Shock Less Monster?

Came across this little gem in L.a.S.T Orders (the Lichfield, Sutton & Tamworth branch publication), and thought it was worth sharing…

“Much justified criticism has been directed at Chancellor Alistair Darling’s budget decision to raise beer tax, with a nominal 4p a pint turning out at 20p or so by the time everybody’s had their go.

Here at Last Orders we prefer to let the last word go to Burton Bridge, who awarded big Al their Gold Medal beer for May – see the accompanying description.

Mind you, we reckon there’s a printing mistake – surely the Bridge Boys intended the second word of the beer name to be Teater?”

Indeed; my initial thoughts when I clapped eyes on the beer for the first time were pretty much the same - Nice one BB for taking the Michael, but did you really have to pull the punch?!

The description accompanying the Shy Teaser clip reads:

"May 1933 was the start of the most prolific Nessy spotting season, 28 sightings towards the end of 1934, but since then very little, in spite of some extensive sonar and submersible surveys.

Our illustration is of a more recent sighting, probably of the next generation, which looked like a performing seal crossed with a snake in the grass, resulting in a creature with over-inflated humps and a poor sense of direction."

You have to admit though, it's a pretty accurate summary all things considered...

For those unfamiliar with the range, Burton Bridge Gold Medal Ales are produced monthly in recognition of some of the 'greats' of history.

Pan-C

Steamin' Billy - Barkin' up the Wrong Tree?

Further to my recent comments on the Western beer festival, a thread has been running in the Nottingham Drinker over the last couple of months which has caught my attention and raises some interesting points.

As I mentioned in my earlier entry, the Western is a Steamin’ Billy pub, and the 'Billy range are brewed under contract by Tower brewery, having previously been brewed by Grainstore – and therein lies the problem, at least as far as Nottingham CAMRA are concerned.

In an article entitled Taking Liberties? (April/May, page 18) the publication roundly and quite justly condemns the nefarious practices of marketing beers as brewed by defunct breweries(Ruddles, Hardy & Hanson etc) and of rebadging beers, however the piece goes on to attack breweries such as Steamin’ Billy which contract out their brewing…

“We have covered this topic … of breweries that no longer exist yet whose beer still amazingly appears on the pumps … Perhaps more amazingly there are even beers being sold from breweries that have never existed at all such as Steamin’ Billy … you won’t see any of these “breweries” at Nottingham Beer Festival as we believe in promoting breweries that actually exist.”

Personally I’m not sure where I stand on this one; I can understand where the Drinker is coming from, but at the same time I’m also aware that the recipes used for Steamin’ Billy brews are their own – a point raised in the letters section of the following edition (June/July, p.36). Surely this lends them validity as a brewery?

I have heard rumours through the grapevine that there are plans to start brewing on site at the Western, which would certainly satisfy the Nottingham branch, but in the interim what do other people think – should you be able to call yourself a brewery if you don’t actually brew anything yourselves?

Pan-C

The King Beggars Belief

Perusing this months copy of that most worthy of CAMRA branch publications the Nottingham Drinker, I came across this little gem in the letters section...

Sir,

In response to your article ‘Conned Rudolph’ in the April / May issue of Nottingham Drinker. I’d like to give you a bit of background as to why we reduced the ABV of Rocking Rudolph from 5% to 4.5%.We completely agree with you – Rocking Rudolph is a great beer – and we wanted more people to enjoy it during the festive season. Part of our commitment when we acquired Hardys and Hanson’s was to get their superb collection of beers to more drinkers. The proof is, since we’ve lowered the ABV, we’ve managed to distribute Rocking Rudolph to 23% more pubs in 2007 than the previous year.

We continue to brew all of Hardys and Hansons beers, with the exception of H&H Mild, which is still available in keg format. The reason for this is that when we became responsible for the Hardys and Hansons business, only three per cent of H&H Mild was sold in cask (26 pubs in total) so it was economically unviable for us to brew as a cask beer.

Greene King is committed to cask ale quality and the Hardys and Hanson’s quality manager, Roger Walters, has remained with us to ensure we have the best quality processes in place and continue maintain consistency of H&H beers.

Fiona Hope, Marketing director, Greene King Brewing Company

The editor replies:

Your letter certainly confirms that our heading “Conned Rudolph” was right then!

The beer was sold with a pump clip that declared “Hardy’s and Hanson’s - Rocking Rudolph”. Well common sense suggests that if you reduce the strength of a beer from 5% to 4.5% then it is not going to be remotely anything like the original. Add the fact that you have closed down the Hardys and Hansons brewery with this beer being brewed at the Greene King Brewery in Bury St Edmunds so why try to hoodwink the public into believing it was the same beer that was produced in Kimberley in 2006?

How about treating your customers with a bit of respect for a change, instead of trying to mislead them into believing that long closed breweries are still brewing? In our opinion, Hardy’s and Hanson’s Bitter and Olde Trip taste nothing like they did when they were brewed in Kimberley so why not let these once excellent beers pass into history with their proud reputation still intact?

Instead how about selling your beers in an open and honest way as Greene King beers, not Morland, Ruddles, Ridleys, Rayments or Hardy’s & Hanson’s, or are you ashamed of your own name?

Oh and by the way, correct us if we are wrong, but is a quality manager not responsible for the condition in which beer is sold in the pubs? In which case he has nothing to do with brewing or marketing the beers and so your final sentence appears to be irrelevant to the issue!

You have to wonder how on earth GK have managed to become such a powerful force when they're employing people capable of such ineptitude and who clearly have such little understanding of the market they claim to serve...

Pan-C