Adam Croft

This Tuesday sees the start of a brand new TV series highlighting the decline of the British pub industry whilst attempting to revive five failing pubs. I was fortunate to be able to interview the programme’s presenter, Jay Smith, himself a successful pub landlord.

What made you want to get involved with this new TV series?
Community pubs have always been the backbone of life in our towns and villages, a place for neighbours to meet properly, friendships to be made and community spirit to be nurtured and grown, with the sad demise of this British institution we risk losing this cornerstone of our heritage forever, once it’s gone we will never get it back. It’s time for action and I was fortunate enough to be given an opportunity to make a difference.

What were your general observations regarding the landlords and landladies involved in your programme?
In many of the programmes the pubs were already closed and the landlord long gone, in the instances they were still around there almost always seemed to have been a huge breakdown in the relationship between the pub and it’s local punters, once this bond is broken in a small community closure soon follows.

To what do you personally attribute the decline of the British pub industry?
There are clearly many factors and it is all too easy to start pointing the finger at one thing or another: Competition from cheaper city centre venues, the smoking ban, supermarket deals, have all had a huge impact but it is also fair to say that many of the Pubs visited in the making of the show simply offered far too little in return for customers hard earned cash; communication was often poor, food below par, service standards behind the bar were often dated and fell a long way short of peoples expectations.

Do you think the UK pub industry will ever get back to what it was?
No. We will clearly never return to times where we had villages with multiple pubs, there simply isn’t the demand. What is absolutely vital is that we stop the trend of the last local closing, this is simply unacceptable and communities need to act. Lodging objections to planning applications has become more and more visible in these communities and hopefully after seeing Save Our Boozer the next step will be for locals to take on their pub and give it new life for the long term.

With general pub sales and lager revenues down and real ale sales increasing, what role do you see traditional British ales playing in the future of the pub industry?
Without the explosion of micro brewers and general consumer awareness of the fantastic real ales being produced around the country the Pub industry would undoubtedly be in even more trouble than it is already. Whilst it would be unwise for the industry to pin all of it’s hopes on real ale it is a very clear sign that consumers expect choice, quality and professionally cared for products when going to the pub.

Your trials and tribulations in the pub industry are fairly well documented. What aspects did you find were key to turning your career around and becoming a successful and profitable landlord?
Customer focus and cost control. If you are losing customers you are missing the point of what they want, if you carve a niche and excel at serving both regulars and new customers you will start to see the shoots of recovery. Couple this with exceptional cost control and complete dedication to making your pub or bar better than your nearest competitor and you are on the right track. In my case I had to get rid of almost all staff, change many suppliers for better deals and scrap any plans I had for time off for a few years!

After your involvement with the series and the five sets of pub landlords, what do you think is the secret to saving the great British pub?
Community. Without their support the local boozer is doomed, if they don’t have the time to help out they can do their bit by buying a pint or two instead of that six pack from the shop! The areas I visited where the pub was already shut realised this without hesitation but sadly there were areas where locals were still convinced someone would just turn up and open a great pub just for them and all would be well in the world again…

Many thanks to Jay for providing us with an extra insight into the programme. Save Our Boozer is on Blighty from Tuesday 8th December at 8pm.

First things first: Please forgive the poor quality of images in this post. I seem to have mislaid the memory card for my camera so I’ve had to take all the pictures on my iPhone.

I like to throw myself in at the deep end, so my first beer review on the blog is of a beer that I suspect most of you won’t have heard of. Concrete Cow Brewery are based in nearby Milton Keynes and their beer range, although fairly small, is of a consistently high quality.

I was fortunate enough to take a tour of the brewery earlier this year, where I met Concrete Cow’s owner and head brewer, Dan Bonner. Dan left his high-paying accountancy job to start the brewery in August 2007 with his only experience being, in his own words, ‘one or two disastrous homebrews twenty-odd years ago’. It really doesn’t show, though. I was amazed at the quality of the beers Dan brews at the brewery and have been a big fan of his beers ever since. I haven’t, however, ever had one of his bottle conditioned ales. This is a first for you and me both.

