What's Up? I think everyone is a bit knackered - been working their tails off and burning the candle at both ends... brew team brewed on both big kit and small kit yesterday and then went out ijn the evening to a meet the brewer event with some other team members at a fine local drinking establishment, then obviously went out for a curry... so some long days. TBF one of the brews done was one by Mark Collins of Tilford who is at home with us at the moment - but a brew is a brew!

🍻 We also got back our scorecard from the Beer World Cup (Alton's Pride was given free entry for winning SIBA's Best Bottled British Ale under 6.4%). Interesting reading provided by our American cousins. Forever and a day the Beer World Cup has been a bit like the World Series Baseball or the NFL - a global phenomena but solely for Americans! Anyway, there they are judging British Made World Class Bitter - maybe even for the first time, even if the category has been around for a bit?

🍻A real goldilocks experience - but not in the way where economists use the term to mean best outcome scenario... more the three bears - in that one judge said it was too malty, one said it wasn't malty enough and the next one? Just right. The hops? One judge said it was too hoppy, one said it wasn't hoppy enough and the next one? Just right. Taste of course is deeply personal but equally hard to take a judging panel too seriously with that smorgasboard of scorecards! The experience though did have historic tangs of our collective experiences of many other world cups (men's football [not womens!] and alike) - because we were out in the early rounds! 😂 Can't win 'em all!

What's On?
Mr. Brightside will be back in about a week! MILD May has battered our Pressed Rat Stocks... but have a tiny bit if you're super quick... More variety below than even cabinet ministers resigning!

What's about?
Just a short one here - was filing our duty bill today and a large part of the time spent on that is the schelp of going through taproom and shop sales. Total pain... a growler refill doesn't get draft relief, but a pitcher does etc. etc. I use AI but it still takes me an hour plus to get sorted. If you read my last email you'd wonder why we bother - because seems like they can't even allocate the money we send them properly! This week's joy showed they could not find £4k we had sent them for one payment despite us doing everything right and having hard evidence. Anyway - HMRC having a good month at our expense which actually is a good thing as it means we have been very busy.

The thing that struck me was how incredibly well our lagers and pilsners are doing in the tap room - this with Mr. Brightside only being on half the month too - I think if we'd had it since start April for the whole month lagers and pilsners might even have equalled Bitters and Pales. Seems like we might actually be pretty good at making them! Come and try some [then stock it obvs!].

I've often talked before about how in our own taproom, Sundown has from time to time had a shot at the Moondance title. Not last month! I don't want to jinx it but but the 2025 edition hops we are using in it are stunning and if you read something like Untappd - it seems like it is back to its prime. It you haven't had some recently, please try some. If you have had some recently and it went really well then do you have the space/appetite to go for 6 and we'll throw in a freebie. It is a hell of a beer to have as your mainstay for a few weeks... pretty low risk if you ask me - but I would say that (obviously!).

Have a great weekend - am off home now and the debate is a pint of Lady Eleanor or a cup of tea...

What is your money on me having, the cuppa or the pint?

and what can we bring you next week?

Best

Xen

P.S.

Old but gold...

A new PM was appointed. The PM who was stepping down met with him privately and presented him with three numbered envelopes. "Open these in order if you run up against a problem you don't think you can solve," he said. Well, things went along pretty smoothly, but six months later, the economy took a downturn and he was really catching a lot of heat. About at his wit's end, he remembered the envelopes. He went to his drawer and took out the first envelope. The message read, "Blame your predecessor."
The new PM called a press conference and tactfully laid the blame at the feet of the previous PM and government. Satisfied with his comments, the press - and MPs - responded positively, confidence was restored and the problem was soon behind him.
About a year later, unemployment started to creep up and inflation was stubbornly high meaning a lot of cost of living pain.
Having learned from his previous experience, the PM quickly opened the second envelope. The message read, "Take personal responsibility, talk of a reboot, the need to go further, faster etc. and reorganize the cabinet." This he did, and for a while everyone was patient.
After a few months the problems would not quite go away and strikes abounded. The PM went to his office, closed the door and opened the third envelope.
The message said....

"Prepare three envelopes."

What's up? Our busiest ever week in every single sense. That is good - but exhausting. I suspect the gang might be dozing off in their beers at the FoFFF festival [friends of triple fff] this weekend... which is, you guessed it... a sell-out.

On festivals, I should have known this week would be crazy as I got a call from the awesome bods at Farnham BeerX on Saturday late-afternoon asking for help with bright beer. They were running low as folks had drunk so much in the afternoon;

I would normally have been there myself but was nursing a category 3 hang-over [rating the same as the hurricane one / goes up to 5 which is "catastrophic damage"] having been out two nights in a row - saw it was sold out and thought I would sit this one out. Lucky because it meant I was totally sober, could drive and get them some more casks. Everyone a winner!;

Anyway hope you had a great week of trade this past week too. For an end of month week it feels like it has been very strong.

What's on?

Lady Eleanor is being packaged tomorrow! Can be shipped next week.

