Media interview

As far as I can work out part of this clip went out on CFM on Wednesday and perhaps some other radio stations.

Radio Interview

The picture on the right was taken as I was being interviewed. As you can see Mike Benner is quite clearly more untested in doing a good job of disposing of my surplus beer at this point. But to be fair, he had just made a rather good speech

The synopsis

"MEPs in Brussels were sampling Cumbrian real ales at a mock-up version of a Lake District pub last night (Tuesday night)(02/12/08). The owners of Eskdale’s Woolpack Inn and Hardknott Micro Brewery were pulling pints from a scaled-down version they’d made of their own bar. It was a fun stunt with a serious message. Dave Bailey and Ann Wedgwood were trying to raise awareness of the plight of the industry, with 5 UK pubs a day closing down. CAMRA – the Campaign for Real Ale – wants a change at EU level that would allow the UK government to put lower excise duty on draught beer sold in pubs than on supermarket bottled beer. That’s an idea the Woolpack’s Dave Bailey is backing."

Update 09/12/08 also a nice piece in the NW EveningMail

I believe they care

So what did we go to Brussels for again? We went to take Cumbrian cask conditioned ale to some MEPs and show just what is special about the British pub. Maybe I just wanted to prove I could take cask ale all that way, rack and tap it and be able to serve it at the right temperature. Paul Nunny of Cask Marque checked the beer. 11.8 centigrade I believe was the temperature. More importantly Mike Benner, chief exec of CAMRA (right) said "You've set a new standard for cask ale in Brussels". Wow, can't get better than that eh? If they had looked very closely they might have seen some beer was just not quite as bright as I'd like. It had travelled 550 miles by road and a cross channel boat ride to get there. I'm guessing it was a little shook up.

Many MEPs appreciated that effort. Godfrey Bloom (UKIP) has to be the best. We only took 2 pint glasses. Godfrey, bless him, snatched one and held onto it all night. "Can't drink out of them 1/4 litre things, people will think I'm a Lib Dem or something." mmmm...

Irrespective of party, the assembled MEPs seemed genuinely concerned about our pub and brewing industry. If only I could remember who they all were.

Anyway, Mike made a great speech which then got backed up and gaps filled in by, oh, now I forget, was it the SIBA guy or the BBPA fella? Well, a great amateur journalist I am. Tosh, whoever it was, good points were well made.
On the Saturday before we sailed I sent out a press release about our endeavour. Well you didn't think I was going to go to all that trouble and not raise at least a little bit of publicity did you?

Within an hour I had the local BBC on the telephone. Radio Cumbria I believed. They wanted an interview for the news bulletins and I agreed they could telephone me before I crossed the channel the following morning. I told them we were crossing around lunchtime. Wrong!

Finally I got the call as we were waiting to board the ferry at about 10am. Just as we were reaching the end of the interview the queue started to move. Starting the engine cuts out the bluetooth hands free - the interviewer said, once I picked up the phone, that he had everything he needed. I still get that feeling something was left unsaid....

Most of the setting up was done on Sunday afternoon. On Monday morning we returned to finish a few tasks and then off around Brussels for some sightseeing. No sooner had we found the Christmas market than the mobile rang. It was ITV wanting to film our bar, today in fact, soon. Not only that they wanted to film somebody drinking the beer.

OK, rush back across town to the hotel and get changed into something respectable. Back to the Brewers of Europe. Damn, the lines haven't been cleaned yet! Will the beer be clear? A quick, but significantly insufficient line cleaning procedure was undertaken. My beer was like pea soup still, Keswick's was not quite there. David from CLA cheats and uses conditioning tanks, a fair bet. Yup, his Wicked Jimmy was ready to roll.

Over the course of 4 days I think we did 6 media interviews. Our main theme of course was the number of pubs closing. 36 a week. 1 in 8 before 2012. What can the MEPs in Brussels do? Not much in reality except perhaps loosen the EU rules on VAT and duty so that draft beers can have a favourable rate over packaged drinks. But still, I met some interesting people and my pub got mentioned on local radio and TV.

The next morning we had to get back to the venue early to pack up. InBev had an event there that evening. I had got there early enough to park right outside the door. The InBev event organiser then complained because his lorry had nowhere to park. So I had to park across the road because their many people could not possibly carry everything that few extra yards, sorry, meters. Great I thought. Massive global brewer muscles tiny micro out of the way.

