Monthly Archives: January 2016

Whitelock’s – Is this the beginning of the end for one of Leeds’ oldest pubs?

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Generally, I’m in favour of progress, improvements, making things better. That goes for pubs and bars, as well as anything else. Having said that, I’m also a bit of a traditionalist, with the over riding caveat of all things in moderation.

The latest news about one of Leeds’ oldest public houses has got me seriously worried though. On Saturday 30th January the renowned Whitelock’s (est. 1715) is set to fully open a Cocktail, Spirit and Craft beer bar in the old function room. From what I can gather the unused top part of the pub has been redesigned as ‘The Turks Head bar’, nomenclature borrowed from the 300 year old pub’s original name and location in Turks Head Yard.

I guess now some will be saying, ‘What a hypocrite. He’s always going on about how good these new bars are!’

My retort to this would be that I’m still a big fan of traditional, well kept boozers. There’s a place for many different styles and although the pub/bar environment is changing, I don’t think that the two mix. Yeah, transform some redundant loft style space into a bar, put some decent products on and it works. I’m a bit sceptical about trying to jump on the band wagon and create something new out of an existing traditional architectural and cultural gem.

I wonder what Sir John Betjeman would have thought? The 1968 documentary A poet goes North showcases the pub (about 12 minutes in) and although it has had it’s ups and downs, and is no longer the traditional ‘dining rooms’ that it was, it still retains much of the charm that Betjeman hits on. I was last in a couple of weeks before Christmas and they had a good range of real ales on, something to suit the traditional bitter drinker, as well as several more hop forward styles. Probably something to do with the current owner being Ed Mason of Five Points brewing.

I guess that time will tell, but I’m seriously worried that Mr Mason is going a little too far and that the old and modern won’t gel? There’s no doubt they are trying hard as Lord Whitney ‘Connoisseurs of Make Believe’ are the designers of the new bar. Their tag line and web site says it all for me; trendy, quirky and cool. All really good, but not what Whitelock’s needs.

Gut feeling? I’m up for a Five Points brewing flag ship in Leeds and looking at the current city centre scene it will succeed as licensed premises, but for me it sounds like the beginning of the end for what Betjeman, and many others prized.

Key Kegs – a Leeds CAMRA viewpoint???

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fest_logoIf you’ve ever visited The Grove Inn, Back Row, Leeds 11, you’ll know the inner sanctum, the little room opposite the corridor bar, is quite a cosy intimate space, totally unsuited to accommodating fourteen grown adults all at the same time. Because of this it took me a good five minutes to discern the source of the voice in the corner that kept shouting, ‘None!’ Every time mention was made of the number of key keg ales there should be at Leeds Beer Festival .

It sort of appeared to be coming from the direction of a Wychwood Hobgoblin t-shirt. Anyway, by the time I made eye contact with him, his chant had increased slightly to, ‘One, we’ll just have one!’

Now, I don’t know if he was laughing at his own belligerence, or the fact that I had just volunteered to supervise the set up and training of volunteer bar staff in the dispense and management of key keg products at the forthcoming Leeds CAMRA  Beer Festival (17th to 19th March). I’ve seen key kegs at other festivals and it can’t be that difficult can it? Certainly not as difficult as the negotiation between the Leeds Beer Festival organising team on the number of key keg beers. There was even an insistence that the 30L kegs shouldn’t be allowed unless they could be converted into Imperial measures! I’ve never seen as many stereotypical parodies of beer lovers all sat in one place at the same time and they were loving it. I even got bollocked before the meeting started about my semi-heretical views on ACV’s by some chavver with a beard that would have out done Gandalf and Saruman put together. Anyway, end result, there will be about 12 – 14 key keg, real ales, in accordance with  CAMRA’s motion on the issue, along with the 150 other real ales on offer.

At times you wondered whether anything was going to get done and how many times you could go round in circles in such a tightly packed little room. Some really important things did come out though, stuff like making sure the volunteer staff on the cider bar know that quite a lot of the traditional ciders are meant to be cloudy.

It soon became very obvious, despite other important concerns, like the length of the bar, where the Tombola was going to be situated and the colour of the t-shirts, there was a real passion and dedication towards putting on what is one of the biggest real ale festivals in the country. Remember, these people are all volunteers, committed to putting on a showcase event for CAMRA members and the responsible drinking public at large, so come along and support them. I’ve stuck the promotional poster on as large as I can for your own benefit and wider circulation.

Funniest bit? ‘Any specific requests for the Global and bottled beer bar?’

