I will add much, much more to this post shortly but if you can get your hands on some Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, do yourself a very, very big favour - buy everything you can see!
More to follow shortly and sorry for lack of posts (if anyone cares!) I've been happily busy recently.
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Monday, 18 August 2008
Help Stop Over the Top Portman Group
Mr Protz has hit the nail on the head with his recent, and excellently crafted, tirade against the utterly humourless Portman Group and it's prompted me to start this petition, please sign up to it.
I'm seeing an escalation of the Portman Group's weird attitude to beer names, I've been horrified with the Portman Group's recent attack on Brew Dog and its stance on Orkney's Skullsplitter (named after an Earl of Orkney) just seems to be a continuation of this.
In my opinion names like Skullsplitter and Liquor Mortis should be actively bloody encouraged!
Why?
Because they tell me straight up front that they are strong.
These kind of names say, quite clearly, mess with me at your peril - if you want to wake up feeling like a Norse invader has cleaved your head in two then go ahead big boy! Try drinking four pints!
Interestingly, and not so long ago, a very senior figure in the spirits industry suggested to me that the Portman Group's days were numbered because, in his opinion, they'd basically stamped out all the ridiculous products - clearly aimed at a very young market - coming from his sector.
It would appear, however, that the Portman Group recognised this too and are now busy justifying their existence by attacking the brewing industry.
If we don't all make a stand now, this could get very, very ugly.
NEW ADDITION: In the spirit of accurate journalism, I really should have checked out whether or not the Portman Group was planning action against Orkney, instead I listened to the grapevine, they aren't apparently but my points about Brew Dog and the concerns I have over Portman's new stance stand - but fair is fair!
I'm seeing an escalation of the Portman Group's weird attitude to beer names, I've been horrified with the Portman Group's recent attack on Brew Dog and its stance on Orkney's Skullsplitter (named after an Earl of Orkney) just seems to be a continuation of this.
In my opinion names like Skullsplitter and Liquor Mortis should be actively bloody encouraged!
Why?
Because they tell me straight up front that they are strong.
These kind of names say, quite clearly, mess with me at your peril - if you want to wake up feeling like a Norse invader has cleaved your head in two then go ahead big boy! Try drinking four pints!
Interestingly, and not so long ago, a very senior figure in the spirits industry suggested to me that the Portman Group's days were numbered because, in his opinion, they'd basically stamped out all the ridiculous products - clearly aimed at a very young market - coming from his sector.
It would appear, however, that the Portman Group recognised this too and are now busy justifying their existence by attacking the brewing industry.
If we don't all make a stand now, this could get very, very ugly.
NEW ADDITION: In the spirit of accurate journalism, I really should have checked out whether or not the Portman Group was planning action against Orkney, instead I listened to the grapevine, they aren't apparently but my points about Brew Dog and the concerns I have over Portman's new stance stand - but fair is fair!
March On
This Saturday I'm honoured to be supporting the Help for Heroes march from Portsmouth to the Tower of London by providing beers for the guys & gals of the army at the end!
Whatever you may feel about the political rights or wrongs of our actions in Iraq or Afghanistan, you have to admire and support the men & women of the Forces who are fighting out there, and it's even more important to support them if they return injured.
Whatever you may feel about the political rights or wrongs of our actions in Iraq or Afghanistan, you have to admire and support the men & women of the Forces who are fighting out there, and it's even more important to support them if they return injured.
Help for Heroes raises funds for Headley Court Military Hospital, which is specialised in the treatment of orthopaedic and sports injuries, spinal injuries, neurological rehabilitation and rheumatic disease. The rehabilitation staff of around 200 include specialist medical officers, nurses, remedial instructors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, a cognitive therapist, social workers, engineers, and administration support staff.
As you can imagine, this requires quite a lot of support and H4H is instrumental in the hospital's funding and has already raised £8m to make the lives of those injured as whole as possible again - as you can see from the picture.
And, it's also worth bearing in mind, that the developments and breakthroughs in all of the above medical disciplines are then used in the wider medical community and could therefore one day benefit you or a loved one.
My small display of support wouldn't have been possible without the kindness of many different breweries - Shepherd Neame gets a big thanks for its support by sending nearly 500 bottles of beer, also thanks to all those brewers who agreed that any left over beer from our pre-GBBF bash could go to this worthy cause, thanks also to Moorhouse's, Coors, R&R, Stiegel, Purity and a gang of Welsh brewers who are also sending some stuff through, I'll name-check you when I know what's coming in guys!
Also, last but not least, thanks to my boys at Utobeer who are warehousing and delivering all the beer for me - lads, couldn't do it without you - kisses!
