You may have noticed that since reopening on 4th July, the club has experienced some problems with deliveries and limited stock availability. After a meeting with Greene King on Friday 7th August in which their representatives explained that the brewery was now up to 75% production capacity, it is hoped that most of our concerns have been allayed.
There will be no seasonal ales from GK for the foreseeable future, but they will be able to provide a full portfolio of their core beers, cask ales, and ciders. Likewise, their third-party suppliers in the UK are also increasing production capacity, so we should have a steady supply from them as well.
However, as a lot of the foreign breweries have come back at only 30% of production capacity, and are supplying their home markets as a priority, there will be a lack of certain draught beers available to the UK domestic market. For example, there will be no draught Skal cider available for some time. This is disappointing, as we had only introduced this brand to the club in February, and it was proving to be a popular addition to our range of beers. Skal have also discontinued their “Rhubarb & Grapefruit” flavoured bottled cider as well, which has upset a few cider lovers.
We have taken the opportunity to introduce some new bottled beers to our range to make up for some of the problems we have experienced. Sharp’s Doom Bar, Adnams Southwold Bitter, Desperados and Thatcher’s Gold Cider are all now available in bottles from the coolers. We are hoping to review our range of beers with Greene King at some point in the future, to see if we can benefit from making some subtle changes to what we have available for our members, but this will take some time, given the current circumstances.
On a final note, we have been notified by Greene King that as from 7th. September 2020, the price of all wines and spirits supplied by them will increase by 3%. As we had already foreseen this move, these additional costs will be absorbed in the price increases we made recently. We expect that the cost of beer supplied by all producers will also increase by the autumn, if not sooner.