SET IN STONE
When MATTHEW MOGGRIDGE sampled his first pint of Stone Cutter in a JD Wetherspoon pub in London, he was inspired to call up Ian Bradford, proprietor of the Lymestone Brewery in Stone, Staffordshire, and arrange an interview
In clubland, the name of JD Wetherspoon is a bit like Voldemort’s in Harry Potter: mention it and people try to hush you up. Ironically, of course, the CIU sold some of its London headquarters to the pub company and it has been suggested - but not confirmed - that Tim Martin negotiated a decent price for his cavernous, dual-level outlet just a short walk from Highbury & Islington tube station.
That said, good luck to him. I don’t have anything against Tim Martin or his JD Wetherspoon pubs because they serve a wide selection of really decent cask ales and give valuable exposure to smaller microbrewers who might not get a look in.
Not only that, they provide inspiration for real ale drinkers like myself who occasionally find themselves perusing the pump clips looking for a refreshing pint of beer, as I was doing a couple of weeks ago.
They say don’t judge a book by its cover and perhaps we shouldn’t judge beers by their pump clips either, but assuming that JDW has its standards to maintain, you can’t go far wrong. Personally, while the pump clip provides an amusing diversion, I always check out the abv and in the case of a beer called Stone Cutter I was pleased to note it was a pleasant and sessionable 3.7 per cent.
Stone Cutter is brewed in Stone in Staffordshire by the Lymestone Brewery; it is an excellent, inspiring pint of beer, a light pale ale with a golden touch and, for me, it was just what the doctor ordered on a hot mid-week day in London. While I didn’t have much time prior to a meeting, I resolved to return later and have another one before setting off home. This I did and both pints inspired me to call Ian Bradford, the founder of the Lymestone Brewery, and pay him a visit.
Up until tasting Stone Cutter, my favourite beer - the one I would rave about in real ale conversations - was Darkstar’s Hophead and while that is a decent pint, my new squeeze is definitely Stone Cutter.
Ian Bradford used to be the head brewer at the Titanic Brewery in nearby Stoke-on-Trent. He worked there for 17 years and was head brewer for 12 of them. He and Keith Bott, Titanic’s proprietor, are good friends. As Bradford pointed out, he was fortunate enough to play rugby with Bott at a time when the Titanic Brewery needed a driver and Bradford needed a job.
Bradford was Titanic’s second employee, meaning there was more scope to the job than just driving a van and soon Bradford - who I’ll refer to as Ian from now on - was presented with the opportunity of being a brewer. He was trained up and received enough practical tuition but admitted that brewing was hard work but very rewarding.
“There’s nothing nicer than brewing a good beer and drinking it,” he said and I believed him. In fact, if the truth be known, I felt a little envious: what could be better than owning your own brewery? Not for tacky reasons like drinking yourself senseless - who wants to do that? - but just the fact that you’re making beer, developing your own brands, being involved in the process and having an end product.
Ian says he’s a people person. He likes to stand in front of people talking and has no problems with brewery tours and being the focal point. He told me that the opportunity to brew for Titanic was one of those moments: if he had turned it down, it would never have come his way again.
While at Titanic, Ian was asked once to often, “is this yours?” and probably got fed up with saying no. “There was always an itch that was going to need scratching,” he said. “There was a time when I was comfortable with the head brewer thing, but then I thought I could do this and then it became ‘would’.”
According to Ian, trying to organise anything in the brewing industry without Keith knowing was impossible, so he came straight out with it and gave Titanic three months notice. Of Bott, he said, “He reacted like a true friend and wished me well.”
The brewery was going to be called the Lyme Valley Brewery, but when Ian stumbled across what used to be the old Bents Brewery (now an industrial estate) he sat down with friends and, with the help of a few beers, came up with the name Lymestone Brewery.
The great thing about Lymestone is its inherited heritage. Most microbrewers, for obvious reasons, lack history - they are the beer equivalent of Australia or America - but Bents goes back to the late 18th Century. Ian explained how Bents acquired its Stone brewery from Montgomery in the late 19th Century because another brewer, Joules, had taken Montgomery to court over its use of the name Stone Ale. Montgomery lost and sold its brewery plus 23 pubs to Bents.
Bents then expanded and became known as Bents of Liverpool but the Merseyside site was bombed during the Second World War and production shifted to Stone, which was expanded, but eventually it was acquired by Bass Charrington along with its many pubs. A similar fate awaited Stone’s other brewer, Joules.
The Bents site is now an industrial estate and the Lymestone Brewery occupies just a part of it, although Ian has plans to buy up other units should they become available and if his venture enjoys greater success. In fact, with Lymestone up and running, history is in the making as the arrival of Ian’s brewery marks the first time brewing has returned to Stone in 40 years.
