Inches, Feet, Yards & Miles...

What's up? Well according to the subject line I could, I guess spin it a few ways - the Al Pacino speech from Any Given Sunday on the Inches [love that speech]  or one foot in front of the other or the hard yards, or miles (given it is the London Marathon this weekend...) Good luck to all participants and hope they Feel Fleet Footed! 

Anyway, it is none of those but rather a tangential reference to IMPERIAL measurements... Because today we are brewing our first ever Imperial Stout... It is going to sit in a wooden butt for 6-8months and be ready for Christmas... And will come out somewhere north of 8.5%. Exciting! 

Our usual picture below but before that, we've had a few more enquiries on the beer swap we're into with Milton Brewery In Cambridge... At risk of answering questions many (but not all) have asked a) yes we still have a few of each cask left, b) no we are not disadvantaged if you take one of them instead of one of ours - very chilled about this and playing a long game here, c) Pegasus... Or maybe Nike? [which is my favourite]... Anyway, if you like to be different one of these could be of interest? No drama if not and if heading straight to the picture! 

A couple of things - first on kind of the big picture... I was in London for dinner last week and pre-that had a couple of pints and the £7+ price tag per pint was normal, and the pubs were busy, and it was a Wednesday... Meanwhile, a load of economic data still is gloomy, and even though many of us might think there is a 2 tier economy of London and the rest, talking to a property expert last night he said that on a walk from Battersea to Central London he could see a marked difference with lots of small businesses Battersea side struggling and the anecdotes (not the same as facts of course) being that their customers were deserting them - either literally as in folks leaving London or looking at cheaper options... Meanwhile, there were still Aston Martins rolling off trucks for delivery in Chelsea... 

The point? My dad always used to say that people drink more champagne in a recession than in normal times [whatever they are]... Now, I'm not sure that is true but from what we are seeing and hearing is that trade is holding up OK for most of our customers in the on-trade - sure expenses and government harassment make running any business hard, but I don't think we should be doom and gloom as people are going to the pub and clearly drinking a lot of our beer - which makes us and them happy.  I am glad that in economic parlance beer and the pub seem to be reasonably inelastic even if discretionary spending sentiment can be slapped in the face short-term from time to time with statements like "it's going to be a difficult budget"...  Besides in a Trumpesque world where not much makes sense, a British multi-award winning beer can make a lot of sense! So if you read on - basically beer can make you clean, give you toast, feed the cows and chickens, sort your garden, forget Trump, see your friends and make you happy. Of course, you know this, but sometimes we all need reminding! 

So lightening things up a little bit - and might recycle this at a future date, but a bit of fun talking about what else making amazing beer contributes to... The latest one is Soap. Yep. Cleanliness is next to godliness - is officially powered by beer. You heard it here first! https://homegrownsoaps.co.uk/ These fffab fffolks use our beer to make soap. Pretty cool. Other things? Loaf Bakery https://www.loafbakery.co.uk/visit-contact use a mix of both malt from the mash and Moondance to make incredible sourdough from time to time - mind you they haven't done it for a while so we should give them a prompt! The remainder of the mash goes into the food chain as animal feedstuffs (we have FEMAS letters with award-winning farmers). The hops end up on gardens locally, often on top of some of the utilised cardboard which acts as a mix of fabulous weed suppressant come composter... Plastics too are all recycled... If you ever have any other ideas for things that come from our process, we'd love to hear them, as being a part of a circular economy (even if none of the above makes us any money) just feels like the right thing to do. 

Bon weekend and hope we can bring you some beer next week to help quench thirst in the "heatwave"!?!? 🤞

Xen

P.S.

*I was in London drinking some craft beer and for £9 the bar lady said to me "this one is so expensive because it is infused with notes of oak, truffle and regret"

I took a sip and reacted, "wow it tastes like a mortgage document!"

The bar lady said, "yep... That is the truffle!" 

*Not really of course but made me chuckle...  have a good one, Xen