Hardknott Keg at BeerX

It's that time of year again. Lots of brewers will descend on Sheffield Ice, talk about beer, and brewing,  drink lots of beer and then start talking bollocks. It's becoming a bit of a thing in the brewer's calendar.

Yes, that's right, it's SIBA BeerX

In previous years the only beers allowed on the bar were those that gained a medal in the regional competitions. That's quite nice for us this year as Azimuth gained medals for both cask and bottle at Bolton in October. We'll be on the cask bar for part of the festival with Azimuth. We won't have keg in the national finals mainly because we didn't enter at the regional level this year. Silly us.

This year there is a craft keg bar for a select few breweries. I'm told the selection was done by way of a random draw from those breweries that showed an interest. We missed out first time around, and were on the reserve list. However, someone dropped out, so we are now going to be there with our beer.

My intention is to have Azimuth on keg permanently. Irrespective of the assertions to the contrary by the cask lovers brigade Azimuth is just stunning on keg and way better than cask. The extra carbonation lifts the aromatics of the hop volatiles with stupendous results. Even if we don't medal at the finals, likely as there are some great beers being presented, at least we can show the general public just how great it is.

We will have two taps, so we will rotate the 2nd tap through various beers, just to give some variety. We're not sure exactly how we will do it yet, as we want to leave our options open until we see exactly how the thing pans out. However I hope to have some specials that we can rotate through, whilst balancing that against some more general crowd pleasers.

So, come along and say "hi" - most of the team will be there most of the time. Watch out on our twitter feeds to see if we change a beer out for something a bit more special.

What Would YOU Do To Promote Your Brewery?

"Someone might point out the hygiene risk" said Ann "this is a food production facility"

"Yeah, OK, I can see your point" I was stood in the brewery with nothing on but a pair of boots "But in reality it would still take some effort to swing it so it touches anything important"

Ann looked down, it was quite cold "You're right" - she could see my point too.

We were discussing the pros and cons of our idea to raise a little bit of PR noise. My last post was a little negative, although it realistically details the current situation. We need to give ourselves a bit of a cash injection.

I could try to sell my body to raise a bit more money, but I suspect I'd probably make more money selling beer. As my children have all grown up and lead fairly independent lives it is too late to sell them. I need to consider doing whatever it takes to be able to buy more hops and malt. Ann was taking pictures of me naked with very little to cover any embarrassment. The whole situation being made somewhat harder by Ann reacting to my state of undress.

We need to raise the profile of Hardknott so that more people get to know about us and so buy more of our stunning beer. It is essential, to make enough noise to be noticed from our corner of Cumbria, to do things a bit more radical. This almost always causes some back-lash. The only way to mitigate this is to grow a bigger pair, swallow the criticism and be happy that profile raising has happened. After all, we might be Hardknott, but we're not soft.

It is therefore my intention to start to push out again with some risqué PR campaigns, which will undoubtedly upset some people, and likely put myself up for ridicule. However, I am determined to make the world realise that we do make great beer.

Charles Faram recently sent out some nice branded clocks. They asked brewers to take pictures of their clocks and submit them as ClockShots. Immediately the Fnar Fnar alarm sounded in my head. I simply had to get around to submitting my own version. It turned out that plucking up the courage to actually take my clothes off, get Ann to take the picture and then to submit it somewhat more troublesome.

And here it is. Obviously I'm scared that this is going to go viral, but then, that's what we need. Perhaps family and friends will be embarrassed. I think those closest to me, who know what we've fought for, and are still fighting to achieve will understand and I hope be supportive. So please, talk about that bonkers brewer at Hardknott. Perhaps you think I'm crazy, perhaps you think it's a step too far, perhaps you think 50 year old men shouldn't be posting pictures of their naked bodies on the internet. Whatever, retweet, share and comment. Call me what you want, because I can take it. Just buy my beer. If you don't, next time there will be no clock.

Having now done this, I am throwing down the gauntlet to other brewers. Who dares to do the same? Perhaps we should make a nude brewers calendar in aid of some charity or other? Who's up for it? After all, if a group of WI women can do it, why not a bunch of brewers? Calendar Brewers anyone?

