Putting some froth on a tasty trade

WITH the once-unthinkable closure of Tetley’s brewery now imminent, it is tempting to conclude the corporate beer giants have achieved their final victory over local tradition.

Tempting – but wrong. Because a world away from the crushing conformity of the multinationals, small craft breweries are thriving as never before.

At the last count there were more of these microbreweries in West Yorkshire than anywhere else in the country, driven by a heady combination of independent Tyke spirit and the ever-increasing demand for locally-produced food and drink.

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At the ultimate micro end of the scale is Five Towns Brewery, run spare time by mental health nurse, Malcolm Bastow, 52, from the bottom of his garden in Outwood, between Wakefield and Leeds.

Don’t, however, imagine this is some kind of Heath Robinson operation, for its products appear in pubs across northern England and have already scooped a number of beer festival prizes. Niamh’s Nemesis, a pale ale named after Malcolm’s daughter, took awards at festivals in Wakefield and York last year, while another strong ale, Peculiar Blue, was also a Wakefield winner.

“I can’t explain the feeling when I won,” he recalled. “There were bigger and longer-established breweries, and to beat them was amazing. It was especially satisfying where the beer was judged on a blind tasting.”

Like many people during the 1980s home brew boom, Malcolm started with a kit but was soon introduced to full mashing – brewing with malt and hops in the same way as a full-size brewery. “I started full mashing in the early 1990s and kept thinking ‘I’d love to do this commercially’ but I had a very good job in the NHS and there was no way I was packing that in.

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“Then it got to my 40th birthday and I decided to seriously consider setting something up. I spent a long time – probably 10 years – looking at equipment, thinking about finances, before I finally put in a planning application in 2006, took a loan out and started brewing in 2008.”

It was then a case of picking up the phone in an attempt to find buyers, which proved surprisingly fruitful. “My first outlets were found by going through the Good Beer Guide and persuading pubs to take some,” said Malcolm. “Now it’s got to a point where I don’t need to ring people up – in fact it’s more a case of them calling me.

“Beer festivals help, too, and I recently sold some beer to a couple of pubs in York on the back of a festival there. But it’s word of mouth and reputation that counts for the most.” Malcolm also uses a couple of independent distributors, which has allowed Five Towns products to reach farther afield, and makes a regular delivery run to the north-east himself, this latter arising after drinking in an Alnwick pub and persuading the landlord to buy some of his ales.

Having made an impressive impact in the first couple of years, he is looking forward to expanding the operation. “Everything I brew I sell and I could sell a lot more, but at the moment I don’t have time. I can retire in three years’ time and I can’t imagine myself sitting around – but there’s a balance to be struck between what there’s a market for and what I actually want to do. I wouldn’t want it to become another full-time job.”

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Someone who does brew “eight to four” is Steve Hutchinson, who beat Malcolm to last year’s top prize at Dewsbury Beer Festival. Steve, 54, weaves his award-winning magic in the basement of Fernandes Brewery Tap on Kirkgate in the heart of Wakefield city centre.

He is a former master butcher who turned to home brewing in his 20s. He decided to take the plunge professionally after taking a job with parent company, Ossett Brewery.

The dad-of-three said: “It’s a hobby which has turned into a job. I already knew much of it from brewing at home. You do pick up more informed ways when you are doing it commercially. It’s just basically the same, but it’s bigger.”

In four years in the beer trade he has racked up more than 800 brews, much to the delight of tickers who keep a count of new beers. “There are people who collect stamps or spot trains, but I’ve got to say ticking beers is much more enjoyable than spotting buses,” said Steve.

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But he confessed: “When I talk to people, sometimes I do come over as a brewing geek.”

His enthusiasm is plain as he checks his brews with scientific precision. There is never a spare moment and as Steve puts it: “If women want a man who can multi-task – marry a brewer!”