Site’s £5million cheer for beers

EARLIER this year I wrote about the not-for-profit website, Beer is Here, launched in a bid to connect beer lovers with independent breweries, tap rooms and retailers across the UK and Europe during lockdown. Since then, according to Simply Hops, the leading supplier of hops products behind the site, about £5million has been spent on home delivery via Beer is Here. So far an incredible 1,410 breweries, bottle shops and taprooms have signed up to the site (70 per cent in the UK) and about 76,000 people have used it to find and buy beer.

With pubs and restaurants unlikely to reopen in any significant way before July, supporting your local brewery is still really important if you can.

Simply Hops director John Willetts told me: “We have been overwhelmed by the support and love of independent craft beer that has been shown through this initiative, and hope we have helped to bring many more beer friends to the community. I am not surprised though because this is what craft beer is all about; sharing resources to support each other through good times and bad.”

Kier McAllister Wilde, owner of Wilde Child Brewery in Leeds, said: “This website is a lifeline for our brewery. It’s vitally important to keep our heads above water, we really need a sustainable route to the local market to keep ticking over in these exceptional times.” While Andy Parker, of Elusive Brewing Limited in Berkshire, explained: “These direct sales are the only thing which will keep us afloat.”

To check out the service, log onto beerishere.org and insert your postcode for easy access to local and national breweries who will deliver to your door.