The Black Gates Story

Back in late November 2024, our North Street Tap Room was hosting the launch of a new IPA series, but in the hands of every member of the team was a pint of the ‘black stuff’. No, not the famous one – our own version. It was a small test brew, originally intended to go down the drain in the name of R’n’D. But it isn’t often that every member of the team puts aside their allegiance – be it IPA, cask, lager, Clear Head – and all orders the same beer. This was a moment.

Those who are familiar with the BBF story might remember our best-selling 0.5% IPA, Clear Head, took months of trials. It was a product of lockdown; after years of denouncing the possibility of an alcohol-free beer, our Head Brewer, Tristan, finally had free time and free reign of the temporarily empty brewery tanks to play with new recipes. Clear Head is now widely referred to as “the best alcohol-free beer” by the low-and-no community.

Fast forward to the first version of the BBF Nitro Stout, and it was a totally different story; the first batch was perfection. Tristan said simply “it will never get better than this.” And he should know, the OG Irish Nitro Stout has long been his favourite beer style.

So, although we did roll out that IPA series, behind the scenes we had a big decision to make…

Do we compromise the already limited tank space in our brewery, a small red brick Victorian building, in the busiest month of the year, to push forward the release of the now-named Black Gates when it was originally scheduled for the New Year?

This would be pub-only; we couldn’t do it in cans yet, and this was at the time of year we sell the most cans online (1 in 3 goes into a Christmas order for home delivery). Was that crazy?

We listened to the feedback from our strongest critics. That was not only the folks within our very own team, but the landlords of independent pubs, crying out for a locally produced stout replacement at a time of Diageo shortages. Black Gates, a reference to our beloved Ashton Gate stadium around the corner, was put into production, starting with immediate supply to BBF venues and quickly rolling out to our local stockists.

Now we are in the position of reflecting on the last few months, the numbers are in to back up what we already knew: in those bright and busy December days, a new BBF icon had been born

• We have delivered at least 1 keg of Gates to 56 pubs (not including wholesalers), almost all of which are now pouring it permanently.
• Almost 100% of our on-trade sales growth for January is in Keg. The Gates addition accounts for about 60% of the total turnover increase from this Jan to last.
• We sold ~3x more Black Gates in Jan 2025 than Milk Stout in Jan 2024 (but we’re only selling a fraction less of Milk Stout).

The black stuff continues to open doors (or indeed gates) for us. Even the sales account wins that aren’t strictly Gates-related have mostly been set up by having Gates as a talking point to set up the right type of meeting – “We have to go and drink this new beer together!”

The same can be said of proud Bristolians trying to ‘Split the B’ on viral social media videos, and stout super fans like Prime Mutton heading to our venues to try it for themselves.

So, have you had a Black Gates yet?