Mad March

"You've not been blogging for a while" said Rob

"yeah, not had the incentive, or motivation, or inspiration to be honest" I replied "This year's beginning has been less than ideally inspirational" I complained.

Rob Millichamp is head brewer at Mordue Brewery. We had called in to pick up some empties they had collected for us, and we'd got some for them.  Despite trying very, very hard to organise better routes to market for our beer, the distribution systems have just not been performing well in terms of volume for draught beer¹. So we had decided to make the trip over to the NE with some beer, and pick up the empties.

It is my feeling that this year the post Christmas beer sales slump have been worse than ever. Dry-January seems to be getting ever more popular. Yes, I'm sure you, the reader, who has decided for whatever reason that you are right to take part. You help us out every other month of the year shouldn't feel any guilt. Perhaps you are right, but it still puts a great big hole in our cash-flow and our yeast maintenance alike². Not to mention the problem of managing stock. You see, most cask beer has at best 6 weeks best before date on it. This makes it hard to sell any stock in February that was racked at the end of December³. Rob, I noticed, has a post on his blog mentioning this headache.

I get asked, when I travel outside Cumbria, if we were effected by the floods. "Not directly" I tend dismissively reply "We're well away from any flood risk" - Which is true, but still there is a huge knock-on effect. The A591 is still severed just north of Grasmere causing a problem distributing to the north of Cumbria. Visitors to our county have been staying way in their droves meaning many of our customers are likewise ordering less beer. This, along with some significant over-supply and undercutting by new and often boring beer has resulted in a struggle at the start of the year.

Of course, there is that daft alcohol consumption advice issued by our neo-prohibitionist fitness-freak we have as a health minister. Jeez.

But we've managed to get to March, somehow. We have a couple of customers causing us some real issues with invoices remaining unpaid beyond a reasonable time, and we have suppliers quite rightly shouting for their invoices to be paid. Keeping the show going can be tricky when there is little slack at this time, how do you buy more malt and hops⁴ when the suppliers won't send them out until you pay down the previous? And how do you do that when you've got customers that owe from such a long time ago?

I noticed Boak and Bailey's post on a certain bar that had received public shaming on twitter. I missed that, I don't do that. I wonder if I should, but anyway us brewers talk, it's best to pay our invoices really. It turned out, after some investigations, that we too are being caught out by that very same bar that is not named in Boak and Bailey's post.  I'm not entirely sure, but I doubt that particular business will be there for much longer, and if it does go down it'll do so collectively owing us small brewers a huge amount of money. I may at that point in time have comment, it has been very tempting to do so previously about poor accounts, but you can never be sure when one might pull through good. Besides, it might not be great for customer relations in general to be seen to do such things. I decided to stop supplying one route to market after another brewer contacted me regarding late payment from the same distributor. A threat to put them on stop and perhaps take other action simply antagonised the situation.

Mixed emotions about daffodils
they'll be dust someday too.

At some point in time during the dray run around Newcastle I noticed some social media activity from Chester. A bar called Kash, which I do not believe I've been to, but have supplied with beer and have heard lots of good things about is running a beer festival. They are entitling it Forgotten Heroes. We are to take part it seems. A nice idea that warmed my heart significantly. With all the new shiny breweries staring up it does feel a little like some of us have been somewhat forgotten, despite us getting better and better and better at brewing stunning beer⁵.

And so that day, with it's long and tiring drive, did give me a boost, and enthusiasm to look towards a future. We've got some exciting new things going on, new beer, new plans and now that the daffodils are coming out I might just get my blogging head back. I need that inspiration, as it is difficult to focus on getting more really stunning beer out to more really great people when you feel a bit demoralised by it all. Plus, I fear this post might just be the sort of negative projection that fails to improve my situation. I need to feel inspired so that you can feel inspired about our inspirational beer. I may end up feeling a backlash from Ann and the team for posting this, but I feel it is difficult to engage my enthusiasm without projecting to people just how difficult this time of year really is. I do at least know there are far more brewers feel like this than the general beer drinker is aware of.

Meanwhile, when did you last drink a Hardknott beer? When did you last even ask in a pub or bar if they were going to get any in? Are we really forgotten heroes? Does the majority of beer drinkers no longer love Hardknott like you used to, despite the fact our beer is better than it has ever been? Have you all moved on to newer, shinier things and lost interest?

