fff-riday 13th...
Jun 13, 2025
What's Up? Well The reason this is being near the end of the day is two-fold 1) it is Friday the 13th and 2) you know how every day for a dog can be "best day evvvah!" ? Well, in flippant terms this week has been such a roller coaster that on Friday the 13th you could easily [in a teenage way] describe it as "worst week ever!"... except if you examine the details that is, because in perspective lots of cool stuff has happened.
So what has been best day evvvah! cool? Quite a bit... Graham and I went down to Warminster Maltings for their 170th evening celebrations. This was fabulous. The place is stunning and literally the last bastion of tradition. What is really cool is that they have a timeline of their 170 years and we feature on it! Yep - they highlight (specifically) the Marris Otter Malt and Triple fff winning Supreme Champion Beer of Britain with Alton's Pride on it. That evening I drank a mix of our Moondance which is bright and beautiful or Harvey's Pale (when I was talking to Miles Jenner especially!) - and head clear as a bell the next day...
On the other side of the ledger.... oooft - we had a power out on Tuesday which screwed phones, emails, everything. That was bad enough. What was worse if it seems to have come from an old (non-brewery related) legacy fuseboard arcing out... and arcing out when I was right beside it... any closer apparently, and it could have been very, very ugly as in me not being around anymore. Am thankful if a little rattled.
The network guys were great and had us back on by 8:30pm. Amazing how reliant we all are on electrics... shutter doors, till system for the taproom and shop, t'internet... bloody everything. Cash is only 13% of Taproom and shop takings - pre-covid it was more like 70%, post covid (0%) it recovered to 25% but interesting it has halved from there. Anecdotally it feels that when our awesome and all giving wise government jack up taxes we see more cash transactions as a %age of total, but the data we see doesn't actually support it. Kind of annoying that facts don't back up the theory, at least with us!
Then today we were meant to be brewing Pressed Rat and the grist mill jammed solid... You couldn't even squeeze a Pressed Rat through it [never mind a Warthog!!] so next week is going to be a mental maintenance and brewing week... With Pressed Rat, Moondance and Sundown all scheduled something like 30,000 pints before we even get to the small kit...!
Bottom line is hope your Friday 13th week been better in every way (though Warminster takes some beating!) than mine...
What's On?
What's About? I finally got round to reading an article I had marked ages ago about someone who had visited the new Heineken Studio in Amsterdam... once I read it it all kind of seemed predictable and you sort of nod away that "yeah, that doesn't surprise me sort of thing"... but actually it could be quite significant.
The bulk of the article talked about the personalised draught system... basically a vending machine where you could sort of starbucks your beer... temperature, gas (including nitrogen), flavoured foams, dryness... they even apparently did an Espresso Martini version.
Heineken are saying it is mostly a research tool to understand what people want to drink... hummm, I don't buy that, not one bit. The Cathay Pacific Lounge in Haneda Airport, Tokyo has an Asahi automatic pourer, and in my previous life even if I generally would avoid booze on planes, I don't remember ever sticking to that rule when the beer robot was nearby.
Where are Heineken going with this? Your guess as good as mine and your imagination likely better... but what was interesting was their biggest challenge. What was it? Consistency of taste of Heineken Classic. Making beer is hard - even Heineken!! (sorry, not sorry!)
Wish you a great Father's Day weekend for the trade, and that fff-ursty fff-athers mean you need some fff-abulous beer next week.
Stay safe
Xen
P.S.
In the spirit of my week!
🚨 MISSING FERRET 🚨
*REWARD for Safe Return!
🔍 Description:
- Only one green eye
- Left ear badly torn
- Short tail (lost in an accident)
-
Only three legs
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Bald patches and burn marks on back
💬 Answers to the name “Lucky”
📞 Please call:
01420 561422
