Purity Brewery, a newer British microbrewery in Warwickshire, England, became the first brewery in the UK to earn a Red Tractor Assurance Mark for one of its beers, Farmer’s Harvest.
From their website:
The beer was brewed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the National Farmers’ Union in the UK. |
In a sense, the Red Tractor mark is similar to labeling something organic, except that the goal is to promote local ingredients in a variety of goods, with a standard of quality, too. It is administered by Assured Food Standards (or AFS), which is a trade group “owned by the entire food industry. It represents interests from each of the key links in the food chain, including the National Farmer’s Union, the Ulster Farmers Union, the Meat & Livestock Commission, Dairy UK and the British Retail Consortium. Observers include DEFRA and the Food and Drink Federation.” Their stated objective:
AFS believes that the Red Tractor has a major role to play in the future of British food and farming — by promoting recognition of professionally-produced assured food, and by boosting the reputation of food production in the UK. We do this by first establishing the benchmark for production and then ensuring that producers, processors and other operators continually meet those standards by carrying out regular and robust audits.
Purity Brewing was founded in 2005 and makes two beers in addition to Farmer’s Harvest, Pure UBU (an amber that’s 4.5% abv) and Pure Gold (a 3.8% abv golden ale). The Pure UBU was chosen last year as one of the world’s top fifty beers at the International Beer Challenge, an international competition headquartered in the UK. The Supreme Champion that same year was none other than Deschutes’ The Abyss. Based solely on their website, they appear to be a well-funded craft brewer, but with the accolades one dares to hope they care about the beer, too. I’m certainly looking forward to giving them a try on my next visit across the pond.