You see, what we need is y'all to buy more of our beer, then we can move the whole financial stagnation through a bit and get this show back on the damn road.

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¹In contrast to the supply arrangement we have with Morrisons and M & S where the margins are at least solid, if slim. The fact is that although the price to supermarkets is low, the impact on overheads is also minimal compared to draught into trade. Plus, payment terms are generally reasonable, but more importantly they pay when they say they are going to pay. All in all highly manageable, repeatable and predictable.

²Sarah, our resident microbiologist, has been doing a great job of managing our yeast, but it really needs a good brew schedule to keep it going. During January the last two years that has been a bit difficult to say the least due to dropping brew regularity. Added to that the timings get shot at due to problems with the cash-flow resulting in orders for malt being delayed as we wait for the cash to ripple through. We then find that we can't brew when we want, we don't have the right beer when we want it so as we now ramp back up for spring we can't sell to capacity.

³Who would buy beer with just a week left before best before? Or even two weeks. Most pubs start to worry if it has less than 3 weeks best before date on the cask on delivery. A week to get from us to a distributor, a second week in the distributor's warehouse. Before long that 6 weeks from racking to best before date has disappeared.

⁴I'd really like to single out various supplies for the variety of support, or otherwise in this regard. Some are simply fantastic. I hope you know who you are and give yourselves a huge pat on the back for helping, and frankly taking a bit of a risk. The others, well I guess you are just running your business in a tight and orderly fashion. I'm trying to do likewise.

⁵It continually annoys me the critiques of various brewery PR tactics. Yes, some of them are lame, naff, crass and frankly stupid. But despite assertion from some quarters it is simply not good enough just to make really, really fantastic beer. If it was we'd be doing better than we are.

Manchester Beer and Cider Festival

This week started somewhat badly. My New Year's plan of getting out into the Cumbrian Fells more was actioned by a day out on Saturday. Parking on the small, untreated side road and getting out of the car onto sheet ice on a slight incline resulted in me falling flat on my back, quite literally. The resultant injury to my ribs necessitated combined use of ibuprofen and co-codamol. I mention it here party because it is relevant to the story, but much more importantly because I crave a little sympathy, although I doubt it'll be forthcoming.

Of course we all know that co-codamol must never be taken in conjunction with alcohol. the codeine can make one disorientated and dizzy, as can alcohol, and we couldn't possibly want to double such effects now would we? So on Wednesday, with some trepidation and a pocket full of painkillers, I headed along with Ann and Scott to the Manchester Beer and Cider Festival trade session.

Before we arrived we felt it necessary to visit Piccadilly Tap. I hadn't been completely paying attention to what was going on since it opened, but something, somewhere told me that Stonch aka @jeffreyjohnbell had a hand in the goings on at said establishment. Besides, we'd also been alerted to there being keg Infra Red on tap, and it is always good to check our beers in the wild and ensure top class quality.

To our marginal surprise, we found the man himself behind the bar. Additionally, there was several other folk including @ErlangerNick and @ArthurJScargill present, making the visit very worthwhile. Both Infra Red and Jeffrey were in top form. Unfortunately, Ann decided to order a half pint of something at about 8%, before lunch. I hurried her to drink up as we needed to move on. She can get very silly when strong beer hits her stomach so quickly. Me, however, found that the combination of codeine and alcohol to be pleasant enough, and so off to the festival we toddled via a Turkish restaurant, to which Scott wanted to take us.

This year the Manc Beer Fest has relocated to Manchester Central Convention Complex, better know to me as the G-MEX centre. I'm not sure why, but it seems the authorities failed to send me the memo to say it had change its name.

I'd must report to being quite impressed with the venue. Central to Manchester makes it very easy to access. Spacious, and at least on Wednesday, plenty of seating was to be had. Queues did develop for the toilets, and I'd be interested in seeing how that develops on Saturday, but otherwise all very pleasant.

Very pleased to bump into The Pub Curmudgeon and various other beery people too many to list here. Not least of all was The Tandleman, busy organising of course, it is partly his gig after all. Thankfully I got a chance to discuss a little detail regarding the live beer discussion that is likely to be the most electric discussion on beer so far this century. I've been invited, as part of a "star-studded" panel, to discuss beer with the general public.

