My history is a little hazy but I’m fairly sure that when man first put the heady brew he had concocted from water, hops, malt and yeast to his lips, drank and went ‘ahhh’, it was a Friday afternoon.
This noble and worthy tradition has now been facilitated for our modern age by a company that brings beer to your desk called, ah, DeskBeers. The Spear’s office did some team bonding over liquid refreshment last Friday on the park bench behind the bike shed, and can happily report a successful tasting.
Ordering is straightforward through the website and the customer servicer got back to us immediately when we wanted to confirm. Come Friday morning and we received twelve 330ml bottles (the minimum order) from local craft breweries.
The cost is £36 (£3 per beer) and that includes delivery, which – considering the prices some shops charge for niche craft beers – is pretty reasonable. You can order up to 120 at a time if you’ve got a floor of thirsty workers you need to reward/placate.
The beer itself is their selection from local independent brewers. We received six Motueka and Lime Saisons by Brew by Numbers and six 7 Seas IPAs by Siren Craft Brew. The former was a refreshing, zingy citrus number that was full-bodied enough to flesh out the tropical fruity flavours in the Motueka hops.
The stronger 7 Seas was a black-wheat IPA with a much more wintery, malty taste, slower to drink and heavier but with delightfully distinctive taste from the seven US and German ‘ultra hops’ it’s made from. (Each hop begins with the letter C, hence the name.)
London’s desk-bound masses would probably settle for lighter-fluid at 5.20 on a Friday but why should they when beers of such quality are available? The Motueka was more of a crowd-pleaser – you didn’t need to own a beard to enjoy it – while the 7 Seas was still appealing enough to encourage uninitiated beer drinkers to try something darker.
With names such as Bones of a Sailor Part II, One Hells of a Beaver and Hello My Name is Vladimir, it can be difficult to find and choose a craft beer you think the whole office will like. Thankfully DeskBeers choose for you, which means you don’t know what you’ll get but it will be interesting and different and probably a lot better than a crate of continental lager from the supermarket.
Ironically, craft beer is fast becoming the signature tipple of the flat-white economy. The UK’s new breweries now have an excellent flagship in this latest start-up to help cross the gulf between desk and pub.
DeskBeers are offering Spear’s readers a 10 per cent discount on their first order, simply enter the promo code SPEARSWMS10 when ordering at DeskBeers.com