Flogging beer to Wetherspoons only will means you will struggle but Wetherspoons can be a lifeline if you have other sales that make better money.All the new breweries opening in London realise you need a taproom where you can get the full price for your beer.The reason craft keg has taken off with the brewers is its the same beer as cask but you get paid more money for it.Simple business move really.
That's the way I see it and I was told years ago at Wild Card that they wouldn't trade with Enterprise. You only occasionally see Redemption or ELB in local Spoons nowadays but it's pretty obvious that when they do appear it's because they have a surplus. Quantock are back on the latest list so you wonder what's going on there. I don't tend to go to Spoons much now (apart from for food or unlimited coffee) unless it's in London where the price difference is massive.
Turns out that there is some truth in this story after all, although not quite what it might first appear.
Rockin Robin is losing its base at Boughton Monchelsea due to planned redevelopment of the wider site. The Beer Barn has been closed and the plan (at least for the time being) is to share the Old Dairy brewplant in Tenterden.
Have heard Salamander brewery is closing at the end of the month.They provided me regularly with ticks when I first started. Another brewery that has been around a long time.
One that I've seen but I have no real recollection of. They've been going since 2000 according to the GBG and expanded to a 40 barrel plant in 2004 which is a lot of beer. Being based in Bradford there is a plethora of competition. It's certainly looking like the older micros are going under who perhaps have not embraced the craze for unusual hops and flavours and expanded before the tidal wave of new micros appeared at the end of the noughties.
Yes it will be closing any day, possibly already stopped brewing as the Piccolo Porter I was drinking yesterday was said to be the last of that as was the Mudpuppy my mate was on. No-one has come up with a definitive answer as to why he's closing yet, money, bureaucracy and boredom have all been cited.