Thornbridge Brewery is returning to the 500ml premium bottled ale (PBA) category with a core range of seven beers, as well as quarterly specials.
The brewery has invested heavily in its production process in order to package beers into 500ml bottles, having switched solely to 330ml bottles in 2017.
The seven core beers all have national presence in cask format, too.
“At a time when national and large regional breweries are falling over themselves to enter the craft category, we see a huge opportunity to re-invigorate a stale category that is crying out for some new brands and innovation,” said Simon Webster, Thornbridge Brewery’s chief executive.
Having switched from 500ml bottles in 2017 to 330ml bottles, while focusing on the installation of a canning line, Thornbridge feels this is the right time to re-launch into a category that is still considerably larger by volume than craft, but which, it says, desperately needs refreshing in order to arrest the decline.
Rob Lovatt, brewing director at Thornbridge, said: “We wanted to try and replicate, as closely as possible, a pint of cask ale in the pub. After many trials we have successfully ‘re-seeded’ our beers with live yeast to allow an element of bottle conditioning, to produce a finer, smoother carbonation without the build-up of hop matter and yeast associated with bottle-conditioned beers of yesteryear.”
Dom Metcalfe, sales and marketing director, added: “We are showing double-digit growth on cask ale in the on-trade, which is a category in decline, and we think we can make a huge positive impact on PBA also with our ‘Fresh, Live Beer’.
“We will obviously lead with Jaipur, but will also have all of our staple cask ale brands, including Lord Marples, Astryd, and Crackendale, in the 500ml format.”
Thornbridge has already secured nationwide listings with Waitrose, Asda, and Booths and is in advanced talks with Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco with regard to listings later in 2023.
