Focus on: Moor Brewery

Justin Hawke at Moor Brewery

Somerset's Moor Brewery has become a firm favourite with beer fans, for the varied range of well balanced, beautifully flavoursome unfiltered beers. I asked Justin Hawke from the brewery a few questions to find out a bit more about their inspiration and future plans.

When was Moor Brewery founded and what was the inspiration for it being started up?

Basically it was another pipe dream set up on a shoestring in the back of a cow shed, run poorly by someone who should have never entered the trade, and failed. We brought the pieces out of a pretty large hole in 2007 and began the uphill climb to help bring excitement back to the British brewing scene. 

My passion for beer hunting, real ale, and experimentation came from my Dad and the gospel as written by Michael Jackson. My realisation that I could actually make beer myself came from a homebrewer. I was lucky enough to live in Germany for a couple of years which started my thirst for unfined natural beer, and then returned to California during the microbrewery boom which gave me my love of hops. 

Of all the places I travelled, I liked the UK the best and decided this is where I wanted to brew. When the remains of Moor Beer were advertised I put on rose-coloured glasses and started it up again, creating modern, hop-forward beers in the real ale tradition.  As quickly as the market would bear, we started the unfined natural beer movement as well as keg-conditioning.  Most of what we did was a few years too early for the British market, but with the help of some great supporters we helped progress the scene.  It’s not been until the past 12 months or so that I feel the British brewing scene has become exciting again, with some great pubs and great breweries.  We’re really pleased to be part of it.

 What are the beers in your core range?

I think that really depends which angle you look at it from. We distribute beer around the world, and every region has different preferences.  Looking at the British draught beer market it would be Revival, Nor’Hop and Raw.  Most export markets tend to favour stronger beers like Hoppiness, Old Freddy Walker and JJJ. 

A selection of Moor Brewery bottles

What limited edition beers are you brewing at the moment?

We released the 2012 vintage of Fusion a little while ago, along with our annual release of Sloe Walker.  Coming up we’ve got JJJ, a couple of fun collaborations planned and will be revisiting Dark Alliance. This started as a collaboration but we loved it so much that we decided to bring it back once or twice a year so we’ve got something fresh for ourselves to drink.

 What beer style do you feel most defines what Moor is all about?

Without wanting to sound too vague, I would say flavour forward, modern hoppy ales (in the traditional sense of being top-fermented).  As much as I love sour beers and quality lagers of all styles, we’ll leave those to other brewers.

You produce an 'English IPA' (Somerland Gold) - do you think that there is more room for creativity with English hops within the brewing scene at the moment?

Although some call Somerland Gold an English IPA I’m not sure I’d classify it that way.  I haven’t used English hops in that beer for years, and the term IPA gets people so emotive right now.  With regards to English hops, traditional breeds do not generally contain the level of intensity expected by contemporary IPA drinkers. That’s just a fact.  Our climate and growing conditions are different here to say the US or Australia.  There is one exception, which is Jester, the new hop being bred by Charles Faram Hop Developments. 

We were exceedingly honoured to be asked by them to trial what little was available last year.  The hop smelled intense and modern on the rub, but it was critical to see how it would perform in a production sized brew.  We used over half of the crop in a modern English IPA, appropriately named Empire Strikes Back.  We, along with our distributors Liberty Beer and of course the developer Charles Faram, put a lot of effort and money into marketing what was really a one off brew, with the intention of raising the profile of the British hop industry.  The hop yielded some fantastic results, with many people describing them as tropical, citrusy and ‘not traditionally English’.  This bodes well for the potential future of the British hop industry.  Couple that with the great beers that some of the new British breweries are producing and hopefully that will bring excitement and attention back to both British hops and British beers.

Your selection of beers seems to combine elements of tradition (producing a best bitter, English hopped beers etc) with elements modern American inspired craft brewing. Is fusing the old and new in this way one of your aims when producing beer? 

Fusing old and new is important to creating intensely flavoured, thoroughly enjoyable and balanced beers.  I don’t mean balanced in the bland, boring way, which is how it had been used for too long.  It’s easy to throw hops in a kettle and brew an unbalanced, exceedingly bitter, unenjoyable beer.  If you don’t have a global context, respect for tradition and desire for continual improvement then you’re shooting in the dark.  A Best Bitter doesn’t have to be ‘boring and brown’, it’s just been brewed that way for so long that many people gave up on it in preference to golden ales.  Beer styles are a double edged sword. They help set expectation but can be limiting if you try to adhere to them rigidly.  So we look forward and have one eye on the rear view mirror.  After all, the world would be a much worse place without the Black IPA (or whatever you want to call it)!

All of your beers are unfined. What was the reason for your decision to produce exclusively unfined beer? And, do you feel that British drinkers are getting more used to drinking unfined beer? 

As mentioned, my love for unfined natural beer originated from my time living in Germany.  I had never smelled or tasted beers so fresh and vibrant.  I’m not talking about just wheat beers, but primarily the natural helles and dunkels that you get in German brewpubs.  The cloudiness never phased me.  Why should it?  That’s the way it was designed and served.  And of course no one is going to tell the Germans they don’t know how to brew!  I was used to seeing things floating in bottles anyway when my Dad would bring home Sierra Nevada in the early days.  Seeing something in the beer always left the impression that what I was drinking was wholesome and good, much the same way that drinking orange juice with bits in just feels right.  When I got back to California IPA’s were all the rage.  Clear ones were ok.  Hazy ones were better.  Opaque ones were best.  I knew how good the Pliny I was poured was going to be before it was even in my hand.  Sometimes it was bright, sometimes it was like orange juice.  There was no doubt in anyone’s mind which was bigger and better in every respect.

