What's In Store In 2020?

2020 is an exciting year for Cloudwater, as we’ll turn five years old on February 14th, host our second Friends & Family & Beer festival, and settle into new rhythms that allow us to dig into some of our most ambitious work yet.

When we launched in 2015, craft beer in the UK was finding its feet and growing in appeal but, looking back, we hardly recognise the scene as it was then, compared to how it feels now. It is incredible how much has progressed and evolved, but it is time for some sober reflection on where we are heading and what seeds we want to sow for our collective futures.

I’ll be back nearer our birthday with a look back at our first five years, and with some reflection on where I think we need to go from here, but for now, some updates on what lies ahead right now, in 2020.

We start this year with 43 staff members. Holy shit, that’s a lot of folks to look after, but damn it feels incredible to be backed up, often led, and mutually supported by a lovely team. Now that there’s what feels very much like a full team, we can get to work throwing some new shapes.

We’ve recently commissioned our first pilot kit, a 4hL three-vessel system (mash/kettle, lauter, whirlpool, for those curious about such things). For fun, and to allow us to test a wide range of ideas, we are soon to receive three pilot FVs, all with different geometry (dished bottom with an open top, CCV (Cylindro-Conical Vessel) with similar geometry to our existing FVs, and a broad dished bottom ‘Belgian’-style FV), and a 4hL brite tank too (that could well double up as a dished bottom, pressure holding FV if we really wanted it to). All that’s in addition to the tiny pilot kit coolship (that also can double up as an open, uncooled square) that we’ve already put two batches through on. Expect small-batch collaborations in niche styles, trad beers, brewers’ beers, beers brewed just for our indie retailer customers, and tap-room exclusives too.

Up until now, we’ve jumped straight into the deep end with every beer. Sure, we can, and have on many occasions, bench-evaluated ingredients and mocked up some combinations, but there’s nothing like a finished beer to really unpick how things turned out. It’s been painful to miss our targets in full production lengths on many occasions over the years, so we’re really hoping pilot testing on a regular basis will help us cannibalise existing recipes, discover new and exciting combinations and styles, brew classics that too few people geek out about (at brew lengths that don’t jam up our cold store). 

Given that we’ve got 18 fermenters already numbered, creatively, 1-18, we really don’t want to add more FV numbers to our spreadsheets because we all know that every time someone in the team says nineteen, someone else will echo them with n-n-n-n-nineteen, or any other gem of a lyric from that wonderful song. Instead, we want to name our new pilot FVs. Folks of the internet, that also have real lives that happen without social media posts, please help us! The crew these days are about as mad as a box of left-handed chopsticks, so the reality is we need no help coming up with Tanky McTankface or Fermanator 2 (the best one, let's be honest), but I feel like there are gems you’ll mine that will surpass our worst 3am efforts.

Please submit your pilot FV suggestions on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. The winner will be the suggestion that makes the most of us struggle to breathe while cry-laughing on Monday night at our annual, full team staff do. We’ll reward you with a photo of you, in sticker form, on the FV, the name of the FV (often referred to in social media posts), and some dope free beers as thanks.

Now onto more serious matters.

Soda Cocktails

We’re not really into our fruited sour beers anymore. We don’t really think any of ours have ever been good enough, with narrow acidity, sad-brewer-face-making, persistent DMS flavours, and a lack of complexity we love in the best of fresh fruited sours out there (Jelly King from Bellwoods Brewery is indeed king). With our pals at Trillium, The Bruery, and so many more knocking it out of the park with their mixed-ferm fruited sours, and with what we’re tasting from some we have in progress here at the brewery, we’re firmly in the mood to both kill off our fresh fruited sours from production, bring them into pilot testing to see if we can actually get the results we want, and in the meantime focus on longer-form, mixed-ferm fruited sours.

Problem with this plan though, is that so many people love the beers we find so many flaws in! Damn! So, instead of having nothing to offer that’s fruity, and sour, and kinda on the outer edges of what tastes like beer, we’re gonna start off with a base that we truly believe in. Debuting on tap at Unit 9 this weekend is one of our new Soda Cocktails. Mixing the finest ingredients, spirits and our sodas, our new 4% ABV cocktails will be available to both the trade in keg and can, and soon via our online shop in can too.

Each batch of Cloudwater Soda we produce will be paired and mixed as a one-off or seasonal recipe with a small batch spirit, offering those of you who love fruit-forward drinks a delicious option.

Taking It Down A Notch

Since we started brewing in 2015 we have seen the UK beer industry transform, following trends set by leading breweries in the scene in the UK, and harnessing worldwide trends and developments along the way. Through these past five years, the average ABV of the most popular styles, and the number of beers available in the most popular styles, has crept up from historical norms. Where the best of British was, in years past, a 4% Bitter, and then in the late 2000s, a ~5% Pale Ale, the styles that catch most attention and are hot on a lot of people’s lips are now increasingly a 6.5-7.5% IPA, 8.5% DIPA, or +10% Imperial beer. 

We worry that modern drinkers, faced with ABVs creeping higher, and small-batch innovation steering drinkers towards stronger beers, are at risk of adverse long-term effects there’s no worldwide precedent for. To counter this creep, and to offer some counter to the ubiquity of higher ABV beers, we’re reducing the ABV across our whole signature range by an average of 0.5% ABV. Someone drinking the same number of cans of our beer this year as last, across the style split we see on average over our counters at Unit 9 and 73 Enid St, could end up consuming 10% less ethanol in 2020 than they did in 2019. 

The health and long-term well being of our customers, drinkers, and staff, are at the forefront of our minds. Sure, it’d pay off better short-term to simply hope for the best, and make and sell whatever works at this time, but we can’t ignore the potential for issues (such as liver disease, or other alcohol induced disease or illness) to bear down on our generation as we expose ourselves to supremely drinkable beers with higher average ABVs than ever before in history. I want to look back after another five years, knowing we did our bit to help you all relax and merry yourselves, with as little health risk as possible!

Indie Retailer Summit

In February, just a few weeks before our festival, we’re hosting 20 of our longest-standing and most enthusiastic customers to talk together about what we all ought to aim for, and what we all ought to work together on, for the best and most solid future for our respective positions in the industry. We take immense pride in working with hundreds of small, independent bottle shops and neighbourhood bars, up and down the UK. 

We want our decisions to continue to be focused on what’s best for all of us. With pressures from recently bought-out or soon to be bought-out breweries, increasingly deep pockets from PE investments into the UK, and national market opportunities in supermarkets, we think that working in an even closer fashion with our existing customers is the best way to go. 

Seeing the similarities between so many of our retailers, most of whom run with very small teams, and all facing the combination of stresses that often result in mental health pressures of being small businesses in alcohol, we think there are countless relationships that’ll bear fruits of self-support and networks across the country. I know just how important my friends in other breweries have been, and continue to be, in helping me frame issues, problems, and opportunities from their point of view. I’m sure our summit will see many new connections made that draw much loved businesses together in pursuit of greater confidence, success, and stability.

A Small Expansion

We’ve recently signed the lease for another two warehouses here in Piccadilly Trading Estate. One is to be used as an expanded cold store for our packaged beer (we probably ran out of reasonable working space back at the end of 2018, truth be told), and the other is likely to become a mix of increased warehouse space and possibly even a second retail space for us too. We have a great many things we’d love to achieve on the doorstep of the brewery, expanding our offering to locals, regulars, visitors, and tourists alike. Keep an eye out on our social media as we pass over into spring, for plenty of updates about what’s to come.

Paul