My small display of support wouldn't have been possible without the kindness of many different breweries - Shepherd Neame gets a big thanks for its support by sending nearly 500 bottles of beer, also thanks to all those brewers who agreed that any left over beer from our pre-GBBF bash could go to this worthy cause, thanks also to Moorhouse's, Coors, R&R, Stiegel, Purity and a gang of Welsh brewers who are also sending some stuff through, I'll name-check you when I know what's coming in guys!
Also, last but not least, thanks to my boys at Utobeer who are warehousing and delivering all the beer for me - lads, couldn't do it without you - kisses!
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
GBBF is No Good for Feet
Well, the tours seem to be going well, I've met a lot of lovely people and managed to enthuse (I think) even the most hardened beer rejector who came along.
My feet are killing me and I'm absolutely shattered but it's been great fun. It's been an unfeasibly busy time with the media as well as the beer, and there's been some great coverage/article opportunities - not least being one of the four most read articles on the Times Online yesterday! I'm a bit chuffed with that!
Find of the festival that I would really like to see more widely available is Caledonian's Deuchars XPA - it's like the IPA on steroids!
With more floral and tropical fruit aromas on the nose, and ever so slightly more creamy in the mouth it's an absolute stunner!
Other beers that I've loved have been Cribyn from Breconshire Brewery (not to mention the Ysbrid y Draig in Bowmore casks that Buster kept back for me, I love that man!), Otley's OG which won a gold medal in the strong category and Whitstable's Raspberry Wheat, which is even nicer in cask than bottle.
Other highlights have been Bateman's Salem Porter, which is in awesome nick, Moorhouse's Premier and Cairngorn Trade Winds.
Still not sure what I think of the new Canterbury Jack from Shepherd Neame, it's coming off a bit bland at the moment BUT when you're at something like the GBBF it's very easy to dismiss lower gravity beers that aren't trying to shout at you, but whisper gentle drinkability.
I'll revisit when my tastebuds haven't been partying for three days straight!
My feet are killing me and I'm absolutely shattered but it's been great fun. It's been an unfeasibly busy time with the media as well as the beer, and there's been some great coverage/article opportunities - not least being one of the four most read articles on the Times Online yesterday! I'm a bit chuffed with that!
Find of the festival that I would really like to see more widely available is Caledonian's Deuchars XPA - it's like the IPA on steroids!
With more floral and tropical fruit aromas on the nose, and ever so slightly more creamy in the mouth it's an absolute stunner!
Other beers that I've loved have been Cribyn from Breconshire Brewery (not to mention the Ysbrid y Draig in Bowmore casks that Buster kept back for me, I love that man!), Otley's OG which won a gold medal in the strong category and Whitstable's Raspberry Wheat, which is even nicer in cask than bottle.
Other highlights have been Bateman's Salem Porter, which is in awesome nick, Moorhouse's Premier and Cairngorn Trade Winds.
Still not sure what I think of the new Canterbury Jack from Shepherd Neame, it's coming off a bit bland at the moment BUT when you're at something like the GBBF it's very easy to dismiss lower gravity beers that aren't trying to shout at you, but whisper gentle drinkability.
I'll revisit when my tastebuds haven't been partying for three days straight!
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Free GBBF Guided Walks for Women
There are still places left on my guided tours around the Great British Beer Festival in the evenings next week - visit here to sign up!
http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=280895
http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=280895
Monday, 28 July 2008
There's Always One
Well done Luminar Leisure; you've just opened the door for the pub & nightclub trade to be fully regulated by the Government - bravo!
Offering drinks for 80p each is not only the height of irresponsibility it is just the most short-sighted, idiotic move I've seen since Gerald Ratner's statement about his products being 'crap'.
I can only imagine the chimps tea party masquerading as a meeting that managed to come up with this strategy; it's beyond ridiculous and I can't see how it stacks up financially.
I presume the staff are going to be extremely careful to not serve anyone who's inebriated? Because I estimate that you can't realistically drink any more than five drinks of an evening without becoming drunk so, if the entry fee is also 80p, £4.80 is what they SHOULD be earning off each person.
If you work this back it means that they have to, if you take off the VAT, buy in each unit at about 68p - and whilst I can see that happening with some very low-quality spirits I can't see it working with every product and just not by enough to make it in the least bit profitable.
And whilst I understand that bodies in clubs is what it takes; as Steve Thomas from Luminar points out: "No one likes an empty nightclub"; but perhaps it would be better to question why your club is half-empty than entice people in with ridiculously cheap offers.
Because all this boils down to is that Luminar, and any of you out there running pubs & clubs and think discounting is the way forward, are not thinking about the long-term future of the whole sector.
Quite simply if you don't stop this kind of discounting then you are going to cause the on trade to become so legislatively evolved that knuckle-dragger mentalities like this will be left far behind.
