Fancy a quickie??

And perhaps that's a good name for an ale.....but the title is just to say that this is a quick post.

We stumbled across a couple of blogs:

portman group crackdown
clarification on portman group nonsense

How on earth do they (Portman Group) think that the names of Real Ales are somehow going to corrupt people?

Not another brick in the wall

We burnt the jus that is used to finish the Pork Othello this week. The jus is made by reducing the juices from the very slow brazing of Country Cuts belly pork. However, there is reducing to a thick concentrate and reducing until there is no liquid at all. mmm.. we asked Country Cuts for some pork bones and voila, made a new stock that was used to make the new jus - fantastic.

It is interested though, talking to butchers, how much care now has to be taken over the waste from a butchers shop. Once over every part of the animal was used to make food. Nothing wasted. Now, with the various bureaucratic legislation surrounding food, it is staggering how difficult it is to do some authentic practices. All because of BSE, CJD, blue tongue, foot and mouth.....

The sad thing is that it was never the hill farmer, or small butchers shop, or the local abattoir, or good old fashioned baker or the traditional chef that caused this in the first place. Really the problem was caused by the large scale production of food to reduce prices. Now we ship live animals halfway across the country for slaughter and waste half of the animal so we need to do it twice as much. Plus, we probably all eat too much meat, promoted by the "go large" and "2 for the price of 1" marketing of the big multinationals.

In days gone by great armies of men built the many thousands of miles of dry stone wall in the Lake District. The farm kitchens produces home made bread, probably from grain farmed on the land and ground at the local mill.

Today the cost of labour for building drystone walls results in fences being used much more. Today, of course, it is not generally considered cost effective to make ones own bread.

The good news is of course that the value of human life today is significantly greater than 400 years ago. Most people would not thank you for a job building drystone walls in exchange for home baked bread - irrespective of how good the bread was.

But you can't beat home baked bread. It costs a whole lot more than the stuff in the supermarket, partly because of the increased value of human effort, but you can be assured that the price is worth it - if you are wise enough to see that value.

New brew
Today we were honored to have the Cumbrian CAMRA beer tasting panel visit us. They ended up with a selection of 9 ales to try, 6 of our own. 2 brand new which have yet to go on our bar. But look out for Pride of Eskdale at The Prince of Wales in Foxfield if you can't get to us. They have 72 pints, but Stuart won't let it go on sale till he's sure it's got enough condition.(1) The other is Saazy's Wiesse. A wheat beer.

Now you might think that a group of 9 people sat around a table with 1/9th of a pint of ale each and making comments about astringency and phenols and mouth feal (2) and writing it all down is a bit anoraky. But this is the start of the road to getting an ale represented at the Great British Bear Festival (GBBF) and so into the competition for champion beer of Britain.

But more importantly, it is the enthusiasm of these volunteers(3) that keep the market for real ale going and protect us from the bland, mass produced (and cheap) products of the big producers.

The reason mass producers have been able to make things so cheap is the relatively low cost of fuel. Maybe, because fuel is going to be come more expensive to get out of the ground, we will find mass production and transportation less viable, and us, non-wall-bricks do better. Perhaps Pink Floyd new more than we thought.

(1)The result of secondary fermentation.
(2)Now your imagination is just too much...
(3)Yes it's true. You really can volunteer to taste beer. Just contact your local CAMRA branch.

Craft Ale

This morning Google Alerts sent this:

The deluge of fake craft is upon us

There is much information on the link, so there's no point in repeating information here.

The synopsis is that Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Budweiser, are now launching a beer on the American market that is to compete with the "Craft Ales" that are brewed in USA.

This is the same as Liebfraumilch is to the wine industry, Magners to real cider and John (spit) Smiths is to Real Ale.

But one of the most worrying things is the fact that they are going to be using one of Dave's favorite hops - Cascade. Watch now - As Anheuser-Busch buy up all the Cascade hops they will go up in price - or become unobtainable which in turn will result in other hops going up in price as brewers seek alternatives.

The good news here is - even this, possibly the worlds biggest brewery conglomerate, is running scared trying to catch up with the resurgence of "Craft Brewed" ale worldwide. But they miss the point. Craft Ale is good because it is brewed by people who care - small brewers like us.

