I am so pleased that we took the decision three and a bit years ago to not carry on with our beer shop. We had reached the point where we needed to expand and move forward or we would stagnate. It was a case of investing in the business or calling it a day. It also coincided with the company I had previously worked for making me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Did I want holidays, weekends and decent money or sheer bloody hard work for a pittance? It was an easy decision. How we would have coped with the recession and the local council’s disfiguration of the town centre in the name of progress, God only know!

I was reminded of this watching Gerry’s Big Decision last night. The programme ‘stars’ Sir Gerry Robinson, “one of the UK’s most respected entrepreneurs”, who is prepared to risk millions of his own money to help troubled businesses if he feels that they still have some potential. Last night’s programme featured two troubled breweries, Itchen Valley and O’Hanlon’s. Both breweries seemed to be in trouble due to the incompetency of each of their respective key persons running them, with the suggestion that the recession was culling those businesses that were not well run. Yes the word pillock could have been hurled at one or two of the people featured, and the cold hearted capitalist would say that it is the will of market forces should be respected and therefore they should go under. Thankfully Sir Gerry didn’t quite see it that way. I couldn’t help feel for these poor people that had sunk all of their money into these businesses, and the people in their employ, as they sat on the edge of disaster. I am also so thankful that I’m not in that position, as I so easily could have been. Gerry Robinson has taken a majority shareholding in both breweries and has ‘installed’ the female of the partnership at the helm in each case.

It was an interesting programme that concentrated of the human element rather than the beer, although the brewery element was my initial reason for watching. I hope both breweries survive and are successful, each in their own way.

The Walnut Tree Shades is a bar and restaurant tucked away down a little alley just off the market place in Norwich. It’s a long thin bar that fits like a well worn glove, with distressed fixtures and fittings. I’d hardly noticed it was there before the Woodforde’s Pub Guide book and it’s a place that in the past I would not have bothered to enter, but I’m glad I did. I called in last night for a couple of pints on my way back from the library. Yes it’s a bit tatty but that's part of its charm. Yes the young lady behind the bar called me ‘love’ and ‘dear’, despite the fact that she’s young enough to be my granddaughter (if I had one), but hey it’s better than “what dyou want”. Some great blues music was blaring out of the speakers. They apparently have live music most Thursdays and Fridays, blues and rock. This is good news as I've been looking for somewhere near and handy to enjoy a bit of noise. The beer is passable, so I have no qualms on that front. The decor is ersatz US neighbourhood (or should that be neighborhood?) bar, but thankfully in a very un-kitsch way, so they can be forgiven. They also have some jolly nice art deco pastiche lampshades.

Yet another pleasant surprise; I really should do this sort of thing more often. It’s so easy to fall into a pattern of frequenting the same pubs week in and week out so I must try harder to visit new places.

1/7/09 - PS: I would like to add that this bar had three real ales; Wherry, Summer Lightning and London Pride. Not over exciting but at least they are real!

#ukpubs
This topic should have been buried a while back, but inspired by some robust discussion over at The Pub Curmudgeon’s blog, along with the fact that The Publican has just reminded us that the second anniversary of the introduction of the smoking ban in England is coming up on the 1st July, it would seem churlish to miss the opportunity to milk it a bit more, and in my own tongue in cheek bigoted way.

For me the smoking ban was the best thing since sliced bread; a veritable breath of fresh air. I get so much more enjoyment these days from going into pubs and drinking real ale than I ever did in the days when the nicotine SS had free reign. Part psychological I’m sure, but I swear that beer tastes better now without the added pollutant. The great thing is that apart from the protestations of a few reactionaries most people love the clean air. Thankfully smoking in public buildings, like fox hunting, is consigned to history.

This doesn’t mean I’m anti-smoking. In my opinion all drugs should be legalised. After all it is the best way to control them. What I am anti is people inflicting their smoke onto me. As I commented on The Pub Curmudgeons’ blog:
“What people do in private is another matter. I would have no problem with a private smoker’s co-operative club run by the members on a non-profit basis, but I won't be campaigning for it.

It is so nice that we no longer have smoke in public leisure and entertainment places. The ban didn't come as a surprise so it should not be the excuse for pub closures. I'm sure that stake makers had a really tough time when we stopped burning witches but no sane person would advocate the return of the practice. Adapt or die should be the mantra of all businesses, as nothing stands still. The smoking ban happened let's put it to bed and get a life!”

I’ll try and make this the last time I mention the smoking ban.

CAMRA beer festivals are the mainstay of the beer drinking calendar. What would we do without them?
I have said before that there are one or two that I have grown tired of and that I much prefer pub festivals. But there is a third way. Not so common as the other two but the independently organised festival can offer a different and interesting dimension. So I was quite please to receive an email this weekend from Arman, a UEA student who is helping to organise a beer festival at Norwich’s medieval Dragon Hall. I hope he doesn’t mind me printing an extract from his email as I think it succinctly introduces the festival:

“As part of our Management Consultancy curriculum our team of 12 students is organising Dragon Hall Local Beer Festival.

