Heineken Bulldoze Orchard

Heineken own Bulmers, and a lot of land in England and Wales for orchards, but with cider sales dropping they announced last year that they were planning on selling some of the farms where the orchards are. Rather than sell them as going concerns, they just grubbed them up, while in full blossom feeding pollinating bees and housing migratory birds.

They claim that their actions are within the scope of the Wildlife Act, but they do have a track record globally of working in grey areas to say the least.

Wet Weather Likely To See Grain Prices Rise.

Harvests are forecast to be down 17% on last years production level, this will see beer prices go up as grain gets scarce. Malt for brewing has already gone up around 50% in the last 5 years, and retail margins on it are thin so will almost certainly go up again.

This new wetter climate seems to be setting in, and work to breed and switch to crops and farming methods that are better suited to it needs to progress quickly if we’re not going to see some more serious shortages.

Greene King Closing Historic Site

Investing £40m in a new brew house on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds so they can focus on the evolving market, producing more “craft fizz.”

Most interesting part of this story though is that they’re also investing in a new smaller kit, and the equipment to allow them to fill pins automatically as well as firkins.

Along with the investment in a lot of new pins, this shows that sales of their cask are slowing. They may be getting them into more outlets as they expand their estate, which is keeping the overall total of cask production up, but the need to focus on half sized containers shows that the beer isn’t selling in those pubs.

CAMRA AGM 

Last weekend saw the CAMRA AGM, and the votes on the motions that any member can put forward. These are used to allow members to tell those in charge what they want the campaign to be doing.
There were a couple that got heavily mocked on social media when they were publicised, with the usual “camra are outdated” rhetoric. But you’ll be glad to know that these were all shot down at the AGM too. It really is a case of only a few folks like that in the campaign, most are incredibly sensible about it all. But it is a democratic organisation, and members are allowed to have their say.