Wet, Wet, Wet...

In no particular order - at 7am Friday (living the dream) doing the duty returns to beat the deadline - one thing jumped out at me. Ok Moondance massively dominates our Taproom and Shop sales - I get that, it has been on form for a while… BUT if I look solely at our steel 2L growler refills (a cracking way to buy beer, but not as good as a pub who knows their cellaring!) then Sundown dominates Moondance pretty much exactly 2:1. What does that tell me? I dunno - maybe that locals like what they like, but maybe more about how long it takes a beer to be truly discovered. Maybe not right now (seasonal - though customers ignore it!) - but have you given Sundown a good go??

The other statistical stuff I would think of like mining veins… we have a handful of customers who are quite new to us getting through 3-4 firkins of either Moondance, Pride or Comfortably Numb each week, they bounced around some other beers before these really took hold. I guess when something works it works! Interesting to find these places and cases and grateful they gave so much of our selection a good go before settling.

Well I have been drinking Winter Sunset this week - though I had a pint of Alton’s Pride at an outside event we were running last night and for me over a year it is still my favourite (though I am fickle to Fool’s Gold, Pressed Rat, Lady Eleanor and Moondance sometimes!). Taste is after all deeply personal…

but we have Moondance, Alton’s Pride, Comfortably Numb, Winter Sunset, Black Velvet, Pressed Rat & Warthog, Satisfaction,Jagged Little Pilsner and some Little Red Rooster (caveat 5.7%) in stock so can cover the whole smorgasbord! 

The good news is that the subject line does NOT confirm any affinity for an extremely questionable 1990s (?) boy band. Nope. Questionable music tastes have to have limits - well they ought to at least! 

Good news can be in reasonably short supply in hospitality so an article in the FT really stood out. 

You should be able to see it if you click here: https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/fbfb9863-7957-4c48-a0ff-958fca13fc96

 but if want the short version: the key draw for Christmas Parties seem to be being at the pub of choice and even if things are tight folks will swing by for a pint. Bookings (from 3 of the big listed guys) are up 11% YoY. Yep, we’ve all seen quiet weeks but your customers love you and love coming to the pub. Folks are excited about what they are drinking and just want to let go and unwind and central to what they want is the pub! 

Jeepers it is hard in hospitality but you’re loved - when you’re kicking out the last p155ed idiot from a Christmas party this season try and smile and remember the big picture - and don’t be too cross with Triple fff for you letting them drink too much Comfortably Numb! 

There is that old saying about some folks taste “champagne on a beer budget”. 

I don’t like champagne much. I do like beer. That is not the point though. The point is times aren’t amazing out there overall but people want to make room for “beer on a beer budget”.

Finally - this thing that has kicked off banning Labour MP’s from pubs - we try not to be political as an organisation but it makes massive sense to me - these guys have a huge majority and have done nothing to help hospitality - if they are meant to be the party of the people and they can’t even go to their own local then just maybe they start to get the message. We are not a pub - and am not sure a Labour MP would necessarily visit our brewery tap room, but that is not the point. For the record we’d advocate banning any MPs from other parties if they too had such an atrocious job of helping the hospitality industry too - but right now it is these jokers with their hands on the wheel and their heads goodness knows where - and somehow we need to get the message through to them. Banned? Will be discussing it with the team next week… I’m thinking yes… which is pretty desperate as we really see pubs as a place where people should be able to go and discuss their differences amicably over a pint. 

Anyway, don’t run low on beer next week! Hit reply with a huge order and we will ensure your Christmas is fffantastic! 

Xen