CAMRA is supporting us by providing stilages, taps and professional advises. “

This festival deserves all the support it can get. Yes it’s clearly part of their course work. But hey, what bloody good course work! I also like the sentiments. What also has to be good is that a young, diverse group of students are organising it. I hope they are able to attract an equally diverse crowd. Who knows perhaps they will succeed in introducing new blood to the real ale drinking fraternity. I certainly hope so. Old blood will be there as well, of that there is no doubt, especially as I intend to go. I’m quite keen to see inside Dragon Hall, so that will be a bonus; a festival with a view.

If you are in the area I urge you to make the effort and come along

For me a pint of beer is never more enjoyable than when it’s consumed on a warm summers evening straight after work. I can think of no better way to unwind after a taxing moderately stressful day than a cellar-cool pint of golden ale. The Oakham JHB truly hit the spot tonight in my local. There is no more perfect a way to start the evening!

Whilst nothing can compare to that all important first pint, the second was pretty bloody good. The second is one to savour, to enjoy at a leisurely pace, slowly enjoying each mouthful. Don’t you just love summers evenings?

There has been an awful lot of news and comment of late regarding the ‘beer tie’, most of which I disagree with. I have mixed feelings about the ‘tie’. At the top end of the scale it homogenises pubs and beer choice, whilst at the other end it has enabled some smaller breweries to survive and prosper. I suppose it could also be said that one person’s homogeny is another’s brand identity. Bugger that blows part of my first argument!

I have no real love of pubcos, but I do think sometimes there’s far too much unnecessary whining and moaning about them. To some they are seen as the archetypal ‘wicked landlord’, and perhaps there is some justification for this, but they are what they are. I have said before that I have no real love of the capitalist system, but that is the sword that we live by, because supposedly the majority wish it, and I accept that. Because of this I feel that ‘the market’ needs to deal with the beer tie, and not the law. A pubcos tenancy is essentially a franchise; the tenant ‘agrees’ a contract with the pubco. If the prospective tenant doesn’t like the deal then they shouldn’t enter into it. Simple as that for me. I might be wrong in this analysis, and I’m fully prepared to be persuaded otherwise. Perhaps campaigning by the likes of Paul Kenny might help change my mind.

If you introduce a law to restrict the tie, big companies will find a way around it, as sure as eggs are eggs. The current economic difficulty would appear to be dealing blows to certain pubcos, changing the way they do business and forcing them to either sell off parts of their estate or enter into agreements with smaller operators that are more switched on to giving the public what they want, like micro breweries and independent mini pub groups. I see the recession as doing a bit of an alignment job within the pub trade. I also see that green shoots are about to spring from the ashes of the shell-shocked industry, plus, I make no apologies for the mixed metaphors. I think that next year will see the start of a golden era for the pub going punter. I feel it in my water.

The future’s bright, the future’s “glass half full”!

I’m on the mailing list for Woodforde’s, Norfolk’s premier brewery, and today in the post I received my copy of their newly published ‘Pub Guide’. It also includes ‘the 2009 Woodforde’s Ale Trail’.

The booklet is in a handy A6 pocket sized format and is packed full of public houses in Norfolk, Suffolk & Essex that regularly stock their ale. I’m pleased to say that it mentions one or two pubs in Norwich that I’d not previously heard of, so I’m going to be checking them out.

The ‘Ale Trail’ requires you to order a pint from one of the participating pubs and have your book stamped, limited to one stamp per pub. You can trade in your stamped card for Woodforde’s branded goodies. The goodies don’t really get interesting until you have 36 stamps when your reward is beer.

Whilst it’s not a wholly original idea the Pub Guide is a useful piece of equipment in the real ale drinker’s armoury. I have a feeling that mine has the potential of becoming quite dog-eared.

The Eastern Daily Press, based in Norwich, is a pretty useful local newspaper that covers local, national and international news. For a while now they have been tirelessly promoting pubs throughout the county with their 'Support Your Pub' campaign, as well as featuring a ‘Pub of the week’. Rarely does a day go by without news, a review or other article about a local pub or brewery. Norwich once had the reputation of having a pub for every day of the year (and incidentally a church for every week of the year), so I guess that the love of pubs is deeply ingrained in the North Folk psyche. In these troubled times shed loads of free publicity for pubs certainly can’t do any harm. The more people banging on about pubs and ale the better; keeping this tradition to the fore, constantly reminding people of the joys of going to the pub is so important.

Thank you EDP for doing your bit.

There's a pub in Norwich called The Dog House, which until the other day I’d never been in. On the number of times that I’d walked passed I’d glanced in to see only keg, mainly lager, taps, looked at the 'wine bar attired' clientele and snobbishly dismissed it out of hand. Cue a hot Saturday afternoon, I’m on the lookout for a beer, I wonder if the playhouse bar is open, but before I get to it I notice a sign outside the dog house announcing 3 real ales behind the bar. I wander inside. Actually they only had the one available, Adnams bitter; I narrowly missed the London Pride and the Spitfire. Not over adventurous it has to be said, but hey they were clearly trying. All their ale is gravity dispensed, so it's worth going in just for that. Despite the hot day the ale was a pretty good temperature, and in good nick. The clientele are not really my sort of people, but they are innocuous enough. I think I might pop in there again sometime soon. It doesn't always pay to dismiss such places out of hand. “You can’t always judge a book by its cover!”

