The Jennings Worlds Biggest Liar Competition

I often show contempt for some of the larger family brewers, and nearly any brewery larger than that. It's not surprising, I want some of their market and generally I don't care for much of their beer. I hope the observer can forgive me for this hot headed contempt. Some of the breweries bigger than me fail to hide their open contempt for the microbrewery industry, or their obvious aggressive approach to pushing out broader choice in pubs. I could tell stories and name names, but I've had my fingers burnt before when doing this.

There are, however, some very friendly brewing businesses, who could quite easily treat me with equal contempt, but don't. They have no real reason to treat me nicely, and even, on occasions, positively offer help. They do, and when they do they make me feel quite humble and genuinely pleased to be involved with the bigger world of beer.

Examples of great brewing businesses that have shown me genuine warmth include Fuller's of Chiswick. John Keeling is one of those great brewers who deserves respect, not only for his open embrace of the bigger beer picture, but his down to earth approach to life.

I remain tolerant of one of the biggest lager brands in the UK, Carling. This is not only because in all fairness it's very competently brewed, but because Molson Coors have, in the past, extended unconditional hospitality on a number of occasions.

I could mention many other breweries for which I hold a healthy respect, the list is too long to make here, so don't read too much into a lack of mention. There are some that I'd like to name and shame for what I see as underhand or irresponsible approaches to a wider goodness in the beer world. Your list, dear reader, will no doubt be different to mine. This blog entry is about a brewery that most certainly is not on that list for me.

Jennings are the biggest brewery in Cumbria. They are owned by Marston's, who have been very clever in avoiding controversy by keeping the likes of The Jennings Brewery in Cockermouth not only open, but by investing in it. Jennings, in my opinion, do make some very good beer and are above average in interest compared to other breweries of similar size, and indeed many who are much smaller. It would be churlish for me to do anything other than acknowledge the fact we are very fortunate that the biggest brewery in our county is Jennings.

Most importantly for me, when we first came into the industry, Jennings fitted out our cellar and supplied very nice brand new handpulls for the bar. Water jacketed beer engines are essential for the very best cask dispense. They are brilliant and made by Angram of course, I wouldn't endorse anything else.

When we decided to brew our own beer, and eventually decided to stop ordering Jennings beer, they could have, and would have been legally entitled to come and claim back their cellar equipment and handpulls. They didn't, and I'm very grateful to them for that. Of course I left them in the pub when we left and they have since been used for Jennings beer.

The other week I got an email from their PR agency asking me if I'd like to attend The World's Biggest Liar competition and blog about it. Jennings, you see, kindly sponsor the event and quite rightly wanted some ROI for their trouble. I was very tempted. However, for various reasons, I felt there were other things that required my attention. This didn't stop me finding a way to have a representation.

My American friend Ted was in the country and was persuaded, perhaps unfairly, to pretend to be me. I was glad about this because having agreed to be there I felt a bit of guilt about letting people down.

As it happens, Ted's blog about the night is probably more poignant than any ramblings I might have produced and gives an interesting insight into how a "large American" views such a unique and very special Cumbrian event.

The competition, by the way, was won by Jack Harvey, 25, who beat eleven other entrants to take the Liar cup at Jennings pub, The Bridge Inn, Santon Bridge on November 15th.

Colonial Mayhem, Ted and Friends of Ham

You might have heard of my friend Ted Sobel. He brews beer in a little brewpub, called Brewers Union Local 180, in Oakridge, Oregon, USA. His little town nestles in the Willamette¹ Valley just before the start of the really long climb up to the pass.

Ted came here last year and brewed Colonial Mayhem. It was fun, I think. It's not the first time he's brewed in my brewery, but the first time in the current brewery.

I think it was also the fullest we've had our mash tuns. I'm just about over the trauma.

Ted is back. He's in the UK doing what I think he's persuaded his wife and the IRS is legitimate beer research. We brewed his recipe of Colonial Mayhem again earlier in the year and saved one pin². 

So, in order to bring the beer and the man together we have arranged a little tap takeover in Friends of Ham, Leeds, on Tuesday 20th November. This might well be your only chance to try this beer on draught. It is certainly a rare chance to drink Hardknott beer with Ted. Trust me, it's worth it, he's quite mad.

