You Have To Wonder Sometimes....

According to a report from the BBPA (British Beer & Pub Association), the pub trade saw a 10.6% drop in sales from April - June, compared to the same period last year. And over the first 6 months of 2008 there has been a 9.6% overall drop in sales. This compares with a rise in sales in the off-trade (ie shops, and supermarkets) of 7.6% in the same 6 month period. Now of course given then increasing scarcity of spare cash for most of us, and the continued availablity of very cheap alcohol in the off-trade, these figures are not a surprise. But it does call into question why various bodies, notably those reporting to the government, continue to bash the pub industry round the head, whilst praising the supermarkets, with regards to the drunken idiocy of a minority of folk. Forgetting for a moment that most of these drunken twerps would be just as anti-social when sober (and indeed often are), why should the pub trade take the flack? Because although they get 'pre-loaded' on supermarket at booze before leaving home, it is out in the street that their antics are observed, outside the bars they visit having already got drunk.

A recent study done for the Home Office by KPMG suggests that 'most pubs' are selling to under age drinkers. A very strong claim, but on further reading their is an admission that in reality the 'pubs' visited were selling to people 'who may have been underage' - ie they are assuming. There are it seems many other assumptions in the report, and very little hard fact. The upshot is that supermarkets are praised for showing signs reminding us what the age limit is for alcohol sales, and no doubt are also praised for demanding pensioners show some ID before buying a bottle of whiskey. And the pub trade is told to get its act together or else. Now, if we want a licence up here at the brewery, we have to show (quite rightly) that we will not sell to underage drinkers - and show statements, policy, training, procedures etc to prove that we won't. The most obvious proof is that a) teenagers couldn't afford to buy from us, let alone make the effort to come up here in the first place, and b) that I could go into the supermarket, stock up on cheap cider & lager, show my ID (well, I do look very young...), then nip round the housing estate and make more money selling it on than I could up here selling our beer responsibly. And so the supermarkets get no blame, despite the fact they are the cheapest, and easiest way to get alcohol. You certainly couldn't walk out the pub with 48 pints and then sell them on round the corner. Maybe that is why the pub gets the blame - that and the fact that the supermarkets are a very powerful lobbying force, certainly much more so than the brewery and pub trade. I suspect this is changing at last, but it may be too late to stop a raft of stupid legislation that won't do a thing to make a few numptys behave themselves. And that is the point - they only people to blame are those who get drunk then feel the need to make a prize twit of themselves. They should be punished, not anyone else. After all Ford don't get blamed if someone is killed by a speeding Mondeo. After all, alcohol is safe until it is abused, and the abuser should be made suffer the penalty. Of course there should be a degree of responsibilty from those selling the alcohol, and yes there needs to be a way of hitting those who don't follow the law. But we need to make people more responsible. Yes, even 12 year olds - if they think they are old enough to have a drink, then they are old enough to do something constructive as a pennance. There must be something they can do down a coal mine.

I would put a link to the report on the Home Office website. Sadly all I could find from their website is that we are very likely to be attacked by terrorists. Of course what they mean are the Muslim Fundamentalists who take exception - and for the life of me I don't know why - to the fact that we have put our soldiers in their back garden, and seemingly left them there.

Don't you just love the politics of fear?

Today We'll Talk About...

Well, I was to tell a couple of jokes, but it appears that they will probably cause offence, and so telling them would no doubt have me shot or locked away for several years - even though they may only cause offence to the sort of people who feel beholden to get offended on behalf of others, without consulting them first. And given that I can't think of any jokes that would avoid poking fun at some point in their telling, I won't bother.

I would tell what music we are currently enjoying, but even though we legitimately own the cd's, we are told we can't play them in case another person hears it. And that would mean we are broadcasting (even if they are trespassing burglar...), and so liable to pay a large fee to the PRS. Given that we feel we are already paying enough money to various bodies, institutions & government departments just for the privilege of running a business (several thousand pounds a quarter I might add), we don't therefore have music at work anymore. Given that we would possibly be better off on the dole, and certainly better off shelf stacking down the supermarket - either of which would certainly decrease the governments coffers - I don't think we can be blamed for thinking this way. So no, I won't now promote a few albums and suggest you might like to buy them as well.

I could say what a nice laugh we had down such and such pub the other night, but that would be promoting alcohol as a tool for pleasure. Indeed mention of how many pints we had may even lead to accusations of encouraging binge drinking. So again, I won't discuss it.

Likewise I could discuss some beer festivals....

Then there is the nice day out we had recently at the coast. But that involved driving a car, and despite the fact that we had no car at all for the last 6 months, is no doubt tantamount to promoting the benefits of an eco-disaster. Heck, it's note even as if we could have used public transport. They closed all the railways in Norfolk in the 1960's, otherwise it would have been much easier than driving. So I'll leave this subject alone (bar the bit in the previous post...).

