HAPPY NEW YEAR... Open mind for a different view...

What's up?  

Happy New Year, and thanks for the support in 2024... Wishing you only good things in the year ahead. 

I was going to put a different line from the fabulous song, Nothing Else Matters, in the subject line - "forever trusting who we are" - but out of context it looked like it could be a bit presumptive - although the line that follows it "and nothing else matters" - does kind of sum-up how we feel... We're human, and we can't promise 100% of everything is perfect always, but we hope you know we can be trusted to do the right thing always... Sorry - maybe all a bit deep for a Friday afternoon in January, but the point is, thank you for 2024, and we massively care and will do our very best for you always in 2025 and beyond. 

Anyways, hope your December was good - we're all, so battle hardened by a tough economy but must not forget to celebrate the wins! 

Might have given that one away a bit - we have Nothing Else Matters 4.7% back in cask, and it has had a couple of weeks of conditioning. It will sell pretty fast, so please do jump in quick if you want some. 

Also, we are low on stock on both Pressed Rat & Warthog and Little Red Rooster... Pressed Rat's next batch is probably 2 weeks from being ready to ship, so if need some earlier, please be quick! 

We've been talking about beer trends far and wide - our collective thinking is that this year is probably more about darker beers...

This is predicated on a few things.
      First: at the trade day at St. Albans beer festival, literally everyone in trade had a dark beer in their hands.
      Second: supply led - the Guinness shortage has a lot of us brewers making more Milds, Stouts and Porters, so there will be a push factor.
      Third: demand led - Gen Z seems to like Guinness and I predict the ones that want to be cooler will branch out.
      Fourth: observed trends - we sold more Pressed Rat & Warthog last year than in any year previously... Now obviously if didn't hurt that is took Gold in SIBA SE & London 2023 and then went on to get Bronze for ALL Dark Session Beers in March 2024 at SIBA Nationwide, and then podiumed again at SIBA SE & London 2024... And yes we made a marginal tweak to bring the pump clip in line with brand... and yes it is a phenomenal beer and only 3.8%, but still we sold so much more than any other year in 2024....

      Fifth: Our Snowblind Stout sold out in less than 48 hours. Honestly speaking it was tasty but can (will) be better - brewing it again next week, ready to ship in about 3-4 weeks. 

There is that old saying - "I'm not often right ... but this time I'm definitely wrong!" - but for what it is worth, that is my prediction... 

What are we doing about it [given actions speak louder than words]? Not much. We think we have so much upside with our core range into ever more pubs in our region and our absolute priority is the consistency of Moondance, Alton's Pride, Pressed Rat & Warthog, Sundown and Comfortably Numb. Sure, we'll work on our small kit and have some fun making Snowblind and likely come up with some new recipes over the year to keep stuff interesting... But we aren't the folks to chase trends. We either want to set them or simply focus on excellence in what we do. 

On that subject, we have had a couple of pubs suddenly go ballistic on Sundown consumption. We were very happy of course but wanted to understand what had gone so right. It turns out that what was a total win for us was loss for Neck Oil, as customers had switched in these locations en-masse to Sundown. Nice to clock up a win for us local independents vs Heineken... Few and far between, but can you convert your customers in the same way?! 

Anyway - wishing you the very best for 2025 - hoping only good things come your way... And hoping that some of those good things can come in the shape of fffabulous  fffirkins of our beer! 

Xen

P.S. Now the silly season is mostly done, am sure there may be a few of these tales to tell! 

Happy Friday. Drink responsibly.