www .... So close, no matter how far...
Jul 03, 2026
What's Up? Slightly quieter as the super-hot weather wasn't great for ale sales the week before but a great chance to get caught up and scrambling to brew more Sundown. Sundown for me is a funny one - it is a bit like one of our stronger beers. Typically a batch of either of them tends to build steady momentum and then go ballistic as it gets conditioning and in Sundown's case smooths out slightly... It kind of behaves like a projection for a crowd funding project but unlike 99.9% of crowd funding projects predictions it is actually the case!
The best pint of beer I have had this week has been an Alton's Pride - testing the latest batch packaged - there is huge consistency on it but obviously how much conditioning it has had is a key variable too, and this batch had had almost two weeks of cellar conditioning ahead of cask conditioning. Yum. Best non-Triple fff pint was a pint of Alsop's Pale Ale in London last night - I think it is Alsop's old recipe brewed by Kirkstall and it was very decent and although their bitter was a little thin, it was OK too.
What's On?
The Milton beer swap beer is moving fast - single digit numbers of Pegasus 4.1% copper, Nike 4.7% ruby and Minerva 4.6% golden left - good beer and if you'd like something different then you're sorted.
The Nothing Else Matters is still in tank and won't be ready until end next week but oh my giddy aunt it smells great. Water, malt, yeast and one type of hop - pure, traditional, delicious, after all, nothing else matters!
What's About? Not sure if this is a good story or just a story but I think worth sharing nonetheless, because in essence there is some sort of learning/reminder on it... Like most things it starts with the government and like most government things it starts with spin.
So you've seen the U-Turn on the Mexico game opening hours but before that the government said that pubs could stay open a bit longer for the England games right?
Wrong!
This deal was only for the playoffs. Our excellent Tap Room manager initially missed this nuance but as soon as he clocked it he called me about what to do for last Saturday's game as it would not finish until after our licensing time of 11:30pm, so what to do?
From my perspective is it licensing, it is black and white - we could not stay open for the entire match. Simples, obey the licensing laws or lose you license. So we posted on social media saying 1, long opening hours government chat was spin and only for the playoffs [not presumptive at all then! Praise the gods for Harry Kane], 2, we would not be open for the full game, 3, come on England! We had 68,000 views in a matter of minutes.
Obviously a couple of keyboard warriors then chirped up about why hadn't we gotten a TEN [fair point but not seeing the small print on this was an honest mistake and people make mistakes], someone also said something (apparently - I didn't see it) about us being woke for errr obeying the law. Ho hum.
Anyway - on Monday morning I heard of places within 15 mins sensible (not my sister's speed) drive from here where the licensing bods rocked up on Saturday night at 11pm - produced their ID and made damn sure that other places were following the law. Mixed feelings about this. I mean good to see folks doing the work tax payers pay them to do at hours that are meaningful - but equally with the government's spin and bll$h1t on this it would have been be easy to be inadvertently caught out... Something just felt a bit like entrapment on this one, but it is what it is and the licensing folks only doing their job to be fair. They've always - seriously - been really good folks to work with from our perspective.
We like to say that no good deed goes unpunished [feels like that sometimes] - but in this case just a good reminder to us all that doing the right thing is, errr the right thing to do. As Clint Eastwood says "dying ain't much of a livin'" - losing a license isn't what you want as a brewery, but in the extremely unlikely case of the unknown bod who called us "woke" reading this - just to let them know that the licensing bods were all over it last weekend.
By the way we literally just called the licensing department to ask about a couple of nuances for the Monday AM game - and they have not yet been given clear guidance by the government on the exact rules yet - fair play to them working away hard on a Friday arvo and trying to be helpful, but it is confusing.
COME ON ENGLAND! ![]()
I think it will be a good weekend for trade despite the fact that almost every other village in our delivery zone is having a fete - so please choose us for your re-stock!
Have a cracking weekend,
P.S.
A great friend just gave me a framed copy of this... now it might have been funnier and more relevant if I was patient enough to wait until the seasonal time this is aimed at but I'm not patient enough so here you go. Will probably recirculate it too around then just because. VIZ, geniuses.
Was he giving me this because he thinks I am one of the below? Probably.
Am I one of the below? Also probably.