The bottle is simple, yet catchy, and sits nicely in theme with the rest of Concrete Cow’s BCA labels. The label describes the tale behind the Fenny Popper, stating: ‘Since about 1770 the six small ceremonial cast iron cannons known as the Fenny Poppers have been fired each St. Martin’s Day and on other national occasions at Fenny Stratford, Milton Keynes. A new set were cast in 1859 after one of the originals exploded causing a fire… almost destroying a nearby pub.

Right, on to the beer.

The brew comes in at 4.0% ABV and the aroma direct from the bottle is a distinctively bitter hop one. The condition of the beer is slightly cloudy, despite having settled for a day and a half, but I suspect I may have chilled it slightly below the recommended temperature, so I’ll call that one my fault. Aroma from the glass is even hoppier and fuller than that from the bottle with the hops also very evident in mouthfeel. Even without physically tasting the beer, the hops are definitely very prominent.

Immediate taste, surprisingly, has the hops subsiding and letting the rest of the flavours through. There’s a distinctive citrus note that comes through, which then merges into more of a grapefruit touch. Grapefruit? I know where this is going… Yep – the hops are back and in full force as the finish gives us a long, lingering bitterness. The experience reminds me very much of one of my favourite light ales – Dark Star American Pale – and that’s a good thing to say the least. As the aftertaste subsides my mouth is left dry but certainly not in any negative way. It leaves me wanting more, more, more.

The really exciting thing, for me, is that one of you lucky Beer Swap participants is going to be the lucky recipient of a bottle of Fenny Popper as I’ve selected it as one of my beers. I’m not allowed to say who the fortunate recipient is, but he or she is a very lucky man or woman indeed!

As I tend to participate quite heavily in the beer/real ale community on Twitter, I was recently made aware of an excellent new idea: Beer Swap.

Essentially, each participant in the Beer Swap scheme sends their name and address to the organisers (Andy Mogg – @chilliupnorth and Mark Dredge – @markdredge) who then assign each beer swapper a partner. The idea is that the participants then select four local and interesting beers to send to their swap partner. The result is that we all get to try a range of new bottled beers which we otherwise may not have been able to have done.

I think I’m going to use Chiltern Brewery (Aylesbury), Tring (Tring), and Concrete Cow (Milton Keynes) as my local beers. With a bit of luck I may even be able to get some bottles from Banks & Taylor (Shefford) or White Park (Cranfield).

Overall, it promises to be an excellent scheme and I look forward to receiving my first Beer Swap package! If you’re interested in participating, you need to read the instructions and apply before 6pm today, Monday 26th October. Good luck!

I noticed an article on the BBC News website earlier today detailing the release of a new 1.1% ale created by the BrewDog brewery in response to their controversial 18.2% Tokyo* brew. My initial reaction was much along the lines of ‘good on them’, but all is not as it seems when one reads between the lines.

The new beer has been named, rather unimaginatively and immaturely, ‘Nanny State’. Now, BrewDog are well known for their balshy, unsubtle, in-your-face, beer names. The brewery has previously been in hot water over their naming of their Speedball brew (‘speedballing’ is the name given to the practice of combining heroin and cocaine) . This continued outlook is irresponsible and paints BrewDog in a very bad light. In my opinion, they’d be far better off engaging in a professional PR campaign rather than trying to gain headlines by being ‘edgy’ and ‘unique’. Quite simply, boys, you look ridiculous. Not only are you giving yourselves a bad name, but you’re giving beer a bad name.

BrewDog have already attempted to wind up the rest of the beer industry by referring to real ale as ‘stuffy’, declaring that their childishly-named Hardcore IPA is aimed at ‘freaks, gypsies…’, and stating that their aims are ‘breaking rules, taking risks, upsetting trends, unsettling institutions’. These are all taken straight from their website.