Here is the official words off the beer festival website:

WELL, AT LEAST THERE ARE SEATS

Saturday festival-goers can take a foyer seat and join in The Great Manchester Beer Debate, a free discussion on Saturday afternoon, starting at 2.30pm.

If you’re opinionated, interested or passionate about beer and everything associated with making, promoting or just drinking it, we have a star-studded panel for you. Chaired by Connor Murphy – who may take every opportunity to promote the first Manchester Beer Week in June – the panel comprises:

Peter Alexander – our Deputy Organiser who blogs about beer as Tandleman
Dave Bailey – HardKnott Brewery owner, brewer and force majeure
Jerermy Stull – Beermoth co-owner and man of opinions
Mark Welsby – Runaway brewer and non-shrinking violet
We expect it to be a rather more lively affair than the BBC’s fast-fading Question Time, and the Chair hopes that questions will flow – especially from “you, yes you – the chap at the back holding the pint”.

All welcome, no charge.

I'm looking forward to it. Besides, I am hopeful there will be a KeyKeg of our new beer, Brownian Motion 4.5%, a salted smoked porter. CAMRA have moved to a position where they are now allowing KegKegs of beer at festivals. This is one of the first such festivals to take advantage of this splendid compromise, and very welcome from my perspective.

And the co-codamol/alcohol combination? My biggest worry was that Scott got somewhat silly towards the end of our visit to Manchester. Despite my pleas for him not to make me laugh, he simply continued to attempt to do so. The train journey started as a mildly uncomfortable but highly amusing giddy affair which at its pinnacle  resulted in Ann comparing Cliff Richard's on stage energy with that of Mick Jagger. "That is like comparing Budweiser with Infra Red" to which the poor chap we'd been sharing a table with finally cracked up at our inebriated banter.

I was slightly bothered that my own intoxication and painkiller combo would result in masking further aggravation of my rib-cage injury. However, yesterday morning I seemed to have woken up quite well, and today I am, so far, painkiller free. Watch out on Saturday, I might even be fighting fit. It would be irresponsible for me to suggest that codeine and alcohol is a cure-all remedy, but my own selfless research, and statistically insignificant sample of one, might show worthy of further research.

Hardknott Stream - moving forward

Our little project to launch a Live Streaming event has been interesting. We enjoyed doing the couple of trials and now need to take stock of both the production issues and the technical issues alike. I'm looking for any feedback, constructive criticism or any other input to the idea. The viewing statistics make it good enough to consider further efforts. 53 viewers, 9 hours 49 minutes total viewing time on our last pilot and does make the effort we put in worth further consideration.



The biggest challenge of course is upload speed. Even the rental of a room with supposed fibre broadband only achieved just short of 1Mbit/s, which isn't really fast enough to stream 720p¹ and not exactly what I'd say is "super fast" But we've ordered our own FTTC service which should arrive in a couple of weeks. It is claimed we should be able to upload at up to 19.5Mbits/s - we shall see.

The other technical problem is deciding exactly how to input the video sources. I have a couple of capture devices, but it seems I cannot plug both into the same computer. The software does not recognise both devices and has a bit of a meltdown. Getting a second source into the system involves two computers and using screen sharing and screen capture. All a bit messy and introduces lags that cause more nightmares.

We then there is the question of how to move forward the whole concept; How to utilise the technology to provide an on-line streamed "program" that has some added value of being live. My thoughts were to have social media engagement, however this appeared to produce no interaction, despite us having people on hand to deal with it.

We scripted about 20 minutes and in the end, with adlibs, this probably caused us to run over our target 30 minutes by another 10 minutes. However, it is our channel, so other than ensuring we do not bore people perhaps this is not an issue. My thoughts are that scripting helps to ensure sticking to topics and ensures flow. However it always risks making the whole thing to rigid and formal, which is not quite what I'm looking for.

Further considerations are the news items. Of course most of my sources of beer news are freely available on the internet. Conversely, it surprises me sometimes when in talking to people and mention news-worthy topics that I thought everyone would already know and somehow they slip through the net.

