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ale too, so Moor Beer is the culmination of all of those three things,” he says.
but we we made eventually made our mark.” And that mark was Moor JJJ, a 9% Triple IPA launched
Taking the reins of Moor ten years ago, Hawke laments
in 2008 that caught the attention of markets across
that Somerset was the ‘wrong place and the wrong time’
Europe, with a 97% rating on RateBeer. Such beers have
for the brewery. “There was no craft beer and we are in
helped Moor Beer make an indelible mark on the UK
cider county! Bristol or London would have been better
industry but in Hawke’s opinion, the brewery, now in Bristol, doesn’t quite get the attention it deserves. “I don’t think we do, considering all that we have done to promote can conditioning, imperial pale ales and unfined beers. We are also very ‘pro UK’ when we are abroad, too,” he says. “The other side of this conversation is that there is very much a ‘coolness’ curve that breweries go through. I've seen it many times. You have your first years being on the map when you are pretty cool in people’s eyes. We had it, Thornbridge had it, as did Magic Rock and Kernel among others, too. Now, Cloudwater have it alongside breweries like Verdant and Deya. But
The industry is at a challenging point now because growth is slowing, competition is increasing, but at the same time, quality, standards and education needs to improve. Justin Hawke
when that goes, the challenge is to stay relevant and to stay true to what you believe in. But you also need to build upon what you’ve learned in those early years. Improve your QA, your lab, everything. And too much of the UK isn’t doing that.” He explains: Sure, if I could go back and see what I was doing in the early days and assess some of the
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September~October 2017
The Brewers Journal