Apache Rose Peacock has also been flying - I would guess likely only one more week of supply on that - reviews on Untappd very positive

Brightside

I know kegs are hard for most to take from independents, but this is a right little crowd pleaser...;

What's about?

Got a letter from HMRC today saying we owed £1,730 arrears on VAT - coincidentally it arrived about an hour after our fabulous book keeper- Tish - had been on the phone with them. Turns out we did owe a tiny bit on the VAT - £1.48 - (they were only 99.91% out on their maths/accounting) to be exact because tough cash-flow meant a payment delay... I appreciate thus far this is about as interesting as the headline of "dog bites man"...

BUT that ain't the story;

The Revenue also had a much larger bill for us than was conceivable on beer duty. Paying beer duty is a pain as it is. Sure it is a lot of money (more than ingredients AND they charge VAT on top of it), but it is also something you have to pay with a different reference every month and one that you can only do on a desktop. Very 1990s and very clunky, no consideration for end users;

Turns out that although we send PAYE, Beer Duty, VAT etc., to completely different accounts with completely different references at their insistence, all staffed with completely different departments who can not easily communicate with each other, that they are completely unable to accurately allocate payments. This is like me trying to send you money but it ending up in Jack's dog Franklin's fan club account. Literally. This at a time with an all-time high tax burden on businesses.

They had invited us to pay a couple of fines for their inaccuracies, which I have declined and invited them to cancel as will be cheaper than paying the invoice for Tish's valuable time spent uncovering their incompetencies.

Lessons here: 1) you can't trust HMRC to do a competent job - so if you sense something is wrong, trust your sense - it is likely better than their account segregation; 2) if you don't have a great book-keeper or find sometimes this stuff is overwhelming then worth thinking about getting some help on specific issues.

Hoping you have an awesome long weekend, folks drink loads of beer and we can be your first call for a reload early next week! Office is open on Monday.

Xen

P.S.... got this from a friend of mine who lives in the Cayman Islands. The awesome eye-witness will make you smile especially if you look at the photo of the incident itself. I guess it was a quiet news day there... and I am in no way insinuating the eye-witness is in any way like any of the staff at Triple fff in their slight leaning towards possibly a slight exaggeration. Nope, nobody springs to mind on our team here at all. Definitely not. Not at all. No one.

Have a great weekend. X

What's Up? I had a week out last week, so a lot of this week has been playing catch up. Graham wasn't around last week either, we had a man off ill the week before and of course with Easter it was a short week and a busy one - everyone working their tails off. The conclusion? - we're a touch behind on our brew schedule and have empty vessels which should be full! The flip side of this is of course a really good thing as means our beer is being very well received and folks are drinking a lot of it!

On that subject this data just shows what folks have been drinking and is a bit skewed by a couple of things (I didn't include Comfortably Numb (3.5x the amount of Moondance as is highly dependent on a dedicated order) and also yes, we ran out of Lady Eleanor even faster than predicted so the numbers for that are understated. Will be brewing it again very soon, maybe as early as the week after next. Definitely my favourite beer of the year by miles. These numbers also don't include kegs etc... but all the same they tell a really interesting story of what is working in trade these past few weeks and the transition to warmer weather.

What's On? OK... just quickly on this one - my first take on the Apache Rose Peacock (if you read back my emails) was that it was well made but not for me. Younger folks loved it. I quite liked it but it would have been last choice for me out of our existing beers. For me it had too much by way of blackcurrant notes. However... two weeks in cask, and there is still a nudge towards ribena, but the finish is dry and nutty. It is shaping up nicely and selling fast (thank goodness we made a fair bit of it). Of all our beers on at the moment not yet a top 3 for me (Pride, Black Velvet, Moondance this week!) - but moved to mid-pack. This week's sales of it suggest that others are loving it though - yesterday it was around 50% of our deliveries!

If you want to be truly different - we have a wide selection (but limited stock) of beer from Milton Brewery in Cambridge - we love working with these guys - they make terrific beer and their customers love ours (esp Moondance!) and many of ours love theirs. Try some?

What's About? You know when new parents are so excited about having a kid they don't think on the initials order?... you know... Samuel Andrew David BLOKE, that type of thing... We might have done the same with our little May Bank Holiday Beer Festival we are doing celebrating local INDEPENDENT breweries... Friends of FFF. Or the F-OFFF festival! Doh'! A few things here: It is Bank holiday 2nd May If you want to come let me know and we will give you free tickets - mind you they are only a fiver and include the first drink - but free for you! We have Surrey Hills, Flacks, Queen Inn, Maverick, Steamtown, Ten Tun Tap, Flower Pots, Bowmans, Langham, Alfred's and Tilford all bringing some beer These guys are good people, make good beer (different to ours) and are NOT our competition. 85% of the market is tied to the big 4 or 5 companies strangling landlords and making for the most part pretty shoddy beer (IMO) If you want some of the stickers to add to pump clips to show that in our beer you are supporting Indie Beer, let me know - every study been done so far has shown this to be broadly helpful to sales and quality perception

On this subject of supporting our local friends - the excellent Mark from Tilford Brewery was pushed out of his premises a few weeks back and has found sanctuary with us for the moment - working with us and brewing on our 5bbl kit to keep Tildford's brand and beers going. Different style beer to us, but in terms of a person to be around here, he's the same as the best in that he shares the values of the folks we value most integrity, commitment and creativity. He even asked us if he could tell folks he was brewing here... the joke is that the answer doesn't sound like it should - the "FoFFF" - which means "yes" as he is a Friend of Triple fff!

