How JEREMY CLARKSON'S BEER is THREATENING major brewers!

Jeremy Clarkson has the major brewers

worried after the incredible success of

his own beer. So, prior to the British

Grand Prix, I headed to Gloucestershire

to check out his operation.

>> Welcome to Hawkstone Brewery. Up here,

you've got chairman Jeremy with Caleb.

It is 11:00 a.m. Is it too early for a

drink? I'll have a taste, why not? And

here is the Hawkstone Arms. Did you know

that this man once slept in my bed? Yes,

he and James May were in Australia doing

a Top Gear tour and they decided they

wanted to rent my house in Launceston.

So, I moved out for the weekend. Jeremy

had my bed, James stayed in Jace's bed.

They loved the place cuz it's a small

country town, there was no one around

and um we got to have lunch with him one

day. Stellar experience.

>> Britain has some stunning pubs. Their

hotel culture is second to none.

>> This is a little bit more laid back, a

bit more down to earth. Bare concrete

floors, some lovely old wooden tables

here, couple of Chesterfield lounges,

and that behind me is the bar, which I

think is about to open. I've convinced

them to let me behind the bar here to

pour one of the beers. There are seven

beers and four ciders. So, let's have a

crack.

Ooh, now I've got to concentrate on the

head, don't I? Uh I've never poured a

beer from a draft system like this

before. It's a precision art. How's the

head looking on this?

Smells all right. It's beautifully cold.

That's a good lager.

>> Star of the show is the beer.

>> Jeremy wanted to use some barley and

Jeremy is keen to have a beer in the

farm shop because it was so busy.

>> This was the first beer that he had.

>> That's correct, yeah. This is a beer

that Brecon Lemon made for Jeremy.

>> This is This is Hawkstone Lager.

>> It is Hawkstone Lager, yeah. And when

this came to market in mid '21, it just

went crazy. Jeremy asked if Brecon Lemon

could make it if he could invest and

with that investment, the company just

grown.

>> The land we're sat on currently was not

ours. We've now purchased it last year.

So, now we're expanding because

Hawkstone's a growing brand.

>> Because it's one of the fastest growing

breweries in the UK, one of the fastest

growing companies in the UK. We are

looking to work purely with British hop

farmers. This is a big news cuz it's

just in this one year alone, the hop

usage we have this year is actually

increased farming in that industry by

15%. Prior to Jeremy,

>> how much alcohol were you producing and

how much are you producing now? What's

the lift?

>> supplying 50 pubs as Cotswold Brewery,

but now with Jeremy's investment we're

supplying over 4,000 pubs.

>> 50 to 4,000?

>> Yeah, it's just it's amazing, yeah.

>> What we see from the other side of the

world, we just see a lot of government

interference and just making it harder

for farming and and your brewing

industry. Is that Well, that's what it

is the case.

>> Yeah, and that's what Jeremy has shown

shown a light on really, not just on

farming but on actually planning because

you just can't do things without

obviously going through the right

process, which is important, but that

process is tricky. If you're about to do

something, you get pushed back. It

really just shows you how much kind of

energy, time, and finances you need to

do anything in this country. It's very

tricky. So, there's only four

ingredients in our lagers, water, malted

barley, hops, and yeast. 90% of the beer

is water. After water, it's this this

lovely stuff here, barley. The color

from the beer comes from the barley. So,

what gives this lovely straw color

>> Yeah.

>> is the is the malted barley. And then

you have a darker beer like Hoxton

Black, the barley's roasted further, and

then it gets darker. So, what you're

going to try now, Kim, is the malted

barley. So, this has been roasted. If

you try a little bit, you'll see and

taste those natural sugars. That barley

will turn to alcohol via fermentation.

>> Right, so I'm just going to chew this.

>> Just chew it. Yeah.

As you chew it, it start it starts quite

bland initially, but the more you chew

it, you start to turn those lovely

starches into sugar and you'll get

>> comes out.

>> And you can see now how you get darker

beers by roasting the grain further.

>> So, this has just been roasted.

>> Yeah.

>> So, that's the only difference between

the two.

>> it becomes more you get a complete

>> It's crunchier.

>> Yes, 100%.

Because again it's roasted longer, less

sugar content.

>> like coffee.

>> There we go, perfect.

>> And I don't like coffee.

>> And in some stouts, you get that coffee

flavor, and also you get in kind of like

notes of little kind of like bit of

chocolate and burnt toast. Um but you

can see how we get color and flavor from

darker grain by roasting it further. We

use yeast, of course. Yeast is the magic

ingredient that eats those natural

sugars from the barley and generates

alcohol and carbonation. A big part of

our business is bottled beer. The reason

why we use such dark glass is the dark

glass protects the beer inside from

light and heat without using those

additives that some of the big big

companies use.

>> So, when I see a Corona, which is in a

very light beer bottle, they have to go

and put chemicals in there?

>> say that, Kim. I can't say that. But,

you

I well, you can't say that.

But, you think about champagne houses,

they've always used dark bottles.

Marmite, this great British bread that

you may have heard of.

>> Vegemite?

>> Vegemite, dark jar, olive oil. So, the

glass around the product lets you know

how good the quality of the product is

inside. It's not just for being looking

pretty. It has a purpose, too. Do you

want to try a bit of cider?

>> Yeah.

>> New cider in our range is Sid Allberry,

Sid Strawberry. And what you're drinking

here is our base apple cider with added

fresh British strawberries. Um so,

you'll be surprised how subtle it is,

but that subtleness

is just what makes it delicious because

it's not too sweet. [music] And what

you're getting through is that pure

strawberry and that

>> It's like a

an alcoholic fruit juice.

>> As is all our ciders, actually. But, we

can't say that again, but you can.

