Pete Flynn continues his series with a profile of XT Brewing Co
One of the most attractive and timeless local venues to enjoy a beer whilst watching the world go by is the Lamb and Flag in St Giles, Oxford. Sitting in the bay window with shards of sunlight illuminating my pint of XT4 session amber ale, I was waiting to meet Russ Taylor of XT brewery. I am privileged to have known Russ for many years, and he has always been very generous in extending a warm welcome to the Oxford CAMRA cohort when we have visited Long Crendon, the small village near Aylesbury where it is based.
Right on time, and with his usual beaming smile, Russ greeted me and unwaveringly chose the same beer. We talked about his earliest beer influences, which began as a 15-year-old youth enjoying a pint of Courage Best bitter on cask at a pub in Buckinghamshire, a county Russ is proud to call home.
From there he studied engineering at Bristol University during the late 1980s with a view to potentially embarking on a career in woodworking, as nearby High Wycombe was synonymous with engineering companies.
“I didn’t want to pursue a career in this subject so retrained as an accountant,” he told me. This offered him an opportunity to move to Austin, Texas working for a small networking company: Madge Networks. “Austin had a buzzing beer scene and it made me consider that brewing is an area I could explore,” he reflected.
After time in Texas and an established career in IT he met Gareth Xifares, later to become his business partner. Upon returning to the UK Russ began another career as a brewer at Windsor and Eton Brewery (W&E) and during the intervening period he had kept in touch with Gareth. In 2010 “Project XT” was formed, the initials coming from their surnames Xifares and Taylor.
“W&E are a sensible and pragmatic brewery, very open to questions and remarkably helpful, so it was easy for me to gain experience,” he explained. I suggested it was maybe a case of déjà vu, as W&E was established by brewers from the closed Courage brewing operation, and Courage was his first taste of cask beer.
XT beers are based upon the colour spectrum, and I asked Russ about this. “It’s about making yourself different so that you stand out from a crowd; a simple solution was to brand the beers by their colours,” he explained. Having been a home brewer for many years Russ was able to brew a full mash with wet yeast provided by Rebellion Brewery.
The specialisation with which Russ brews is amazing, with the “Dead Brewers Society” recipes from over 100 years ago currently proving very popular. Modestly, he explained: “Whilst you can’t recreate the brewing kit, we are able to replicate each recipe. My head brewer Andy Cramer and Oak Taverns, to whom we supply these beers, are very supportive.”
The core range at present includes XT3 (West Coast IPA), XT4 (amber), XT17, one heritage beer and Hop Kitty (citra pale), this being the only beer in the experimental Animal range to become a permanent fixture. Bottling is contracted out to Arkells Brewery.
Russ recognises that there is a huge demand for diversity in the UK beer market with only 15% represented by cask and the remainder dominated by the big brewers who often can’t be bothered with niche products. The Animal range reflects the possibilities with a multitude of malt varieties. Of the big brewers’ rationale, he said: “They can’t go too far off the range and use adjuncts of all kinds, as you end up with no beer culture. With all the chat in the cask market you would think that it’s bigger than it really is.”
Whilst hops are seen as essential in the production of beer, Russ makes the point that the different types of barley can be blended to produce different flavours. It is the process of turning the barley into malt (malted barley) by tricking nature to produce the sugars (principally maltose) which are fermented into beer by the yeast which gives beer its base flavour. XT/Animal beers are always flavoursome with a tasty malt sweetness evident, and it’s no wonder they are so popular.
OK, so the technical stuff can be somewhat esoteric, and folks mostly want to know about day-to-day operations at XT. Russ threw some light on this: “We are an 18-barrel plant and brew two to three times a week with our beers going out as far as Bristol, Cambridge, Southampton and Birmingham; about a 100-mile radius. Life for the small brewer remains difficult with production remaining at a level 25% lower than it was pre-Covid. We took a massive hit when price inflation took hold as our input costs rose significantly, mostly energy, malt and hops.”
The XT Tap Room, open from 12-6pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, is very popular in the takeaway trade, while Gareth also operates the subscription-based Beer Club.
XT beers can be found on hand-pump as a fixture at the Lamb and Flag in St Giles, Oxford; the Rose and Crown in North Parade Avenue, Oxford; the Cross Keys in Thame; the Red Lion in Chinnor; and at other Oak Taverns pubs in and around Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The wonderful team at Oak Taverns is highly supportive of our small and medium-sized brewers, and Oxford CAMRA presented it with a special award at our February awards evening.
Russ said we have control over a tiny corner of the beer market, and as access to markets is very tough we need fewer breweries but small ones with more clout. “Being a member of SIBA (the Society of Independent Brewers) keeps us all informed, and the Oxford Brewers Alliance enables us to help each other despite intense competition,” he added. “For us to get into one pub takes months, and as soon as a brewer takes part of a new market the big boys swoop.”
As I was thanking Russ for his time and looking to bid him farewell, he suggested that it was lunch time and we should merely adjourn and enjoy a pizza and more beer at the nearby White Rabbit in Friars Entry. And so my enjoyable afternoon continued.