Gary Ward is owner of Redchurch Brewery, based in Bethnal Green

How do you go about distributing to foreign markets? Is it a difficult process?

"My advice would be to identify and contact suitable distributors in the territories you want to export to. It may be a long drawn-out process involving sending samples and perhaps travelling to meetings but in our experience, definitely worthwhile. There is a great deal of help and guidance from UK Trade and Investment – a government scheme specifically set up to assist with enabling export trade."

Pete Brown is a beer writer and blogger petebrown.blogspot.co.uk

Do you feel that the current growth of breweries is saturating the market? Does this mean that real quality is more difficult to find?

"At the moment, most of the growth is coming at the expense of the big, boring multinational brands. Craft beer and real ale together still only account for 18% of total beer volume in the UK, so there's plenty more room for the good stuff to grow.

Real quality is easier to find than ever before, I'd say – but among the huge growth there are new brands that simply aren't that good. Also, a real issue is pubs who are excited to jump on the craft beer bandwagon but don't know how to keep it properly."

Paddy Johnson is founder of Windsor & Eton Brewery

How does a small brewery go about distribution in the face of high logistics costs and whole-seller mark-ups?

"What I think helps in this case is the building of your own network, ie you have someone who will bring beer to your area and then you split this among like-minded retailers in your area. Most suppliers want to work in ways with the customer to keep the costs down for both parties. This needs the building of ongoing relationships to work well."

Jacob Gram Alsing is operations manager at Mikkeller, based in Copenhagen

What do you know about the kind of people that drink your beer and do you see the market changing as craft beer begins to enter the mainstream?

"We know our customers are very different in age and gender and we know that they like extreme beer. The market is definitely changing and the whole foodie movement has meant there is more and more focus on quality of produce, which means that our market is also spreading out. But for us it's about standing out and being first movers in what we do."

Stu and Claire Lascelles are co-founders of East London Brewery.

When you have a marketable product and want to set up a brewery, do you approach your local council first? What licences and certificates are required?

"In addition to all the paperwork necessary for any company, you'll need to register with HMRC for your certificate to brew as well as for beer duty. You will need a premises licence from your local authority in order to sell direct to the public (off-sales). You'll also need someone with a personal licence if you want to sell to the public, also available from local authorities."

Alex Troncoso is head brewer and development director at Camden Town Brewery.

How much enjoyment do you get in tasting a brew for the first time?

"A lot! Often it is quite stressful doing a one-off beer, especially if it is going to be bottled. Normally I start panicking about halfway through maturation, but eventually it usually comes together with much relief! You always learn something new with every new beer you brew."

Paul Seiffert is co-founder of The Liverpool Craft Beer Company

Marketing seems to be more important than the actually beer quality itself sometimes. What do you think?

"I think that you are right about marketing being the most important thing for a large multinational but for smaller, independent breweries the focus should always be on the beer and end product. Aside from branding, we don't really invest in marketing for the brewery, yet we continuously struggle to meet the high demand for our beers. It is great to invest into marketing if funds allow it, but ultimately as a craft brewer, if the beer isn't up to scratch you will be found out eventually!"

Rich Myers is marketing director and Mel Smith is sales director at Meantime Brewing Company, based in London

Do any of the panel have any experience of sponsoring sports or entertainment events? Even on a small scale, is this an effective way to market a product?

"It depends on what you want to achieve. For us we go to events, not to necessarily create an association with music or sport but to give our target drinker the opportunity to try something different. Simply sticking your logo on an event and hoping to selling beer doesn't always work. You have to choose the right events with the right audience.

You also have to stand out at these events. We have created our beer truck and deliver brewery fresh beer to drinkers in places they wouldn't expect to find."

Tom Stainer is editor of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) BEER magazine

Can you see similar growth in "brew pubs" here as in the US?

"Availability of smaller-scale, high-quality brew equipment means it's easier to experiment with "nano" breweries which can easily be installed at a pub relatively cheaply. It's possible the growth of micro-pubs may also see a change in the market for beer from smaller and increasingly more hyper-local brewing operations (even if they're not actually attached to the pub itself). Again it comes back to quality though. Regardless of size, the quality has to be there."

Richard Worrall, director, British Craft Beer

Would you recommend specialising in a particular area, or export more generally?

"It does depend on which market you are going for, but there are a lot of individuals out there specialising in certain countries, as we are with China. I am also involved in developing a kind of portal, where you can get access to them through an export club-type concept."

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