So oh dear. I'm not in the mood to court the wrath of some State Nanny or other today. Which means there is nothing to discuss. Until next time that is...

Nature Notes....

So far, it's been a slightly disappointing year - the Barn Owls (indeed all the owls) had seemingly vanished, and no Marsh Harriers or Hobby.

OK, so we had more Lapwing chicks in close view than you could shake Bill Oddie at, and there have been loads of Reed Buntings, plus Sedge & Reed Warblers nesting in the reeds. But it was the big stuff that impressed folk last year, and this year we could only reminisce. But not now. There are Barn Owls in the hood - by sound only at present, but a sighting can't be long off. So they must be nesting a bit further away this year. Tawny Owls have fledged on the other side of the farm yard as well, although unseen by us. There are baby kestrels, and young buzzards as well. Plenty of partridge and pheasant chicks to (as ever). Even the Pie-Eyed Wagtails (well, it is a brewery) have managed to stop eating long enough to breed, successfully. We even have Yellow & Grey types here as well now.

But still no Harrier - but that's OK, we went to somewhere called Norfolk to see some instead - and saw a Hobby to boot (possibly, it was a long way off). Even saw some Bar-Tailed Godwits, which made a nice change from Bar-Towelled Halfwits.

Trouble is, a reduced lack of excitement in the skies has resulted in my looking nearer the ground. And we do seem to have butterflies after all. Ringlets, Meadow Browns, Commers, Red Admirals, Peacocks, Fritilleries, Brown Argus, Small Skippers, Dingy Skippers, Brimstone, Common Blue, and the list goes on. We even have one pupating on the premises. Serves me right saying we were short on them. It seems I was short on seeing them. I may even become a Lepidopteroperlepedoperist as well as developing a Billoddieology. But I won't be sticking pins in them. That's just evil. And it's easier to buy them ready done on Ebay.

As a result I am now expecting to see more things I previously thought we were short of - ie money back from the govt, common sense regulations, twenty pound notes, etc etc. Well, I can hope...

Carbon Neutral?

There has been much talk of going carbon neutral of late. And as a result many large corporates now claim to carbon neutral. But are they? It's all down to 'off-setting' - which in very simple terms allows an energy efficient company, that is below it's CO2 limit, to sell the excess CO2's to a company that is not so efficient, and either over it's limit, or perhaps more likely, keen to show the world it is actually environmentally sound. Add in extra factors such as being able to gain extra CO2's in exchange for investing in a windmill or buying a few trees.

In principal, anything that encourages a bit of corporate responsibility is of course a good thing, but the trouble is taken to an extreme the system means that a coal-fired power station could declare itself carbon neutral - although in commercial terms this would I suspect be economically unviable, after all the publics gullibility only goes so far....

In truth, the system just moves emissions around - those who want the PR of being green can get it with no real effort, and those who don't care can sell off their excess CO2's each year to help the aforementioned PR conscious companies.

This all became apparent because I wondered if it was right for us go carbon neutral. Now I know we don't actually have to cut emissions to be so, it seems pretty pointless. But how close are we? Well, if we used a horse for deliveries, and a windmill for electricity, then we'd be there without any trickery & form filling. But 'green' energy is bally expensive so it seems, and given the squeeze on beer margins it is unviable at the moment (but we keep going back to it, and it's getting cheaper!). As for the horse? Well, a great idea, but can you imagine paperwork, rules, regulations, complaints about animal abuse, etc etc etc. So for now we'll stick to what we are doing - although bio-diesel is an option, but only if it is not grown at the expense of an African's next dinner. Which of course means that unless we complete the equivalent 3 acres of rainforest in forms and paperwork to let us offset, then we'll not be neutral just yet. Unlike one other well-known brewer who has launched what they claim is the worlds first carbon-neutral beer.

Well I don't know about you, but I suspect that there may, at some point in history, have been a brewery that didn't use electricity or fossil fuels in way. Surely they would have been carbon neutral? And without any offsetting either... Hmmmm.

News From The Beer Front...

...Is actually a bit sparse.

It has been noted, accurately, that this year - so far - is not going well in the Pub Trade. This may be the smoking ban, it maybe the Daily Mail convincing folk they will be stabbed by a drunken teenager every time they enter the Plough & Taxman. It may be they have read that beer is now £27 per pint, or that Tesco are selling cask beer for less than a tanker load of Spring Water. Who knows (no-one it seems). But the fact is folk have been spending less money in pubs - mind you, having to re-mortgage your by now worthless house every time they wish to drive their car doesn't help - and so that means less beer.

