David joins from Pyraid8 where he most recently held the role of Senior Recruitment Consultant handling a high-profile, blue chip portfolio of clients and working to broaden the company’s client list.

Commenting on the new appointment, Microdat CEO Maitland Hyslop said, “We welcome David Hallas to Microdat as Business Development Manager. David brings more than a decade of sales and marketing experience to the business and we look forward to working with him. David will be leading on the sale of our mainstream products.”

David’s passion for the business, his knowledge and sales experience is a welcome addition to the Microdat team.

Mark Tetlow who manages the testing process explains that accreditations are carried out at a laboratory based at Everards brewery:
“We measure the sweetness and bitterness of each beer in the lab, taste it and then carefully select words to describe the look, aroma and taste. We produce tasting notes for breweries using the eye, nose and mouth symbols and descriptors and have around 400 words to choose from. Breweries can use the Cyclops tasting notes on their websites and on pump clips, glasses, beer mats and other point of sale.

“It’s important to use words that people drinking beer in the pub can easily understand rather than anything overly technical or flowery. At Cyclops we want to encourage more drinkers to enjoy their beer and we believe that their choice is made easier by using simple tasting notes and a standard measure of bitterness and sweetness.”

The Cyclops scheme has recently been taken up by retailers such as M&B and Morrisons who find it helpful for their customers. Morrisons has made it a requirement for any bottled ale in their stores to be accredited by Cyclops and the Cyclops tasting notes are used on shelf edges, with beers being organised by colour rather than by brewery in a number of stores so that shoppers can find similar beers to ones which they already know they enjoy. It is also used by distributors such as NDD in their customer brochures for pubs.

Full details of all the beers and breweries can be found at www.cyclopsbeer.co.uk. The most recent beers to have been accredited by Cyclops are from Black Sheep and Box Steam Breweries. The total number of breweries who have signed up for accreditation is 240. Recent research by the Campaign for Real Ale found that 40% of young adults, aged 18-24, who have never tried real ale before would be willing to try it if simple tasting notes explaining what a beer looked, smelt and tasted like were available at the point of sale.

The magazine includes news, giveaways and details of Butcombe events for publicans – there is a consumer version too.

If you would like any further information or high-res images from the magazine please do let us know.

We hope you enjoy it.

Butcombe Bytes May trade final

Whilst the famous Rouge, Bleue and Blanche are exported worldwide, Chimay Gold (4.8% A.B.V.) has until now been brewed only for the monks – that is until now. The beer will be available exclusively throughout the West Country via Butcombe Brewery and will also be launched in London and Rome.

Carnival visitors experience the very best food, drink and entertainment that Bristol has to offer and Butcombe’s beers will be served on draught from the two large public bars during the two week extravaganza.

A beautifully illustrated new cookbook ‘Cooking with Beer & Cider’ will also be sold at EDBF featuring a selection of recipes using Butcombe beers and Ashton press cider (brewed by the wholly owned subsidiary of Butcombe Brewery).

The Butcombe team will be running a series of events throughout the two weeks including a Butcombe Boules competition for teams of four. Further details and how to enter can be found on the Butcombe Brewery website at http://butcombe.com/wp/

Guy Newell, Managing Director of Butcombe, says: “EDBF launched last year and was a great success. With so much happening at the Brewery it made perfect sense for us to become more involved this year at what is fast becoming Bristol’s premier food and drink event.”

For further information visit www.butcombe.com or follow Butcombe Brewery on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Butcombe-Brewery Twitter: ButcombeBrewery
Linkedin: UK Bottled Ale Group

The world famous 10 per cent speciality ale has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Drink – Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic category of the Scotland Food and Drink Excellence awards 2013. The Orkney Brewery is the only Scottish brewer with a drink product in the finals.

Run in partnership with the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, the Scotland Food and Drink Excellence Awards have been recognising and rewarding the very best in Scottish food and drink for many years.

Competition judges have tasted 121 food and drink products and examined submissions from 100 businesses across Scotland. In all, 39 Scottish businesses have been shortlisted across 17 different product and business excellence award categories, with the winners set to be revealed at a special ceremony in Edinburgh’s newly refurbished Assembly Rooms on 30 May.

