just thought I'd post up a couple of interesting ale-related things
BTW I just got around to watching Rick Steins Food Heroes(?) TV prog from last week - brief bits on stringing hop gardens in preparation for the growing hops, cooking & eating fresh hop shoots & making cider brandy with Julian Temperley in Somerset (this is off top of head, so apologies if not 100%)
what else? from the times - __________________________ IT’S A bit like Hamlet without the Prince. Given its fondness for breweries, you would have thought that the Campaign for Real Ale would never run out of drink. Yet those who made the pilgrimage to the
2003 Camra beer festival in Eastbourne were left high and dry. Halfway through the weekend, the organisers ran out of beer. An official from the local tourist board had to go to the nearest Tesco to buy wine to keep the guests happy. ___________________________
from the Sunday People -
________________________ FOOTBALL: CHEERS FOR GORDON'S 2P OFF PINT OF REAL ALE BEER drinkers are set to get a bonus from Chancellor Gordon Brown - 2p off a pint of real ale. This follows a review of last year's Budget tax concessions to small breweries. Mr Brown hoped a reduction in duty would be passed on to customers and help small firms compete. But it didn't work out like that. A top aide to Mr Brown said: "Gordon likes a pint as much as the next bloke. "He introduced this scheme to help small brewers and now he wants to make sure it's working properly." The problem is that his concession, worth £128,000 a year, applies only to 270 breweries producing 5.3 million pints a year or less. If they brew any more they lose the whole concession. Now Mr Brown is planning a progressive tax so expanding or medium-sized brewers going "over the limit" will benefit. He hopes the
2p a pint cut will then follow. Nigel Welsh, boss of the Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire, said: "This simple change means we could invest more to improve quality and keep prices down." _____________________________________
from Sheffield Today
______________________________ Beer drinkers toast a nostalgic return to draught Ward's HERE'S to the beers! Real ale fan Myk (elsewhere *Mark*) Eccles welcomed a bevy of boozers to his festival last night with a fondly remembered brew which could have many nostalgic drinkers crying in their pints this weekend. He served draught Ward's, which was last brewed for drinkers throughout the region five years ago, as a main attraction at the Steel City Beer Festival. Stockport brewers Robinsons have made two barrels containing more than
70 pints of the brew for drinkers to enjoy at the festival this weekend. The company impressed competition judges with one of their champion brews, Robinsons Old Tom, which topped a taste contest ahead of the launch of the festival. Sheffield's Kelham Island brewery won the prize for the top stout with its Midnight Sun brew. They are amongst 70 on display at the event at St Phillip's Social Club, Netherthorpe, which runs until Saturday. City students can cash in on a free half a pint if they produce their NUS cards at the festival. For more information, visit
after their cartoon of *the real ale tw@s* Viz magazine has bizarrely done a deal with JWLees & GK to sell the comic at a discounted price when you buy a pint of cask beer! from The Publican
_______________________________ Lads' comic Viz to be sold in pubs Published 2nd October 2003
Viz, the lads' comic famed for characters such as Roger Mellie, is to be available for sale in over 300 pub across the UK.
A deal with brewers JW Lees and Greene King will see copies available at the bar for £1 with the purchase of a pint of real ale.
Viz ad manager Anthony White said: "The alignment with real ale is no coincidence - Viz readers are essentially blokes in their 30s who spend an awful lot of time in pubs.
"Viz readers are just a younger version of real ale's current consumers and they are largely an untapped market." _______________________________