>> This is just cider. It hasn't got a

name.

>> So, this is just pure apples from the

UK, from this area. So, what you're

drinking here is pure apple juice, not

from concentrate.

>> like almost a champagne color.

>> Well, we use champagne yeast. So, we use

champagne yeast to give it a finer

bubble. And that bubble really kind of

gives it more ease makes it much more

nice in mouth, more easy drinking. Our

hedgerow cider is dark fruit. So, it's

our apple cider then we add the Ann Farm

Land black blackberries and

blackcurrants.

>> Right.

>> So, again, between you and I, it's like

our alcoholic Ribena, but we haven't

said that.

>> Ooh, it's very crimson, isn't it? It's

like a cordial.

>> And what you're drinking there is pure

apple juice with blackcurrants and

blackberries. The Ann Farm Land that

Jeremy did on Class of 91.

>> This is a bit sweeter to my palate than

the other one. Really nice. Of these

three,

I like the first one I poured.

>> Yeah, well, it's fantastic. Sid

Strawberry is our latest in our range

and we're really excited about it.

>> What was clear to me was the simplicity

of his brewing operation.

>> First vessel is a kettle where we heat

our modified water. We can't just use

tap water. We get the water perfect for

our beer. We get it nice and hot. Then

we transfer it to this vessel called a

mash tun where I add the grain which you

tried in the tap room. The grain goes

in, and we mash out those lovely natural

sugars that actually maltose and also

the color. And in 1 hour of mashing,

we've got that lovely sugary solution

wort. That's what we want. We move the

wort to the next vessel. We get rid of

the grain. The grain doesn't get wasted.

It goes back to farmers. Goes to their

cows. That's what's in the tap room as a

cheese and milk dispenser. That's the

farmer that collects our grain, feeds it

to his cows. We get back his cheese and

milk. Perfectly sustainable.

>> I love this machine because it

automatically serves you a vanilla or a

strawberry milkshake for £2.20.

Oh, there's more. Oh my gosh, there's

chocolate, banana, mint chocolate,

winter berries. This is a great deal.

You simply put that in there, pay your

money,

and £2.20 later, out comes a stunning

milkshake.

>> This vessel here is where we now charge

our hops. The hops go in there and they

charge into the wort. And after 1 hour,

they infuse the wort with the flavor of

the beer we're making. And now we've got

a brew.

>> This is where it gets tricky. This where

these guys are really clever. They add

the single strain lager yeast. The lager

yeast goes into this vessel. And what it

finds is those lovely natural sugars

that actually maltose it starts

aerobically eating up those sugars. The

energy it creates is CO2 and that's the

bubbles that we take for granted in our

beer. And ours are natural. That's why

they're smaller and less gassy than the

big guys who add the bubbles like a soda

stream. But then the yeast goes into an

anaerobic phase and then it's converting

those lovely sugars into ethanol.

>> And these small bottles of Hoxton, what

do you get out of one of those?

>> You could roughly say 5,000

L which is 10,000 pints.

>> That's a week?

>> Uh well, no. One That's this one brew.

We're doing multiple brews a week. While

we're fermenting, again the beer is

filtering. So it's giving it time to get

all the unwanted malt, hops, and yeast

down to the bottom. That's why it's

conical. But it's still not finished. We

then transfer to our next stage which is

called the lagering stage. The longer

you lager and condition beer, the

tastier it becomes. And we do it longer

than the big guys.

>> process.

>> process on site here.

>> Okay.

>> The big guys do it in a lot shorter time

cuz they want revenue. We give it more

time to get more yummy. And then

finally, we've got to get it super

bright cuz lager's bright. So you put it

through a 100 G 8,000 RPM. When it spins

at that speed, at 100 G and at 8,000

RPM, finally, the malt, hops, and yeast

are pushed to the side, taken away from

the liquid, and the beer is now bright.

>> While the products are well above

average, it's Jeremy's popularity that's

played a major part in the explosion of

the Hawkstone brand. They'd outgrow in

their plant and were in the process of

upgrading the day I visited.

>> This is where all those dual purpose

vessels we walked around coming over,

they were all in here.

>> This is a brand new floor.

>> Brand new floor. The whole floor will be

tiled. It's going to look stunning when

it's all finished. And then we're going

to get new DPVs coming in, which are

going to be helping us with production

and volume.

>> You talk a lot about the pub trade. Is

that your main focus?

>> That's a great question, Kim. But we're

so focused on keg beer. Keg beer is

supplied in restaurants and pubs.

>> And surely, when somebody has a a beer

at a pub, that would drive sales of at

the bottle shop.

>> That's correct. Yeah, because then you

engage with a fan, so then you're

looking it for it elsewhere.

>> They can brew Hawkstone beer from go to

woe, from anywhere from a week to say 6

weeks. Obviously, the longer

timing is for things like lager. But

these 50-liter kegs can be filled here.

At the moment, the bottles and the cans

are sent offsite, so there's a a little

bit longer time. But this, from what

I've discovered today, is the real

focus. They want these going out to pubs

all over Britain and maybe the world.

Would they ever get to that stage? I

don't know. It's a pretty interesting

operation. Going from 50 pubs to 4,000

in a relatively short period of time has

certainly caught the attention of the

major brewers. They don't like losing

market share, and given Jeremy's

brilliance in promoting his beverages,

that rise in market share is likely to

continue. At some point, those major

brewers will be looking to buy

Hawkstone. And the longer they wait, the

higher the purchase price. Well, having

got this far, I'll ask you one favor

before you go. Could you please hit the

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future content. Thanks for watching and

stay passionate.

Right, and I pull that back and it fills

it up and I hold it like an angle there.

Like that?

What's that?

Should let it go in there?

Okay. Oh, Jesus, I got

>> [clears throat]