Stardom beckons for Blonde

Feb 29 2008 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

SPOT the odd one out: Northern Sinfonia, Clannad, Boyz II Men, Tyneside Blonde, Cleo Laine. Clue: All make appearances at The Sage Gateshead over the next few weeks.

Putting up a great performance alongside this eclectic international line-up – and their audiences – will hold no fears for the only one of those five that’s not musically-inclined. Tyneside Blonde, a beer from Byker-based Hadrian & Border Brewery, may be little more than a year old, but she’s developing such a following that stardom surely beckons. The light, golden, hop-infused ale has been chosen to feature in the award-winning, iconic building’s bar because of its quality, appeal and burgeoning reputation – plus the fact that, as brewery managing director Andy Burrows points out, if their delivery van ever broke down they could wheel a cask from the brewery to The Sage – via the Millennium Bridge – without a bead of sweat being broken.

“We’re absolutely delighted to be working with them,” says Andy. “It’s a great beer but they’re also pleased with our proximity to the venue which works to everybody’s advantage.”

The idea is to alternate Tyneside Blonde (3.9% alcohol by volume) with its sister brew Farne Island Bitter (4.0% ABV) and offer a special Byker Jazz (4.3% ABV), which should give audiences something extra to savour; to broaden their appreciation for – and perhaps to discover for the first time – regardless of their visit being for Prokofiev, Hitsville USA or The First Lady of Jazz. At this moment, 720 gallons of Blonde are being bottled for distribution around the region’s supermarkets, off-licences, bars and restaurants. It’s an exercise that Andy and head brewer Martin Hammill admit won’t ever make them a fortune but promotes the beer to a wider market.

Andy says: “Tyneside Blonde is getting really popular. It started off through feedback from customers who kept asking what styles of beer we had and if we had one that was light and a good session beer. It now accounts for about 14% of total sales but has still got a long way to catch up with Farne Island – which sells twice that – but we’re very pleased with the way it’s going.

“Now some people are taking 18-gallon casks instead of their usual nine-gallon ones – which is encouraging – and we’re continuing to look for new free trade custom.”

Bottling beer isn’t just as simple as sticking a funnel in a neck and pressing a button; the process is fraught with difficulties, particularly for brewers the size of Hadrian & Border who have to contract the work out. The beer wasted in setting up the filling line can also be a turn-off.

“Even the labels are a nightmare,” says Martin Hammill, who switched to Hadrian & Border following a very successful period at Wylam Brewery in Northumberland. “They’re very difficult to get right with all the regulations. Bottling has improved so much these days; previously, beers weren’t properly chilled before filtering. You have to drop the beer temperature right down to get rid of the proteins to get it much clearer.”

Some of the questions The Sage Gateshead asked before agreeing to stock Tyneside Blonde concerned sustainability and local sourcing, areas that Hadrian & Border have always been particularly diligent in.

“We’re looking at those issues all the time and using local materials as far as possible,” says Andy. “Hops are a challenge though, as they’re grown in Kent, Sussex, Hereford and Worcester, and sometimes you’d want to use Eastern European hops for their particular characteristics.”

And, sometimes, forces beyond your control conspire against your best intentions and well-considered judgment.

“Up until recently we even collected our own malted barley from Simpson’s of Berwick,” says Martin. “Our van driver lives in Alnwick – but Simpson’s have just moved their milling operation to their other site in Norfolk. We’re particularly ‘green’ as a business, Andy and I travel in together from Northumberland and we always deliver something somewhere on the way home. That way we can also do a same-day service; you just can’t let people down.

“We do swaps with other breweries out of the area as well; they’ll take 18 casks of something from us and we’ll take 18 of theirs to pass on to the trade. It gives customers the opportunity to try different beers from other parts of the country.”

The Border Brewery in Tweedmouth, Berwick – first recorded in the 17th Century – had been re-established for a couple of years before Andy and Shona Burrows took over The Old Kiln site in 1994 and steadily built up more than 100 outlets around the Borders and Northumberland. With expansion in mind, they made enquiries about equipment from the Four Rivers brewing company (formerly Hadrian Brewery) after the Tyneside company called in the receivers. But, instead of carting the plant 60 miles up the road they decided, along with Hadrian’s former owner, to create Hadrian & Border Brewery in its old premises in Byker. Trading opportunities and goodwill, however, were not quite as they’d appeared in the “brochure”.

“When we relocated here we thought we were coming into an established base of customers,” says Andy, “and it took us several years to re-establish on Tyneside. But trade is now very, very good and we’re picking up everywhere. We still have our custom in Northumberland and The Borders that we built up when we were in Berwick – we take the van to Edinburgh once a week then it wends its way back via East Linton, Jedburgh, Hawick, Peebles and Galashiels – although we’re concentrating more on the Tyneside market now.

“Business is booming, we’ve had a record January and had a record February with a week left to go. In fact, our normal ‘quiet’ time of year is now over. If the tourist industry in Northumberland develops any more over the summer we’d have to move to bigger premises. In fact, that’s a long-term aim – we’d like to buy a piece of land to build a brewery on or adapt an existing building – and we’re looking to stay in Newcastle.”

Hadrian & Border is in the fortunate position of having two very experienced and highly-qualified brewers at its disposal. Andy Burrows gained a degree in brewing and distilling at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh – the country’s top institution in the disciplines – and Martin Hammill has supplemented his background in maths and boundless enthusiasm for beer by studying for Institute of Brewing and Distilling qualifications – following a brewing course at Brewlab, part of the University of Sunderland.

And, we can but speculate whether Northern Sinfonia guest conductor Roland Böer will wave his baton tonight in appreciation of Tyneside Blonde, but next month Cleo Laine might express her feelings with: “Beebee-beedoobydoo-beedoobydoo”.

alastair.gilmour@ncjmedia.co.uk

Hadrian & Border is in the fortunate position of having two very experienced and highly-qualified brewers