Newsletter

Rolling Out The Barrels To Toast Taste Of Real Ales

Tony Davies, managing director of the Strangford Lough Brewing Company does not have a bushy beard, nor does he wear a knitted jersey and sandals (well, he wasn't the day we met!).

Real ale enthusiasts suffer this crude stereotype, but we do tend to categorise drinks and people.

Sherry? Almost exclusively imbibed by spinsterly women and theatrically camp men. Lager drinkers? They're obviously football hooligans. Whiskey? For only the most hardened (or problem) drinkers.

Real ale? Why, flat caps and beer bellies of course. But with a canny mix of careful branding and astute marketing the Killyleagh firm is aiming to shake off the spit and sawdust image that real ale has suffered from for decades. All misconceptions associated with the traditionally-brewed ale have been ditched as the company sets out on a mission to bring it back into vogue, hopefully achieving the same cachet as lager did in the 1980s. "Rather than it being a hobby, we have used advanced business techniques in setting up the company. What we want to do is build a business that really will make a difference. Interestingly, as time has gone on, it has become a hobby as well," says Mr Davies, who has to some extent taken a back-to-front approach to setting up the firm.

The Strangford Lough Brewing Company was registered in February 2004, and brought the first real ale to market in May. It currently employs eight people. But rather than building an expensive brewery, perfecting the ale, then looking for markets, Mr Davies, a management consultant, believed brand was a better place to start - a formula which seems to be working. "We made a decision very early on, not to build a brewery. If you look at the market there is significant over capacity."

He points to the recent decision by Belgian giant Interbrew to sell-off the Ulster Brewery in west Belfast, and its Boddingtons plant in Manchester. "We decided that we would buy recipes and start at the other end of the game with great brands.

We wanted a combination that would look good, but would also taste very good."

Mr Davies concedes that some real ale purists weren't overly enamoured with the fact that the company didn't actually brew its own ale, but have been won round, due to the quality of the product. "We have always said our plan is to build some brands, get employment into the area, and to build a company that we can sustain. When we are up and running and it's working well, then we'll build a brewery here."

With the services of a (secret) championship brewer secured, the company set about developing those all important brands and marketing its products --the quirkily-named Barelegs Brew, Legbiter and its range of St Patrick's ales. Mr Davies says promoting Killyleagh's rich and colourful heritage was an integral part in the christening of the ales. "Strangford Lough and the surrounding area is full of history. The theme 'a taste of history' is used in a lot of our branding.For our first ranges of beer we have chosen to focus on two of the most famous characters associated with the area - St Patrick and the Viking King Magnus Barelegs, who is buried in Downpatrick. His famous sword was called legbiter."

All this 'Oirish' history is hopefully going to move people to beers- more specifically, Americans. The company already has a licensed brewer in California, and has just returned from a very productive trade mission to the States, taking in New York, Chicago and Atlanta.

Mr Davies believes consumers across the Pond are becoming increasingly jaded with bland, mass-produced lagers, and there is a huge ale-quaffing market just waiting to be quenched. "It is a double whammy in the States because real ale is on the up. The Americans have been fed a diet of really poor chemical lagers for the last 20 years and there is a definite swing for the discerning drinker now towards real ale. At the same time there are 42 million registered Irish Americans, so we have a double market to go after. "Interestingly when you look at the market statistics they almost completely match each other. The main states where real ale is drunk include California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Chicago. These are also the major centres of Irish American population, so it makes a fairly straight forward marketing exercise for us."

The US visit was organised by the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI) and the Dublin Chamber to foster transatlantic business. It was supported by Invest NI.

Business development director Bob Little says the trip was extremely successful. "We have come back with quite a number of interesting opportunities in all three locations. What we have got to do now is work out which of them are the best ones for us to follow up. "The Irish American business community were very receptive to the Northern Ireland companies. As far as they are concerned there is no distinction. They will deal with us as happily as they deal with companies from the Republic of Ireland."

The company has pinpointed a number of business opportunities in Savannah, the so-called "southern belle of the Georgia coast." The city's Irish American community traces its roots to Northern Ireland. "Savannah is also a particularly well-placed port and entry point into the south east of the US. And it is the closest point to Chicago," says Mr Little. The trade mission also produced some potential leads right on its doorstep. "We were able to mix with the companies from the Dublin Chamber and there were a number of interesting opportunities for possible cross-border business," he adds.

The company says the States could keep it occupied for 12-18 months in terms of setting up the right distributors and licensing the right brewers, but it is also keen to maximise opportunities in other areas.

It believes Australia, a nation of hardened 'tinnie' drinks could also be a "quick hit" for it. "One of our wholesalers in England sent 40 cases of ale out to Australia, so people are already drinking it there," said Mr Davies.

An Invest NI trade mission to the country next year will, it hopes, bolster business there.

Closer to home, the ales are distributed through a network of 30 independent off-sales in Northern Ireland. They are also available across the UK, and the

firm is currently in discussions with some of the multiples there. In its mission to turn consumers on to this flavoursome brew, the company is also hoping to appeal to real ale aficionados across Europe. "This is an obvious market for us to move into quite quickly. A Norwegian wine and beer distributor is hoping to sell it to a major supermarket chain there, so we could be exporting Viking beer to the Vikings! There really isn't anything like it there because the Norwegians keep to standard beers."

As well as increasing its geographic profile, the company wants to balance the gender profile. It may be another stereotype, but real ale has long been perceived as a man's drink. But, with the help of unlikely fans such as Madonna, who has admitted she is partial to a pint of bitter, those perceptions could be slowly, but surely changing - after all it was Ninkasi, the 4,000-year-old Sumerian goddess of beer who is alleged to have invented ale. "There are only two out of our five beers that I would say are men's drinks --the best and the ale. I think the gold with its citrus flavour will be very popular with women. And certainly from the tastings we have had so far that has been the one that both men and women have liked because it is quite a different real ale taste," says Mr Davies.

The company's obsession with getting the branding right and attention to detail pervades all elements of the products from the carefully chosen boxpackaging, to the website, packed with local historical information. The labels on the bottles, are again about selling the area. It features the "Strangford Lough droplet", with an image in the background of the entrance to the Lough. "The idea is that the droplet could have been in the Lough when St Patrick sailed on it," explains Mr Davies.

St Patrick is also depicted on the labels. Does he think the holy man would approve of having his image used to sell booze? "St. Patrick had a brewer as part of his entourage. In those days they used ales for all sorts of things, particularly medicinal purposes. I think he would be okay with it."

So what does the beer taste like? To quote front the company's blurb, Barelegs has a "fresh fruit and malt fragrance......a refreshing quality and hoppy finish."

Legbiter is a "brilliant golden ale with an inviting citrus fragrance of late added Goldings hops." St Patrick's Gold has a "citrus flavour provided by the zest of real oranges and lemons."

In a word, nectar. But why not find out for yourself. The company will be displaying its wares, and quite literally rolling out the barrels with the first public outing of its cask version ale and best at the Belfast Beer Festival, which runs from November 18-20, 2004 and is hosted by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

There may be a few beer trainspotter-types milling about. But the organisers say it will be a great event. And the CAMRA never lies!