Is the rise of craft beer spreading beyond pubs?

The demise of traditional pubs is a topic which has filled many column inches over the past decade, an antidote to the sadness of this decline has been the counter rise of craft beer. In London alone there are some 45 commercial breweries with several others in development and by the end of 2013 this number could hit fifty which represents a 500% increase in just five years (for more info on London’s breweries see Des de Moor’s website).

This rise in supply can only mean there has been an increase in demand to support all these new breweries. Evidence of this can be seen by an explosion of Ale dominated bars including some that have become ale pub chains such as Craft Beer Co, The Draft House and Brewdog. In addition to that there seems to be a new ale festival on the scene every other week. Personally I can think back to my University days a mere 4 years ago when festivals were a CAMRA monopoly and I don’t think any ale chains existed!

  

 Ale chains have become popular recently

So it’s clear that craft beer is on the rise but is this confined to specialist pubs and festivals or is ale becoming ubiquitous in non-ale focused environments?

I began thinking about this question recently after I attended a lovely event at Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Angel, North London held by Harviestoun to celebrate the launching of Harviestoun’s Bitter and Twisted brew into GBK’s restaurants (thanks for the free beer/burgers men and women of Harviestoun!). In my experience the availability of decent ale in restaurants, theatres, hotels is extremely poor but is this something that is beginning to change as it now has in GBK?

Harviestoun beers now in GBK restaurants.

To analyse this I set out studying menus/drink lists available online for London Hotels, Restaurants, Theatres, Museums and other similar places. My method was to work systematically through the list of the best attractions and restaurants in London on Tripadvisor. This method will obviously have some biases towards high end restaurants and the more popular central London attractions but I did go through several hundred attractions and restaurants so I think these biases are minimised as much as they can be. The obvious limitation is the availability of menus online but to be honest if a place only serves Heineken then their probably not going to bother putting it on their menu.

I’ll start with the restaurants, generally the majority of restaurants websites examined did not list any ale options at all but there were some very notable exceptions. The prime example of this was the superb selection available at Alyn Williams at the Westbury, a fine dining restaurant in the heart of Mayfair. The beer menu here really does read like a Christmas list, including beers from Meantime, Vintage Sharp brews, Nøgne Ø, Odell (including Pond Hopper their collaboration with Thornbridge which will be reviewed on here shortly) and Stone brewing (see full beer list here - go to menu-wine list-).

Alyn Williams at the Westbury has a great ale selection

I sent a few questions into the restaurant about ale and fine dining and happily the Head Sommellier, John Berastegui came back to me;

How are the ales selected and do you offer advice on matching with certain meals?

Firstly, all our Ales are selected from small, unique producers.  Ales are then selected for flavour, texture, intensity, country of origin and method of production.  We find out what our guests are eating and what flavours they enjoy before we carefully consider which Ale would best compliment the food.

How long have you had high quality ales on the menu and how have they been performing in terms of popularity with the diner?

We've offered high quality Ales since the restaurant opened in 2011 and they have proved popular with guests. 

Do you think the exploding UK market for ales will cause fine ales to become more of a feature on restaurant drink menus in the future?

There is a market for fine ales in restaurants however I believe there is still some stigma around it in fine dining establishments.  When Ales are matched by a Sommelier, the experience can be just as good as wine.

By going through lots of restaurant menus it is clear that as John says there definitely is a stigma around ales and fine dining, hundreds and hundreds of wines available but if you want a beer its Peroni or nothing, so when I next go for a nice meal out the tasting menu matched with beer at Alyn Williams at the Westbury will be my choice. Other restaurants which had some decent ale were One Leicester Street, and Chophouse at Butler’s Wharf but that really was it.

Odell/Thornbridge Collaboration brew Pond Hopper

However in contrast to London's top restaurants where ale availability is low aside from those mentioned above London’s top attractions faired reasonably well. The in-house cafes, bars and restaurants generally had some ale available, most frequent were a choice of either Fullers London Pride or Meantime brews. Interestingly the cafe at the Tate Britain states only London Pride available whereas the Tate Modern on the other side of the river has beer from Harviestoun, Camden Brewery, Brewdog, Meantime, Suthwyk Ales alongside London Pride, maybe the clientèle of the Tate Modern have more desire for ale than those of the Tate Britain? The menus certainly suggest so.

Tate Britain

Tate Modern

A good example of ale gaining a foothold in London’s attractions is the existence of the Spitfire bar in the Royal Albert Hall which despite there not being a menu available appears to be dedicated to Spitfire and other Shepherd Neame brews. I know Spitfire isn't exactly produced in small amounts but the interesting thing here is that the Royal Albert Hall has a “preferred ale partner”.

The Spitfire Bar at the Royal Albert Hall

I just want to mention one other area before I wrap up, I've been to gigs down the years and the selection is usually about as dire as it gets so I was surprised to see the ale range of the Camden Roundhouse and they therefore deserve a special mention. They have a large range on Camden Brewery ales as well as other brews from further afield such as Little Creatures Pale Ale and Tripel Karmeliet (one of my personal favourites).

The Camden Roundhouse

So is craft beer gaining a foothold in London outside of specialist pubs? Yes and no, in this blog I have highlighted some of the stand out restaurants and attractions to go to if you want a good selection of ales to choose from. There is however a definite stigma against ales in fine dining and Alyn Williams at the Westbury is the exception rather than the rule, and despite an ale generally being available at London’s attractions it would be nice if there were a little creativity and choice beyond London Pride. But on the whole I think the trend is definitely upwards and there are signs that the situation is improving for those of us who want to have a decent beer with our meal or after visiting a museum.