Every few months someone declares craft beer dead, Gen Z aren’t drinking, pubs are closing, alcohol sales are slipping… the headlines pile up like empty cans at a festival. And yet, if you dig beneath the noise, you’ll find something far more interesting: while overall alcohol consumption is down, sales of independent beer are up by 10%. That’s not a death rattle. That’s a signal that people are drinking less but drinking better.

This is the bit no one writes the obituary for. Younger drinkers, might not sink pints at the rate their ‘Boomer’ parents did. But when they do drink, they’re choosier. They want flavour, provenance, authenticity. They want their pint to mean something beyond refreshment. That’s good news for smaller breweries like ours, who can offer that in spades, and bad news for faceless mass-produced beer.

The trouble is that even when drinkers want indie beer, they don’t always get the chance to buy it. According to SIBA’s (Society of Independent Brewers and Associates) 2025 report, only around 40% of pubs in the UK are ‘not tied’, meaning the majority are locked into deals with the big boys. Even the so-called ‘guest beer’ pumps are often stitched up with strings attached: cellar maintenance or discounts in exchange for stocking corporate brands. That’s how you end up with the same bar line-ups again and again – lager lines clogged with Madri Excepcional, a beer dressed up in Spanish livery that’s not made on Spanish soil, not even Benidorm, it’s brewed in the UK by Molson Coors. And the ‘craft’ choice? More often than not it’s Camden or Beavertown – breweries that once flew the indie flag proudly, but long since sold out to global players. On the bar, they look like indie. Behind the scenes, they’re anything but.

That’s exactly why SIBA’s Indie Beer campaign matters. Clear branding. A little “IB” logo on the pump clip or bottle that tells you: this one’s genuinely independent. Not a ‘crafty’ marketing illusion, not a global conglomerate with a quirky label, but beer brewed by people who actually own the brewery. We’ve incorporated that logo into our own pump clips and point-of-sale because it helps drinkers make the choice we know so many of them want to make – local, small, independent.

It’s the same logic that fuels other grassroots food and drink movements. The Real Bread Campaign, championed by bakers like our local Oxford’s Bakery, who fought to make sure people know whether their loaf is the real thing or a loaf-shaped industrial product with 18 ingredients. The same is true in wine: again, here in Sherborne, Vineyards has been named the UK’s Best Independent Wine Retailer three years on the trot, flying the flag for authenticity and helping customers choose bottles with real identity. Beer deserves the same treatment.

The resilience of small breweries lies in our stubbornness. We’re awkward enough to refuse shortcuts. We’re proud enough to insist on using local ingredients, even if it costs more. We’re reckless enough to pour time into beers that won’t win supermarket tenders but might just win over someone in a rugby club bar. And that’s where indie beer’s future lies – in the loyalty of drinkers who care about their pint meaning something.

So no, craft beer isn’t dead. It’s shedding its skin. The word ‘craft’ has been battered about so much it barely means anything. Supermarket shelves groan with ‘craft’ this and ‘craft-style’ that, often brewed in industrial volumes by companies whose only craft is in the marketing department. Independence – that still has teeth. Independent beer is about ownership, values, and connection. It’s about knowing that the pint in your hand wasn’t brewed to slot into a corporate spreadsheet but to express something: a field, a style, a decision to do things differently.

What’s more, survival isn’t glamorous, but it is clarifying. It forces breweries, particularly new ones like ours to know exactly who we are. For us, that means 100% British-grown hops, hazy, unfined, unfiltered beer, and a refusal to compromise just because it might be easier. It means seeing beer as more than liquid: it’s a way to support farmers, pubs, and local communities all at once.

We hear time and again that drinkers want to support local breweries, but their local pub can’t pour the beer. That’s not demand failing – it’s the system. And it’s a system worth challenging, because what is a pub without local beer? In turn, what’s Britain without its pubs? It’s like a car without an engine – pretty to look at, but missing the point.

So the next time you’re in a pub, take an interest in the taps. Ask which breweries are truly independent. Look out for that Indie Beer logo. And if you see a local beer on, order it. Because if you drain that cask dry, the landlord will remember – and they’ll order it again.

Beer, like bread, like wine, is not just ‘biblical’ it’s at its best when it’s independent. Craft beer may have lost its shine, but indie beer is alive and kicking. And with your help, it’s going to keep British brewing on the road. Raise a pint to that.