When I got to the UK and was told I had to put fish guts (sorry, isinglass finings) in my beer it didn’t feel right.  All the beer I drank for ‘quality control’ was unfined.  And it always tasted so much better than what I would get in the pub.  From a technical perspective the extra yeast adds body and flavour, and as hop oils coat yeast cells, it provides an additional level of hop to the aroma and flavour.  There can be too much of a good thing.  No one wants to drink the dregs out of a cask.  How much is too much?  That’s personal preference. 

British drinkers are getting more used to drinking naturally hazy beers.  Most quite honestly don’t care what a beer looks like.  It’s just that they’ve been told it should be clear.  When told it doesn’t need to be clear, most people are more than happy, especially once they’ve tasted the beer.  We may have kicked off the unfined natural beer movement in the UK, but there are loads of great breweries out there doing it now.  When they tell us we add them to our site.

 Tell us about something new or exciting happening at Moor at the moment...

We’re still coming off the high of the Empire Strikes Back / Jester project.  There is a balance to be kept between doing fun stuff and nurturing brands.  I’m not interested in some guys ‘latest creation’ consisting of leftover malt, stale hops and tired ideas.  Yeah, you brewers know what I’m talking about, that 'what should I do with this' moment.  It’s great to try a new beer, just like it’s great to get a new album from your favourite band.  But when you see the band live you want them to play your old favourites.  We really love our old favourites (particularly Nor’Hop) and thankfully loads of people do, too.  That being said, I’ve got a wicked idea for something I want us to do in the summer…    

What are the plans for growing Moor in the coming months/years and trying to get your beers into more bars and shops?

I really detested the old breed of beer wholesalers, so wouldn’t work with them.  As the market has moved on, new ones have come along with a fresher approach to distribution. We’ve started partnering with people like Liberty Beer.  The word partner was one of those words you used to be able to play business bingo with, but as there is really no money in beer the people serious about it tend to have mutual passion and do really develop true working partnerships.  This is helping us grow now throughout the UK and across the world.

 What does it feel like to be part of the resurgence in British brewing?

Of course it’s a great feeling, albeit perhaps a bit surreal when someone from my background stands up in front of the brewing industry and encourages them to change deeply held beliefs.  I love being part of a national, and international, community of great people driving change through things like natural beer, keg conditioning, and new yeast and hop varieties.

 What has the growth in speciality craft beer bars meant for you as a brewery?

Moor Brewery's Hoppiness

They have made a huge difference to the scene in the past 12 months or so.  Without them, we wouldn’t have ‘craft keg’ in the UK, and many styles we brew would have to be export only.  When we started selling our IPA’s years ago there weren’t enough outlets to justify keeping the beer in stock.  Freshness is key.  The beer ecosystem is incomplete without them. That being said, beer is for everyone, not just beer geeks.  It’s important that good beer is available everywhere, and that craft beer bars don’t become the preserve of the well-funded neurotic navel gazer.  I love it most when a non-beer drinker comes up to me and says, “wow, I never knew beer could taste like that!”

 What do you think has been the impact of American and new world hops on the UK brewing scene?

New world hops gave British brewing the kick up the backside it needed to wake up and enter the modern world.

Lots of UK breweries are broadening the range of styles they produce to take in things like hefeweizen, wit beers and Vienna lagers amongst many others. Do you have plans to try any new styles at the moment?

There are things we play with and things we leave to others.  If there is a beer I’m itching to drink and I think we can make a difference to the style then we’ll brew it.  A couple years ago I really wanted to drink a session strength Black IPA so we created Illusion.  I love smoked beers and rye beers so we did Smokey Horyzon.  Same with a nice hoppy stout, which we collaborated with Arbor Ales and Clifton Coffee on to create Dark Alliance.  This year I’ve got ideas to play with smoke, rye, and yeast more – not necessarily all at the same time!  And we’ll of course keep very close to developments in the hop world.

 Are Moor intending to be at any beer festivals this year and if so, which ones?

The local ones are the Maltings and Minehead.  I know we’ve got stuff going to festivals in various countries – Spain, Norway, Sweden and Australia spring to mind, although I’m sure that’s just the tip of the Iceberg.  There are big plans for Edinburgh this year, and there are some really cool discussions being had about something in London that will blow your mind if you’re brave enough to enter.  I’ve got an idea for something special but whether I can find the time to pull it together in 2013 is questionable.  The bottom of the ocean has been done so maybe we’ll try something on the moon.

It seems very fashionable to make collaborative beers at the moment. Do you have any plans to collaborate with other brewers in the future?

A collaboration has to have a purpose and yield something uniquely worthwhile, otherwise the consumer is just paying for people to play, and as much fun as it is to play, it doesn’t add any value.  In my mind the best example of a collaboration is Schneider Brooklyn Hopfen-Weisse.  What an amazing beer, where you really get the sense of how each brewer added value, and how the collection was so much more than the sum of the parts.  Although perhaps not as style defining, we thought our Dark Alliance with Arbor was a world class beer and look forward to doing the return brew with them soon.  Likewise, we made a really great connection with Beavertown and have some fun stuff planned.  There was a fun discussion one evening about a JJJJ, and there’s a great story to it.  I’d like to see that come to life.

 Many thanks to Justin for his fantastic answers. This is one of a series of posts showcasing particular breweries. You can catch up on my previous entries here. The next one will feature the brilliant Wild Beer Co.