Cumbrian Brewery Merger

I am a fan of Cumbrain Legendary Ales, a brewery located in Hawkshead. David has done a great job of producing some excellent beers. In fact I like all his beers and even my least favourite, King Dunmail, is exactly as it sets out to be, a good old fashioned traditional best bitter. For the last couple of years David phoned us every couple of weeks and convinced me to take some beer, often, to Ann's disgust, when we didn't actually need any.

I got the news this morning that CLA had been bought and David was moving on. Oh no! who's taking his place? Is someone being threatened by his success? Is it a buy out by a bigger brewery? I thought I'd phone to check.

I got the familiar "Cumbrian Ales!" greeting on the end of the phone and start talking to David. "What's happening then, where are you going?" I asked "What's this about you giving up brewing" . "It's not David it's Roger Humphreys" came the reply.

Thank goodness, I thought, somebody has bought it who knows what they are doing. Roger, of course, is the owner of The Kirkstile Inn which is a fine place that purveys good food and beer. Matt brews beer with the help of Hayley in their very own Loweswater brewery. I am particularly fond of their Loweswater Pale Ale as I have mentioned here.

Roger is one of those nice brewery owners who doesn't behave like he's hiding some sort of secret art that can't be discussed with other brewers. He's one of those nice guys that deserves the success he's clearly achieved with the Kirkstile and I hope this success continues. I also suspect he's the type of guy that will respond to the links provided here with some sort of reciprocal gesture, seeing as he's already a reader of my blog.

Do you think that was too blatant?

Now Loweswater brewery is about the same size as my brewery. Getting beer from Roger is not normally possible. Like me he only has sufficient for the demand at his own Inn. Roger told me he was planning on moving production of some of his very nice ales to his new acquisition in Hawkshead so we can look out of his wonderful LPA to become more widely available.

Roger told me that Hayley will take over most of the running of the brewery with a bit of help from the talented Matt Webster. So my order, that I put in with David, is going to be delivered by Kirkstile Inn staff next week.

Now, I just wonder if Roger is going to start buying up more pubs and if so at what stage I should object to the tie? Plus, I have still to find out what David is going to do next...........

Predictablility

In Seaching for good beer and Penrith Beer not so good I complain about the beer choice not being as good as I'd like. What am I complaining about though? The beers were perfectly good beers. Nothing, really, technically wrong with them.

I remember David from Cumbria Legendary Ales first delivering his King Dunmail, which is a classic best bitter. I was disappointed by this particular beer after having had his Dickey Doodle and Wicked Jimmy - which I think are both excellent. I commented to him that I was less than completely excited about this one. He pointed out that the King Dunmail is designed to be a Best Bitter, and as such it is.

Lately I have seen some fuss over Tetleys closing down. Now to me this beer is nothing special. It's not a bad beer but I will not be mourning it's demise. I think it is unfounded to blame the owners of the brand for letting it fail. I believe any advertising in support of an old fashioned brand would have been commercially unwise, throwing good money away.

(Alan says "Tell'em to stop complainin' 'n' drink sumut else")

We have got Keswicks Thirst Fall on the bar just now. I'd class it as a Best Bitter but probably not in the classic sense. It's got some other stuff going on, more adventurous than the regular and predictable stuff out there. Malty and hoppy in equal amounts and a good balance between the two. Most importantly plenty of late drop hops - some aromas to play with your nasal cavity and enhance the whole experience.

I've also got Moth Bag from Bargates on the pulls here. Earlier I had reason to go down to Ravenglass and happened to park outside The Holly House. The Landlord came out to see me as he recognised the car. Well it would have been rude not to go in for one wouldn't it? He had TT Landlord on the bar. both of these beers hit you with some hoppy effects and let you KNOW you are drinking ale.

I met Jeff Picthall yesterday and I'll apologise now for plagiarising his comments. We were discussing some beers that we had tried and he pointed out why some didn't excite me. Tirrel for instance, is a good brewery, I have the beers here on occasions - and provided they haven't fallen out with me for making these comments will do so again. They sell and people seem to like them. I don't choose Tirrel for myself because they all fall into the category of classic.

So the question is why does a micro brewery want to brew something that is just a facsimile of an existing brand? Or alternatively, why do we so mourn the passing of big old unwanted breweries when there are so many micros that can do the same thing?

But equally, if you are in a pub and you pick your mates pint up by mistake, and you can't tell it's a different beer then what's the point of it being different? What's the point of a beer that's OK but no different to Watneys Red Barrel?

With the varieties of hops and malt and yeasts available and the variation to flavours and aromas depending on when you put the hops in the brew, why do so many beers taste the same? When there are so many beers out there to be tried, why do pubs put three beers on in a row that are all the same?

Tandleman gave Meantime Coffee Porter a bit of a slating and I've had something similar myself and not liked it. But at least it's different, if truly awful. It's a bit like modern art that most of us question, but at least modern art pushes the boundaries as does Coffee Porter.

To continue the art metaphor, a painter has a vast palate of colour to choose from and a huge range of media with which to work. If he used green pastel all the time he'd have to be a damn good artist to excite anybody.

(According to Alan, Picasso had a green period - bah, for a Manc he knows far too much)