Tiller Pin 4.2% and Blacksmith Porter 5% are brewing this week.
Tiller Pin is in stock now and available to order.
Blacksmith Porter will be mainly going into Pins later next week, though it’s available in Keykeg now.
Order in the usual ways, cheers
There are so many bars out there that deal almost exclusively with wholesalers or larger brewers that, for small brewers like us, a huge number of venues—especially in cities—are effectively off-limits.
But imagine if every one of those bars chose to support smaller brewers directly with just one cask a week or even two casks a month. It would make a massive difference. Bars would also benefit by offering something more interesting than the same beer line-ups chosen by wholesalers based mostly on price and margin.
Right now, a lot of beer ranges look and taste the same. That doesn’t attract drinkers who like to explore local beers when they travel. As long as it’s not a complete takeover by one brewery, having a variety of local brews keeps things exciting.
You’d think that after more than 10 years, we’d have this side of things nailed down—but it’s still tricky. It often falls apart when we talk prices or try to ensure our casks come back. Though Ecasks, for example, add £9.40 per Ecask, so we’ve stopped using them.
Horsforth Brewery have been pushing for more Leeds pubs to support Leeds brewers, which seems like a complete no-brainer: locals supporting locals while keeping beer ranges fresh and interesting.
Wholesale – Here’s how the numbers work for us:
Our per-cask margin is £20. Out of that, delivery costs around £3.50–£4 per cask, and collecting empties (once they’ve been picked up by the wholesaler) costs another £3.50–£4. That’s £8 gone straight away, leaving £12 in profit, though now we dedict the Wholesaler discount of £8 to try sell the beer.
All in this usually puts us about £2 better off than using Ecasks with a £5 wholesale discount. So, if we’re lucky, we might make up to £4 per firkin.
Because the casks are ours, we do need them back. We’ve increased our cask stock so we can have more out with wholesalers for longer. Wholesalers can also choose from our full range, or we can fill to order to build up a pallet from upcoming brews.
One thing we can’t bend on: payment terms. Our cashflow can’t support more than 30 days. Payment needs to be made within 30 days of delivery—no exceptions. Those 60+ day terms some people want just aren’t fair; it’s effectively asking other small businesses to fund their debt.
So yeah—if any brewers out there want to share how they handle wholesale, drop us an email:
info@wishbonebrewery.co.uk
Cheers,
Wishbone Brewery
We are going to be putting this in 20L Keykegs and 20L Pins this week, please shout now if you require a Pin, we already have a couple of pre-orders so we will mostly fill pins to order with only a handful of spares.
We expect it to come out nearer 10% so it will be for shorter sessions 😉
Aged in our twice filled French Red Wine barrels.
Reserve yours in the usual ways. Cheers
We have tweaked the recipe and decided that this beer should be fined and clear for wider acceptance from drinkers. Yes, this is a bit of an oxymoron as it won’t be vegan friendly anymore, soz about that.
We’ve made the colour just a hint lighter too, look out for this soon in cask, we may fill just a handful of Keykegs too.
Cheers
Our next brewery is Saturday 29th November 12 til 7pm with Loaf n Loaded doing the food, we will have the usual 6x Handpulled and 4x Keg beers.
All the usual stuff applies, we have sloped and level access but our toilet facilities may not be suitable for those less able. We are family and dog friendly, please be sure to keep both under control, ask us if those dogs need water and we’ll bring you a bowl over. We stock some lovely wines from Martinez Wines, Coke, Lemonade and some juice boxes. Cheers
This should be the starting beer range of cask and keg, open Saturday 12 til 7pm with Pizza from Scho’s Doughs.
What a lovely weekend at the Keighley Worth Valley Beer & Music Festival, our absolute stand-out best seller was our Ginger Beer ‘You only Zine twice’ which is a very easy drinking 4.8% zesty ginger beer using Bobek and Celeia hops and some Lemon Zest and we bought a whopping 60kg of Diced ginger root to go into this beer.
You only zing twice is available in 30 Litre Keykegs and we might just have a Pin or so left in stock too.
Our new Knock Back Bitter 4% went into cask yesterday and tastes good in all its traditional First Gold single-hopped glory, I feel our recent bitters have more clarity of flavour than older brews like Gumption and Drover so I guess we’ll be sticking with the likes of Indigo Warbler 3.7%, Keighley Bitter 4.3% and our new Knock Back from here on.
Tiller Pin will be going into Cask on Friday.
Other than that, after a bit of stock building for beer range at KWVR beer fest we’ll be hanging back from brewing anything this week as the cold store is full and Trade is slow, trade for the last few weeks has been approximately half of what we need to break even. *Honesty Bomb* It’s always nice to post all the good exciting things but we know plenty of businesses out there that are suffering the same as us and my entire intent on starting Wishbone was to be honest about the highs and lows of business rather than the fragile bullshit of being all buttoned-up-Corporate. Life happens!
Pub Project – 60 Low Street, Keighley
We were concerned that we were going to pass (we had passed) the 3 year deadline for planning but thanks to what we can only assume is a mistake by our architect and the helpful people of Bradford’s Planning and Buildings regs teams we are still all set.
We have been looking at how we can progress our Pub project a little in key areas without spending too much all in one go, we figure if we can get the new staircase in, box in the roller shutter at the front to seal the building (its always been open to air even if its sheltered and dry), plus get a drain connection made for a planned accessible toilet on the ground floor.
The construction of everything else internally would be done by ourselves as and when time and funds allow, needless to say we do not have the money and its only by the grace of my Mum that we’ll be able to do this. It’s been interesting talking to a brewer at KWVR who recently took on a pub which has fast become their biggest customer, and we hear similar stories from other brewers who start or take on Pubs. We just need to get across the line and get open!
Our bar will be at the Ingrow Station Friday 17th to Sunday 19th October (This weekend!) Tickets available here – https://beerandmusic.co.uk/tickets/
We hope to see you all there, and remember if you want Free Access come on Sunday to see us at the Ingrow Station “Sunday, entry is free to Oxenhope & Ingrow! Just grab a travel ticket if you fancy a ride on the rails”.
Other brewers at Ingrow include the following:
This week we are brewing a new beer, an Amber Bitter as in it’s got a hint of Amber Malt in it for that subtle biscuity finish though the recipe is mostly Maris Otter, and Extra Pale Malt, a hint of wheat and a splash of Crystal 240, hopped with British First Gold hops which can bring a marmalade like orange character.
Knock Back 4% will be available from next week for the local area but Salford Beer Festival will get first dibs over Manchester way….
Tiller Pin is just keeping the good stuff in stock 😉
Order in all the usual ways, contact details are always at the top of the page when viewing on a computer.
Orders are very much appreciated in these terrible trading times.
Busy little week while staff holidays happen, brewed Abyss Stout 4.3% and Marynka Blonde 3.4%.
Also put Keighley Bitter 4.3% in cask and kegged Gaggle Lager 4.6%, then tomorrow Pixie Juice 5% will be casked and kegged.
Phew!!!!!! Bring on the weekend!
Catch us at the Keighley Worth Valley Railway Music & Beer Festival from Friday next week.
Cheers
