We've got the hops

Last week 5kg of very expensive Willamette hops arrived at our door. We had been told earlier in the year that we had no chance of getting them this year. Having looked at alternatives to replace them in our Woolpacker we deciding that nothing was good enough. We went further up the supply chain to find what we might be able to get and where told that as we where not existing customers we could only have a limited choice off a "B" list.

After carefully explaining that we used a middle man but they did actually come from them originally and would they please make sure that our supplier did have them in stock, they relented and now we have them....

The price of the hops has still gone up 500%
The price of the electricity to boil the wort has increased
Heating, light and power uses 20% of our markup on product
The cost of staff has gone up and cost 40% of our markup
Maintenance on our big old building is 30% of our markup
Mortgage payments are 20% of markup
Now, we'll just quietly point out that this equals a deficit.
But as we develop our unique style we are finding this deficit is getting smaller and might just be eliminated by the end of the year.

But the good news is that a new batch of Woolpacker is getting to the end of it's fermentation and will to casks next week.

A busmans holiday?

Ann and Dave managed to get out for a few hours yesterday. Although we live in the Lakes it is often difficult to find time to enjoy the surroundings. It is nice to get some knowledge about attractions so we can pass on the information to customers. A visit to the Honister Slate mines was decided upon as our main objective. Leaving here after lunch (ordering to sort out first) we headed off. But what is the best way to go to Honister from here. Having SatNav does give a third opinion when traveling - it might not always choose the best route, especially when Hardknott is one of it's options. This was really interesting though. On the map the crow flies distance is probably no more than 7 miles but the route around the mountains was probably more like 25. The Satnav took us right past The Kirkstyle Inn - well it would be rude to not stop and try some Loweswater Ales, wouldn't it? Besides hunger also had an influence.

They had just finished serving lunch and were onto afternoon tea but had nice soup and sandwiches. But best of all they had a new ale - LPA - Loweswater Pale Ale - just right Dave recons. Normally Loweswater Ales are a little on the sweet side, nothing wrong with that but Dave prefers dryer beers. The LPA was a really nice hoppy, citrusy ale with just the right balance of residual sugars to balance the harshness of the alpha acids from the hops.

So the late lunch we set off towards the Buttermere Valley and up Honister Pass - quite an easy pass after you've driven Hardknott so many times. The Honister slate mine is right on the top of the pass - it's hard to miss. When driving in off the road the car parking is a little confusing. Still more confusing is exactly what to do if you want to go on a mine tour. It seems that you go straight to the shop and ask at the shop counter. By the time we had worked all that out and waited for the people who were buying memorabilia to pay for their purchases, we had missed the last tour.

It was all very interesting non the less - there was a number of slate activities in progress including cleaving slate for roofs and polishing slate slabs presumably for signs etc. This was all easily seen from the viewing area just off the shop. In the shop itself we were tempted by the £400+ slate chess table which would have looked very nice in our residents lounge. However we spent just a couple of pounds on a map of Lake District pubs and an amusing post card - all published by CardToons and rather excellent.

Next we had a trip down to Keswick, a visit to our friends Phil and Sue at Keswick brewery. They've now got their visitors rooms sorted and are taking brewery tours by arrangements. Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays if I remember right at 11am. But it's by booking only - it's a busy job being a brewer and they don't hang around just in case they get visitors - so call them.

After being slightly underwhelmed by the quality of food offering in Keswick itself we tried to book a table at The Pheasent at Basssenthwaite - we used our map bought earlier in the day and found the number was wrong!!! Out came the CRAG guide (can be bought at The Woolpack Inn) to find the correct number. The Pheasant was booked up, which was not a surprise.

Driving back along the A66 we decided to call at the Middle Ruddings Hotel. Having a good selection of ale whenever we've been in (they have even been known to have Hardknott ales on the bar) so we thought we'd try the food. We where very pleased to have stopped as the food was very good, a nice selection and nicely done. Certainly much better than standard pub fair. Dave had venison sausage served with juniper gravy and Ann had local slow roast Lamb. Now Ann doesn't normally like Lamb unless Dave cooks it but she risked it, probably just to prove the point, but she was wrong and really enjoyed it.

To complete our tour of the area we came back down the back road through Frisington and Cleator, past Egremont to Calder Bridge to call in at a pub that has been improving much lately - The Stanley Arms. They had 3 pumps with Thwaites and one with Hesket Newmarket Scafell Blond. Apparently they have also had Keswick as well. The landlord seems to be very keen and they recently got pub of the season from the local CAMRA branch. Well done to The Stanly Arms team and well done to CAMRA for encouraging a good landlord.

Lastly we called in to see our good friends at The strands in Nether Wasdale. Mark and Leslie have certainly made an impression here. Mark never seems to stand still. He's set up his own brewery which produces great ales. The food is really good and very interesting and the place always seems to have a nice atmosphere when we've been in. It's perhaps a shame that CAMRA have not recognised this enthusiastic team.

And so back home for a final pint and to check emails - only to find that Ted has finally brewed ale - Cumbrian Microbrewery skills have been sucessfully passed to Oregon.

