Independent beer brands flourish

Compiled by Joe Hyam

A picture of proliferating brands and emphasis on quality emerges from the latest statistics of the Independent Family Brewers of Britain (IFBB) consortium.

At least 30 new brands have been created by the consortium in the past two years. Twenty-two of these are cask-conditioned or real ales. A total of 199 cask beers are now available from the family independents. In addition, the breweries have 204 other beers, including many favourite speciality bottled beers.

Further IFBB statistics show a move away from canned and keg beers in favour of cask and bottled. While total beer production has dropped slightly, the proportion given to cask has risen by 2.3% to 73% overall. Bottled beer production is up by 1.5% to 6%, but keg has dropped 3.3% to 15%. Canned is down 0.5% to 6% of the IFBB's joint beer production.

The IFBB is a consortium of 38 independent family-run brewers spread across the UK. The consortium was formed to protect traditional brewery tenancy from potential European Union legislation challenging the tied house system.

Next year, European commission officials will be reviewing a Treaty of Rome block exemption which currently permits tied tenancies in brewery-owned pubs. The IFBB believes that, should the tie be banned, many regional beers, pubs and even the breweries themselves will be lost.