The reason for my publishing absence is of course how busy I am.  The brewery goes from strength to strength and our first member of staff starts in a week or so.  At the moment I sell everything I brew almost as soon as it is in the cask if not before. Hell, this week I sold some I haven’t yet brewed!  The nations thirst for real ale is showing no signs of faltering as we struggle to keep up with demand.  Those of you who read my other half’s blog http://theharlequinpub.wordpress.com/ will know that we have taken over the fantastic real ale pub The Harlequin in Sheffield.  This of course is taking a lot of my time (and beer!).  Our beer festival is 22nd to 24th of April and is showcasing beers from the following breweries: The Brew Company (of Sheffield) ((of course)), Steel City Brewing, Sheffield Brewery, Abbeydale, Kelham Island, White Rose, Tryst, Boggart, Stringers, Ulverstone, Redemption, Buntingford, Fat Cat, Kings Head Bildseston, Mill Green, Graffitti, Emltree, Grain, Hopshackle, H’apenny, Spectrum, Castor, Rockingham, Hornbeam, Norfolk Cottage, Beeston, Front Street, Bees, Tydsteam, Mallinsons.

We also have 10 real ciders and live music each night so that should be great fun if not extremely hard work.

We are also hosting a Scottish beer festival on May 20th – 22nd between The Harlequin, The Devonshire Cat and The University Arms.  Each will have 20 beers, all of which rarely make it South of the border.

We will also be the sole supplier of real ale at the following events in Sheffield this year. The Highland Cattle Show at Graves Park 3rd May, Whit Fayre @ Western Park 23rd May, Peace in the Park Festival @ Ponderosa Park Netherthorpe on the 12th June, Shake Out (the follow on from the annual Cliffhanger fest) @ Limb Lane playing fields Dore on 1st – 4th July, Sheffield Fayre @ Norfolk Park 29th – 30th August and finally Art in the Gardens 4th – 5th of September @ Sheffield’s magnificent Botanical Gardens.

As you may know i brew two house beers for The Harlequin – Harlequin Blonde & Harlequin Best.  I also brew house beers for the Devonshire Cat (Brewers Gold) and the Forum Bar (North Star Amber) and soon I will be brewing a pale hoppy house beer for the Riverside on Mowbray Street.

So a busy summer ahead!

Looking back, learning to brew beer was the easy bit and at the time I thought I had it cracked pretty quickly. How wrong can you be! Only time and experience can teach you how to make great beer and now I see people enjoying my ales I feel contented but not complacent. The thing that excites me now is the fact that I have established the business, have gained a good reputation for both my beers and for my own personal touch when dealing with customers, but I still have many, many things to learn and do. Imagine how many beers I still have the opportunity to brew and taste. Imagine how many people will be dragged along this personal journey of mine without knowing it but by simply ordering my beer in the pub because they liked the last one.

As the brewing world quakes to the sound of the big international brewers pounding the world in search of yet more acquisitions the small independent craft micro sector is growing stronger and stronger. We are quietly going about our business making excellent beers with flavour and character that excite and engage drinkers in the experience. Flying beneath the radar of the big brewers and stealing their market share slowly but surely. It can only be good for customer’s choice and local economies but there still needs to be a step change in the way that beer is distributed in the UK. By this I mean the route to market needs to be enabled. The large pub co’s currently controlling the vast majority of pubs must be made to see sense and relinquish some control to their lease holders. The pub tie in principle is a good idea, certainly where brewers are concerned, but the free house model is possibly the best of all. It outstrips any benefit offered by tied leases (if there are any). The tied lease allows people to enter the pub trade with very little in the way of capital expenditure – an entry point level if you will. In the past landlords new about their trade, their business was making you feel welcome and ensuring good beer was served by knowledgeable staff. Unfortunately these days the pub co’s rape their tenants financially on every level, lease costs, rent, tied products with crappy global brands. They operate their business on a different premise to independent brewers. They own housing stock and watch balance sheets. It is a pure numbers game with shareholders to answer too. They have no passion and no vision and do not understand the trade at all.

