First we were subjected to the Morrisey Fox brews, now it looks like Guy Ritchie, AKA former Mr Madonna wants to open his own brewery in Wiltshire.
Is brewing suddenly becoming cool? Is the latest celebrity fad to own your own brewery? Is this a good or a bad thing for the industry?
The answer to the first question is no, it's not suddenly cool, it's always been cool even if most people haven't realised it yet!
I don't own a crystal ball so won't predict any more celebrity breweries. But the third question will be a mixture of prediction and personal opinion which any one of us is qualified to answer.
Personally I'm not sure about this one, will a movie producer/director help promote real ale, or help themselves to a quick profit and sell the brewery quickly when they get bored or realise just how much work is involved?
I'd like to think that it will help give the brewing industry a bit of a boost, a bit of 'cool' but I'm also wary that the beer could quite easily be sub-standard and not be taken seriously which in turn do more harm than good, after all he wants to produce beer in it's traditional style apparently, what style is that then? tell me it's not brown and boring please!
There is an instant positive which I can heartily back though and that's the creation of jobs which will always be a good thing and I applaud him for that.
I guess we'll have to wait and see how successful this venture is, I'd like to think more so than the Morrisey Fox one that ended up in them having to sell the pub they took over. Watch this space.
