LOCAL FOOD HEROES - GRAIN BREWERY

Phil & Hilary Halls manning their Grain Brewery drive-thru.

It’s hard to believe Grain Brewery has been trading for nearly 15 years. It has the feel of a heritage brand but is also highly contemporary in its persona, not an easy trick to pull off. It was established way ahead of the current explosion in craft micro-brewing and quickly proved to be a quality maker of award-winning fine ales.

Today, despite now being relatively old hands in a fickle trade, they continue to remain healthy and relevant and are arguably one of the leading names in local brewing. Never sitting still, they now have their own quiver of great pubs selling their trademark beers and continue to push forward with developing and refining their delicious, distinctive offerings.

Grain Brewery Drive-Thru ready to serve!

Who are you and what’s the name of your business?

Phil Halls - Grain Brewery

Where are you based and how long have you been in business?

Alburgh in the Waveney Valley, South Norfolk. Since 2006

Tell us the story of why and how you started…

Myself and my friend Geoff were keen to get out of corporate life. Geoff had some experience within the pub and brewing industry and could see a gradual move towards smaller independent brewers (this was way before 'craft beer' was a thing), and thought a brewery could be a fun and interesting business. I agreed.

Our funds were very limited and based on the sale of a car, a bit of savings and a house re-mortgage. This was enough to pay for the legal and planning costs, buy a second-hand brew-kit from Castle Rock and 100 plastic casks. It grew steadily from there.

What would you normally be doing at this time of year and how is it different under the current lockdown situation.

Right now we would be preparing for our busy bar at Cambridge Beer Festival, this week. We’d also be squeezing in brews whilst catching up after a sunny Easter. That generally marks the start of the year and the move from ticking over to making ends meet, with hopefully some profit to see us through next winter. We would generally be brewing three to four times a week in May. As of now, it's been seven weeks since we brewed any beer at all.

The brewery is operationally closed and has been since the 23rd of March. On the 20th of March we changed our business model to cater for a drive-thru beer collection service at the brewery. Fortunately the layout lends itself to a one-way system and with no need for a customer to get out of their car. With staff furloughed, my wife Hilary and I run this a few days a week, with the aim of selling off our stock of beer instead of pouring it down the drain.

Seven weeks in and we are a third of the way through the stock. However, so long as there is demand, we could carry on indefinitely like this by brewing once a month, which will pay the rent and other overheads.

It is a bitter-sweet pill. I am so pleased that we may survive this as a brewery with a change of business model. But I am also well aware that our four pubs are receiving no income whatsoever, with continuing costs to pay, and the grant money running low. 

Phil & Hilary with Grain’s finest brews waiting for collection.

What challenges have you faced and how have you met them in order to keep business moving?

The lockdown came in the very week that we anticipated business to pick up after a long and very wet winter that had left us running on empty for a number of months. With no spare cash, and employees understandably asking what would happen to them and the business, I went into crisis management mode. We cancelled all tax payments and moved what little cash we had into a savings account so that staff would be paid. Dealing with the shock and the inability to process what was going on in the first couple of weeks was tough but knowing everyone else is in their own crisis gets you through.

Communication is key in making reasonable agreements with people, and that in itself was a big challenge. With phones set to auto-hang-up when you make a call to HMRC begging for an extension on a tax payment communication becomes challenging. But patience and perseverance prevailed.

The biggest challenge has been the emotional dilemma facing many of us allowed to continue trading: 'should we or shouldn't we?'. We are constantly told 'stay at home and save lives' yet brewery shops are listed specifically as a business considered an essential service.

We set up an environment safer than any supermarket yet it is not as safe as not doing it at all. However, when we opened, it became clear that this service was one of those few things keeping us and our customers sane. A little bit of interaction (at the end of a 3m stick with a payment machine attached to it) could make an enormous difference to someone's day. But we still have to take a bit of flack on social media from time to time.

Have you discovered any benefits or positive effects of this new way of thinking about your business?

We have seen new faces from the villages around the brewery who had never had our beer before, or even knew we existed. And we keep seeing them now, so I am hoping we will see them in the future when we return to normal.

I have seen the best of people throughout all of this, whether it is staff, suppliers, customers, or people we pass when out walking the dog. It can't help but leave me with a feeling of positivity and hope that something good might come out of this.

What are you looking forward to most when this ends?

A proper night's sleep.

Arrowlight recommends all Grain’s fantastic ales but especially our favourites - ‘ThreeOneSix’, ‘Redwood’ and the classic ‘Oak’ available from their drive-thru.

All photographs taken observing strict social distancing measures.