Here is an example. One of the few remaining coaching Inns in Sheffield is about to close. Owned by a large pub co the landlord rents the place on fairly easy in and out terms. The building is falling to pieces with leaking roof and knackered heating system. To say it is in poor repair is an understatement, yet the landlord has turned the fortunes of the pub around by making it a live alternative music venue. He is profitable and happy to carry on as is. The pub co still wouldn’t refurbish the place, tied him to all beers charging him double what I charge. The pub co is now selling the building and wants him out. They are selling to the highest bidder (of which there aren’t any due to the state of the place) without any knowledge of the area it is in. It sits within the Kelham Island area of Sheffield, or as it is known locally ‘The Valley of Beer’. Pubs around the corner are making record profits as hundreds of people flock to them to try the sixty or so different beers always available in this area. The pub co is so blind to the fact they are sitting on a potential gold mine that in my mind they deserve what they get. Which is nothing.

The Brew Company is about to take the lease on free of tie pub in the same area http://www.theharlequinpub.co.uk/ A pub where we are free to order what beer, wine, spirits, food and entertainment we like without paying a penalty. A pub that is trading stronger than any tied house I have seen. I am happy that this next stage in the development of my brewery is going ahead and know that this will not be the end. More pubs and bars to come? Probably. But the tie I will put in place on my venues will not be restrictive and will actually benefit the tenant as was the original intention of the tied system. To follow our journey into independent brewery pub ownership a new blog has been started by my fiancé (the new landlady). Posts will start to appear over the next week and then every week at http://theharlequinpub.wordpress.com Cheers!

This is a write up by my long suffering brewers widow, all about our experiences in Newcastle last weekend when we took part in a beer and food pairing event.  Eight of our beers matched with eight, yes eight courses!

Find out all about it at http://ginsoak.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/bacchus-to-the-future/

Cheers!

Late October saw us man the bar at the Steel City Beer Festival in Sheffield where we sold Ginger Daze, Hop Ripper IPA, Slaker Pale Ale, St Petrus Stout and our festival special Raisin to Live a 7% black chocolate raisin stout. Yum.  St Petrus won best stout of the festival and also joint Silver in the champion beer of the festival awards. 

The onset of man flu and the brewery courtyard being dug up didn’t help much in such a hectic time but with the flu all but gone and a new level tarmac courtyard i can again concentrate on making beer.  In the last month or so i have started to help Steel City Brewing test brew.  This is a new start-up brewery brewing on my kit (cookoo brewers) and their first brew Hop Manifesto went down a treat at pubs across the nation. It appeared all over Sheffield and as far away as Oxford, Newcastle and Worcester.  The next test brew will take place in mid November and should be in the pubs by December.  I have also brewed Autumnus Porter spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon and a Belgian Dubbel called Tantalus 6.5% which was for the Battle of the Beer competition at the Chesterfield Market Beer Festival.  That is all sold now and i have to say it was a great ale.  Sheffield & District CAMRA chairman called it ‘a beast of a beer’ and The Reluctant Scooper, who named the beer,  described it as a ‘smooth Westmalle’. Praise indeed. 

I have just delivered 27 assorted casks to The Bacchus in Newcastle who will be hosting a Brew Co beer and Food Festival on Sunday the 8th November.  Seven hand pumps will feature my beers and the chef is cooking a seven course meal with my beers accompanying each course.  I’ll be on hand to talk dinners and drinkers through the beer selection as well as sampling the ale and stuffing my face with their fine food.

Tuesday the 24th of November sees us resurrect Beer Styles Night at the Devonshire Cat pub in Sheffield.  This time we will be focusing on dark strong real ales and for eight quid drinkers will get to sample 6 beers with a tutored tasting by myself and Ben Tysoe the bar manager.  The nights are always great fun with like-minded drinkers gathering to discuss beer and breweries and taste some fine ales.

