E-mailing Breweries

[WishboneBrewery]

Out of the Breweries I've emailed asking questions about brewery or recipe matters only a couple have bothered to reply.

Coniston Brewery replied with helpful recipe and process related stuff.
Prospect Brewery were very chatty and helpful in regard to brewery questions.
Old Spot Brewery, Chris was obviously very helpful letting me help out for the day.

But the rest...

Timothy Taylors (They do however respond very nicely to Letters )
Havistoun
Shepheard Neame
York Brewery
Mallinsons brewery
Kirkbylonsdale Brewery
...and others
Either have policy that says 'DO NOT talk to home brewers', or actually don't use their internet connection. (websites broken, email inactive, whatever)

I think its rather rude and bad marketing when someone enquires with a genuine interest in their beers.

Has anyone else found this?? And if so who are the ones that were talkative?
Cheers

[OldSpeckledBadger]

You mean you haven't tried to contact Coors?

[WishboneBrewery]

You mean I should?

[crookedeyeboy]

I must admit, the ones you have listed as getting no repsonse from are generally the ones that dont ring me for advice and technical issues.
They know it all and only ring us for products and to moan....sometimes...
The MB's I speak to are alot of the new ones and quite a few old well established smaller breweries.
I get frequent phone calls from certain breweries but I assume this is down to a slight case of paranoia when it comes to brewing.

I think with certain people there is the 'looking down the nose' factor when it comes to homebrewing, if this is the case I would assume its from people who havent homebrewed before. They have just gone to Herriot-Watt and got their degree only to start brewing on a large scale straight away. I work with people here like that who used to work for Mansfield brewery. God their vision is so small of how many people are brewing these days and how good home made and small MB beer is....I absolutely hate some of the MB's beer when I go out...rancid tasteless...etc etc so I think some of the larger micros need to watch out for us small brewers as when it comes to taste and quality we win !!!

[steve_flack]

A few years ago I got a really detailed reply from Fullers about their London Porter recipe. I've also had really good replies from Sierra Nevada and Stone Brewing in the US (from the brewers themselves no less).

[scottmoss]

I went to the St Austell brewery this year and found them all very helpful, their Tribute is a fantastic pint also. You should give them a try.

[Subsonic]

Meantime brewery in Greenwich gave me a nice reply to my e-mail so thumbs up to them.

[Bionicmunky]

Loddon in Oxfordshire - Owner Chris (formally of Brakespear) is a really nice guy.

[WishboneBrewery]

Its good to know there are some good guys out there.
Breweries should realise that home brewers still buy beer, and having some interpersonal skills is good for marketing even when discussing their own recipes.

[Buzz]

Its good to know there are some good guys out there.
Breweries should realise that home brewers still buy beer, and having some interpersonal skills is good for marketing even when discussing their own recipes.

Indeed. Dark Star failed to respond to two e-mails. Hophead is a cracking beer but I'll choose a different pint now, given the choice.

[escapizm]

I’ve previously posted a reply form Caledonian the manufacturers for Deuchers IPA that gives full low down, I also got full recipe of "a guy" at St Peters whom gave me recipe but then asked I not make public as they (as JBK has shown recently with Muntons kits) are going into kit market so could be a issue, I honour his wish and didnt

[beers_great]

I went to the St Austell brewery this year and found them all very helpful, their Tribute is a fantastic pint also. You should give them a try.

I also went to St Austell brewery this year. They are, as you say, very helpfull and while I liked Tribute I loved 'Proper Job' in the bar after the tour. Unfortunately I did not see it in any pubs in the area.

[scottmoss]

I went to the St Austell brewery this year and found them all very helpful, their Tribute is a fantastic pint also. You should give them a try.

I also went to St Austell brewery this year. They are, as you say, very helpfull and while I liked Tribute I loved 'Proper Job' in the bar after the tour. Unfortunately I did not see it in any pubs in the area.

Yes the proper job is a really nice pint also. I've only seen 1 pub that sells St Austell beers near me also and that was only a guest ale!

[Rookie]

I've had better luck getting a reply from breweries and brewpubs in the states. I think it may be because so many of them started out as home brewers.
I don't buy a lot of beer so they are not going to be out any sales if I try to clone one of their beers. I consider it a compliment that I like their beer enough to what to know more about it.
There have been times that I only said I loved their beer and didn't ask for any information and still not even a thank you.

[Scooby]

I got this prompt reply to and email to St Austell confirming the findings of the previous posters regarding this excellent brewery.


Chris,

All of our bottled beers are filtered and reseeded. The strain of yeast
will depend on the bottle of Proper Job that you purchased. The old
label (with the cartoon on it) was contract bottled for us at Thwaite's,
therefore they use their own yeast for reseeding (albeit Thwaite's
primary fermentation yeast). We have now commissioned our own bottling
line at St Austell so more recent production is reseeded with our own
primary fermentation yeast, which seems to work perfectly well, although
our yeast is slightly more powdery than Thwaite's, so the sediment is
slightly less stable, but acceptable). We add approx 1 Kg yeast slurry
(acid washed - pH 2.2 with phosphoric acid for 1 hr @ <3C before
repitching)) per 10 barrels of sterile filtered beer, giving a yeast
count of approx 0.5 million cells per ml in the beer at bottling.

Good luck with your home brewing!

Roger
Roger Ryman

Brewing Director / Head Brewer