first ones only having been delivered on the Friday, one of our friends had already spotted 3 Ironworks Ale t-shirts in Stratford. If you want to follow news on Ironworks Ale, you can check the website at www.ironworksbeer.com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

London Calling.

Liberty Beer clattered into London this week to see some brewers and some pubs.

We had the pleasure of meeting Gary at Redchurch (http://theredchurchbrewery.com/), Jasper and some of his team at Camden Town (http://www.camdentownbrewery.com/), Andy at Redemption (http://www.redemptionbrewing.co.uk/) and the brand new guys at By the Horns (http://www.bythehorns.co.uk/).

We wore out our shoes and cursed Boris's Buses, but we had a great time.

Look out for some exciting new beers being added to our list very soon.

Binge drinkers, education or legislation?

To very little fanfare at all, last month the government introduced a new duty on beer that is above the arbitrary imposed limit of 7.5% ABV. The government framed this legislation as a response to the social issues surrounding 'binge drinking' . Do binge drinkers drink beers like that? I don't think they do.

Will a price increase on super strength lager really provide a disincentive to the binge drinkers, or will it simply move those with substance abuse issues away from the super strength lager and on to it's cider, wine or spirit equivalent? 

One thing it will do though is disproportionately affect the independent publican and the growing craft and microbrewing community that we have here in Britain. Lets be clear, the mainstream producers, pubco's and supermarkets won't be affected in the slightest by this 25% raise in duty. Their sales of super strength products are all in the lower income end of the scale as far as they are concerned, niche beers for the low waged and the problem drinker that will easily be shifted to another product. When micro brewers produce high ABV products they are at the very top end of their market, a specialist product for the connoisseur or enthusiast.

If the Government is serious about the prevention of criminality and anti social behaviour around alcohol consumption then it is the massive price differential between the Supermarket and the controlled environment of the Public House that should be addressed so people don't turn up in our town centre pubs and bars already having consumed a large amount of cheap supermarket alcohol at home, and the number of cut price deals offered by the large chains for 2 for 1 drinks that encourage rapid consumption.

Although we at Liberty Beer don't currently deal with any brewers who produce a beer that will fall foul of the new duty, we hate to think that good beers will no longer be available to the british drinker due to some wrongheaded piece of legislation that does little to address the problem it seeks to solve. The other Justin at Moor Beer here in Somerset puts forward the facts for us here in his blog telling us how his product offer will be affected by the change.

I offer you this link to the online petition against the duty rise: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18346 and hope that by whatever means, we can together encourage the government to look again at the way that duty is applied to beer in general that threatens to further damage our fragile industry. We at Liberty have already written to our MPs.

The last third.

Our 'friends' at mega brewer Heineken are launching a 'schooner' sized glass for it's Amstel and Tiger lager brands. Carlsberg will join them with Staropramen and Moretti brands available in the new measure. They believe that it will increase sales of their more niche lager products to diners and women.

Of course, CAMRA don't think a lot of the 2/3 of a Pint measure, they think it'll confuse folk.

The Press have got all of a lather as well......

But why do we care?

We are all about the craft beers, and don't have much to do with mainstream lager manufacturers or indeed lager in general unless it's as good as the craft lagers brewed by our friends at Cotswold Brewery, and we aren't slaves to the CAMRA Real Ale crusade, so why is the second post on our blog devoted to the two third Pint?

Well, we like it.

We think that it's high time that the UK broke it's nipple like fixation with the Pint. As the Irish Times quite sucinctly put it, the half pint isn't a great measure, and there are circumstances when the pint just isn't the thing that you want, especially with higher ABV beers.

Will it encourage lady drinkers and diners to switch away from Wine? I think it's a bit patronising to suggest that people are driven away from beer drinking by the size of the glass rather than say, the poor selection of nasty products sold by many places, or the generally poor design of the glasses of either traditional size that those products are served in, but lets not be negative.

Liberty hope that the availabillity of the 'schooner' size will encourage the trade to think again about the whole business of selling beer, and to start to use a more appropriate range of glassware that does more for the product of the brewers craft than simply keeping it away from your shirt. Wine buffs will tell you about how glass shape and size affects the 'nose' and taste of their wine, and beer is the same, it has aroma and flavour than is lost in the traditional straight glass or jug.

Lets see some better glasses, and if people want a Schooner, then good luck to 'em, let the luddites stick to their pint pots and poor quality beers, we'll be the hip guys up the bar with a schooner of 'Stingray'.

Bristol Fashion – Just how local is your LocAle?

Walking around pubs in Bristol it’s not easy to miss the presence of two mass market ales. ‘Doombar’ brewed by Sharp’s, a brewery recently acquired by Coors Molson, and the St Austell Brewery’s ‘Tribute’.  Both are acceptable enough beers, a bit ‘brown’ for my personal tastes, but certainly not a bad beer. But looking at the strangle hold that they and their product have on the market is slightly odd. Many people, landlords and consumer alike view these as ‘local’ West Country products.

Now, one of the great things to have happened to the UK industry in the last 20 years is the proliferation of small breweries.  We have gone from a time when there was constant consolidation and reduction of the number of breweries, to an age where there are probably as many breweries in the South West alone as there where in the entire UK in the 70’s. Many of these produce traditional British beers, the ones characterised by its brown colour and ‘room temperature’ serving style, but there are people out there producing some innovative and exciting beers that really push the Craft Brewing boundaries.

Last week we were with the guys at Devilfish who were waxing lyrical on an American IPA called Racer 5, a beer that has been receiving rave reviews amongst American Beer Bloggers, and having tasted it I can see why. Devilfish are taking up the challenge to develop a beer every bit as good as this Californian tyro from Bear Republic Brewery. Will it be seen in the UK? It will if we can help it.

But I digress.

Now that the Microbrewing boom is well underway, and producing some very good beers, I can confidently bet you that wherever you live in the UK there is probably an Independent brewery less than 25 miles from your house.  Which brings me back to my initial question, why are pair of beers that are brewed more than 140 miles from Bristol talked of in such revered terms as a local beer? 

Fuller Smith and Turner brew some excellent ales in Chiswick, West London, and they are fully 39 miles closer to Central Bristol than Sharps, and another three miles closer than St. Austell. Marstons are famously based in Burton on Trent, and are 26 miles closer to Bristol than the Cornish pair. If you want to come a little more local Marstons also own Banks in Wolverhampton which is a comparatively neighbourly 94 miles from Bristol compared to the 150 miles to Rock. Finally there are S.A. Brains, virtually co-habiting at a mere 44 miles away, 100 miles in hand but barely rating a mention as a local tipple by Bristolians……

Ah you say, but those aren’t West Country beers. They are big brands from big brewers who have their own markets. Yes, but every cask of Tribute or Doombar that is bought by a landlord in Bristol is hauled straight past no less than 58 independent breweries in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset as it makes its way up the peninsula.  Some of these breweries may not be producing a product that is of the standard of the big two, but many do, depending on your taste and point of view some may even make something better.

Around Bristol there are some truly brilliant brewers, isn’t it time that the City’s landlords gave more space on the bar to beers brewed somewhere closer than the equivalent of driving to Macclesfield.

J.