Breweries raise a glass as beer sales increase

The glass is definitely half full for the real ale industry, with more and more people in Oxfordshire savouring this ancient drink.

Its success has been reflected in the 2016 Good Beer Guide, in which more county pubs than ever have been celebrated for pulling perfect pints. Out of 69 in next year’s addition, 24 make their inaugural appearance.

The book, published by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), also includes two new Oxfordshire micro-breweries, increasing producers to 23 within the county’s borders.

One is LAM Brewing, which has only been in operation since November last year.

The Sandford-on-Thames-based micro-brewery produces three beers – pale ale Happily Indian Summer, flavoured with coriander seeds, a more traditional beer called Happily Amber and a strong American ale, called Happily NYK.

Owner Kurt Moxley, who still works as an NHS administrator, explained he started brewing beer while in his 20s.

“I made really bad beers!” He added: “But a few years ago I took it up again as a home brew. I thought there might be something in it and maybe a future change of career.”

He describes LAM – Laugh a Minute – Brewery as a “glorified hobby”, but despite only producing 400 500ml bottles a month, his ale has been well-received at farmers’ markets and festivals. It is also available at the Oxford branch of Oddbins, and Aziz restaurant in the city’s Cowley Road.

Mr Moxley believes that the public’s relationship with beer is changing.

“People want flavoursome beers which are a little bit different. There’s also an idea of pairing beers with food, and some restaurants even have a craft beer list on their menus.

“The big, cheaper beers are still massive but they don’t have so much of the market and smaller breweries are going up and up.”

The increased enthusiasm for beer has signalled success for LAM Brewing, which is about to launch its fourth tipple next month.

Mr Moxley is also making the most of the public passion for real ale, by taking more training ahead of plans to increase the size of his brewery by autumn next year.

Meanwhile, landlord Tommy O’Sullivan’s care and attention has paid off as The Eight Bells in Eaton is one of the Oxfordshire pubs included in the 2016 Good Beer Guide.

Being the landlord of a pub in a tiny hamlet, he knows he has to offer his customers quality drinks if his business is to survive.

Mr O’Sullivan, who has been landlord for seven years, said: “All my customers are willing to travel to the pub. I have four real ales on all the time and deal with about eight different micro-breweries.

“I feel very proud to be in the Good Beer Guide and I’m over the moon because you have to keep good ale to get in it.”

An underground cellar, with a constant temperature throughout the year, houses up to 12 barrels at The Eight Bells, which has a beer festival every July. They are racked, and left to settle for 24 hours before being used.

• Tommy O’Sullivan, landlord of The Eight Bells in Eaton, toasts its inclusion in the Good Beer Guide 

Oxford CAMRA chairman Tony Goulding claims there has never been a better time for real ale, due to the rise of the small breweries.

“There’s a big growth in young people enjoying real ale, because there’s such a massive choice out there for them. There’s a dozen or more different tastes, including sharp dry bitters to golden and dark beers. People want to see an array of pumps. They want variety and quality.”

He believes more people are adopting beer as their drink of choice because of the range of flavours and the quality of the product.

Gone are the days where a pint of bitter was frowned on in a restaurant, although a tulip-shaped half-pint glass is much more de rigueur.

And Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz even suggested that real ale was actually more sophisticated than wine, and was a natural accompaniment to food.

He explained: “The thing about beer is that it’s a much more complex drink than wine or cider, because it has two key ingredients – grain, providing fermentable sugars, and hops, giving aroma and bitterness.

“Getting it right is very tricky indeed.”