The pile of gear I used for last show

So, for content and style I'm keen to get feedback.

Returning to technical issues, the other slight logistical consideration is the set-up and clear-down time. The amount of equipment I seem to need to make it work to the level of technical perfection I'm looking for results in a small mountain of gear. Some of this gear is from my home office, other stuff is my personal music-related gear (to try and sync the audio and video and have reasonable audio quality and flexibility) and some is from the office at the brewery. All in all a small effort to get it going. I may rationalise this and the next event run from my home location, which is actually where most of the gear is, and where the fibre broadband will be installed.

Finally, the one thing that was a definite success in my view was getting a guest to appear. On this occasion it was Jon Kyme from Stringers brewery. He's a good chap, and his other half Becky controlled the telepromter most competently, despite various excursions off-script by Ann and I. We need to look at how we can include other brewers or beer drinkers in the whole concept. Perhaps we can take it on the road, assuming we can find venues with good upload broadband speeds.

Ann and I will be running a cut-down show tomorrow night at 19:30. Ann is planning on showing how to make a desert that we invented when we used to run a pub - Blue Bore Bomb, which is a blue cheese and white chocolate fondant filled crunch based dark chocolate covered bomb. It's surprisingly delicious and goes rather well with barley wine or similar.

I'm hoping to mess around in the background whilst taking various safety measure that will reduce the risks associated with any alcohol consumption.

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¹720p is a standard of HD video. I'd prefer to go for 1080p, being full HD video, but that would require some huge bandwidth, and besides, I'm not sure I have the video source capability at the moment. We could really do with a minim of 3Mbit/s to be comfortable, and more is always handy.

Life risks

I like taking risks. I also like to manage those risks. The most satisfying risk that I take is various forms of mountaineering. I've enjoyed rock climbing, scrambling¹ and alpine mountaineering, including traversing glaciers and navigating serious rock-fall areas. It is all about understanding and managing that risk. Making sure that serious injury or even death are kept to very low probability is actually something that makes the activities worthwhile. One of my favourite mountaineering quotes is by Edward Whymper;

"Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nought without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end."

But then, this is in direct contradiction of the need for excitement. If no risks exist then the whole buzz from doing it disappears. Equally, especially when mountaineering in the Alps, or other major snow and ice bound regions, just getting to the top necessitates speedy movement and deploying excessive safety measures would result in failure to reach the objective. So I also subscribe to the  Tibetan saying;

"It is better to live for one day as a tiger than to live for a thousand years as a sheep."

There is one thing in life that we can be absolutely certain about; we will die, sometime, somewhere and of something. We might die many years from now, and of course we all hope this will be the case. Some of us will last less time, be it through illness or accident. Few of us will have too much idea, except for life expectancy statistics, when that is likely to be. I for one would prefer to die knowing that I've had a fulfilling and exciting life, rather than living to a grand age and achieving nothing.

Some people are risk averse, I don't judge that. If knowing a risk is present makes you feel unhappy then don't take that risk. Moreover, what one person sees as an acceptable risk in exchange for pleasure another will recoil. I expect many people find my pleasure from mountains difficult to understand. Conversely, I find the excitement associated with the risk of losing money on gambling completely baffling, but who I am to judge people who take pleasure from that activity?

Motor sport, cycling, scuba diving, motor cycling, sailing, sky diving, or even base-jumping wearing a wing suit carry risks. Drinking alcohol in significant amounts does carry a risk, but most of us understand that risk already and accept it as part of what we do.




We are told that drinking any amount of alcohol carrys a risk. We are told that this conclusion is based on scientific research. I will, in time, examine and give my own take on the leap from hard statistical data to the conclusions. I am fairly sure that the conclusions have a bias that results in them being significantly unscientific, but because they are based on science, the general public will swallow the story.

The hidden agenda is of course a need to raise revenue from alcohol duty. This latest report will give the treasury carte blanche to raise duty rates in the coming months, I am fairly sure of that.

However, the advice is based purely on the evidence of apparent mortality. It does not take into account the pleasure that alcohol brings to people. It does not take into account the fact that alcohol is part of our culture, part of our way of life. It does not even reflect the fact, recognised in the detail, that the effect of alcohol is also related to an individual's tolerance of alcohol.