Wish you a cracking weekend and hope we can bring you some beer next week.

Xen

P.S. Good to hear the government saying "don't panic" on fuel - though that usually brings about folks panicked as anything... shows how much we trust the numpties in Westminster! Anyway, make your own calls on that viz a viz fuel - but one thing that might be worth just making sure you are high on your supplier's list for CO2 supplies as with previous energy crises there have occasionally been shortages. Just a friendly call might pay dividends if the middle eastern madness persists.

Go well and be an FoFFF!

What's up? A busy week playing catchup after being out all last week - mostly at BeerX in Liverpool, but otherwise very busy on the brewery side of things. Pretty much every tank is full and almost finished fermenting is Apache Rose Peacock - (American Amber Ale 4.2%) a brew we haven't done since 2016. Looking back at the brew sheets (Graham was away for a period then) the crew then didn't exactly show consistency in the recipe - but this one should be back to the original... Out in maybe 2 weeks time, just as Lady Eleanor likely runs out. Otherwise tanks are brim full of Moondance, Alton's Pride, Sundown, Comfortably Numb, Satisfaction and Jagged Little Pilsner!

We've also chosen a name for the new lager. Introducing Brightside - with a nod to the Killers - promising to be a lovely drop. Not as hoppy or as strong as JLP with a really good sweet/dry balance - have only tasted it from tank and not carbonated - this one to be out in a week or so.

What's on?
As per my last email nearly out of Old Dray and Lady Eleanor is moving fast. I had a pint of it in our Taproom last night... then err another 2 bottles (just arrived in so someone needed to test the quality of the bottler's work) when I got home. For my palate it is insanely moreish. I think it is even better than last year's version (obviously a new season of hops and malt, but also it is the stuff you brew most regularly you get most consistency on [obvious when you think about it but we're a busy brewery so we don't always get enough drthinking time]).

What's about? Last week's wanderings.
Monday: I was in Isle of Man for a board meeting on an investment entity wherein they sold pretty much everything apart from Gold and a company founded by legendary investor Warren Buffet - Berkshire Hathaway - the logic being the world has gone nuts and if there is a meltdown then these guys will be best placed. Still - what a rubbish few weeks in geopolitics.

Wednes-Thursday - Liverpool - the city truly is different to any other in the UK - certainly more languages heard on the street than even London. Anyway I was at BeerX - a really excellent event - the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) who organise it have kicked butt and kicked on - Chief Exec Andy Slee runs a really tight ship. In addition to the crucial catching up with suppliers lots of other good intel. Will share it over the coming weeks... but in terms of key snippets, the SIBA Indie Beer Campaign really does have legs.

As an aide memoire this was launched because of all the B-S pedalled by the Global's trying to make it sound like their beers are actually independent. Neck Oil is the poster child for this wrong though you could also choose Hophead or as per a previous email look at Greene King's new pump clips. It's like they're embarrassed by the corporate brand? What is interesting is that folks thought this was about craft beer to kick off, not necessarily more traditional folks like us... but that has changed and incorporates all beer.

Anyway the point is the market research from SIBA shows that customers [yep, they're important right?!] associate Independents as being run by real people to the tune of around 67% of respondents... the other three attributes most commonly selected? Trustworthy.💥 Handmade.💥High quality. 💥... yep - some pretty compelling selling points right there!

We're getting some Indie Beer pump clip add ons next week - will get them out to you then with orders. The data is good. Your supporting Indie Beer folks [like us - thank you!] is good for you too... IndieBeer_Secondary Logo_Bordered_Black_AW_OL.png Next week I will share some of the stuff from the head of the Brewer's Association (head of the US Independent's Trade organisation) - which is super interesting as the US usually seen as a few years ahead of the UK in beer trends so potentially a road map for the coming years...

In the meantime what can we bring you next week so as you are properly stocked for Easter?

I reckon the weather looks bright but a bit crisp... so if it were me I would be stocked on the crowd pleasers of Moondance, Alton's Pride, and true to my words above I would 100% have a Lady Eleanor on too... what can we tempt YOU with?

Have a lovely weekend,

Proudly Independently yours,

Xen

P.S.

I guess this labels me as a man of a certain age but RIP Chuck Norris...

Chuck Norris didn't actually die, death just built up the courage to ask him for an autograph...

Superman wears Chuck Norris pyjamas

Chuck Norris once kicked a horse in the mouth - it's descendants are forever known as giraffes.

P.P.S. Yes I did sneak in an Anfield visit in Liverpool... nice to see a win even if Galatasaray were woeful! Saw a glimpse of the old Salah too... wonderful evening with my cousins.