6,500 litres per week
Ian has funded his brewery with a business development loan from Nat West and a lease purchase arrangement on the brewing equipment, which cost him £75,000.
“We can produce three 10-barrel brews, that’s 5,000 litres per week. We’re brewing more than twice a week, sometimes four times, but on average over the last 12 months it’s been twice a week,” said Ian, pointing out that a new fermenting vessel has been bought, which would take production up to 6,500 litres per week.
“The plan is to brew five times per week regularly and then exchange the equipment for something three times the size. We’ll remain here, it would be mad not to, but I’ll reduce the yard area and increase the brewing space - that would be my 12-month plan,” he said.
Starting up any business is, of course, a risky business and Ian started, technically, with no customers. “We were hopeful and thought that various people would want to buy it, but nothing was guaranteed,” he said. “Brewing the beer is the easy part and we were fortunate because we had the first weekend of the Stone Food & Drink Festival to promote the beer.”
Ian approached local freehouses and received a positive response - ‘almost to the point of impatience,’ he told me, and this gave him a great deal of confidence to push ahead. He said that in brewing there tends to be a two-tier hierarchy.
“I was very fortunate to work for Titanic where I brewed 30 beers per year, sometimes more, so brewing new beer from new recipes doesn’t hold a great deal of fear for me, but I do need the analytical support, such as microbial and alcohol testing that is available from external agencies. We get some help from our suppliers and from those in the industry with the ability to help,” he said.
At the moment, Lymestone is brewing one or two days a week, leaving five or six days to get out and sell the end product. “I’m a reasonable salesmen,” he said, adding that the brewery is a family affair with his children working at the brewery and his wife out delivering the ale as we conducted the interview.
“We share sales and delivery duties and we’ll need a driver more than anything else,” he said.
Ian says he is not afraid to work long hours and put his heart and soul into everything he does. “But if I’m going to work hard, I must be doing it for myself,” he said, explaining his 12-hour days and 100-hour weeks - and that’s just the day job. Ian is an Explorer Scout Leader when he gets a spare moment.
Where JD Wetherspoon is concerned, Lymestone knows there are two routes to market. One is to go through East West (who won’t look at any supplier unless they’ve been in business for six months) and the other is to approach local Wetherspoon pubs. Ian has done both and is currently supplying around 400 pubs nationally with 400 firkins over a 10-week period. With the East West deal, the beer is sent to Wetherspoon’s central distribution depot in Streatham, South West London, for delivery to units nationally.
There are half a dozen Wetherspoon pubs around Stone in Staffordshire, but more in the Birmingham area. “We’ve given them all a call and some take our beers, others don’t,” said Ian.
Deals have also been struck with Enterprise Inns, Admiral Taverns and Orchid Inns - although Ian stresses that it is down to individual pubs being members of SIBA’s direct delivery scheme - and arrangements are in place with national, regional and local wholesalers.
Ian admits that Lymestone is still finding its feet with bottled beers, although there is a fairly healthy trade being established with deli shops, specialist beer retailers and discerning wine wholesalers. Bottling is handled by Tiptonbased brewer, Holdens. For what Ian calls ‘far flung regional exposure’ he uses Flying Firkin, AVS Wines & Beers and Small Beer.
Lymestone has a permanent range of five cask ales. There is Stone Cutter (3.7 per cent abv); Stone Faced (4.0 per cent abv); Foundation Stone (4.5 per cent abv); Stone the Crows (5.4 per cent abv); and Ein Stein (5.0 per cent abv). The latter is a continental pale ale that is becoming known as a ‘holiday beer’.
Ian believes that his product range would be able to find an export market.
During the tricky economic climate of early 2009, Lymestone produced a low abv (3.2 per cent) Stoney Broke and Ian likes the idea of low-strength cask ale and hopes to bring it (or something similar) back again in the not-toodistant future.
Seasonal ales form part of the Lymestone offering. “If they sell well, the temptation is to keep them on, but ours have a two-month slot and unless something wildly exceeds expectation we keep them on rotation,” said Ian.
Next up on the seasonal front is Lymestone Cowboy (for August and September). Seasonals are important for Ian because they give him an opportunity to contact his customer base to forewarn them of new products.
Ian is also working on a honey beer using his own bees. There are beehives on the roof of the brewery in preparation.
Lymestone is doing ‘okay’ and Ian is happy with the brewery’s performance to date, bearing in mind that it’s early days yet. He said that he was looking into buying a pub in Stafford.
We sampled a few Lymestone beers and had a good chinwag about real ale and mountain bikes. Ian’s just bought a new Kona Blast and often cycles into work on it from nearby Newcastle-under-Lyme.
The beers are good. Lymestone Brewery is one micro brewer that is going places, thanks to Ian’s belief in himself and his inspirational cask ales.
• For further information, go to www.lymestonebrewery.co.uk