It does not bring out into the open the fact that the seasoned drinker, who consumes alcohol every day, is actually at similar risk compared to someone who drinks significantly less but crams it into one session per week.²

The guidelines now state that irrespective of your body type, or metabolism, or gender³ we should all limit our drinking the same. They do not reflect the fact that there are groups of people at higher risk, and conversely groups of people at lower risk. The guidelines are simply a one size fits all lowest common denominator figure, despite the fact that the details in the data show that there are significant variations in that risk.

I really fear some big changes to legislation, and it is hinted at in the documentation I've read. I believe that mandatory health warnings on all packaging and advertising is just around the corner. This is going to place a huge burden on us small producers. All our labels will need to be reviewed⁴ and I am fairly certain that mandated website health warnings are likely.

These burdens are much harder for us small producers to cope with compared with significantly larger producers. This contradicts the fact that I would consider, in general, the type of drinker that enjoys cask beer, craft beer or any other artisanal alcoholic beverage to generally be a more responsible and lower risk.


I fear for the viability of many small producers in this ever increasing burdensome, legislatively hungry, risk adverse culture.

Moreover, I worry that we are finding ourselves in an era where we forget the less tangible benefits of social cohesion that regular drinking achieves. It fails to recognise that hard working people deserve the relaxation and escape that a few sensible drinks bring.

Even if there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, and I'm still processing the information to see how true that actually is, the most recent guidelines fails to recognise the fact that perhaps these tiny risks are in fact worth the greater benefits. But most importantly, the conclusions drawn to achieve the guidelines do not reflect what I think is in the detail of the data. Moreover much of the data is from various studies over various countries. I feel that the distance between the people creating the data in the first place and the final recommendations to the Chief Medical Officer have so many layers of interpretation, coupled with hidden agendas, to render the whole conclusion significantly unscientific. I hope to be able to shed doubt in further posts regarding the distance the final conclusions are from the hard facts.


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¹A form of rock climbing on easier, but often longer routes in remoter areas. The risks can be greater as ropes are often not used and the consequence of a fall, although less likely, can be significant.

²A man aged between 18-34 who drinks about 42 units over a week is at about the same risk as the same demographic who consumes about 8 units in one day. 42 units per week is 6 units every single day!

³I actually think that if you compared body mass rather than gender we would find that actually this is a much more realistic correlation and that actually the only gender correlation is due to the fact that women statistically have a lower body mass. However, to suggest that you can drink more if you are heavier this would be contrary to other health messages the authorities would like to propagate.

⁴The cost associated with making sure we are compliant with allergens is by no means insignificant. Redesign, reprinting and wasted stock of labels that are no longer compliant.

Statement from SIBA

I've been out in the van all day. I am desperate to blog about today's news that the chief medical officer, who's salary is paid for by us, the people, has declared some fairly outrageous things about alcohol consumption. You can imagine, as a brewer, I am absolutely spitting feathers. I will have my own angle to bring, however, Mike Benner, our SIBA MD has put out a splendid statement, echos many of my thoughts, so I copy it here.

“It is clearly important for the industry to consider the scientific evidence behind the new guidelines, not least because there is a widespread recognition of evidence of certain benefits associated with moderate and responsible consumption of alcohol. I think many men¹ who regularly consume between 14 and 21 units of alcohol a week will be surprised to suddenly find themselves in an ‘at risk’ category and this may affect the guidelines’ credibility with many responsible drinkers, not least because they are significantly lower than guidelines in various other countries.

It’s also the case that the wider benefits on wellbeing and happiness which stem from the the responsible enjoyment of alcohol in a sociable environment such as a pub have been ignored and the industry and others need to work together to bring evidence to support this view to the fore. Enjoying a couple of beers in a pub with friends and colleagues at the end of a hard day can bring positive benefits to peoples’ lives

Britain’s independent craft breweries take pride in brewing fine high quality beers to be enjoyed by people who appreciate flavour and distinctiveness, responsibly and in moderation. I believe that, if people do respond to these guidelines by drinking less then they will inevitably turn to higher quality products for every occasion.”

Mike Benner, Managing Director of SIBA, the Society for Independent Brewers

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1</sup>Pity he didn't say "people"