Reply? ‘Weirdbeard!’ Now you’ll never guess where that shout came from?

Please note, no CAMRA members have been harmed by the writing of this article and any piss taking, or artistic licence has been agreed upon and is entirely for the benefit of self publicity. All names and identities have been withheld to protect the innocent, apart from the guy with the beard. Just make sure you get the date into your diary now.

 

Leeds Beer Festival 2016 A4 POSTER (with bleed)

 

Sam Smith’s latest – fact or fiction?

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I heard something last night that if true is absolutely unbelievable. Unfortunately, despite several phone calls I am unable to confirm the accuracy of the rumours currently going around the Tadcaster community that Sam Smith’s boss Mr Humphrey Smith was recently caught trying to sneak across the Tadcaster bridge, which following the boxing day flooding is now seriously unsafe and closed to the public.

Personally, despite hearing it from several independent sources, I’m not entirely convinced of the voracity of reports that the millionaire, having evaded the protective fence, was caught by security guards sneaking across the semi collapsed structure under cover of darkness.

Surely, after having denied the community the opportunity to site a temporary footbridge on brewery land, no one would be so hypocritical as to do such a thing? Having said that, it is a big inconvenience having to walk across the old viaduct, it must be a three quarter of a mile walk, just to cover what was a 50yds dash before the bridge broke and Humphrey does live on the opposite side of the river to his brewery. Seriously though, no one would be daft enough to try it, a large part of the roadway is just holding itself up, hanging unsupported in mid air, and people do tell me that lumps of bridge continue to drop into the water.

It remains to be seen whether this is fact or fiction, but if it’s the latter it’s an indictment of how reviled Humphrey has become by his local community. Indeed, Perry Austin-Clarke, editor of The York Press made his views known in an open letter to Mr Smith. The national press are also getting on his case now, Robert Hardman of the Daily Mail publishing a very comprehensive article, citing the full debacle of Tadcaster bridge and the meddling of Sam Smith’s brewery head, the eponymous Humphrey.

Even independent pubs who stocked his beers are turning against him. The York Press reporting that the Stone Trough at Kirkham Priory are boycotting Sam’s products in protest at the brewery’s stance against the siting of the temporary footbridge.

On a positive note, some brewer’s seem to be doing their best to aid the victims of the flooding across the North of England. Although I wouldn’t go far out of my way to visit a boozer with a Theakstons sign outside, I have to say ‘fair play’ to the Masham, North Yorks. brewer on their latest initiative. For every pint of of Noah’s ark sold Theakstons are to donate 10p to the victims of flooding across Yorks. Lancs. Cumbria and NE Scotland, the proceeds being channelled through the Prince’s trust. The beer is described as a 4.3 per cent ABV, amber, full-bodied bitter in the classic pale ale style with a pronounced citrus taste and aroma, it will become available in selected pubs and clubs from mid January. You can read a more comprehensive report on The Wetherby News  web site, which is where I saw it. Surprisingly, there’s nothing about it on Theakstons own, nor on the Prince’s trust web site.

Have you heard which brewery’s going to sell out next?

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Over the last several months I’ve followed with interest all the brouhaha about first Meantime then Camden town brewery and not forgetting a couple of larger American independents ‘selling out’ to, well, mega corporations really. I read an excellent article by Jules Gray on her blog site thenoisethatwemade which likened the ‘craft beer’ scene to the punk and post punk music scene. If I’m honest it struck a few chords with me, being of an age when punk first came on the scene and having experienced many other emergent genres in both music and fashion. I’ll openly admit that I embraced many of these sub-cultures and my sizeable multi media collection of recorded music, along with my wardrobe is a pretty eclectic collaboration. Even if you know me you’ll probably never guess what I will turn up looking like, although a fair bet is that a hat will be included.

I guess what I’m saying is that I’ve always had a go at most things and over the years I’ve taken bit from everywhere. I’ve never really been concerned about being part of an underground sub culture, although I’ve known many who have. We’ve all met them, talking about the latest bands, as if we should all have heard about them and got their latest recording, even though they talk about them soto voce and refuse to provide anymore information on where the band are playing next or which record shop is stocking their limited edition, independent album. I’ve never really got that, but the analogies Jules Gray makes are so true.

I can appreciate most drinks, some I like and stay with, others I just forget. What I won’t do is become all pretentious about it, just blindly following the latest fad just to say I know this beer that you’ve never heard of. You know, we’ve all heard them … ‘you should have been here last week.’ No, not me, I can appreciate the new, the old, the popular, the  forgotten and hopefully, those that have yet to come.

