Power Monkey at FTD

BySean McFetrich

From the orchard to the brewhouse: we’re moving into beer

We’ve built our name on craft cider. Now we’re bringing the same thinking to beer – starting with Powder Monkey.

Visit the Trade Portal

For thirteen years, Fetch The Drinks has been about one thing above all: getting proper craft cider from small producers onto bars across the country. Over 100 ciders, from makers who press real fruit, delivered by us. That isn’t changing.

But we’ve been getting the same question from venues for a while now. “You clearly know how to find the good cider, can you sort our beer out too?”

So we have.

Why now

The honest answer is that our customers asked for it. A pub or festival bar doesn’t want to run three accounts with three wholesalers and three deliveries. If we’re already turning up with your cider, it makes life a lot easier for everyone if the beer’s on the same pallet, on the same invoice.

And the truth is beer has always been in our blood. The business started at a monastery orchard, and monastic brewing – Abbey beers, Belgian ales – was part of the story from very early on. Moving properly into craft beer isn’t a leap for us. It’s more like coming back to something we always had one foot in.

The rule we’re applying is exactly the same one we use for cider: we only work with breweries doing it properly. No filling the shelf for the sake of it.

Starting with Powder Monkey

Our first proper beer partner is Powder Monkey Brewing, and we couldn’t have asked for a better one to start with.

They brew in Gosport, in a restored naval gunpowder store, which is where the name comes from, and the branding is some of the best around. But the branding would count for nothing if the beer wasn’t excellent, and it is. We’re stocking their full core range across keg and can:

  • Drop Anchor VPA (4.6%) — a Vienna pale ale with a fuller, bready body and a big hit of tropical fruit from Citra and El Dorado. Insanely easy to drink.
  • Monkey’s Fist IPA (4.6%) — a session IPA, bright citrus and a touch of cedar, with enough caramel malt behind it to stand up to fish and chips.
  • Bravo Zulu Pilsner (4.4%) — a proper German-style pilsner, clean, crisp and refreshing, with a subtle floral, herbal note.
  • Explosion IPA (6.0%) — an authentic West Coast IPA on the classic ‘C’ hops, all pine and citrus with an assertive, thirst-quenching finish.
  • The Golden Drop Pale Ale (4.8%) — three English hops, smooth bitterness, apricot and pineapple coming through.
  • Fearless Monkey Pale Ale (4.4%) — bright and citrussy, lemon and apple, clean and simple. A great everyday pale.

Available in 30L keg or 440ml cans, with selected beers in 50L kegs too. It’s a range that covers a lot of bar: an easy-drinking pale for the everyday crowd, a serious West Coast IPA for the enthusiasts, and a pilsner and session IPA that suit just about anyone.

Powder Monkey also sit within a wider group that includes Goddards and Empress, so there’s real depth to what we can now offer through them.

What’s next

Powder Monkey is the start, not the finish. We’re in conversations with other breweries, several of them local to us here in Dorset and the surrounding counties, about bringing their beer into the range on the same terms.

The plan isn’t to become a beer wholesaler that happens to do cider. It’s to become the one call a venue makes when they want a genuinely good, genuinely independent drinks list; cider, beer, and low-and-no delivered personally by people who know what’s on your bar.

So: watch this space. There’s more coming.

Want it on your bar?

If you run a pub, bar, restaurant, café or festival bar and you’d like Powder Monkey, or our full craft cider range, on your list, take a look at the trade portal for the full range and prices, or get in touch and we’ll talk it through.

[BROWSE THE TRADE PORTAL → https://fetchthedrinks.com/trade-portal/]

One delivery. One invoice. Cider and beer, done properly.