But before we left we saw a couple of interesting things. First the dispense technique for Stella Artoir. In the picture the text reads

"The Removal

Your bartender then closes the tap...........and moves the glass away from the font to prevent any drops from falling into the glass. These drops come into contact with the air, and oxidise, making them unworthy of your glass of Stella Artois."

Now firstly, any oxidisation will add flavour to the beverage, which in this case can be no bad thing. Secondly, do we really think that any Stella Artois drinker is going to give a hoot about oxidisation, or know it if it hit him in the face?

Still, it's nice to know that beer production is such an ancient art form. We also found in the same building a stone tablet depicting Egyptian beer making.

The best bit about the trip was the return cargo of beer. I'm currently drinking Bush Amber 12%, before that I had an Orval 6.2%

Tomorrow I think I'll post about Belgian bars, beer and food and smoking.

We're back...

Sorry, I've not posted for a while, still, saves you reading the verbose, rambling sh.... excrement I sometimes write. I could come out with all sorts of excuses like the hotel WIFI was crap, or I had to lend my travel plug to somebody and the laptop battery ran flat, or perhaps I was spending too much time researching Belgian beer for review....

....but no, I was in Brussels with Ann, we don't get much time off when running the pub so we just enjoyed ourselves after we had done serving Cask Ale to very appreciative MEPs. Yes we drank beer, but most of all we relaxed.

So I'm afraid my blog began to fade from my the front of my mind, but I'm guessing as there are not many of you who pop in to read this I've not disappointed many.

Now we're back I'm full of thoughts but only 4 days before we set off for more research in Oregon. Watch out for posts soon. I'll have to blog like mad.

OK, as Robert Humphreys points out, I'm already "quite mad". But at least I don't slip on imaginary snow and ice.

In Brussels

Well we're here, in Brussels, making our case that the Government are partly responsible for the problem of 36 pubs per week closing. The WIFI system in the hotel is giving low signal level so internet connection is not good.

I miss my Simons internet connection - it flies!

Hope this gets through though.

We sent out a press release on Saturday. That worked, we should be appearing on various local T.V. and radio as well as local papers over the next few days. Like I have said before, the issue of pubs closing HAS to be raised above that of binge drinking and alcohol related disorder. There are only a minority of licensed properties that cause the problems and the way the government are tackling the problems it will only be these places left before long. The problems occur in a few large night clubs, not community pubs, but the community pubs are the ones that suffer most by the actions of legislation.

Moving into the deeper darker south

No WIFi yesterday, so no post. Luckily I am at my brothers house tonight so as he's he's an IT wizard (or is that geek?) I've got massive bandwidth in this London suberb. So any detrimental blog quality can only be down to the authors ability.

We got to the BBC food show yesterday. Visiting the CAMRA run beer tasting session with Roger Protz. I can't say that the beers where fantastic. Good examples of classic beers styles, but nothing brilliant, in my humble view. I'm none plussed as to why CAMRA advertised this by email junk shot. It got me to go because I'm interested in food and beer. I would not go again, either to the beer tasting or the food show. Perhaps I'll explain why in detail in a later post.

I like though a little business that was at the food show. As this is a beer blog I thought you might like this. Run by to nice ladies, they make cakes and call their operation "Nutty Tarts". Most importantly they make a beer cake using Black Dog, which I understand is a mild. The cake was nice and similar to a cake I've made with stout and bananas. I might just give you the recipe sometime.

That evening we made our way down to a nice little pub called The land of Liberty, Peace and Plenty. Jill and Martin have been coming on holiday to our place for a couple of years now - we just knew the place would be our kind of pub. Again, I've got much more to say about this than I can fit into today's post. So much later, in the meantime, thanks for the hospitality and letting me show how to pull pints WITH a sparkler.

Yes your right, this part of the world just isn't quite ready for sparklers yet.

Today, I decided to look for The Gunmakers. I'd heard that the publican was a bit of a character and after all, as he's taken the time to comment on this blog occasionally I thought it would have been remissful to not call in. The fact that we had to wait in the rain for a bus at Shooters Hill for 1/2 an hour before two buses arrived together, then a tortuously slow journey on the London public transport system resulted in a journey that Google Maps reckoned I could walk in 3 hours, took a mere 2 hours. Public transport is so good, isn't it?