"Yes Dave, this mash tun does need to be this full"

We love Friends of Ham, not just because they have great beer but also because they have a quality food offering. The ham really is very good, great olives and cheese. I can't think of better food to go with a general evening of beer drinking.

We will also bring some bottles of the original beer batch along with some bottles of the 2nd batch. A very rare chance of a vertical tasting.

If you are in Leeds that day, please do call in and say "Hi"

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¹Absolutely, that is where the hops by the same name originate. We use quite a lot in Dark Energy and a hint in Continuum.

²Just the one pin. The rest went into keg and bottles. Say what you like about cask, it's far easier to sell strong beer like this in keg and bottles.

Sexy new bottles

It's all getting very exciting here at Hardknott HQ. We understand that our bottling machine is being packed and will very soon be on it's way over here to the UK. Thanks to everyone that ordered beer over the last 24 hours, it helped pay just a little bit more off the balance and there is not far to go now.

We are also nearly there with things like label designs, all worked in to coincide with the delivery of the new machine. We think they look quite good.

There have been requests for the ability to pre-order on our web-shop. As this would certainly help us get the project to completion we though "why not?"

So, here's the page if you want to be the very first people to get the full set.

Raking in a few quid

You may have heard, we've got new tanks.

You may have heard we also have a new bottling machine waiting in Italy to be delivered.

The tanks are full of beer waiting to go into nice bottles with fancy new branding.

The problem with all of this is that the machine won't arrive here until we've paid the balance of the cost. We are a few quid short. We could ask you, the Hardknott fans, to lend us some, but I've thought of a great idea which will suit us all.....

I sell you some beer a little bit cheaper, so you spend a little bit more, the money goes right into our PayPal account making up that little difference.

Everyone's a winner. What do you say?

Rhetoric Ed I £5.15 NOW £3.85 (One-off beer, never to be repeated)

Vitesse Noir £5.25 NOW £3.95

We have Rhetoric II and Azimuth and other great new beers in tank ready for bottle, but we need to keep the bank account topped up you see, so we can buy empty bottles and labels and stuff. And all you need to do to help is buy these beers at these great prices.

Oh, and you best hurry, this offer won't last forever.

Beer and fitness

Today we finally see the beer duty escalator debated in Parliament. I am pleased about this for many reasons. The most important reason is because at the last budget most press reports gave the erroneous impression that beer duty was not going to increase. We knew, of course, that beer duty increased by 2% above the rate of inflation.

The main reason, in my view, that alcohol duty is so easy to increase is because the general public are constantly fed the idea that alcohol is bad, and we, the general public, are bad for enjoying it. We deserve to be punished. We are, in fact, very, very, very naughty indeed.

Alcohol is bad for you, irrespective of what you do, so we are told. We are constantly being informed that it is likely that there may be no level of alcohol intake which doesn't cause health problems of some type or another. Statistics, you see, tell us this.

I'm always a little sceptical of statistical studies which place the blame squarely at the feet of just one thing. Fat, sugar, white flour, chocolate, coffee, red meat, pork, processed chicken meat, fruit and vegetables that have been sprayed with pesticides, fruit and vegetables riddled with nasty organisms. The list is so long it makes me wonder if in fact life may well be a terminal illness.

I believe statistics show that people who do something specifically bad are also more likely to do many other things which are specifically bad. They are also less likely to do enough things that are specifically good. I balance my alcohol intake with exercise. I balance my cured pork intake with a good level of vegetables and fruit. I balance my over-indulence listening to stupid politicians on BBC News 24 by avoiding watching X-Factor.

I have long believed that health is provided by a balanced lifestyle. A nice mix of not too much of anything, but plenty of everything.

Exercise is good, providing you don't overdo it and have a sports injury¹.

I did a little video.


Craft Beer Adrenalin Junkies from Hardknott Brewery on Vimeo.

¹I managed to incur an injury known as a tibia plateau, whilst skiing, some years ago. I am very pleased to report that I now feel like I'm skiing just well as I ever have. Or perhaps, as badly. Either way, I'm very pleased to have fully recovered², at last.

²So, if in future I complain about my knees, I'm probably making it up.