And yes, we had noticed this, but as a growing company, we have not noticed a dip in sales so much as a wider spread of deliveries, which is of course a good thing, as it means a wider customer base - all a result of taking on a dedicated sales chappie, or Dave as we like to call him.

But, and it's good one, of late, trade seems to be climbing up - drinkers are back where they belong, in decent, honest and well run pubs. So things are starting to look good. We know this for two reasons:

1. We are seeing it the deliveries, and hearing it from customers
2. Our brewplant is broke, and so we have had to take a rest from brewing.

Things always go wrong at the most inconvenient time, and so having an element fail in our copper was a sure sign that the pub trade was about to ramp up. As I write this, on a wet, and quite frankly cold, Thursday in July (a feel asong lyric coming on...) we have a nearly empty cellar, and trade suddenly alive again. And whilst it is but a brief hiccup in our production, it will smart a bit. Still, all is falling into place, and things will be working next week. We know this, because this morning the Electricity Board told us, via a circular 'Dear Household' letter, that they will be turning our power off for a day later this month. Sometimes it does rain and pour at the same time.... Still, they have kindly given us advice on how to keep our food frozen. Thank you EDF, you're too kind. And of course any work they do will no doubt make improvements to the future reliability of the supply, and being a company with shareholders you can be sure not a penny is spent on repairs/maintainence unless things are critical, so it's hard to get really annoyed. But you do have to admire the timing of Fate.

What is has done is focus our minds even more on the importance of many things, not least the fact we should have bought a gas-fired copper (which we are looking at anyway, as part of a much needed expansion to the plant), and that running a diesel generator (on veg oil of course) may not be such a bad idea after all. We would have a wind turbine, but a decent sized one will probably upset the local Nimby's (of which there are several), and even series of small ones will still restrict work to windy days - of which, like Nimby's, we are not short of it must be said. No, we have no choice. An application to the local council for a Nuclear Reactor, without a second core to power our copper, is in the post. That should give them something really harmful to worry about...

Larking About In Troy....

Well, the title might have woken up a few Trekkies, but they will be disappointed and will, as I speak, be e-mailing us explaining how we spelt Troy wrong. If you don't understand any of this, then congratulations, you still have some semblance of a life - which is seemingly a rare thing these days. Anyone else pissed off with hearing Council workers moaning about not earning enough money to pay increasing bills? At least they can shout and strike, unlike the self-employed, the unemployed (as opposed to the unemployable), charity workers, and all the other good folk who just have to gird their loins and just get on with things.

Right enough of that. More serious matters to discuss.

Apparently the Skylark is in decline, it's numbers falling faster than it does at the end of it's distinctive song flight. Now I may have mentioned in the past how well endowed we are with birds up here (feathered ones, so do calm down). And so you may not be surprised to hear that we have a few Skylarks, to say the least - indeed the fields are managed to encourage them. As I lad I can remember them in the fields at the foot of the Chiltern ridge out Oxfordshire way, but I swear there are more round here - and that means from Baldock to Duxford - than ever this year. Whilst enjoying a distant view of Duxford airshow this weekend, the air was at times seemingly thick them, although it is possible they had travelled in just for the spectacle of 24 plus WWII fighters, and a couple of big WWII bombers, all flying overhead at the same time. Even folk like us who can spot a Spitfire, yet struggle with the difference between a 747 & a Zeppelin, couldn't fail to be wowed by the spectacle, and indeed moved by the knowledge that not that long ago history-wise, such a sight in these parts was not uncommon, albeit the wow factor would have been heavily tempered by knowing that there would be less aircraft coming back...

Anyway, I spent more time trying to photograph the rarely visible Skylark than I did watching the planes, which I think worried the plane spotters around us. We only choose the free seats because by the time we knew we would be able to attend, the show had sold out. I mention this lest you think we are freeloading. Can't speak for all the others though...

Anyway (can I start two sentences the same way?), back to the point. If you want to get some good Skylark, come to North Herts border country, particularly the hills overlooking Cambridge & the Fens. The very same hills, so some now say, that played a role overlooking the Battle Of Troy. Yes, that Battle Of Troy - complete with Achilles (who may or may not had a bad heel), and maybe a bit of equine carpentry was, it is thought, fought in the Cambridgeshire Fens. And so you too can join us in Larking About In Troy. Possibly.

And on that Ancient Greek Bombshell....

Return Of The Brit....

If you have been concentrating over the last 6 months, you would know that our Britannia was the first of our beers to be affected by hop shortages. Well, it's back. We secured a small amount of Bramling Cross hops late last year, enough to do a 'few' brews of Britannia. Well, we have just done the first of 2008, and it will be reaching the cellars next week (ie from 6th July). There is a reason for waiting this long before doing a brew, and all will be revealed in due course. Unless of course our tip-off is wrong.