So on that basis I don’t really get what all the fuss about selling out is about, especially when a cheque comes through the post earlier this week for 68% more than I put into Camden town brewery crowdfunding scheme, yeah a cool £68 for every £100 invested. Now I think that’s a decent bit of business on my part and if all my financial interests turn out like this I will be both rich and happy. If I’m honest I didn’t even think Camden were anything special. Okay the pale ale was decent and you can get it in on draught (keg) in the outer environs of Leeds, sort of a lager with a taste, my missus loves it, but there’s much better out there – ales not the missus.

I reckon some will now be turning their noses up at my capitalist morals, but we’ve all got to live and you need money for that, that’s what people go into business for and no one can blame them when they sell out. You know, to provide a solid future for their family and all that. Lets be honest, if it were you or me we wouldn’t give a flying whatever for what a hand full of craft beer aficionados think – would we? All I need now is for Mssrs. Watt and Dickie to do the same. Oh and if you know of any other breweries who might be worth backing please let me know. I seem to be doing much better in this arena than I have been doing with William Hill’s lately.

Sam Smith’s in the news again!

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Although Sam Smith’s were badly affected by the Christmas flooding in the brewing town of Tadcaster, it seems that they have now become as much a part of the problem as the solution. A multi agency group of local people, local and national government and elected representatives are working hard to restore some normality to the town whose 7,000 (appx.) inhabitants became divided when the river Wharfe flooded and partially demolished the road bridge in the centre of the town. Apparently £300,000 has been made available by central government to pay for an already sourced temporary footpath to restore unity to the town, on a prime location reasonably adjacent to the damaged bridge.

Well, it seems they had it all sorted until Humphrey Smith, owner of Sam Smith’s brewery, stepped in and refused permission for the bridge to be placed on brewery land, saying that it’s a waste of public money. You’d think this would be all a little strange with brewery HQ and several Sam’s pubs being situated in the town and on the wrong side of the bridge to the larger part of the populace. Even more so considering that Mr Humphrey Smith is one of the major property and land owners in Tadcaster, where many of the small businesses are his tenants. As soon as the bridge collapsed I saw on social media locally that many were calling for Humphrey to be philanthropic and come to the town’s aid. I would have told these folk not to waste their breath, however, I could never have envisaged that he could be shortsighted enough to deny the town, his town, this lifeline.

If you want to gauge the extent of feeling locally, I suggest you have a look on Sam Smiths independent forum and see what people are saying, along with some of the bricolage I collected to compile this article.

To quote The Guardian, ‘compared with more majestic small Yorkshire towns, Tad can feel a bit drab’. Having lived around here for some time, I can say that indeed it does, despite having great potential, and it seems that Mr Smith is determined to hold it back further. If he prevaricates much longer then he will start to see small businesses close and it will look even drabber, a bit like his pubs I suppose. Although Sam’s seem to have sorted their OBB supply out, which is commendable, and I have heard tales of brewery workers doing sixteen hour shifts in an effort to get the effects of the flooding sorted. It remains to be seen whether common sense will prevail at brewery HQ.

It’s Called Evolution – or why some pubs will close and be replaced by something better.

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Over the festive period we travelled over the Pennines to that grim urban, industrial/retail park sort of place along the Western M62 corridor, you know the bit they call the North West. Principally, locations between the Eastern end of Liverpool and the North of Manchester. Hopefully the tales of my adventure will emphasise many of the points I’ve been trying to make over the last six months. Namely, there are a lot of rubbish pubs about, run by lazy people. Whilst on the other hand there are a lot of people working hard trying to provide what people want – good beer in pleasant, well run surroundings.

I’m purposefully not naming any of the places or the pubs I went in. I don’t want to, it’s not fair, this essay is just a vehicle to portray my thoughts, not to criticise individuals and there may be underlying circumstances that I am not aware of. However the places are all real and exist and everything mentioned did happen.

The first case study relates to a small town in Cheshire, unfortunately not the rolling green part of Cheshire you associate with the ancient walled city, or the footballer inhabited suburbs of Manchester. On looking for a decent place on the CAMRA pub app, I read, ‘several decent real ales, the landlord takes a proper interest and is open to suggestions for guest ales’. A quick phone call confirmed they would be broadcasting the teatime Man Utd v Chelsea game. Owing to a misjudgement of walking speed, time and distance we managed to arrive at this establishment a full forty minutes before kick off, where we found only a handful of people, drinking bottles of lager. Thankfully the number of clientele more than quadrupled about five minutes before the match kicked off.

