Ready, steady

Dave has been in the kitchen all day. We've now got less than 24 hours before we open again after being closed for 2 months. Obviously there is plenty of prep to do. We're gunning for a short menu to start the year, 3-5-3 probably. No point in overdoing it, the end of January in a recession, it won't be busy.

Talking of the recession, there seems to be plenty of places tackling it with cut price deals. In our mind cutting price has to also mean cutting costs and therefore quality. We have been working to improve the quality in the 5 years we've been here, we really don't want to go backwards. We have held the prices on most of our rooms, but with increasing prices of supplied beer, malt, hops, electricity, insurance etc, we'll not be dropping the price of a pint any time soon, sorry.

Ann's been busy tiling the gents and putting the last touches to the rooms. The bar needed some tidying after all the work, but again Ann has done a good job there. There will still be some work going on in February, but at least we'll be open.

You might have seen Dave's blog about beery things. He's getting disturbingly geeky about the subject these days. Now that he's done Belgian beer research and Oregon beer research, he says there is more to quality beer than cask beer alone. So the stock has increased to include such things as Budvar Dark and Westmalle Dubbel on draft, which are actually quite nice, just don't tell Dave we agree with him. Also we'll have Orval and the full range of Chimay in bottles. The range might change during the year depending on demand.

Dave's pleased at the moment because he's managed to fill his first brewery experience event. He'll be able to waffle on at length about beer to a willing audience.

We hope we will get to see you sometime this year. Just remember that despite the credit crunch we'll be here offering pretty much the same as last year, perhaps just a little bit better. If you're worried about money then just remember, you deserve a treat, surely?

A new season approaches

The Snowdrops are out. Spring is nearly here - it must be time to reopen. We've been busy working on the property over the winter and are just about ready for customers. We will be open 30th and 31st January and would love to see some customers to prove it is worth opening.

We need to brew some beer now, which will happen soon, and of course there is the chance to experience brewing beer with Dave on the 10th and 11th of February.

We've increased the number of handpulls on the top bar. We have 10 now, although for much of the year we will not have that many on at one time. Look out here for our opening selection. Of course there is the beer festival, for which we only have a small amount of accommodation left.

We look forward to hearing from you soon, whether just dropping in for a pint or booking for our restaurant or accommodation.

Brewing experience

Next event 24th & 25th March, more planned - check here


Please email us if you would like to be informed of future events.

Some time ago we suggested running a brewery experience event for anybody interested in seeing how a microbrewery made beer. Well we've worked out what we're going to do.

Firstly, this is not a formal course. You will not be taught how to brew beer. You might pick up enough skills to be able to do so, especially if you have prior knowledge or reasonable tenacity. But we make no promises. It is a sampler experience only.

Here is the plan:

Dates: Tuesday 10th - Wednesday 11th February 2009.

Cost: Nothing for any customers staying in our accommodation on those dates. Costs for accommodation, food and beer as per normal Woolpack Inn prices. Note: discounts apply for 2 or more nights midweek.

Number of attendees: 4 maximum

Program: To some extent determinable by attendees. There are brewing schedules that need to be considered and so here's my outline.

Arrive Tuesday lunchtime. Check in to accommodation. Have lunch if required. Arrival time is variable as the first activity is largely boring.

Afternoon activity casking last weeks beer(1pm - 5pm): Cask wash, prepare cask finnings, cask, seal and label casks, store in cellar. Fill copper to heat liquor for brew day. Stillage, tap and vent beer and decide if we need to put a beer on for the evening.

Dinner if required 7-8pm

Evening activity, after dinner: Formulate beer recipe and drink beer

Wednesday - brew day. All times approximate.

8am - Put copper on to boil liquor
8-9am - Breakfast
9am - Weigh grist, add liquor treatment, transfer liquor for mash, mash in and refill copper with sparge liquor.
10am - Coffee break
10:30am - Transfer spare liquor into FV
11am - Sparge and put copper on to boil wort
12 noon - Dig out spent grain from mash tun.
Lunch if required
1pm - Sterilise fermentation vessel, second drop hops, copper finnings.
2pm - End of boil, start cool cycle.
O.G. test, liquor back calculation, start yeast culture and pitch yeast.
3pm - Clean copper and brewery floor

5pm - break, possibly drink beer.

7-8pm dinner

Evening activity - drink beer, ask questions, drink more beer, swap jokes, drink more beer, try and get Dave off his soap box, drink more beer.........

Thursday am - ow! my head, breakfast and check out.

Questions?

Do I have to do any work? - no, you will be our guest and this is for you to learn. Learning by doing is always best so you can join in as much or as little as you wish.

Who should attend? - anybody who wants to know how beer is made in a small brewery. You might be thinking of doing it yourself, or you might be interested in knowing how the beer you drink is made.

Is the brewing experience really free? - Well not quite, we do expect you to stay with us, and we'd like you to eat our food and drink our beer, or wine, or very nice single malt, for which we will charge our normal price. We will make no charge for taking part in the brewing experience.

How do I get to taste the beer we brew? - Ah, so you figured out you wouldn't be able to do that while you are here. The beer will take at least 2 weeks from brew day before it is ready. Sorry. You can come back to try it of course. We can probably bottle some samples for you to take away.

Can I get some on at my local free house when it's ready? - Don't be impatient, I was coming to that. Possibly, but we don't normally wholesale our beer to other pubs. The main obstacle here is transport of the finished beer and for us, just as important, is getting our valuable cask back. If this is important to you then we can discuss before you book.

Can we decide what beer to brew? - Largely yes, but Dave will have right of veto. Availability of ingredients are also a factor.

How do I book? - Ring +44 (0)19467 23230 or check out http://www.woolpack.co.uk/

Happy New Year

The morning of New Years day saw a fantastic sight. The haw frost on the trees was magical and the bright winter's sun shone though giving a fluorescent edge to the bare woody branches.

Dave and Ann actually managed what they would call a real holiday in December. It's nice to get to do this but the only way it can happen is for The Inn to shut for a while. There are some scathing people who would have us tied to the place 365 days a year, but they don't seem to be the ones in our regular customer base.

We've stripped out some of the residents lounge bar but have still to decide what exactly to do with it. Other essential work like improving the guttering, painting some windows and replacing the beer python will hopefully progress.

Dave has had this idea to run a "brewery experience" event for interested beer fanatics. It seems that there is a bit of interest in the idea, so if you are interested look out here for announcement of dates.

We are starting to get bookings for when we open again in February. If you have been trying to call and just got the answer phone then try again soon. We should be here now most of the time.

Looking back this blog seems to be nearly 1 year old. Since then Dave has also started his own beer blog and he's now gone and got himself membership of the British Guild of Beer Writers. Now he'll have to improve his writing skills. Along with Dave and Ann's work with CAMRA and a general crusade about the difficulties the whole of the pub industry is facing there is plenty for them to do.

But just look at these pictures - what a beautiful place Eskdale is!