Another return due soon from an enforced rest is Silence, and believe me, we've made a few gentle tweaks in dark corners of the brewery since we last brewed it, and well, I reckon it just might get a little better than the award winner it already was...

Hertfordshire - The Home Of The Best Beers, And It Seems It's Partly Down To Us.....

There is, out there, on the interweb, a website called RateBeer. This site is inhabited by some hardcore beer drinkers who record every beer, and publish their opinions on it for the world to see. Now we have known of this site for a while, and like most breweries shudder slightly when anyone mentions it. This is a shudder of fear and foreboding, for the reviews of the beer are at times seemingly done by folk who don't know anything like as much as they think they do about what flavours should and shouldn't be in a beer. Or worse, they are homebrewers who think all beer should taste dead yeast and smell like a warm hosepipe. The reviews vary wildly of course, as taste is in the mouth of the beholder - with the result that the same beer, at the same event, will get some wide ranging reviews. Sometimes though they do all agree on the colour... That is not say all reviewers exceed their knowledge, but there are certainly times when you have to wonder - and this is viewed shared by many people who are far qualified to comment on such thing than we are.

Anyway, someone has played with the statistics, and come up with the answer that the English county at the top of the scoreboards beer wise is Hertfordshire, and then they have gone on to rest this result at the feet of just two breweries - Alehouse (St Albans) and some oufit called Buntingford. Mind you, neither of us appear anywhere in the 'charts' as shown on the RateBeer site (although a few that raise some eyebrows, as alluded to above, do)

Of course the exact manner of arriving at this humbling fact is not known, but we are chuffed to read it nonetheless, so thank you to all those on RateBeer, whatever you knowledge level. I have to say it is all subjective, and I take all on such sites with a pinch of salt

What RateBeer doesn't do though is align any review to the outlets themselves, and whatever the beer is like ex-brewery, the landlord/cellarman controls how it is in the glass, and so must take some of the praise, where it's due. And this maybe why we came top of this little statistic - we have a limited number of outlets, and do our best to avoid selling beer to places where quality may be an issue. After all, why should we go the extra mile, if the next one in the supply chain won't? Mind you, why should we go that extra mile when others don't and then get praised for the complex flavour profiles of their badly brewed infected beer?

Still, if it helps to show that here at Buntingford, we truly offer 'Beer Brewed In Herts' - and more on that in due course - then it can't all be bad.

Save The Planet, Drink Local....

One of the things that raises the eyebrows of those who come up here for the official 'tour', is that the beer is mostly water. Now admittedly some beers may appear to be more mostly water than most (and this includes a few micro's), but water is around 90% of your pint. This means that in terms of transport, moving beer around the country is much the same as hauling plain old water about - which is of course a stupid waste of resources. Something which no doubt many hardcore ecomentalists forget, whilst tucking into their six-bean casserole washed down with a bottled water from France....

The answer of course is to drink a locally brewed beer. Sadly it seems that this is lost on many of these ecomentalists, especially those who enjoy an ice cold lager - which will have been shipped half way across the UK, if not Europe, then to add to the problem, has been run through up to 3 seperate chillers, all of which of course consume a lot of energy, which will have come from coal or nuclear power because the local NIMBY's will have blocked the alternative energy sources ("Yes sir, we sell chilled lager, but only a windy day").

So to save the world, drink a locally brewed beer - ie within 20-30 miles - and suddenly, that car you drive isn't quite such a danger to the world. Mind you, that car will no doubt be banned soon by some other do-gooder who lives a world with 40 buses an hour within 100 yards of their front door, and trains that don't cost several hundred pounds per mile to travel on. And so therefore assumes that the rest of us do as well.

You'd think of course that this message about locally-brewed beers, and the high energy costs of super-chilled lagers, would have been picked up and heavily bleated-on about by any real ale promoting consumer group. But no. It seems not. Surprisingly, this is despite grass roots members of CAMRA developing just such a campaign. Steve Westby, all-round nice bloke from Nottingham CAMRA, and beer organiser of several festivals each year, came up with the idea of 'LocAle', a scheme to promote locally brewed beer. Nottingham CAMRA ran with the idea, and pushed it to other branches. It is now being picked up by other branches, but with seemingly very little interest/support from CAMRA itself beyond supplying Point Of Sale material and acknowledging it's existence as an idea (although Steve Westby did get a campaigning award, partly due to his LocAle idea). Of course cynics might suggest that LocAle is of little use to bigger brewers with a national/super-regional market, and that these are the very same breweries who spend a lot of money on sponsorship & advertising.

LocAle is though being embraced at CAMRA branch level, and to be fair, that is where the most effective campaigning is done, so look out for the name in your local pub - unless of course they don't stock local beer, in which case, why are you in there?