It’s no secret that many Brits like their beer. A staggering 8 billion pints of beer were sold in the UK in 2019. But just as things were looking good for the brewing industry, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic meant pubs and restaurants were forced to close for much of 2020.
This summer brought a sight that brewers had long been waiting for: Hundreds of people enjoying a beer on a warm evening. The easing of lockdown restrictions has allowed events like the Bristol Craft Beer festival to go ahead, and provide a huge boost to a struggling industry.
Greg Wells, co-founder of We Are Beer – the company behind the festival, told CGTN:
“Big events like this where we have 4 thousand people over the weekend, it’s great. It’s great to be back with people. Beer, food – it’s about bringing people together. A festival does this on a much larger scale than say a pub or a restaurant, but being around people is the heart of what all this is about. It’s just awesome.”
The pandemic has had a devastating impact on all aspects of the pub trade. As premises were forced to close their doors, those supplying them saw years of hard work evaporate in just a few weeks.
Cale Watts is from the Stone & Wood Brewing company, an Australian brewery, starting to make a name for itself in the UK.
“We had to go into full survival mode. The majority of our sales is draft to pub customers, obviously pubs shut and we had a bit of a struggle keeping things afloat. Luckily we had loads of loyal off-trade suppliers and customers, that kept us afloat and allowed us to emerge on the right side of things.”
With beer sales dramatically up on last year’s record lows, there’s now another challenge. Proposed changes to the so-called Small Breweries’ Relief might see just over 150 companies having to pay more tax.
Neil Walker is from the Society of Independent Brewers. He told CGTN:
“It’s incredibly difficult for small breweries, not only with access to pubs and getting your beer into pubs which is largely controlled by large pub companies and the global brewers.
“Also getting beer into supermarkets – most of the beer in supermarkets is from the global brewers. So it’s incredibly difficult, so Small Breweries’ Relief was part of that. It was to give small breweries a chance to compete with global rivals, help them invest in the business, help them get their beers into the market.”
The treasury hasn’t confirmed if or when the changes might happen, but there are fears for the future. And for many there are currently more questions than answers, about the long term future of Britain’s smaller breweries in an ever more competitive market.