“It’s a great honour to be shortlisted as these awards are very much considered the Scottish food and drink Oscars,” said Norman Sinclair, managing director of the Orkney Brewery’s parent company, Sinclair Breweries Ltd. “Dark Island Reserve is our flagship product and it’s collected many top awards over the years, including a world’s best title. It epitomises everything we stand for in terms of quality, taste and brewing craftsmanship and we’re delighted to see it being recognised once again. We’re really looking forward to the event on 30 May and are keeping our fingers crossed for a good result on the night.”

Dark Island Reserve is created by maturing Orkney Brewery’s iconic and award winning Dark Island Ale in aged malt whisky casks for three months. Produced in limited quantities and for exclusive markets, Dark Island Reserve is renowned for its flavours of smooth roast malt, dark chocolate, caramel, figs and dates, which combine with vanilla, spice and bitter orange flavours from the wood and whisky. An image of Dark Island Reserve accompanies this release.

The closing date for entries to the awards is Friday, 31 May. Six finalists will be shortlisted in each category across six UK regions. Winners will be announced at the Great British Pub Awards on 12 September at the London Hilton, Park Lane.

For more information and to download an entry form  visit www.greatbritishpubawards.co.uk

In reaction to the loss, Tom had to ask for blood from all his staff and got it… regular 60 hour weeks followed, and Toms enthusiasm for crafting more speciality Belgium, USA and hybrid style beers, which have recently become so popular internationally has led to a Cult following for @celtbeers as they are known on twitter.

To cap of a turn-around from a nearly fatal end 6 months ago, Toms Brewery The Celt Experience have just achieved a unique ‘first ever’ double at the SIBA wales and West awards, taking overall winners and overall runners up. To just make a clean sweep they also took overall best bottled beer. On receiving the awards the whole team were in tears and yelling like madmen… That is except for Tom who simply stated “Welcome to the Celt Experience…This is just the start”

It is clear to see that that Tom has passion for this specialist business, but what is frightening is that Tom, with his inner confidence is in the right place at the right time for what is appearing to be a global craft beer explosion. A nice story amongst much of the global finance troubles out there!!

The Celt Experience export Keg and bottled beer globally and sell a mixture of keg and cask beer to the whole of the UK.

For a list of the awards see:

http://www.siba.co.uk/events/regional-competitions/wales-west/2013-2

Wednesday 26^th June 2013

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Hemel Hempstead.

The Trade Talk days have developed into a series of events, across the country, specifically aimed at small brewers, addressing their technical issues/questions. Alongside the seminars, there is the opportunity for BFBi Members to attend in order to present technical solutions to issues within the brewery and answer specific questions raised by SIBA attendees. This seminar will address the business changes when you are starting to grow your brewery.

Briefings will cover issues including;

Financial Planning and Control in Brewery Capital Projects – Phil Wilkes, I.C.E Management Consultants

Engineering Project Implementation – Roger Sutton, ALECTIA

Managing Brewing Techniques to Maintain Consistency, when graduating to a Larger Brewery

Sensory Evaluation – The link between craft beer quality and consumers satisfaction Dr. Javier Gomez-Lopez, Flavor ActiV

Flexible Working in a Changing Environment – Towergate Insurance – Stuart Beer, Account Executive

There will also be tours/demonstrations including;

The Gallery Plus Beermaster is a multi-sample, random access spectrophotometric analyser, developed from the Gallery range of instruments that Thermo Fisher Scientific currently provide into the water industry.

The Thermo Scientific Orion VERSA STAR advanced electrochemistry meter is your as you need it – for now and later.

The Thermo Scientific Orion Star A223 ROD/Dissolved Oxymen Portable Meter makes necessary testing easier.

The event is free of charge to SIBA Brewers and will include refreshments and lunch

Space is limited and reservations will be made on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, maximum 2 attendees per brewery.

Please contact BFBi to book your place charlotte@bfbi.org.uk 01902 422303