Big fish in a little sea

Writer and Manxophile Katie Mather's latest piece on the Isle of Man for Pellicle is the first time I've seen her mention Okell's brewery, and it was rather dismissive. I briefly worked at Okell's a few years back. The job was one of the worst I've had, a cesspit of office politics. But the beers were the best on the island. The brew kit and laboratory were over spec'd for the brewery's output of 5 or 6,000 barrels a year. It had levels of quality and consistency that the other breweries on the island didn't.

Okell's brewery

They had three regular beers: bitter, MPA (Manx pale ale) and IPA, as well as monthly seasonals. The hop store was over filled with the latest fashionable hops, and this was certainly reflected in what went in the beers. Rather improbably the brown bitter included Nelson Sauvin in the hop grist, for example. 

I don't know why Katie seemingly has little interest in Okell's, but I do know is that on the island it plays the role of the evil corporation. A small surviving regional brewery might be celebrated elsewhere, but not on the Isle of Man. The parent company Heron & Brearley own half the pubs on the island and cynically bought and shut down the island's other historic brewery in Castletown in 1986. 

I got first hand experience of the distain some Manxie beer geeks hold Okell's in when I attended an event at the Hooded Ram brewery. It was a microbrewery run by a lovely guy called Rob Storey. He'd invited Okell's staff over to the event so I  went with one of the lads from work. I had an inkling of the view some held about Okell's, but I thought it better to be up front about where I was working so wore a branded work t-shirt. 

The Hooded Ram brewery in 2017

I was still a bit put out that someone booed when I arrived though! I've always thought the viewing of employees of breweries you don't like as evil was a bit ludicrous. Particularly as I was working at a small regional brewery, not a giant multinational's factory. But it seems everything is relative, even who the big bad guy is. I didn't get any more grief after that, and in fact had a cracking night. 

I'm not quite sure what happened to Hooded Ram, but it didn't survive lockdown and Rob now runs Odin brewery. And I've not had beers from the Kerroo brewery that Katie writes about, but I met the couple behind it at the last SIBA do. I also spent loads of time at Port Erin where they're based, the best climbing on the island is at The Chasms nearby. As to Okell's, the wrong'uns there were ousted a year or so after they'd seen me off, so I hope current Head Brewer Kevin Holmes is enjoying the job more than I did!