Northampton brewery fires up cooking vats amidst lockdown with massive increase in home-delivery bottle sales

A Northampton brewery fired up its cooking vats once again this week amidst the coronavirus lockdown just to keep up with demand for its bottled beer.

The team at Phipps NBC had to lock up their brewery four weeks ago when the coronavirus lockdown began.

With much of their business coming from selling casks to pubs that now also had to shut, the independent brewers wondered when they would be open again.

But instead, the lockdown has led to a five-fold increase in its bottled beer sales - and this week, the Northampton brewery had to cook up a fresh batch to keep up with demand.

The brewery's bottled beer sales have jumped from around £1,000-a-week to £5,500-a-week as customers take to ordering ales to their doors.Co-director Alaric Neville said: "Bottle sales have always been a much smaller part of our business. But in the lockdown, it's developed into a nice little business on its own and is paying our bills.

"A post on Facebook page that we were brewing again had more engagement than anything else we've ever done. I think people like to see a bit of positivity that one day things might go back to normal."

Phipps fired up its cooking vats on April 20 to brew up a batch of its Gold Star ale after selling out across the county through home deliveries.

Alaric said: "The interesting thing is rather than run an automated online shop we've had someone at the brewery to take delivery orders over the phone. It's gone down really well - I think people appreciate the chance to talk to someone.

"We'll probably have to make a batch of out IPA by next week as well.

"We're doing what we can and we're keeping the lights on and we're able to pay our bills. I couldn't ask for more."