Focus on: Wild Beer Co

Andrew Cooper and Brett Ellis of Wild Beer Co

Wild Beer Co are a pretty new brewery, but they've quickly excited beer heads throughout the UK with their innovative and exciting beers. I spoke to Andrew Cooper from the brewery about their inspiration, their plans for the future and making sour beers. Here's what he had to say...

When was Wild Beer Co started and what was your inspiration for founding a brewery?

October 2012. We worked in the industry and wanted to do our own thing. We felt there was an opportunity to explore using yeast strains and ingredients that not many others were really using in the UK beer industry.

What are the beers in your core range?

We haven't decided on our core range yet, it depends what gets drunk, where demand is.

What limited edition beers are you producing at the moment?

We have lots of beers being aged at the moment.  There will be some interesting one-offs coming out through the year including Spellbound, a 100% brett fermented spelt beer that is currently being packaged. A very exciting collaboration is coming up very soon with a summer release for the beer.

What style of beer do you feel most defines what Wild Beer Co is about?

Our 'Modus Operandi' is an Old Ale aged in oak for 90 days with brettanomyces - that beer really defines us. The time, the oak ageing and the wild yeast.

You've brewed a number of Belgian style Saisons, what is it in particular that you love about producing this style of beer?

The character of the yeast excites and intrigues us, we think it works well with other flavours, making interesting complex beers. 

A fine selection of Wild Beer Co brews.

Alongside yourselves, lots of other UK breweries are branching out into other European styles of beer including Saisons, wheat beers, Doppelbocks and in some cases sour beers. What do you think is the influence of European beers styles on current brewing innovation in the UK, and are there any other of these styles that you'd like to produce?

Our first proper sour will hopefully be out in the summer. I think with so many breweries in this country now, you have to look for your own niche in the market. When we create a beer we don't start talking about styles of beer, we look at what flavours we want to create. We will then look at sourcing the ingredients we need to achieve that and the style it ends up falling into is fairly irrelevant to us.

What do you feel has been the impact of the increased use of American and new world hops on the beers produced in the UK?

The evidence is out there... Little more than 5 years ago there was hardly a big flavoured IPA being brewed in the country and now they are everywhere. It has helped bring with it more excitement in the industry, more choice, more breweries, more competition, more creativity, more beer retailers and really good beer-centric bars. It's all been very positive.

What plans do you have for growing the Wild Beer Co and getting your beers into more bars and shops in the future?

We want to work with people who get excited about our beer. There are no plans for supermarkets or to flood the market. Our beers are niche, that will keep our growth in check. We may well export some beer and we'll see how the demand grows - it's very early days for us.

Wild Beer Co has a very distinctive and striking brand. What do you think is the importance of your brand to communicating to drinkers what you're all about?

We felt that generally speaking, beer branding in this country leaves a lot to be desired. We believe consumers buy into the whole package. With so many beers to choose from standing out on the shelf branding is important, but it is ultimately taste that makes people buy a second or third beer. By using a costly screen printing technique for our bottles and a strong logo, it shows a level of care and creativity that hopefully follows through with the beer. 

What do you think can be added to a beer by using an additional flavour or a 'wild' fifth ingredient?

Complexity, intrigue, difference. When we think of the concept for a beer we start with a flavour profile, and then we try to work out how to get to those flavours. We believe in using the finest ingredients, as you taste what goes into the beer. With Wildebeest, we could have used bog standard cocoa nibs and vanilla essence, but we spoke to people who are experts with these ingredients and ended up scraping out 500 vanilla pods and sourcing the finest Valrhona cocoa nibs. When we taste it, we feel we can taste the difference.

What for you has been the impact of the growth in specialist beer bars such as Craft Beer Co, The York Tap and The Euston Tap etc?

It has raised the profile of the smaller esoteric brewery, taking beers from all over the country to a growing market of consumers who want to try new and exciting flavours in their beer. 

Tell us about an exciting development happening at Wild Beer Co at the moment...

A lot of our time at the moment is being taken up by oak and sour beer. Hopefully in the summer the first results will be available to taste...

Our Beer & Cheese Festival at the end of April is also going to be the first of many such events.

British hops seem to be in decline at the moment. Do you feel that there is a place for hop-heavy beers made using British hops?

It's a complicated topic and it's easy to blame the brewers for not using British hops, but we need a wide variety of flavours available to us or we go back to the time of endless best bitters.

The industry has moved a long way very quickly, and the number of varieties and range of flavours in them is quite small compared to foreign varieties. Other varieties are being developed but it takes a while and the hop industry might have been a little slow in reacting to what was happening in other parts of the world. We need to work together to develop hops and beers that will both use British hops but excite the drinker as well.

What does it feel like to be part of the micro-brewing resurgence in currently happening in the UK?

It's an exciting time. I love how close an industry we are. I am excited to see and hear what our contemporaries are doing, and they seem to be pretty excited about our project too.

What do you think is the continuing influence of the American craft beer scene on brewing innovation in the UK?

I think there is influence from all over the world, not just the US. We personally take influence not just from other breweries but from other food and drink producers and chefs as well.

Are you likely to be at many beer festivals in 2013? If so, which ones?

As we only do kegs and bottles, we are unlikely to be at that many festivals but we are looking forward to going back to IMBC this year. We will let you know the ones we will be at on wildbeerco.com

Lots of breweries are doing collaborations at the moment. Do you have any plans to collaborate with other breweries in the future?

We are honoured to have Mark Tranter (from Dark Star) and Kelly Ryan (formerly of Thornbridge, now brewing in New Zealand) joining us for an exciting brewday in March. We are using techniques and ingredients that are new to all of us, and in true collaborative style, it's all about learning and experimenting.

A massive thank you to Andrew from Wild Beer Co for answering my questions. Next up: Harbour!