First pint in this traditional, well kept boozer, was a reasonably well known small NW brewer’s Christmas real ale offering. I could see the merits, but it had an unpleasant taste, that I suggest was not present in the beer originally. I asked if they had any other real ales on, but they didn’t? Undeterred I tried a pint of the locally popular (keg) dark mild which strangely had the same taste. Guinness followed and even a pint of major brand lager, unfortunately they all had that same rank taste. My opinion, the lines had not been cleaned for some time, probably since before the Christmas before! I would have said something, but being the only two people in the pub without the local twang and having made the effort on a bank holiday, i.e. not dressed in matching tracksuit top and bottoms, I felt it wise not to. In any case there was no landlord present, just a paid bar staff person.

I blame myself for not picking up the signs, I’m usually sharper than that. But, as soon as the match ended all the locals knocked back what was left in their bottles of lager, slapped them on the bar and went home!

Second case study takes us to a small town, maybe a large village? Near a bigger town, on the outskirts of Manchester. Quite a nice, middling to affluent place really. Accompanied by our local guide, we walked into the town centre for a few beers. What a result! Several pints of excellent well kept real ale, in a pleasant, well run modern bar. Apparently, before recent conversion, it had not been licensed premises. The only downside, they had six different beers on and I didn’t get to try them all. In terms of style, none of these were modern hop forward brews and were mostly local (to the NW) small and small medium brewers ales, well suited to the local taste. I would have liked to speak with the manager/owner who kept bobbing about pulling lines through and changing the tap list, he put two new beers on whilst we were in, but he was just too busy at his trade.

Now the place we were in is only a small settlement, but within one hundred yards there was another, relatively recent, similar, shall we say ale house? Okay it was small, I guess it hasn’t always been licensed premises neither, but it was packed. Again a good selection of well kept real ales. They must have been getting through them as well, judging by the number of empty firkins piled up outside.

As we set off back we passed two nearby, traditional town centre public houses, at a guess, at least nineteenth century in origin. We didn’t go in. I just looked through the window, searching for customers and the sign of a real ale on the bar. Sadly, neither appeared present. Even if either had been rammed or had good beer on I probably wouldn’t have taken any of my extended family into the one colloquially known as ‘The flying bottle’.

If you’re still with me, I hope you get what I’m trying to say.

Remember, ‘If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got!’

Sam Smith’s pubs running out of Old Brewery Bitter

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It’s not often that you see the small brewing town of Tadcaster on national news! Unfortunately the town, along with many other unfortunate residents of riverside settlements across the UK was hit by Boxing day flooding causing the ancient bridge over the river Wharfe to collapse. The result, a township now as effectively divided as cold war Germany, with a ten mile drive from one side to the other.

I genuinely feel for the residents of Tadcaster (and elsewhere) many who have suffered damage, loss and significant inconvenience. Even Humphrey Smith, owner of Samuel Smiths brewery, will have to make a significant journey from his home everyday to reach his office which is on the other side of the river. That’s not the least of his worries though, as the floods caused significant damage when it inundated Yorkshires oldest brewery and flooded the brewery yard.

Now there is very little official information and I have tried contacting the brewery without getting any reply or return calls from my messages. However, piecing together what I can from local landlords and contacts, it appears the existing stocks of cask conditioned Old Brewery Bitter and all their wooden casks have become contaminated by floodwater. Because of this none of the Sam’s pubs have had a delivery of OBB since before Christmas. Many are now running out of OBB and the Sam Smith’s forum reports the Sun Inn at Long Marston being without OBB on new years eve. My own local is on the last eighteen and I’ve spoken to several landlords who have been told not to expect OBB anytime soon. Thankfully I’m none too bothered as I always drink Taddy Lager or Stout, both of which are decent drinks, and the word from licensees is that everything apart from OBB will still be available and delivered to your Sam’s local. The only perplexing thing is why is the OBB contaminated, but not anything else? Okay it’s the only product they do in wooden casks, but the casks keep the beer in pretty well, so why don’t they keep the flood water out? Why isn’t production and delivery of other draught products affected? Call me cynical, but I feel something’s just not right here?

The big question for me is when will Sam’s production be back to normal? I know they brew OBB once a week, but before they send any out they will have an awful lot of casks to clean and sterilise and that’s after they have got the brewery yard back to some semblance of order.

If you want some idea of what the current devastation might look like there are pics and videos of the brewery yard on the BBC News website from the last big flood in 2012. Frankly, I’m surprised that news reporters haven’t gone with this story. If they do pick up on it, tell people you read it here first!