All our bottled beers are bottle conditioned. When we put the green (young) beer into the bottle we add a measured amount of sugar syrup. The beer still has a lot of active yeast in it and the yeast uses the additional sugar to make a little more alcohol and some more carbon dioxide. Because the bottle is sealed tight, the CO2 dissolves in the liquid giving the beer its head and sparkle when opened.
This is not quite the whole story however. Once all the sugar is used up, the yeast will sink to the bottom of the bottle and form a layer of sediment. Ideally, you don’t want this in your glass so I always warn people to pour in the usual way for most of the bottle but to be gentle with the last half inch. We use a yeast that will stick to the bottom unless it has been really shaken up, so it’s easy to get a clean pour.
It’s been a busy week at the brewery, and in fact the only reason I’m able to post is that I’ve gritted my teeth and taken the day off (doesn’t blogging count ? – ed). One of the changes that is going on is that our sales force is increasing from one part timer – me – to two part timers. This is Piers, and yesterday we went up to Nottingham to pick up his van. It’s named after the famous fifth horseman in Revelations that comes around after the apocalypse handing out refreshments.
Piers will be handling East Sussex sales and deliveries and I will be concentrating on West Sussex.
One of the people we work with – Piers – lives in Brighton. There’s a pub there that he goes to sometimes that was recently taken over by new management. It had some cash spent on it and seemed to be showing signs of life.
Piers recently told me that he’d popped in on a beautiful summer evening to find that the landlord had reduced beer prices to £2.50 a pint (incredibly low for Brighton) and the bar was….
empty.
Times are hard it’s true, and the smoking ban has had enormous impact. As a life long non smoker I find a smoke free pint a pleasure but smokey pubs didn’t bother me much. If a pub was too smokey I simply didn’t go in. Simple.
An update on the smoking loophole. The pub in question was a tied house and the smoking research was bravely shut down by its brewery. Once again Dick Puddlecote has the story.
I found this on Pete Brown’s blog a few days ago. Pete Brown was the author of Three Sheets to the Wind, the book that inspired me to start a brewery of my own. He’s got a new one coming out on his attempt to create a real IPA, Hops and Glory. It should be worth reading.
The video itself is interesting and it has the added bonus of meerkats; obviously it deserves wider circulation.
I’m at home this morning with swine flu. I expect to be up and about shortly as my inbox is overflowing, but in the meanwhile I’m directing operations via my top secret hideout under the duvet.
The brewery has had a particularly successful week. In fact yesterday I had the slightly nervous pleasure of walking into the bank with a bundle of cheques and cash collected in the previous 7 days. Apart from investments, it represent the greatest weekly amount I’ve ever dropped into the little tray at the teller’s window.
So it’s particularly dispiriting to report that the moment I got back to the office, every penny bar £150 or so, went straight out again in taxes!
Running a startup is hard and they often take several years to turn around into profitability. As it happens, none of the principle shareholders have taken any salary and usually don’t even claim expenses. This is par for the course and yet despite this small businesses do find it hard to reach the state where they can pay for themselves. The reason is largely is that for every two steps forward they take, they are taxed one and a half steps back by a largely parasitical and self serving state.
In all the recent fury over the expenses scandal its important to remember that the sums in question are a drop in the ocean compared with what the government does legitimately. For example the new Twitter Czar costing a cool £160k a year and undoubtedly with a small but beautifully formed staff to match.
Now, as it happens I have thirty years in the technology trenches behind me starting with peer reviewed scientific papers in the 80’s and ending with the display systems used by You Know Who at Ascot. This qualifies me to switch on DVD players and satellite systems in holiday homes, and occasionally to speak ex cathedra on new technology related items. Ahem.
Twitter is not very useful.
For example, this is how my weekend would have looked on Twitter.
Saturday 9:30 – Packing for home. Where are my socks ?
Saturday 11:45 – On the ferry.
Saturday 11:46 – Call from Threshers, they’ve run out of beer!
Saturday 13:20 – Back at the brewery. Putting labels on bottles for Threshers.
Saturday 15:20 – Still labeling
Saturday 16:30 – Labeling
Saturday 17:15 – Delivered part of emergency supplies to Threshers
Sunday 8:45 – Dropped wife and child off at station for day trip to London
Sunday 9:45 – Labeling at brewery
Sunday 10:45 – Still labeling
Sunday 11:45 – More labels
Sunday 12: 45 – Labels (sigh)
Sunday 13:45 – Ditto
Sunday 14:45 – Hurrah, delivered rest of order to Threshers!
etc. etc.
Dull isn’t it ? and yet despite the obvious uselessness of the whole thing, that nice Mr Brown is wasting a minimum of £160,000 on this and of course true costs will be much higher. This is sort of thing that makes me really angry. One way or the other MPs expenses will be sorted out soon, by the next general election at the latest. The day to day non-jobs for the boys and the associated general costs will simply carry on unabated.
Despite the problems, the brewery is doing far better than I could ever have reasonably hoped for. If anyone is in Steyning for the Country Fair next week drop by our stall where all are welcome including MPs. After all, there are one or two things I’d like to have a chat about.
In a desperate attempt to find something that’s not related to MPs Expenses, I happened across this. Oasis is not a beer of course, but it looks vaguely like bitter. As adverts go it’s just so weird that it’s worth looking at just for an insight into popular culture on the other side of the planet.
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