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...