Awards

Yesterday we claimed not to be a pub, well we need to eat our words a little today. We've just had confirmed that we have won the CAMRA branch Pub Of The Season (POTS) - that's on top of finding out we are in the Good Beer Guide again. So if we keep claiming not to be a pub then maybe they will decide we can't have the POTS award - which would be a fair point. We might do some proper backpedaling later but for now let's dwell on the award and why we might have got it.

Dave and Ann are CAMRA members and try to help the branch when they can. Attending branch meetings, helping at the beer festival and passing material for inclusion in What Ales? for instance. Although that should have no effect on awards. If you disagree with awards then attend the meetings - unless you are not a member, in which case join TODAY!

The beverage ethos here complies as much as possible with the CAMRA ethos and despite our complaints about ale not making the Inn any money, it still makes up over 85% of our draft sales (1). There are not many pubs that can claim that. We brew our own ale, not to make money out of it but because we believe part of the future of pubs and real ale is to increase the number of brew pubs (2). All of our real ale is guaranteed to be sold in full measures. Even 1/2 pints are line marked. We hope these are the reasons we have won the POTS award.
Despite the profitable section of the business being the letting rooms and the restaurant, we still encourage casual drinkers. Indeed, as we often point out, we view the public bar as being subsidised very much by the other sections of the business. We do regularly come under criticism for not doing what a pub apparently should. We have found there are certain pub services that we feel conflict with our main trade.
We are keeping the public bar free from the pressures some pubs find when they have to alienate the drinker in favour of food service. A real ale drinker is not a second rate customer in our real ale bar. Watching the industry commentators the "Gastro Pub" style operation is slated for not providing for the drinkers. This is an increasing problem in some pubs. We simplify this by saying our main food trade is delivered in our restaurant and the public bar is then available as a bar whenever we are open.
So why did we say yesterday that we are not a pub? Well on a nice day like today, seeing the number of people that have enjoyed ale and food in our beer garden, it's a good question. When the weather is good it can work. The combination of our location and weather results in many day's having insufficient bar money taken to even justify having the lights and heating let alone paying somebody to look after the bar. So we plug away at it, let the rooms help support the bar and enjoy every customer who appreciates good Real Ale
(1) 85% Real Ale means only 15% over-chilled, fizzy stuff and we are working to grow the bias more to Real Ale. But these added together only represents 18% of our total sales and that does not look like it can get better.
(2)But more brewpubs and microbreweries will result in less volume of beer for the regionals and nationals and so some of those will close.

Recipe for Disaster

When Dave and Ann bought the Inn back in 2004 they were aware of the fact that the outgoing landlady was considering writing a book.

Ann and Dave have both read it. Despite the fact that it fits the genre of romantic comedy, Dave completed the book first. Mainly because the lead male, Jake, is a committed and enthusiastic chef, with qualities that Dave wishes he could find in himself.

As Miriam was at one time a journalist with a local paper, there was a worry that the journalist's, bad-news-makes-a good-read attitude, might paint a bad picture of our Inn. The reality was quite different and really draws on Miriam's experience of her part in running The Woolpack Inn. The story does not dwell on any real life events, but it is clear that experiences are used to make the story.

What gripped Dave most though was the portrayal of the reality of the tough work that can lie ahead for any aspiring chef running his own place. Although Dave has always been interested in beverages ever since his grandmother, much to his mothers disgust, gave Dave a taster of sherry at his christening. Dave's main passion has always been food (after Ann, and climbing and music of course). His current enthusiasm for real ale and brewing came later.

The struggle Jake endures trying to make a living from his obvious talent and obsession was a real morale boost to Dave. It is felt that the book gives strong parallels to the reality of this business. If you have ever wondered what it is like to run a business where the food you offer becomes the dominant shaping factor of the establishment, then read this book.

As a related comment. Many people see us as a pub. We simply are not. To be a pub it would be argued that the majority of the revenue supporting the property has to come from casual eating and drinking. Irrespective of what style we have tried here, the casual trade and specifically that from ale has remained a surprisingly small part of the turnover - yes, despite the prices we charge.