The price of a pint

The subject of the last post on the blog was provoked by a customer's submission to another site that is supposed to be all about beer. It is interesting that many of the contributors to the site spend much energy complaining about premises rather than complimenting them. Moreover the complaints are often about the food, not the beer....


This week the British Institute of Innkeepers published some figures about the costs associated with the provision of beer in public bars. In summary, it points out that around 4p in every pound spent in a public bar goes into the landlords pocket.
For a landlord to make £20k per annum (trust us, a very small reward for the work involved) he must turnover £500,000 per year. HALF A MILLION!!!!!


If we assume £2.50 a pint, (which is cheap), this equates to around 500 pints per day. So 100 customers who drink around 5 pints each.

If we assume the average person drinks 1 pint per half hour then for a bar that is open 12 hours a day it has to have 22 drinkers in the bar every hour of every day. For most pubs an imposible to achive trade.


So what's our point? Well, probably lots. Ale, despite being something we are very passionate about, does not make us money, and for that matter does not for many other "pubs" either. Keeping the bar open all hours probably loses us money on the whole, although we do have some good days.



The costing illustration shown here is for an average, urban, wet led bar. Rural and remote bars have significantly higher costs verses revenue. We are expected to be open even when there are no customers. We are expected to give up staff time helping broken down motorists, we are expected to help out walkers who were daft enough to go on the fells without a map and compass and are unable to use either even if they had them, often having no money or other method of paying and many just use us as a toilet stop. All these groups of people expect free service but fail to realise that the service costs us money to provide it and without revenue the service will fail to be there forever.



"So get more people in by doing cheap bar food" Well we tried that and it doesn't work. Low priced, loss leader food, cost us too much. Moreover, we are happier doing the style of service we do. We are very happy to serve the drinker with a pint or more or even only a half pint of our lovely ale. Our food and accommodation are our core business and we are happy about that.



QVI VVLT PLACERE CVNCTIS NEMINI PLACET



If you must comment on a pub on the Internet then be sure you understand what the pub is trying to do. If the food was too fancy for your fast food desire or too mass produced for your discerning palate then remember it is probably what the premises management believes works for them. The public bars that will succeed, especially in these tricky times, are the ones that are a little bit different from the norm.

There is much talk at present about pubs and bars closing. Current estimate is about 2000 pubs are closing each year. The market is shrinking and therefore it is inevitable that pubs will close unless we change our overall national cultural attitude towards them. It is noticeable that many pubs are trying to fight this by opening longer hours, serving food for longer, having a bigger menu and putting on free entertainment or reducing prices. What this is actually doing is increasing costs and reducing revenue (doh!!). So the consumer gets a good deal for a while, but some of these places will close as a result.

We believe that the future of the British public bar is to narrow down style of service, opening times and ensure that the service that is provided is charged for at an appropriate rate. For this future to work the great British public needs to embrace this and move opinion into the positive, not negative.

Compliments and Critisisms

The Beer Festival seems to have been a very long time ago now. The rest of June has been it's usual quiet time. Last year we blamed the weather but this year has been a lot more "normal". One day we'll work out why it is ALWAYS quiet in June.

It's been nice though to have a few very pleasant customers. Many are very appreciative of what we do and leave comments in our visitors book - and some leave them here on the blog - all encouragement of what we do is a great boost to our morale especially when there are so many people think we should just do what everybody else does.

Anybody who follows the drinks industry will understand that it is an industry with great difficulties. The market for the standard pub offering is shrinking. The regular public bar model is seeing difficult times. Beer consumption is falling year on year, with the microbrewery sector being the only one that might be holding up. There is evidence from industry commentators that the "pub grub" market is also suffering as many customers are looking to "trade up" to restaurant style or "gastropub" operations. It has also been noted that there is a drop in the number of people looking to take on licenced properties....so be kind to your landlord - he's a dying breed.

We have long since stopped trying to compete with our neighbouring pubs in the same market. It is true that they are both excellent at what they do. We do something different. It is unfortunate that some people don't get it. See the quote below from the beer in the evening site. If you would like to visit this site and put a more balanced view then please feel free to do so.

http://www.beerintheevening.com Woolpack

"After an tiny and expensive meal in a huge empty dining room, I had a chat with the owner to find out what he was up to. He is completely deluded. He thinks you have to do fancy food to get people to travel further than the two (excellent) pubs a mile down the road in Boot. The thing is, nobody will travel any distance for the bizarre food he's offering (and cooking). He was too busy protesting about how wonderful his ideas are to listen to any feedback. What a waste of a fantastic location. Hopefully somebody competent will take it over soon. The one beer that was on was good though."

billpollard - 27 Jun 2008 00:11

Food, like people, need love. We put love and passion into our food. It is a little more expensive which reflects the efforts put into it and the careful sourcing of quality ingredients. We also love the people who love our food. You can be sure that we will always be quiet enough to give you all personal attention. But please don't be strangers, when we're too quiet, love don't pay the bills.

Hope to see you again soon.