Tuesday 21 October 2008

Well I Never....

I was just having a sly rummage in Google earlier, and I discovered we are listed in the Swedish langauge 'area' of Wikipedia. Brewery in Swedish is Bryggeri - which would possibly make me a Brygger, something many may think rather close to the truth!

Of course, looking for yourself (or your company), is possibly a vain excercise, but one I suspect we have all done at some point, and at least I suppose there is a commercial justification for it, especially when you read nice things, or are mentioned in the same terms as those you hold in high regard - and so the following brought a warm feeling to the deepest cockles of my heart...

Hop Talk, on American (ie the USA) hops in British beers

Maeib's Beer Blog - always an interesting read from a person who get's about a lot, and it seems often has a good word or two about us. Usual disclaimers, and no it's not me! And another blog, which mentions us, or at least our flagship bottled beer (92 Squadron, oh do keep up....), this time Messrs Boak & Bailey.

And finally for now, the CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2008 launch day press release.

Goodnight!

Here Is The News.... pt 2

Slowly catching up (see below for the first bit...)!

November News:

The beer supplied to Tesco (my, didn't it take some time to get the first order - thought we'd run out of date...) has sold well. Not that we have seen any official figures, but feedback from across Herts & Cambs and parts of Essex suggest that once on the shelves, stock was sold in a few hours, then shelves sat empty until the next re-supply, often a week later. Certainly Tesco have said they wish to continue, and we will start in anger just before Christmas.

In other developments, Polar Star has continued it's run of praise and accolades, and is worthy of a post of it's own. Which it will get, one day!

Late October:

MoreHens.
Not a typo (for once), but a reference to the fact we seem to have gained a second, or possibly third, new brood of Moorhen chicks in the last few weeks. Sadly this latest batch are being hit by the colder weather, and so the original three soon became one. I've lost count of how many of these noisy quarrelsome creatures we now have on the reed bed, but they do seem to have settled in quite nicely...

In Other Bill Oddie Friendly News, we can report increased, almost daily in fact, sightings of Red Kite (maybe one or more adults?). Of equal note was the three way fight between some crows, 2 buzzards and a few pigeons. The crows mob the buzzards, who eventually get bored and turn upside down to bring their talons to bear on the aggressor. All of which is far more interesting than the cask washing I should have been doing. Quite what role the pigeons were playing in all this was not obvious, but then that is often the way with pigeons (unless they are in the frying pan of course). The onset of winter has a undesirable side effect, and that is the normally distant rodent population of the fields comes looking for the warm dry shelter of the farm buildings. Now many of the buildings here are grain stores, and as such are designed to be rodent proof, and (again) like the brewery, are protected by the rat-mans equivalent of thermo-nuclear warfare. As a result, they are not an internal problem - but they do bring an increase in close-by kestrel action, and in the evenings, some serious owl activity. This is currently highlighted in the shape of a very noisy Tawny Owl, who, quite literally, finds it a real hoot to sit near our roof vents and make as much noise as possible. The result gives the impression that the little bugger is in the brewery or the office area. No doubt one morning we will discover he really was in the office last night, and having been locked in, spent the night on the internet downloading owl porn.

Here Is The News.... Pt 1

So much to report, so little time to do so. So here is the first part of a few updates etc, some of which I may expand on in due course...

A Beer A Day is the title of the latest book by Jeff Evans (published by CAMRA), in which he suggests 366 different beers to try over the year, with some historical facts to tie them with. Of course these things are subjective, and we'll all have a different view on the beers included. Of course it is no doubt against some law or other to quote from the book, but I will anyway, on the basis that you should go and buy it - it is a truly fascinating trawl through some interesting history.

Quote number 1: "It's crisp, clean and delightfully easy drinking, with plenty of taste for its modest strength and an enjoyably dry, hoppy finish. As session beers go, this one certainly stands and delivers". The beer? Why, our very own Highwayman IPA of course.

Quote number 2: "...all shored up by 4.4% alcohol and a full malty body to guarantee happy drinking..." And this beer, none other than our Britannia.

Of course for the full praise you'll need to buy the book, but you, like us, will be happy to have done so.

Going Corporate is not something we relish, but after much delay our bottled 92 Squadron is now available in Tesco stores across the western half of East Anglia, and possibly the eastern half as well. Now the supermarkets have come into some criticism of late, much of it justified, for selling cheap alcohol. But here's a twist - we actually get more per pint from Tesco than we do from the pub trade. The extra expense of bottling swallows all this of course, but delivering to pubs is pretty expensive too, and given the fact we are competing with breweries happy to brew very cheaply and sell at cost just to stay in business, it's a tempting market to focus on. We won't of course, because we strongly believe in pubs and their role in supporting a strong sense of community (something sadly lacking these days). Trouble is, as landlords are increasingly starting to believe that price is everything, and quality just a word to speak and write of, it is easy to see the benefits of joining the spiral of destruction that is the cheap alcohol in supermarkets.

To Kill A Lizard is apparently an offence, so it was with some relief that I just missed flattening one with a firkin last week. Now we have a lot of newts up here in our pond, so I can tell the difference, and whilst we see the very occasional lizard, it is usually the newts that venture up to the brewery building seeking somewhere to hibernate (yes, we have already made that connection, but we have not yet seen a staggering newt...). Quite what the lizard was after is anybody's guess, apart from playing chicken with rolling firkins, but he was intent on reaching a pallet of empty Batemans firkins, so maybe he has an understandable liking for their XXXB?