TWO years ago Hawkshead Brewery owner Alex Brodie conducted a little experiment.

At his first-ever beer festival he counted heads. Then he counted ladies’ heads. He was so excited he got someone else to count, too.

Both results confirmed the business plan was not only performing as predicted, but some of the massive investment in premises, plant and people at the Lake District site was beginning to pay off.

Of the 100 or so visitors in the custom-made beer hall, 50 were women – exactly what the former BBC foreign correspondent and World Service anchorman had in mind when he expanded out of a former milking parlour into a 20-barrel (720 gallons) beer business brewing five times a week.

“I wanted this to be a place where people could be comfortable and bring their children,” he says.

The beer hall acts as a visitor centre, dining room, brewery tap and beer shop. Festivals and national beer competitions were in the original script and have now become regular features, helping enormously with consumer awareness. They also keep tills rolling.

Behind Hawkshead’s green sliding doors, five 20-barrel fermenters and six conditioning tanks shimmer as if ready to take flight. The occasional brown dribble betrays what they’re really doing.

The beer hall’s counter, bar fittings and furniture were commissioned from the designer next door. Solid benches invite all-day sittings, while suspended lighting panels take the glare off the corrugated angles above. Screens can be pulled down to show films with a sound system for live music while 24 beer lines drop into the cellar from below the bar where a racking system allows quick-change artistry and easy access.

Hawkshead’s most recent beer festival – last weekend – featured more than 100 beers, 65 of which were judged earlier on the first day for the northern section of the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) annual competition.

“Then we opened the festival so people could drink the entries,” says Alex Brodie.

Such is the growing influence of SIBA, the beer tasting attracted some of the most significant names in the brewing industry to swirl and peer and nose and gurgle their way through nine categories in a series of blind tastings that included strong ales, best bitters, milds, speciality beers and bottled beers. the organisation’s membership is so wide-ranging, the competition is held over two heats before the final in Southport in January.

“We have 117 brewing members in the northern section alone,” said Alex Brodie.

“We’ve stillaged 65 casks in the brewery cellar and the warehouse. They’ve all been vented for 48 hours, so there should be no difference between them. There are also 90 dozen bottles being stored in cellar conditions.”

SIBA chairman Julian Grocock offered advice for the judges. “This is a structured competition, but you are encouraged to be subjective,” he said. You can take your likes, dislikes and personal tastes into consideration, but what we’re looking for in each category is the best example of its type.

For the full article go to:  Journallive.co.uk