They’ve become as much a part of our culture as queuing and malt loaf. But how have the traditional alcohol providers kept themselves in business?
Beer and cider aren’t exactly the most socially relevant beverages in an age of Jagër-bombs, pre-drinking and rainbow flavoured WKD so how do they stay in the public eye?
Of course, diversification has a big part to play, with many breweries taking on extra projects or marketing campaigns to boost their appeal to certain audiences.
Take Wychwood Brewery for example, and their legendary ruby beer Hobgoblin, which is now almost synonymous with live music festivals across the UK, embracing their heavy metal connotations at festivals like Bloodstock and Download.
Hobgoblin is also widely regarded by the rest of the country as the Halloween beer of choice. Sending a trailer bar in the shape of a beer can round the country, towed by a massive truck probably helps as well, as you can see from the image above. Let the police try and pull you over for drink driving in that thing!
Then you have Thatchers of Somerset, who now offer a litany of flavours and offerings ranging from their trademark medium-dry Gold that you see in EVERY pub to the ‘craft’ options that appeal to the discerning cider drinker. Or simply appeal to the people of the West Country.
Aside from this, they have set up live music events in the form of the Haze Sessions in Bristol, diversified their line-up to include a new apple gin (pictured left), and offer tours of their farm in Somerset like so many of their competitors have started to do.
Ramsbury Brewery are at it as well! Not satisfied with producing some fine ales, the estate now operates a small distillery offering a very English take on vodka (pictured right). Oh yes, vodka made in the heart of the British countryside, with every bottle able to trace its heritage back to a specific field on the Ramsbury 
estate.
The small Wiltshire operation also offer: an amazing selection of smoked fish and game which go perfectly with any of the drinks that Ramsbury make, and in 2015 the team also installed an oil press so you can purchase cooking or dressing oils as well. It would seem every culinary option is being explored by the Ramsbury estate.
As well as all these new and exciting offerings, drinks providers have stepped up their advertising campaigns to rival the ‘cool’ and ‘modern’ images we see of vodka bars and gin palaces.
Beer and cider are trying to shrug off the image of old men in pubs and embrace the now, such as Thatchers combatting a national distaste for products like Strongbow by claiming their Thatchers Gold is ‘what cider is supposed to taste like’.
Bold claim, and indicative of an industry sector that is rebuilding its image for the 21st century. Long may it continue!