It’s no secret that this sort of publicity seems to be working for BrewDog, who claim to be Scotland’s largest independent brewery. Does that, however, make it right? There’s an old adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity but I must say I disagree. It seems that BrewDog don’t have the brewing ability, knowledge or experience to make half decent beers so they instead opt for the boring, tired strategy of being ‘different’. Whatever happened to being ‘good’? Brewing the UK’s strongest ever beer, giving your brews childish, controversial names and courting media attention in this way is not professional and does not give a good image at all.

Of course, BrewDog are unlikely to care, seeing as they’re ‘punk’ and ‘cool’. It’s a shame beer isn’t. Promoting class A drugs, misogyny, and super-strength alcohol at young people is not responsible, is not clever, and just isn’t cricket. Wrong industry, lads.

Just a quick heads up: I’m going to be speaking live on KCC Live 99.8FM in Liverpool tomorrow evening sometime between 5:30-6:15pm. I’ll be speaking about real ale and young people and the growing trend in ale consumption amongst young people. You can listen online, apparently, so do so!

Bugger me, it’s Tony Hadley. Was browsing through YouTube earlier watching a few beer reviews and clips from CAMRA festivals and came across a clip of Tony Hadley talking about his love for real ale.

Behold:

South Beds CAMRA have organised a social trip to Tring and Aylesbury on Saturday 11th July. Non-branch members and, of course, non-CAMRA members are invited to attend. As such, here’s the itinerary for the day. Explorer day passes cost £10 between four people, so that’s just £2.50 for a day’s travel.

Bus details are in italics and pub stops are in bold.

11:02 – 61 – Departs Dunstable (West Street)
11:42 – 61 – Arrives Tring (High Street)
11:45 – Tring Brewery (81 Akeman Street, HP23 6AF, 01442 890721)
13:10 – Kings Arms (King Street, HP23 6BE, 0871 917 0007) - LUNCH
14:42 – 61 – Departs Tring (High Street) [or 14:22 - 500]
15:02 – 61 – Arrives Aylesbury Bus Station (Kingsbury Square) [or 14:42 - 500]

1. Hop Pole (83 Bicester Road, HP19 9AZ, 01296 482129)
2. Harrow (4 Cambridge Street, HP20 1RS, 01296 336243)
3. Rockwoods (32 Kingsbury Square, HP20 2JE, 0871 917 0007)
4. Hobgoblin (14 Kingsbury Square, HP20 2HT, 0871 917 0007)
5. Queens Head (1-5 Temple Square, HP20 2QA, 01296 415484)
6. Kings Head (King’s Head Passage, Market Square, HP20 2RW, 01296 381501) – Arrive 16:45

17:15 – 61 – Departs Aylesbury Bus Station
17:47 – 61 – Arrives Marsworth

1. Red Lion (Vicarage Road, Marsworth, HP23 4LU, 0871 917 0007)
2. Anglers Retreat (Startops End, Marsworth, HP23 4LJ. 01442 822 250)

20:04 – Bus departs Marsworth (Vicarage Road)
20:31 – Bus arrives Dunstable (West Street) [or 21:43]

Another excellent beer-filled weekend. On Saturday, Jo and I visited the inaugural Harpenden Beer Festival. The festival proved to be extremely popular throughout the weekend with a fantastic array of beers kept in fine condition. Jo, who has recently started drinking bitter shandies after years of protesting a dislike of beer, did me proud and ordered a couple of halves of ale entirely off her own back. Between you and me, internetters, I think she’s starting to like it…

