Beavertown. In search of good beer. What was achieved?
Beavertown was the 2011 north London creation of Logan Plant, son of Robert, the Led Zeppelin star. Two years ago, Heineken took full control of the company. It now profits from its Tottenham associations, selling One of Our Own Beavertown IPA at Spurs’ stadium.
The Guardian view on ‘indie beer’: crafting a new identity | Editorial | The Guardian
The above is an extract from a Guardian Editorial based on a recent poll that shows many people who drink ‘craft’ beer don’t realise that the big names of craft such as Camden and Beavertown are owned by global Big Beer. ABI and Heineken respectively are in the frame. The beers are now brewed in state of the art industrial breweries in Ponders End.
The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) have launched a campaign which focuses on independent rather than craft beer. Its certainly something I support and I don’t drink either Beavertown or Camden.
And yet not all independent brewers produce good beer and not all are good employers. I don’t know whether Camden and Beavertown now recognise union (Unite) but Big Beer in general does work with unions.
I drank Beavertown from the start when it was brewed in the kitchen of Dukes Brew and Que in Haggerston. The brewing then moved elsewhere in Hackney and then in 2014 to Tottenham, a few minutes walk from my house. Most Saturdays I could be found at the tap room. The beer was invariably good and you could chat with the brewers and those running things. It was about as far from Big Beer as you could get.
I certainly knew Logan Plant- a Wolves fan- whose favourite beer was Bathams. The original recipe for (cask) Neck Oil was based on that. Of course it no longer is. Last time I had a chat with Logan in 2022 he was talking about another Black Country brewery Holdens.
The aim of Beavertown was always clear (at least as stated to me). It was not to sell out to Heineken as happened in 2022. Rather it was to improve the quality of beer available in pubs and off licences.
Has that been achieved? Possibly with Neck Oil and Gamma Ray. The problem is that in the hands of Heineken while quality of some sort is guaranteed whether it will be the quality of beer that was produced before 2022 is open to doubt.
The ultimate problem was that in trying to promote better beer the business grew and that meant looking for investment which came from Heineken. A tale then not of beer but of market capital…
Leave a Reply