We run the public bar because we like to and because we think it is the right thing to do. If we were sensible business people we would have closed the public bar long ago. Eskdale is very well adorned with pubs and has at least one too many. You might not think that when you visit on a sunny bank holiday, but just visit on a wet Tuesday in January and see the difference. With all this in mind we reserve the right to run the public bar the way we want to do it. That will always include a consideration for real ale and CAMRA ideals.

With the effort put into our food, and the drivers behind it, and the fact that this place will never make money as a pub, we now offer the food we are happy with and at a price that in commensurate with the man hours and overheads entailed.

Hardknott Passes public poll

Hardknott pass has been voted amongst the top 7 "Wonders of Britain" beating The Houses of Parliament and The Angel of the North. The Poll was conducted on line to find Must-See List For 'Road Trippers. Loch Ness' Urquhart Castle has claimed top spot in a national poll to find the ‘Seven Wonders of Britain'. The remote wonder beat off more familiar sights including Windsor Castle and was a staggering 41% above seventh place Houses of Parliament.

Our own Hardknott pass with it's 1:3 hairpin bends and Roman fort came 5th overall in the survey. The fort is probably one of the remotest outposts that the Romans built in England. It's a worthy visit in it's own right with no entrance fee it's worth every penny you pay. It lies about 100 metres off the road. Drive up or down the Eskdale side of the pass and stop around halfway where the road levels a little. A small amount of parking is available next to the road.

This picture includes Hardknott Fort and it can be seen just to the left of the road. You might need to click on the picture to download the higher resolution version to be able to see it.

Along with finding out about the RAC poll yesterday we also got a visit from one of the CAMRA branch members delivering an envelope. In it was the letter of congratulations and stickers for our entry into the Good Beer Guide. 3rd year running.

We hope to have more news on this in a future post. Meanwhile, we'd like to thank the CAMRA branch for all thier work supporting and encouraging real ale pubs and breweries. Without CAMRA we would all be serving dead, tasteless, over-chilled, over-fizzy liquid in the name of beer.
A closer view of the top and most troublesome hairpin bend. It is almost imposable to do the road justice by camera. It really can be a problem to drivers unused to this type of road. The biggest problem for drivers who are used to this type of road are the drivers who are not. Because for us this road is Hardknott.

It's a long drive over this pass from Ambleside. But if you do make it all the way there is our little place about a mile from the bottom of the Eskdale side.

Please note our little Inn cannot be supported if toilets are used by people who do not spend any money with us. If you need a loo stop, please at least buy a coffee as well. The staff who clean the toilets need to be paid. The company that empty the sceptic tank don't do it for free (after all - would you?)

Also note that we are regularly asked to help stranded motorists who have worn out clutches, punctured both nearside tyres on rocks, overheated or otherwise rendered their vehicle un-drivable. We will try to help if we can, but mobile phones don't work here, BT don't maintain the phone network out here very well and so yes, the freephone number to the AA is not free here.

We do hope you visit us over the pass. Please take care with your driving, be considerate to other drivers (vehicles coming up have priority, always) and don't leave litter by the road.

Reasons for Real Ale

BeerManWalking mailed me yesterday after he found a nice article from his archives. It gives detailed reasons for drinking real ale. It is written by a guy called Charles Foster who is a writer, traveller and barrister - and presumably real ale drinker. He also has mention on his web site about folk music so sounds like an ideal Woolpack regular - pity he's in London....

Anyway - his copyrighted article which he has kindly allowed to be reproduced is here
10 reasons to drink real ale

His website is also interesting and is here
http://charlesfoster.co.uk/

The arguments are very well put in an eloquent and detailed way. Unfortunately this results in anybody who understands it probably already having the sophistication to know what it's saying. Anybody who needs convincing probably wouldn't have the intellect to be bothered to read it.

However, it does encapsulate many things that are unique about The Woolpack Inn that goes much further than the simple Real Ale concept.

"Those who have not heard cannot be damned. Of those who have heard and drunk, there are no decent people who go back to the ways of keg and lager."