We finally got round to adding Jo to my CAMRA membership (at a cost of £5 a year, saving £3 entry to each beer festival plus the various other benefits) and she was given beer vouchers to the value of £5 to be used at the foreign beer bar. Daunted and unsure what to order (and I’m not much help with Belgian beers, either) she plumped for a Brasserie Cantillon Kriek – a Lambic beer – due to my looser-than-I-thought translation of ‘kriek’ as ‘cherry’. Meanwhile, I played it safe by ordering a Aecht Schlenkerla Märzen Rauchbier – a type of German smoked beer which I tend to plump for when I’m in Germany. Wendy, who was running the bar, very kindly offered to replace it with a sweeter beer if Jo wasn’t keen on the tartness of Lambic beers. Surprisingly, she did like it, so Wendy bought her another one anyway! Many thanks to Wendy for her generosity and time in speaking with us and sharing her vast knowledge of foreign beers.

Highlights of the festival, for me, have to be the Great Oakley Wagtail – always a firm favourite of mine – and the Buntingford Polar Star – again, not a new beer on me but in fantastic condition at the festival and most refreshing in the heatwave!

On Sunday, we visited Jo’s nan and came back via The Three Hammers in Chiswell Green, which we’d had recommended for good food and beer. Unfortunately, there was an hour’s wait for food and we had to be at Ampthill before long, so we had a quick half of Golden Sheep before heading off on our way.

This week’s Thursday social for South Beds CAMRA is in Slip End. We’ll be starting at the Frog & Rhubarb at 8:30pm before heading on to the Rising Sun. Please do join us if you’re in the area.

Just a quick update (before I pop down the pub!). I received an email from Andrea Briers, the CAMRA Regional Director for East Anglia, confirming my position as the new Regional Young Members’ Coordinator. Very excited — going to have to do a lot of research over the weekend which is already filled with family visits and beer festivals!

As my girlfriend has just completed her university degree, we decided to take a few days away in order to relax and unwind. We decided to visit the Peak District — a part of the country we’ve always wanted to see. Of course, it would give me the chance to sample some more beers, too!

Castleton scenery

We opted to stay in Castleton, in the Hope Valley. The area is beautiful and the scenery is absolutely stunning. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and explored the village before heading off for a meal and a few drinks. On Friday morning, we decided to climb Mam Tor, the mountain overlooking Castleton and the Hope Valley. It was never going to be easy work considering the fact that I’ve only ever been at the summit of one mountain and I got to the top of that in a lift. This, coupled with the fact that we somehow managed to completely lose the intended tourist trail and end up scaling the bloody thing on our own, meant that this was going to be quite some walk. I had my very own Bear Grylls moment when I tried to cross a peat bog and got my leg sucked in whilst my girlfriend frantically yanked me back out.

Once we’d reached the top of Mam Tor, we came back down the other side into the village of Edale (after taking the wrong path back down the mountain and ending up about a mile and a half outside Edale when we reached the road again).  Having already walked approximately eight miles by now, we stopped at The Rambler Inn for a bite to eat and some liquid refreshment. Having already visited each of the pubs in Castleton the previous day, I was overjoyed to reach The Rambler Inn and find that the beers were served without sparklers! Get in! Two pints later, we hopped on the train one stop further east to Hope. Here, we visited the Old Hall Inn. The only thing they served which even resembled beer was Wadworth 6X. Even this was in extremely poor condition and tasted like the lines hadn’t been cleaned for days. With their only other customer propping up the bar with empty Foster’s glasses, we assumed real ale was not exactly their forté. Our new lager-swilling friend told us in no uncertain terms that the Old Hall Inn was the best pub in the village and that the Cheshire Cheese Inn (not to be confused with the one in Castleton) was ‘not a proper pub’ and ‘not what it used to be’. Assuming that this meant it had real ales, friendly customers and bar staff who smiled, we made the (relatively!) short walk up Edale Road and found the Cheshire Cheese to be a delightful traditional pub serving good beer and offering a friendly service. The pub was also populated, which was in stark contrast to the Old Hall Inn. Perhaps the landlord of the Old Hall Inn should take note — there’s a recipe for success in every other pub in the Hope Valley and you’re wonderin’ why yours ain’t workin’.

