CURRENT AFFAIRS
CAMRA is, of course, a non-party political organisation. We do not align ourselves with any particular party. We draw our views to the attention of all politicians and hope that some take them on board.
Consequently, CAMRA will be asking its members to contact their parliamentary candidates to ask them if they will support our Pledge for Pubs, which is, if elected, to
1.Celebrate and promote great beer;
2.Support action to help pubs thrive;
3.Represent the interests of pub goers, beer and cider drinkers.
From a CAMRA memorandum
IT’S THE SEASON FOR STINGO!
For the first time since they withdrew Museum Ale some 25 years ago, Samuel Smith’s have introduced a new cask beer, available until Christmas. It is a draught version of their Yorkshire Stingo barley wine at 8 to 9% ABV, served from oak casks. Their website describes the bottled version (which is bottle conditioned) as having ‘raisin, treacle toffee, Christmas pudding and slight oaky flavours’. It is reported to be available at the Olde Cheshire Cheese, the Fitzroy Tavern, the Chandos, the Princess Louise, the White Horse (Soho) and the Cittie of York. It costs £7.40 per pint.
Readers may be interested to know that Sam Smith’s are selling a t-shirt that has a logo saying ‘mobile, tablet and laptop free zone’ with the legend ‘Let’s just talk!’
There was incidentally a pub called the Yorkshire Stingo Tap in Homer Street, Marylebone which was built around 1680 but disappeared in 1964 under the Edgware Road flyover.
SHEPS ARRIVE IN SOHO IN STYLE
Shepherd Neame have completed the restoration of the Compton Cross (previously Molly Moggs, on the corner of Old Compton Street and Charing Cross Road) which they acquired in April. They have also restored the pub’s original name, the Coach & Horses. The pub is Grade II-listed and dates from 1731. The exterior has been painted a smart dark green and a new sign has been specially commissioned. This means that there are now three pubs called the Coach & Horses in Soho – a mini-crawl possibly?
SIGNATURE BREW EXPAND AND REBRAND
After a successful crowdfunding campaign, Signature Brew have opened their new brewery in Walthamstow which will enable them to quadruple their annual output to 20,000 hectolitres (4 million pints). The company, which was founded by musicians and music fans and makes a point of supplying music venues and festivals, hopes to move towards national distribution. The brewery will have a tap room, the Brewer’s Bar, which will be open to the public on Friday evenings from 5pm to 11pm, Saturdays midday to 11pm and Sundays midday to 6pm.
At the same time, the brewery have rebranded their products. The range of art styles aims to mirror the brewery’s love of music of all genres, the creativity of their brewers and the diversity of the musicians they work with. Co-founder Sam McGregor said, “With the increased capacity and branding that reflects the creativity and quality of our beers, we’re looking forward to more drinkers being able to enjoy our beers at venues, bars, pubs and festivals throughout the UK, Europe and beyond.”
FULLER’S FINANCES
In the 32 weeks ended 9 November, Fuller’s sales increased by 5.2%. According to the Morning Advertiser however, they are experiencing higher than anticipated transition costs from the sale of their brewing operation to Asahi. They are however expecting their profit for the full year ending 28 March 2020 to be ‘broadly in line with the prior year on a comparable basis’ at £31 million.
On 19 November, Fuller’s held what they called ‘The Get Together’ to celebrate the 174th anniversary of the signing of the agreement for the partnership of Messrs Fuller, Smith and Turner. On the day, customers who had registered on-line were able to buy three drinks at £1.74 each in their managed pubs. A number of pubs also held special events such as live music and games nights. Apologies for not being able to let readers know of this in good time but the press release was only received on 14 November. As usual these days, it was done through ‘social media’.
BATTERSEA BREWERY NEWS
Brewery Liaison Officer Peter Sutcliffe reports that some interesting real ales are coming up for the festive season at this new-ish project near the Power Station development. These include a Mosaic Pale Ale (4% ABV), an ESB also around 4% ABV hopped with Bramling Cross and a Chocolate, Coffee and Milk Stout at around 5% ABV. If you hurry there now, you might hit the last cask of the superb Red Rye Ale (5% ABV) brewed with Columbus, Simcoe and Chinook hops. There will always be one and often two of these casks available at any time, together with an extensive selection of craft keg beers. Go to hello@batterseabrew.co.uk for details.
VE DAY EXTENSION APPROVED
The Home Office has announced that to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, pubs which are only licensed to 11pm will be permitted to stay open until 1am on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 May. The May Day bank holiday is being moved from Monday 4 to Friday 8 to make a long weekend of it. I suspect that beer will be in more plentiful supply than it was in 1945 although there will be considerably fewer pubs in which to drink it.
RUGBY FALLOUT
This seems a touch ungrateful. Having done well out of the recent World Cup, Young’s chief executive, Patrick Dardis, has complained that there will not be the usual international games this autumn. He was quoted in the Evening Standard, “The internationals normally bring four solid weekends of fully packed pubs in our south west London heartland.” The day of the final was a November record for Young’s and sales at the Ship in Wandsworth were double the usual. His opposite number at Fuller’s, Simon Emeny, reported that his company sold a record number of breakfasts, more than twice the previous high point.
REMEMBERING THE BLACK CAP
In a comment article in the Evening Standard (4 November), the broadcaster Petroc Trelawny reminded us that the pub’s supporters still hold a vigil outside it every Saturday morning. Sadly it remains boarded up and the future of this legendary LGBTQ+ venue in Camden Town remains at stalemate. As Mr Trelawny says, “The dedicated activists who still fight for the Black Cap deserve to have their energy and commitment rewarded.”
LATE NIGHT LEVY
Redbridge Council have postponed their decision to introduce a Late Night Levy. There are therefore still only eleven local authorities in the country which have done so. Realising that the problem was its inflexibility, the Government accepted that changes needed to be made so that councils could target certain specific locations or streets rather than their whole area and extend its coverage from just alcohol-licenced premises to include late-night refreshment outlets. Unfortunately, no doubt distracted by other issues, the Government has not carried out the necessary consultation process to decide the level of charges that will apply to the food shops. Progress is therefore in limbo.
CHANGES AT CHARLES WELLS
As the completion of their brand new £13 million 30,000 hectolitre brewery on the outskirts of Bedford approaches, chief executive Justin Phillimore is standing down after thirteen years with the company. He had previously been finance director and brewing and brands director. He will be replaced by Peter Wells, who will take the role of group managing director. Mr Wells is the latest of five generations of the Wells family to head the business. Mr Wells confirmed to the Morning Advertiser that the new brewery would open in the summer and that the company was still looking to increase its operations in both the UK and France.
Compiled by Tony Hedger