Brentwood Brewing Co wins SIBA’s Brewers in the Community award as part of SIBA’s Brewers in the Community initiative
Brentwood Brewing wins SIBA ‘Brewers in the Community’ award 2018
Brentwood Brewing in Essex has won SIBA’s (Society of Independent Brewers) national ‘Brewers in the Community’ 2018 award.
‘Brewers in the Community’ is an initiative run by SIBA, a trade association represent 835 independent craft breweries. The aim of the campaign is to highlight the fantastic but often under-appreciated work British independent craft breweries do for charity, local people and for community causes.
SIBA’s judging panel were bowled over by Brentwood brewery’s connection to their local community and the range of activities they undertake. They were impressed with their commitment to local charities, to elderly residents, to their sustainability and to supporting local businesses.
Alex Burghart, Member of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar will today, on Beer Day Britain (15th June), present Brentwood Brewing Company with their award.
He said “This is excellent news for Brentwood Brewing Company, excellent news for Brentwood and excellent news for beer. Under Brentwood Brewing Company local ale goes from strength to strength.”
Roland Kannor of Brentwood Brewery said:
“We are surprised but delighted to have won the national SIBA Brewers in the Community Award 2018. We are definitely and firmly committed to helping our local community. It is always a pleasure to be of assistance and we always end up having fun and enjoying ourselves at the same time.”
As part of the ‘Brewers in the Community’ initiative, SIBA has launched its second Brewers in the Community Report, which highlights new research that illustrates how important independent breweries are to communities across Britain. The report also includes some great case studies.
Key findings from the report:
– 82% of independent breweries have support a charity in the last 12 months
– 84% of independent breweries said their relationship with their community was ‘important’ or ‘extremely important’ to their business
– 45% of the breweries donating money to good causes chose to support a local or village charity
– 1 in 4 breweries raised over £1,000
– A third of independent breweries now have a Tap Room, which has helped to replace a closed village pub in many instances
Tony Jerome, SIBA’s Director of Membership and Marketing concluded:
“SIBA’s Brewers in the Community Award judges were amazed by the quality of entries. These examples, many of which appear in the Brewers in the Community report, illustrate the varied and important roles British independent craft breweries play. In many cases, brewers play just as integral a part in their communities as the local pub. Raising funds, donating prizes, offering space for events, creating employment or just opening a small brewery tap are just some of the ways craft breweries support their communities.
Tony went on to say;
“Despite the high standard of entries, it was Brentwood brewery that stood out from the rest. Their passion for finding innovative ways to support so many causes from a local pre-school to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire was truly inspiring. Congratulations to everyone at the brewery!”
Notes to Editors:
1. Beer Day Britain (https://www.beerdaybritain.co.uk/) is held annually on June 15th and is Britain’s national beer day. Landlords, beer drinkers, brewers and retailers across the UK celebrate the national drink and host a variety of beer related events in their pubs, breweries and shops.
2. SIBA’s Brewers in the Community Report, which ran for the second time this year can be found here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o-2KzSLeRtOA3pyg9NZAaROhbaVEgVT4/view?usp=sharing
Brentwood Brewing ‘Brewers in the Community’ entry:
Brentwood Brewing: Community event champions!
Based in Brentwood in Essex, as its name suggests, Brentwood Brewing has worked with many charities large and small over the 12 years since it launched, not just donating but helping organise events.
Its main charities for this year are SNAP (Special needs and Parents), Fragile x Society and Little Doves pre-school. Last year three members of the brewery staff ran the Brighton Marathon and raised over £3,000 for the Fragile X Society. All local charities and schools get brewery tour vouchers worth £25 for every raffle they hold and the brewery is also a hub for dropping off food, clothes and aid for homeless people – it was the local hub for collections for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.
The brewery also helps with the Community Christmas Hamper Initiative and Easter egg collections for children’s homes and helps many local schools and churches set up mini beer festivals for their fetes and fundays.
The Brentwood team organises trips to pubs for people in residential homes using the community bus service and recycles all of the brewery’s spent ingredients – the spent hops are dropped off to local allotments and spent grain goes mostly to the local farmer for cattle feed but also to a local lady who makes dog biscuits.
Local schools and colleges come into the brewery for talks on yeast, manufacturing and business or the team goes out into the community to give talks if people are unable to get to the brewery.
They host and help with events for the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary clubs and the Mayor’s charities and are heavily involved with The Brentwood Festival, a family orientated music event which raises thousands of pounds each year for various charities – over £250k in total.
The Brentwood Brewing team also runs cross promotions with local businesses and works with the Brentwood Business hub, as well as with the council to help deliver their events, such as Strawberry Fayre, Lighting up Brentwood as well as Christmas markets.
Through Brentwood’s Elephant School brand the team is working with Colchester Zoo to raise money for an elephant orphanage and the team also works with the Essex wildlife trust and RHS Hyde Hall on reintroducing commercial hop growing in the area.
The brewery is currently involved in a project with Ongar Primary school who are celebrating 50 years – there is a competition for the children to name the beer and design a pumpclip and donations will be made to the school for every pint sold.
Brentwood also offers free venue hire for local ventures and people and works with town twinning associations – last year they brought over Pyraser Brewery from Roth in Bavaria which is Brentwood’s twinned town in Germany, to help celebrate Oktoberfest.
