Lockdown blog #1 - Bellfield during COVID-19
While our brewery Taproom has been closed for a good few weeks now, and while our sales to pubs and bars pretty much collapsed overnight, we’ve been blown away by the number of people continuing to support us – and other independent breweries – by buying our beer online.
We are still able to ship our beers by post to people in Scotland and UK-wide and all our beers are also available via Amazon. We also offer local contactless pickup from the brewery yard when ordering from our online shop.
It’s been heart wrenching over the past few days, seeing the sunshine in our yard and feeling the warmth of spring, without being able to sit out there and enjoy a fresh pint. However, we’re busy planting and training hops and pruning willow, so that when we do re-open, our yard will be a lovely, green and welcoming outdoor space to come and sit.
We’re determined to survive this and will continue to brew and supply beer to customers who are still able to sell – like the wonderful independent bottle shops that we supply and also our valued retail customers like Beerwulf, BeerHawk and Sainsbury's.
Please remember to #shoplocal where you can. Our beers can be found in Cork and Cask, BeerHive, Great Grog, St Andrew's Restaurant and Fine Wines – to name just a few in Edinburgh. They’d welcome the support too.
And if you live locally, keep an eye out for news of our ‘mini casks’ that will launch mid-April. Holding 5 litres (close to 9 pints) of lovely fresh beer, we’ll be offering our award-winning Lawless Village IPA and Session Ale for the special price of £20.00 (£2.27 per pint). These will be available to buy online, for local collection only.
And where you can’t shop local, please carry on shopping online!
We’ve seen a dramatic uplift in online sales compared to normal times over the last few weeks; it seems that having a good beer to look forward to after a day of ‘working from home’ and endless Zoom calls, is what’s keeping lots of you going judging by the great photos you’ve been sharing with us on social media.
Keeping our small team together and ensuring the business survives has been the focus of our efforts over the last few weeks. As well as shifting our focus to online sales we’ve been applying for government grants and business loans, rates holidays and rescheduling payments where we can.
A few of us are still working - brewing and packaging beer, processing orders and shipping cases of cans and bottles. The rest of the team have been furloughed.
So we’d like to say a massive and heartfelt “thanks” to everyone who continues to buy our beer online or “pays it forward” with a gift voucher for future use in the Taproom.
This will continue to make a huge difference to small independent businesses like ourselves in the coming weeks and months.
For now, stay safe and well.
Team Bellfield.
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