Although enjoying a beer or two at home might have become a way of life for many of us during the pandemic, just prior to the first lockdown, Mell and Tom Struthers had already mapped out a promising idea. The initiative was to deliver beer to the door but this scheme was a little out of the ordinary. They gave it the name Draught Drop.
Mell explained, “I always liked craft beers but, when our daughter came along, it made it much more difficult to visit pubs. I didn’t want to compromise on quality and I realised that there were others in our situation. We came up with the proposal (which we took from the USA) of doing deliveries of fresh beer using refillable growlers. Walthamstow, where we live, is a hot spot for beer with ten different breweries so it was the obvious place to start.”
After testing the storage life (it will keep for seven days if left unopened), the pair were ready to launch in March 2020. The original plan was to base themselves in a bar alongside a number of breweries but that never came off. “Fortunately, East London Brewing came to the rescue and allowed us to rent some space” said Mell.
The Draught Drop proposition is quite simple. Each week, Mell and Tom buy draught beer from a selection of independent breweries and put them into 3.3 pint growlers. “There are around 18 local breweries we currently use, all in East London but we are aiming to expand into North London and increase this to 30,” said Mell. The filling takes place every Friday and the beer is delivered to customers using electric bikes. They also take away the empties, which are then cleaned and re-used.
It operates as a subscription service. Mell explained, “We have a beer of the week, usually something with mass appeal such as a lager, pale or session IPA and we feature four or five other beers including a strong beer. People can buy one or more subscriptions but once signed up, they can buy an extra beer as a one off when they want to. We like to get feedback on each of the beers and really get to know our subscribers. We know those who don’t like lager; we make a note of it and give them something else that we think they would like.” She added, “We have such a relationship with our customers that we’ll even make a note of any delivery instructions, such as where to deliver the beer if they are not in. We also make a note of when they are holiday so they can skip a week. We really do listen. One person told us he had to empty his fridge each week to get the bottles in so now we supply him with two half bottles.”
Tom and Mell met at Nottingham, where they were both studying to be chemists. Tom then went into consultancy, working with start ups and helping to create new businesses while Mell has a background in online alcohol sales. She previously worked with the Bottle Club and Sainsbury’s. Consequently, they had the perfect background for this venture and it looks to be working. Mell commented, “Our customers tell us that the weekend hasn’t really started until the beer arrives and the beer is always super fresh. It’s like a milkman but with beer!” Enough said!
For more information, and where they deliver, go here.
Christine Cryne