I’m Jonny Garrett, and you’re listening to the Good Beer Hunting Podcast.
I remember the first London Craft Beer Festival like it was yesterday. It was actually six years ago, but I distinctly recall the excited atmosphere, revelatory flavor of Pressure Drop’s new foraged Hefeweizen, and the look on my friend’s face as he tried his first Saison.
It’s easy to recall because it felt like the start of something—not just for the festival itself, but the beer industry. It was just one small room, a few hundred people, and a handful of volunteers, but many of the young brewers pouring beers would go on to run multi-million-pound companies.
I’ll let founder Greg Wells tell the origin story himself, but it’s as organic, chaotic, and risky as any brewery launch would be. In the time since, however, the London Craft Beer Festival has grown to welcome over 9,000 people every year, and has sprouted offshoots in Edinburgh, Bristol, and Birmingham, with more destinations in the pipeline. With business partner Dan Sylvester, Wells went on to form We Are Beer, an umbrella company that is close to becoming a multi-million-pound concern itself.
As the company grows, Wells has found himself fighting to keep the fresh experience of that first festival—to retain the sense of excitement and wonder for those who are new to beer, while making sure those deeper into the scene have plenty new to see, too.
We talk about how he has brought in other cultures and ideas, tried to encourage diversity, and support the brewers who want to grow—all with the aim of helping good beer reach the mainstream.
While doing this, Wells has had to balance his deep love of beer with making a profit, and we spend a lot of time talking about the conflict that creates, including their decision to allow breweries who sell to multinationals to still attend, and to take sponsorship from a Heineken subsidiary.
All this to say, running a beer festival—indeed four of them—isn’t half as easy as many revelers might think, but it’s a vital part of beer’s battle to reach and convert new drinkers.
This is Greg Wells of We Are Beer. Listen in.