Offering drinks for 80p each is not only the height of irresponsibility it is just the most short-sighted, idiotic move I've seen since Gerald Ratner's statement about his products being 'crap'.
I can only imagine the chimps tea party masquerading as a meeting that managed to come up with this strategy; it's beyond ridiculous and I can't see how it stacks up financially.
I presume the staff are going to be extremely careful to not serve anyone who's inebriated? Because I estimate that you can't realistically drink any more than five drinks of an evening without becoming drunk so, if the entry fee is also 80p, £4.80 is what they SHOULD be earning off each person.
If you work this back it means that they have to, if you take off the VAT, buy in each unit at about 68p - and whilst I can see that happening with some very low-quality spirits I can't see it working with every product and just not by enough to make it in the least bit profitable.
And whilst I understand that bodies in clubs is what it takes; as Steve Thomas from Luminar points out: "No one likes an empty nightclub"; but perhaps it would be better to question why your club is half-empty than entice people in with ridiculously cheap offers.
Because all this boils down to is that Luminar, and any of you out there running pubs & clubs and think discounting is the way forward, are not thinking about the long-term future of the whole sector.
Quite simply if you don't stop this kind of discounting then you are going to cause the on trade to become so legislatively evolved that knuckle-dragger mentalities like this will be left far behind.
Monday, 14 July 2008
Surprise Capitulation by A-B
Well, well, well. Who would have thought after all the legal posturing over the last couple of weeks that Anheuser-Busch would accept InBev's bid?
It did seem that A-B was adopting the classic 'attack is the best form of defence' strategy when they filed the famous 'liar, liar pants on fire' law suit in Missouri.
Basically, last week (amongst other allegations) A-B said InBev had hatched an 'illegal plan and scheme' to 'acquire control of Anheuser-Busch at a bargain price' - something all big American companies would always think twice about of course!
And also that the Belgian company had 'launched a campaign of acquisition rumors' - which I, for one, don't believe ever happens during take-overs at all! And insider trading is just a conspiracy theory too!!!
Anyway, the most interesting thing that they claimed was that InBev's financing was, shall we say, a little bit on the shaky side - which begs the question of how it was dodgy last week and now suddenly all fine this week?
Regardless of all the above my major fear, which has just been realised, is that there is going to be a big beer behemoth owning a very large percentage of the American beer market and - even more terrifyingly - big corporate brewers will own 80% of the beer volume.
This will undoubtedly not only have an enormous impact on the US market but is guaranteed to have an impact on our shores soon too.
I do hope that the Parliamentary PubCo inquiry takes a long-term view on this as a potential future issue for tied pubs.
Why? Well, if any of the big companies decide to get into bed with Anheuser-Busch InBev then choice will be so drastically reduced for so many licensees - not to mention consumers - that it could set back the progress of local, regional and speciality beers in a big (and in some cases possibly fatal) way.
Worrying, it really is...
p.s. I really hope they didn't pay a flashy branding company to come up with that name, which is inevitably going to be shortened to ABIB - best joke around that wins a prize! Don't know what yet but it will inevitably involve beer!
It did seem that A-B was adopting the classic 'attack is the best form of defence' strategy when they filed the famous 'liar, liar pants on fire' law suit in Missouri.
Basically, last week (amongst other allegations) A-B said InBev had hatched an 'illegal plan and scheme' to 'acquire control of Anheuser-Busch at a bargain price' - something all big American companies would always think twice about of course!
And also that the Belgian company had 'launched a campaign of acquisition rumors' - which I, for one, don't believe ever happens during take-overs at all! And insider trading is just a conspiracy theory too!!!
Anyway, the most interesting thing that they claimed was that InBev's financing was, shall we say, a little bit on the shaky side - which begs the question of how it was dodgy last week and now suddenly all fine this week?
Regardless of all the above my major fear, which has just been realised, is that there is going to be a big beer behemoth owning a very large percentage of the American beer market and - even more terrifyingly - big corporate brewers will own 80% of the beer volume.
This will undoubtedly not only have an enormous impact on the US market but is guaranteed to have an impact on our shores soon too.
I do hope that the Parliamentary PubCo inquiry takes a long-term view on this as a potential future issue for tied pubs.
Why? Well, if any of the big companies decide to get into bed with Anheuser-Busch InBev then choice will be so drastically reduced for so many licensees - not to mention consumers - that it could set back the progress of local, regional and speciality beers in a big (and in some cases possibly fatal) way.
Worrying, it really is...
p.s. I really hope they didn't pay a flashy branding company to come up with that name, which is inevitably going to be shortened to ABIB - best joke around that wins a prize! Don't know what yet but it will inevitably involve beer!
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