Church halls, yes, community centres, yes, schools, yes, but up until tonight I’d never voted in a bar.

This is the first time that we’d voted in Norwich and the polling station in our ward was in the Courtyard Bar of the Maid’s Head Hotel. Sadly the bar was not open. Shame as it would have been quite neat to have exercised my democratic franchise and have partaken of an aperitif at the same time.

I'm still here even if I've not been posting lately. Been drinking decent amounts of ale. I've got a number of things to write about but just don't have time at the moment. Not enough hours in the day!

Just received an email newsletter from the Fat Cat, Norwich’s multi-award winning pub. Not sure what to make of the book they mention, would appear to be vaguely Pratchett-esque or an elaborate piss-take, same difference I suppose, but I like some of the “Daft Questions that the Cat Crew have been asked”. Here are three that I think are worth reprinting:

“
Old man, after staring at the boards above the bar for at least five minutes:
'What's the difference between the Fat Cat Honey and the Fat Cat Website?'
'Well, it's difficult to know where to start, really...'

'Does this pub have an outside?'
'No sir, this is the world's only Möbius pub, formed from one continuous strip of bricks.'

Overheard by a young gentleman on his 'phone outside the Fat Cat:
'Yeah mate, I'm at the Fat Cat... Nah mate, it's shite... Well, it's not that bad really, but it's no Thetford.'
”

The last one can only really be appreciated by those of us from Norfolk or Suffolk. Basically Thetford is merde extraordinaire.

I sometimes feel the need to recharge my blogging batteries, so I’ve been enjoying my beer of late without the self-imposed pressure of feeling the need to write about it. You might have noticed. Anyway, lashing into the Cain’s Mild last night in what is slowly becoming my local of choice I thought, “I’ve gotta write about this”.

Despite my protestations about May being ‘mild month’ I have been drinking mild when it’s been available, and where I trust it to be fresh. I trust the Wig & Pen. I know some might avoid Cain’s beer on principle; the Dusanj brothers were once the darlings of Merseyside brewing, until the brewery that they had once revived went into administration last year. They emerged a few months later buying back the brewery with some financial jiggery-pokery and have not been held in such high esteem since. I don’t have a problem drinking their ale. Cain’s beer rarely makes it to East Anglia, but if ever I come across it, I’ll always give it a go as invariably its damned fine ale. Hence I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to try their mild and I wasn’t going to let a little bit of personal dogma get in the way. Mild is about subtlety. A trait that Cain’s mild achieves with flying colours; a velvety singe of smokiness along with a lick or two of liquorice makes for very quaffable ale. The great taste and the fact that it was a slightly chilly night made this a most enjoyable beer.

The Punch Tavern pub group, which has fallen upon hard times, has been selling off a number of its pubs of late. Quite a number of breweries have snapped a selection up, with Robinsons being one of the latest to make a purchase. Even struggling Adnams have bought a few. I assume the sell-off will continue until saturation point is reached. One wonders if any brewery will dare to be the odd one out and not buy some. If you are a brewery looking to expand your estate and you have the cash it would seem to be a good time to get what presumably are pubs at bargain prices.

Apparently Saturday was National Mild Day although I hadn’t realised this as I entered the Rose & Crown, Bury St Edmunds. As I’ve said before this pub keeps the best Greene King Dark XX mild that money can buy, and in honour of National Mild Day they were offering mild at £2.00 per pint, which was pretty good I thought, and a bonus as I’d ordered my pint before I knew about the offer. This pub is really dedicated to its mild, the landlord drinks it, and I’m sure draws in custom because of its ‘mild’ reputation.

I stopped for lunch, ham egg and chips, one of my favourite pub-grub meals, which incidentally goes brilliantly with mild. There you go beer to go with food tips at no extra charge. Three milds later I was one happy chappy and well replete.

I wasn’t aware that they had entertainment at the Rose & Crown on Saturday lunchtimes, but they do. It comes in the form of an old dear by the name of, well I won’t name her. She apparently selects a victim and ‘chats’ to them in a manner that is slightly more subtle than Jeremy Paxman but equally as effective. Guess who her victim was on Saturday? That’s correct, muggins here, much to the delight and relief of the more regular clientele. I didn’t want her to know anything about me. I didn’t want to guess her name, even though she made me. I didn’t want to know that when the landlady was three she had a crush on this woman’s son. And I was certainly not interested in where she lived, her life or anything about the strange world she inhabits. Inwardly I was laughing, and it is no mean feat to keep a straight face whilst trying to at least be polite to the poor dotty old dear. You can’t beat a good pub nutter even if you are the prey, and I reckon I earned my discounted mild that lunchtime!