More progress

I've been quiet, at least on my blog. There has been a lot going on, and there is still a lot to do.

Some time ago I announced that we had been awarded a grant to help us expand. The project is now well underway and really we are only waiting for delivery of the bottling machine. Our new tanks arrived a less than three weeks ago and are now mostly full of wort, conditioning beer or some similar liquid that will at some point in time become beer.

You will also all know of my involvement with a Samsung TV advert, which is now being aired. Look out for it, apparently it tends to go in the commercial breaks in the like of X-Factor, I'm sure the reader can imagine my thoughts on that.



Samsung – We Are David Bailey from Rokkit on Vimeo.

Anyway, here's an on-line version, in case you don't get X-Factor. See if you can spot me, I am there.

We've also been in Italy, promoting our beer out there. We were invited by Ales and Co, who look after our beer in Italy, to go along to Salone Del Gusto. This was a massive, and I really do mean massive, food and drink exhibition. Far too much fun was had by all.

The most bizarre foodstuff we ate was in a restaurant in the centre of Turin. This seemed to specialise in strange and unusual dishes that included tripe, brains and spinal cord. If that wasn't enough to put us off, we were told that one pile of squid looking offal was, in fact, uteri. I'm still trying to convince myself that it was squid, otherwise I feel I may have gained a taste for uteri.

Several other breweries were represented including Black Isle, Summer Wine and BrewDog. You might recognise notable brewery personnel in the picture.

Whilst we were in Italy we also got to see our new bottling machine, finished and ready to ship to the UK. Cool.

And there was the small matter of a four day holiday to fit in too. I love The Alps and the great outdoors. It's been about 5 years since we got to use our passports so this was very much a necessary indulgence.

Now, I must get back to work, we have a bottling machine to commission.

I am David Bailey

My name is David Bailey. There is another bloke called David Bailey who, when I was a teenager at school, caused me some unintentional indirect irritation. It wasn't his fault really, it was the fault of one of those Japanese camera makers, namely, Olympus. You see, they made a series of adverts with various tag lines like "David Bailey, who's he?" - you can understand why my peers used it as reference to ensure my ridicule and a reason I now prefer to be referred to by the more casual sounding Dave.

I guess this is the right place then

However, this week I'm pleased to say my name association has paid off. I do have some interest in photography, and not just your normal holiday snap stuff, but occasionally I take to trying to take really good pictures. Last week, several very good people alerted me to the fact that Samsung were giving away cameras to people called David Bailey as part of a campaign called We Are David Bailey. All I had to do was pop the short journey down to London and take part in the shooting of a TV commercial. They also promised to pay expenses, cool.

The film crew, filming David Baileys
taking pictures of models

Apparently I was supposed to take pictures of the stuff they had arranged in the building, like sexy models, a very interesting female contortionist and various still life stuff. The fact is, I was quite interested in the professional film crew and all their equpment, I ended up taking pictures of them, filming various David Baileys taking pictures.

There were a lot of David Baileys, 143 in total, including the man himself. Unfortunately not quite enough to break the world record of the most number people with the same name in the same place, but close. If everyone who had applied and been accepted had turned up then apparently we'd have got the record. It seems not all David Baileys are as good to their word as me.

Just a few David Baileys

Well, there you go

Some bloke who shares my name

It might be sunny, but for a proper shoot you just HAVE to have great big lights.

You might all be wondering what on earth this has to do with beer. Well, as part of my blag to get accepted on the program I talked about Hardknott, my blog and the videoing I've been doing. The researcher had already found me online but figured I couldn't possibly be stupid enough to travel all the way down to London. I also indicated that I liked the video facility of the camera and hoped to be using it for Hardknott promotional stuff later. Watch this space for some combined Olympus DSLR, JVC video and Samsung NX1000 Smart Camera productions from the Hardknott production team.

Meanwhile, after the event we had to pick the van back up from a friends pub, Land of Liberty, Peace and Plenty, who as it happened have a hopbine growing in the car park. Here we have a couple of picies, one with my trusty Olympus and one with the new Samsung. Make your own mind up.

Picture of hop cones taken with Samsung NX100

Picture of hop cones taken with an Olympus E-420