Mashing in

These breweries haven’t failed because their beer was no good, or because it was jumped-up homebrewers fancifully thinking they could play with the big boys, they failed because conditions in the industry and market are almost impossible to weather. There is no pattern to the closures, the only common thread is that hospitality has been hit hard over the past few years. Covid caused huge ripples in the industry, the war in Ukraine led to increased grain and energy prices, the financial crisis means fewer people are going out to drink; and soon we will be dealing with the Deposit Return Scheme and duty changes, all of which will add a further burden onto an already overladen industry. 

Fewer breweries also means fewer places of employment for brewers, many of whom have spent many years in education and at the coalface of brewing, honing their craft. Brewing, as an industry, has long been plagued with low salaries and poor working conditions, and it is a genuine concern that breweries will use this crisis as an excuse to lower wages when they hire brewers who are in desperate need of a job.

The solution isn’t easy either. There are no loans, government support or fiscal easing on offer, and it’s debatable whether this would even help. The only solution is for people to buy beer, either at the pub or to drink at home. This would be an easy solution if brewing was the only industry facing down the gaping maw of oblivion, but it’s not, everybody is stressed, and it’s hard to reconcile the struggle of heating or eating with encouraging people to have a couple of pints down the boozer. We can’t ask people to spend what they don’t have, and with the price of pints now regularly hitting the seven pound mark, asking people to spend a chunk of their income on beer is increasingly hard to justify. 

The cost of living crisis shows no sign of slowing down, and so brewery closures will keep on coming until people have money in their pockets to spend again, but it is essential that we don’t lose our pubs, as these are often at the very heart of a community. Pubs and breweries have a symbiotic relationship, but pubs are unique in the social and wellbeing role they perform. Pubs help to battle loneliness and isolation, provide familiar and comforting locations to sit when people are struggling, and having a pub to pop into can encourage people to step outside the house at least once that day. The brewing industry will limp on with fewer breweries, but all of society will suffer if we lose our pubs alongside them. 

I’m certain this will not be the last time I write in this column about closures, and I hope that it encourages at least one person to support their local brewery, pub, or bottle shop where a single sale can help make a difference. Until I have good news to share I will be doing my part, where I can, to make sure the beer I buy is locally made, and hopefully the breweries that make the UK beer scene so rich and diverse will survive to keep driving the industry forward.