Speaking of the Devonshire Cat pub, several bar staff will be attending our brewery on Wednesday 25th to brew their very own Christmas beer.  The actual beer is a secret so you will have to go in and buy a pint which will be on the pumps from mid December.  Needless to say it will be different to the normal offering and it will be damn tasty!

The Mail on Sunday reports that “all eyes will be on the Office of Fair Trading, which will decide whether a complaint made by real ale lobby group CAMRA about the validity of the beer tie has any merit. Industry trade body the BBPA believes abolition of the tie would ‘sound the death knell of regional and local brewers across the country”  What a load of old tosh!  Look around you.  With the exception of MacSpoons (and their success is because they are free of tie) which national pub co appears to be doing well?  I will not mention any names but we know who the two main ones are and they are failing miserably.  Turn your attention then to the local free of tie, independently owned real ale pub.  These are flourishing and will continue to do so.  Ta ta pub co’s, your days are numbered, thank God.

There is one good thing to come out of the changing seasons though – winter ales.  Last week i brewed a Belgian dubbel (6.5%ABV) made with copious quantities of dark crystal malt for those dark prune flavours exhibited by beers like Chimay.  The Belgian ale yeast i use has given the beer an air of authenticity and tastes typically Belgian, almost aniseed.  Next up i brewed Autumnus (4.7%ABV) which is a porter and as the name suggests is very autumnal in character.  Dark brown/red in appearance it is spiced with cinnamon sticks, nutmeg powder and just a hint of fresh root ginger.  It smells and tastes like an autumn style cake like Parkin. 

Next week i intend to brew the multi award-winning stout St Petrus (5%ABV) but i will not be forsaking the lighter side of ale ands will also brew Slaker Pale Ale and the light golden Ginger Daze.  My thoughts now turn towards Christmas and the staff from the Devonshire Cat pub will be coming to brew their own Christmas special.  I am also working on a project with Sheffield Hallam University where students will design and brew a beer specifically for other students based on market research they carried out.  Running a small craft brewery is hard work and there is never any spare time, but i love it.  So join me in a dark winter ale and lets ride out the rough weather together.  Cheers!

I’ve just had three cask ale beer engine hand pumps refurbished as the seal in the cylinders had eroded. Studying what had gone wrong with the pump engineer made me think how ’state of the ark’ these amazing beer pumps are.  They haven’t really changed since being invented by the locksmith and engineer Joseph Bramah in 1797.  I used a beer engine to dispense my Slaker Pale Ale at the Steel City Beer Festival in Sheffield recently that was made in 1982. I was 13 when that pulled its first pint!  I also hear of breweries starting up with second hand coppers, mash tuns and fermenting vessels  which are decades old.  As are casks which, can last for over 30 years if treated right.

It’s nice to know that brewing cask ale may have advanced in terms of ingredients and efficiencies of production but it is still brewed, fermented, stored and served in the same way it has been for hundreds of years.  I’m glad i work without the threat of having to upgrade to the next technological advancement which is always just around the corner.

Good news indeed, not just for small craft brewers like me, but also for the publican who will wish to stock cask ale as it’s popularity rises again and also great news for drinkers who will get more choice. 

I’ll leave you with this which is also from the report – ‘By contrast, lagers have continued to fall in popularity along with beer generally, with all sales in pubs tumbling by 16 million pints a day since their high point in 1979. Britain’s beer market is worth £18.3bn a year, with real ale worth around £2bn.’ – Now this may seem poor in terms of market share, but i see the upside – there is loads of room for growth.  Most people want good quality, locally brewed beer, full of character and flavour.  Not cider which isn’t cider, or bright blue alcopops, and we the small craft brewers are here to help you on a journey of discovery.  When you’re next down the pub, ask for cask.  Cheers!

It’s good to connect with the end consumer so i know i am doing right or wrong.  Fortunately the feedback this week has been really positive.  (Two awards prove that) I don’t particularly live life wishing to be patted on the back for my work.  But when it happens, i am humbled but grateful. More than anything, i am happy what i do, makes others happy.  Raise a glass… Cheers!