Keltek Brewery Gains SALSA and a National Buyer

Keltek is a traditional, family owned brewery based in Redruth. Inspired by Cornwall’s Celtic heritage, their ales are brewed with care and craftmanship, using the finest whole hop flowers, British malts and hand-pitched yeast.

Keltek began the SALSA Approval process in 2018 after they won a contract to supply Co-op but needed SALSA to proceed.

Having held the ISO 9001 Quality Standard for a number of years, Keltek felt that the SALSA Certificate would demonstrate their commitment to food safety and consistent quality.  The SALSA plus Beer Standard was developed in association with Cask Marque and offers small and micro-sized brewers a food safety standard that is tailored to the scale and structure of the operation.

Richard Heath, Manging Director of Keltek, explained that they put a lot of thought into how they would approach the SALSA Audit.  The Brewery already has food safety procedures in place, but they found using SALSA’s ‘Tools & Tips’ and ‘Guidance Notes’ helped them organise and strengthen these processes.

To help them prepare for audit the Keltek undertook mentoring with SALSA’s, Steve Cadwallader.  With Steve’s help they conducted GAP Analysis that highlighted the areas they needed to work on. Knowing that Steve had a lot of experience in the Brewing Industry gave Keltek a lot of confidence, Richard explained, ‘Steve has a lot of background knowledge and he really added value. His advice helped in preparing for audit was invaluable and he also helped our efficiency, making production more cost effective.’

In the past year Keltek have won a number of awards for their products including, SIBA SW – Gold in the Lager category and Cornwall CAMRA - 1st Place for Magik in the Bitter category. But being SALSA Approved has helped Keltek further distinguish itself from other breweries in the region by demonstrating consistency of their product’s quality.  SALSA requirements mean that buyers can rely on the quality of the products and the brewery’s ability to produce a safe product. Richard explains ‘There are so many microbreweries in the region and so having SALSA lets customers know our beer is going to be consistently good quality.’

It’s important to keep looking to the future and following their SALSA success, Keltek are working on new and innovative products including bottling a Porter infused with local Kelp from the Cornish Kelp Company, after a successful trial in cask. Look out for their products in a Co-op store near you!