Sussex breweries might make some of the tastiest beer in the world, but you wouldn't automatically associate them with being mobile technology innovators - until now...
Award-winning micro-brewery WJ King has become the first brewery in the world to put their head brewer into every pub. The brewery has added a unique QR code to the pump clip and bottle label of each of its 25 beers, which when scanned by smartphone, automatically links to a video of Head Brewer, Ian Burgess, talking about that specific beer and the ingredients from which it is made.
Real Ale is the fastest growing sector in the pub trade and new style microbreweries like WJ King are attracting a new generation of real ale fans all over the South East of England. This new generation of beer drinkers is passionate about what they eat and drink and they have a real thirst for knowledge about the provenance, ingredients and manufacturing process of what they are drinking.
WJ King's Marketing Director Orla Lambe, told Devour Sussex: “This is such a fantastic and obvious way to communicate with our customers at the point they are deciding which beer to choose, that we are sure other brewers will follow our example. It will be great for the consumer and we are very proud of being the first brewery in the world, we believe, to put our Head Brewer in every pub.”
WJ King's Head Brewer, Ian Burgess, who has spent 32 years of experience in the business, told Devour Sussex:“We want to ensure that customers really understand the style and flavour characteristics of each of our beers and how they are made, to allow them to make an informed choice of which beer to try. Being able to see me in the brewery talking about each beer will hopefully help them to develop their pallet and understand a little bit about the art of the brewer.”
The videos of Ian talking about the beers are also available to view on the Brewery website at www.kingbeer.co.uk and on YouTube at youtube.com/user/WjkingBeer for customers who do not have smartphones.