Well as it's been very busy few weeks in craft beer land so we thought we’d send out one of our far too rare beer journals.
The first item we want to discuss is last weeks Nottingham Craft Beer Week. Kraft Werks have enjoyed helping and participating in this week-long event over the past 3 years. It was great to see even more venues in Nottingham get on board this year and we had some stellar events this year.
Some really big names and big beers came into Nottingham during the week which included authors Melissa Cole, Rodger Protz and Pete Brown. In addition, it seemed that all the venues involved really upped their game this year. For example, Brewdog showcased a rare Cantillon tap take over. At Kraft Werks we had a big think about what brewery we wanted to invite in, and Marble seemed to be winners all around. They have been quietly producing brilliant beers for 20 years now, both traditional, modern, cask and keg as well as collaborating with some of our favourite European craft brewers such as De Molen & Kees. They were kind enough to allow Kraft Werks to launch their new DIPA Full Guard.
The highlight of the week for us was Pete Brown's brilliant Beer & Music Matching evening, which was a fun and educational journey through the intertwining world of beer and music. It was also the first time we have fully closed Kraft Werks for a ticketed event and it was great to finally meet Pete, who is one of our beer heroes.
The Nottingham Craft Beer Week's biggest event was the first Nottingham Craft Beer festival at Sneinton Market, which was brilliantly organised by the LeftLion team. They brought together a wide variety of both new and established craft brewers from all over the country with a couple of great international bars. We’re already looking forward to 2019!
Big beer news announced last week has been the much anticipated and hotly debated Beavertown sale to Heineken. This follows Brixton Brewery's sale to Heineken last year. And as we said in the last beer journal, the big beer conglomerates will continue to buy up craft beer "brands” as it continues to increase in popularity. This decision by Beavertown has seemed to polarise opinion; on the one hand, we can understand and respect the individual brewery's personal business decision for the future of their brewery. However, we also understand the opinion that for many people, independent craft beer brewers are known for being small, meticulous operations that produce high-quality beer, the polar opposite to the corporate approach. What do you think?
Until next time,
Kraft Werks