For some reason I expected this pub to not be as good as it is. However it tuned out to be pleasent. Three nice beers and a friendly environment. I wondered if the Publican would recognise me, at first he didn't and I was taking pictures to post without his knowledge. Then Ann let slip where we were from - bugger, cover blown!

We had a nice chat for a while and would have stayed for anouther pint, but had arranged to meet my brother so had to leave - could have stayed several more pints as it turned out, my brother was over 1 and 1/2 hours late.

Are tank tops back in fassion? must have missed that.

OK, this blog is not to it's usual standard, pics need colour balance and noise sorting out and the copy is a bit ropy, but I'm doing this while trying to be sociable in my brothers house.

The stries here a condensed and there are many ideas collected over the last couple of days. Look out for more when I get back.

On the move

Well this is the first post from the laptop using WIFI - just really to prove it works....

I'm sitting in The White Swan Hotel, Henley-in-Arden. A last minute booking for accommodation. If I'd been organised I'd have found something out of the good beer guide. Organisation is not my strong point.

They have got Jennings Cumberland and Black Sheep Bitter on the bar. Goodness, I'm in Warwickshire and I've got the choice of a Cumbrian ale or a Yorkshire ale. Northern ales and they're not using sparklers - oh my god!!

But they have got Purity Gold which is brewed in Warwickshire. I have to say that out of the three tonight the Purity offering wins by miles. It's got a nice nose reminiscent of Parmesan cheese, weird, but not unpleasant. Good bittering and a good hoppy, fruity taste. My kind of golden ale. Best of all the brewery is less than 6 miles away from where I am sitting. The other two are probably over 200 miles from here - not good beer miles and poorer beer.

Well lets see if Mr Protz' beers tomorrow are worth the trip....

Just packing up..

OK, we're off on our first leg of our International Beer Tour. Bar cooler bits and beers ready, (need to find one pump clip) Alan, Pads, Mick, My Dad, and even Harry (would you believe it?) all primed to keep the place safe and sound in our absence. Ann is panicking about such things as Euros. Doesn't she know, even deepest Europe has ATMs? The banking system isn't that close to collapse yet.

Calling in to see that nice Mr Protz at the NEC on Thursday. Apparently he's going to tell us about 5 beers to try before you die. mmmmmm..we'll see.

Thursday night we're off to the big metropolis. Yes us country types can survive in the city. We don't like it much. Far too many people all over the place. Hopefully my brother will put us up in his gaff for a few days. It'll give us a chance to work out why this southern beer is better without being sparkled. I doubt it'll change my mind. There are pubs I've heard are good in the village of London so I might give a few a try.

Then off to Brussels. Sunday we set up a bar in the Brewers of Europe House so that by Tuesday evening we can impress some people there with our excellent cask ale. OK, maybe taking beer to Belgium is like taking coal to Newcastle, but it'll be fun. We can try and get a few digs in at the MEPs about how there are rules that limit our governments ability to reduce VAT for pubs - according to the Treasury it's all Brussels fault - well I can ask them myself and let you know.

Then whilst in Belgium we might just have to sample a few of their beers. It would be rude not to, wouldn't it?

So, if this blog becomes a bit erratic for a week or so you know why. I'll try and update from the laptop if I get a WIFI connection, otherwise we'll see you next week.

Brussels Madness

We all know there is plenty of madness in Brussels, most of it gets transmitted to us in the form of EU directives. Well, despite there already being sufficient madness and beer already there, I'm taking some beer at the beginning of December, thereby increasing, by only a small amount, the quantity of both.

The idea is we are going to offer some MEPs fine British (well northern English actually) ales and hopefully, in there weakened state, persuade them to do some things that help us here in the UK, rather than hinder. It's all linked to the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group and their Inquiry, which I have mentioned here and here and here.

Barry from Tiger Tops brewery is also sending some. Beer that is, not madness. He's keeping his version of sanity challenged personality at home on this occasion, leaving me to to do all the work. To do this though he urgently needs a bag in box pin (4.5g) so he can rack off his most excellent latest brew so that I can take it with me - he needs it soon.

Can anybody help?

Barry is in Wakefield WF2 9LN