The Rambler Inn in Edale - Fantastic pub

The pubs in Castleton itself were all of a high standard. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Inn (again, not to be confused with the one in Hope!) is a delightful period building with oak beams and a very traditional outfit. The beers are all superb and the bar staff are very friendly. On reaching the pub on Saturday night to discover Kelham Island Pale Rider on tap, I let out an involuntary ‘YES!’ complete with full-on air-punching. The barman, without skipping a beat, delighted in telling me it had just run out. Fortunately, he was joking.

On walking up Castle Street, I stopped dead in my tracks. We’d come all this way from south Bedfordshire to north Derbyshire and what had we found? A bloody Charlie Wells pub!! The George, nestled beautifully opposite the church, is apparently Charles Wells’ most northerly situated pub — by quite some way. The barman, Chris, who looks fantastically like Russell Brand (but thankfully is a nice bloke and nowhere near as irritating) told us that the landlord, Richard, had had to plea quite heavily with Charles Wells to sell a guest ale. Charles Wells, realising what a gem they had in The George, thankfully agreed. The guest beer that night was Sharp’s Honey Spice–a wheat bear infused with honey. It was certainly very interesting, and surprisingly nice. It was, however, served through a sparkler. Chris, the barman, told us that the landlord won’t actually allow the beer to be served without sparklers as the bar staff had attended training courses on how to serve beer with sparklers and he didn’t want the quality to be compromised. Fair enough, but the beauty of serving beer without a sparkler is that you really can’t go wrong! It’s pure, unadulterated liquid in a glass. No milky appearance, no froth, and with full flavour retention.

A few doors down from The George is The Castle. This is often busy as it’s right opposite the main car park in the village, so gets a lot of tourists stopping off for their first drink. The beer was serviceable (on the one day that they had a decent guest from a micro and not just the usual selection of Timmy Taylor Landlord, Wadworth 6X, Mansfield Original, Bass and Pedigree. The food, however, was abysmal. This is probably the weakest pub in Castleton by some way.

More scenery around Castleton

Opposite The Castle is The Bull’s Head. Although the beer range was limited to two regular premium ales by Robinsons (Double Hop and Unicorn Bitter), the condition was fine. The real gem, however, was the food. This was probably the best pub meal I’ve had in a long, long time. If you’re looking for a fantastic meal and don’t mind drinking Robinsons, head for The Bull’s Head. The best pint of the holiday was enjoyed at Ye Olde Nags Head, just across the road from The Bull’s Head — a superb pint of Saltaire Blonde. I say ‘pint’, but I did have more than one! The pub was undergoing a refit whilst we were there, but there was no interruption to service at all. The barmaid, although confused, did agree to remove the sparkler for my second pint so I could compare the two side by side. Having done so, I can categorically state that sparklers do greatly affect the state of real ale – for the worse. Many thanks to the staff at the Nags Head for letting me test this and for serving some fantastic beer.

Last  but not quite least (although it’s a close one) is The Peaks Inn, a couple of doors up from the Cheshire Cheese. They claim to have ‘lavished’ £360,000 on the pub recently, but it’s hard to see how. The interior feels cold and unfriendly, the beer was relatively poor, and the food was pretty dire. My girlfriend ordered a medium steak, only to be greeted by two extremely thin steak slices, stuck together, and cooked to within an inch of their lives.

One thing that surprised me in the Peak District was the sheer number of people opting to drink real ale over lager. Purely through observation, I’d say it was probably 70-75%. It’s not just a local thing, either — the numbers didn’t seem to dwindle when singling out tourists. Most pubs do, unfortunately, use tight sparklers and swan neck pumps. The resulting beer is so frothy that the pints had to be pulled very slowly and were left to stand for a Guinness-style length of time to settle before they could be topped up.

All in all, it was a fantastic holiday and we’ll certainly be back in the area before long to do it all over again.