The Supporters Club

On a recent Sunday morning, with an ever so slight hangover, I climbed out of my tent suffering from what had been a very good night.

Within seconds I was presented with a cup of tea from a friend and good colleague who went on to randomly inform me that I am always late because apparently I’m “an optimistic sort”. He is of course 100% correct, yet in any other instance I would have tried to defend any potential insinuation that I might be lazy. However, I know this was far from his thoughts. It turned out he was referring to a conversation from the evening before.

The reality is that I am blessed with some fantastic friends who are also great colleagues and more recently as Pivovar Group has grown I find myself aspiring to be a friend to all my colleagues. This is never a granted since they have joined my company primarily to earn a wage and hopefully better themselves and their career whilst certainly already having more deserved longstanding relationships.

And so, on this point, I am lucky to have some very good industry friends and there are few better than my best friends at Thornbridge Brewery. There can be no greater human power than forgiveness and certainly Simon Webster, MD at Thornbridge, has shown me this on too many occasions.

Take for instance that phone call to the brewery’s sales team from a leading Norwegian Craft Beer Bar demanding all their kegs of Jaipur. After all they deserved them since the head brewer had visited them only the night before and had promised the World.

A few simple questions later, not to mention that the head brewer hadn’t left the brewery to go abroad, Simon quickly deduced that “Jamie” was of course drinking in Norway and may possibly have overstepped the line…

Here comes the phone call to me…“Nevertheless, good promotion for you” I suggested! On the spot he made me Honorary Head Brewer! Others would have been appalled yet Simon was, and forever is, the finest gentleman in the industry and I remain privileged to be his friend and loyal customer whilst still looking to him for inspiration in our industry.

And so, during the past 10 years in the beer industry I have been introduced to some of my now best friends along with some very interesting other characters, some of which disappear forever but more recently there are a few who randomly show up re-badged. And others are forgetful that they have cost me thousands in unpaid invoices through the subsequent insolvency of their business. This now seems to be the nature of our new craft business.

It seems to me that the beer industry is becoming comparable to the European football leagues. Breweries are purchased for multi-million pound deals. Key players disappear only later to reappear wearing another team shirt in handsome positions.

Money buys big breweries and hype (guilty of too much social media) since there is no entry price or time served as a requirement to join the Premiership league tables of the beer world. I have nothing against any of this, however, I’m always reminded that it only takes a season for a football club to be relegated and if you’ve never played in the lower leagues then your career will be short lived.

And for us drinkers, our supporters clubs are the new “Craft Beer Bars”. But what happens when our team is losing or relegation looms? It seems there is no team loyalty in the craft beer supporters club, because when the tide goes out many bars will easily support something more exotic, possibly from the US or Australia, without even a thought for the losing manager / brewer!

So if we define the craft beer bar as a supporters club then the question is: are you a Man City or a Man Utd fan… (Marble Brewery or Cloudwater?) Certainly I can tell you that your local self-appointed supporters club will simply honour the winning club.

However, ask the supporters club if they are either local or loyal?  I have had the pleasure of watching the tide go out and come back in. I am a better man for it and retain good friends and I can tell you that I have supported the deserved and acknowledge when breweries are off-form.

In current times, it’s not about supporting those in ‘favour’ because when the tide goes out, they will leave our shores for foreign export since the demand and riches are good. We will then be left with a failing England squad capable only of disjointed qualification.

Back to the point – I climbed out from my tent, cup of tea in hand on the Sunday morning at #Peakender where I was quickly greeted with some shocking hangover faces from the beer and bar world, which simply reminded me that there are some jolly good eggs in our industry who have suffered the tides of success and failure. I am lucky to have the fortunate pleasure of calling them my friends.

It’s not exclusive…

Jamie Hawksworth, co-founder of Pivovar Group, and a Yorkshireman who proudly tells it like it is.