Letting go of the horns

The beer world woke up to some sad news earlier this week, with the announcement that By the Horns, one of London’s original craft beer names, has entered liquidation. The company, founded in 2011 by Alex Bull and Chris Mills, started with a five-and-a-half-barrel kit in Summerstown, south London, before moving production out in 2021, to a new site at Salfords, in Surrey. With the potential to produce 12,000hl a year, the company was confident about its trading future.

Unfortunately, circumstances over the last year led to its demise, as joint founder Alex Bull explained. “During Covid we were okay, we did a lot of online business and when the leases were up at our old site, we saw the opportunity to build a production unit, and it was all working. Then 2023 hit and so did a lot of turmoil. We decide to take the lease next door in a calculated gamble to push volume up and we had good sales, but then every kind of cost soared and pinned us back because we couldn’t pass it all on to our customers.”

The collapse of two companies that BtH worked with didn’t help, as between them Flavourly and Bier Nuts, owed £50k. Readers will probably remember Flavourly, a company that did well out of lockdown, before collapsing into insolvency. A further problem arose when Sainsbury’s removed BtH from their shelves, despite being a top 10 seller. According to Alex, this was because another large beer company wanted to double their shelf space with Sainsbury’s. Volumes dropped to 6,000hl and following a rent review on the second unit, cost increased by a further 30%.

An additional hit came the following year following delays by a major supermarket buying teams in deciding which BtH beers they wanted to stock. The final straw was the collapse of Union, a company which the BtH contract brewed for, adding a further £50k of debt, so last November the company in specialist to advise on options. By the Horns ceased trading on 22^nd January and entered liquidation on 3^rd February. I learned the news through the West Kent CAMRA Beer Chat, Whats App group, as one member works for a local Hop Factoring company, which supplied hops to the brewery. I found the demise of BtH particularly sad, because I had not only visited the brewery a couple of times, but also because I rather liked their beers.

In May 2017, I joined a group of West Kent CAMRA members on a tour of south London, with the purpose of presenting certificates to a number of breweries that had received an award at the previous year’s Spa Valley Railway Beer Festival. By the Horns was one of these, so we called in at the company’s original brewery, which was located on an industrial park, somewhere between Earlsfield and Tooting.  After its foundation in 2011, the brewery had expanded into adjoining units on either side of the original, which allowed room for a tap-bar, plus a bottle shop. The expansion also created space for a function room, plus additional storage facilities

By The Horns seemed very much a part of the local community, and several of the beers had a London-themed name. These included Diamond Geezer, Lambeth Walk, 2 Tone London Lager and Wolfie Smith, the latter being a reference to the 70’s sitcom, "Citizen Smith,” starring Robert Lindsay. The brewery tap was ticking over nicely when we arrived that afternoon, and after a welcoming beer or two, we were conducted on a tour around the brewery tour. This was followed by the presentation of the certificate. I wrote at the time, that I wasn’t overly interested in the technical data, such as brewing capacity etc. so after the tour, I remained outside enjoying the fresh air, the sunshine, and the excellent beer.  

Six years later, in March 2023, a slightly smaller group of us visited By The Horns Brewery for a second presentation, although by this time the company had moved out of London and were now based in the Surrey village of Salfords, a place not to be confused with the with the similarly named city in Greater Manchester. We travelled across to Redhill by train, from Tonbridge, before changing platforms and switching onto a Gatwick-bound, Thameslink service. It was then a short 5-minute walk from Salfords station to the brewery, which was housed in a new industrial unit, on an industrial estate to the west of the main London-Brighton rail line.

The move out to Surrey took place in 2021 and was a direct resulted of increased demand for BtH beers. The company commissioned a new production brewing facility, which included an enlarged, and significantly upgraded brewhouse. The company claimed the new site allowed them to brew all their beers in the most consistent way possible. The BtH brand also underwent a refresh, which gave it a much more contemporary feel.

Somewhat ominously, I wrote at the time, “Where is all this beer going?”  BtH have a serious piece of bright and shiny, stainless steel brewing kit, churning out umpteen varieties of different beers, all packed in gaudy-looking can, by the caseload, more to the point where is it being sold? Export perhaps, because beers from By the Horns have been conspicuous by their absence in local supermarkets and off-licenses, and right up to the point of the company’s collapse, I still hadn't seen any of their cans on sale locally.

Reading between the lines, BtH went for growth (they had to find some way to fill that large mash tun, and that forest of conical fermenters). I’m no business expert, but I imagine that chasing after the contract brewing market, is precarious and fraught with pitfalls. It seems that BtH also fell foul of the fickleness of supermarket buyers, with almost predictable results. So, farewell By the Horns, your beers will be missed by this drinker, even though they were rarely seen just 35 miles away from the brewery!