by andy on 30th October 2009
I’ve been talking a great deal to the local Threshers staff recently, and there was a bit of speculation that there was something going on at HQ. As we learned late yesterday, that something turned out to be an attempt a restructuring that’s culminated in First Quench – the company that owns Threshers – going into administration. The news is that they are going to try and sell Threshers as a going concern which means meeting the payroll this week. Threshers staff must be relieved.
We supply Threshers through the SIBA Direct Delivery Scheme and our contract is with them rather than First Quench itself so in the short term we should be OK. I believe the Steyning Threshers is a profitable one so in the event of a sale, my guess is that the Steyning store will survive. We lost Unwins a little while back so they have a local monopoly which must help.
Still, the whole situation is in the lap of the gods. We are currently forbidden to deliver any more supplies to the stores until the administrator has told SIBA what’s going on so if you want some of our beer in the meanwhile there’s the Chilli Festival at Shoreham tomorrow, the Steyning Farmers Market next week, and of course our fabulous Home Delivery Service (like the milkman but better). Given the situation I’m looking at adding a few decent wines and some champagne to our lines. Let me know what you think if you decide to call us.
by andy on 26th October 2009
A number of people have recently telephoned or emailed me regarding the recent lack of Adur Brewery’s ales in Threshers. Threshers seem to have recently changed their internal ordering process and this has caused some disruption in October. The local staff are trying their very best to resolve it, but the problem seems to have impacted local ales at several stores – not just ours – and its going to take a little while.
As it happens, not everyone who likes our beers goes into Threshers and in fact they can’t handle our full range in any case; just try ordering a keg for a party! Carrying more than four bottles at a time can be a bit problematic in any case.
Therefore, as it’s the busy season we’ve decided to accelerate the launch of our home delivery service. All the pieces are now in place and we will be advertising in local publications and making leaflets available in the next few markets we attend. It’s been a week of frantic work to get to this stage which is why I’ve not been posting much here. We have a small warehouse in the Burgess Hill area with a premises license where deliveries take place from, and electronic orders will be handled by our friends at Beer Matt. If you’d rather use the phone simply call me at the usual number (top right) during the day, and we will try to deliver in the evening of the same day, unless you want items at a different time.
If people ask for it we’ll be carrying a few associated items such as nuts and crisps, and I’ll be talking to some of our colleagues in the area to see if they would like their beers carried as well. Delivery will be free and full details and prices will be available on a new section of the website shortly. Update It’s up.
Of course its going to be a limited service initially, covering Steyning, Upper Beeding and Bramber, Shoreham, Lancing, Worthing and West Chiltington. This is not a hard and fast rule however, if you want something and you are slightly outside these areas give me a call and I’ll see what we can manage.
One final point. One of the conditions of the premises license is that the council requires us to ask customer’s date of birth over the phone. I understand that generally a gentleman does not ask a lady’s age but we’ve been given no choice. Of course, as usual anyone who appears to be younger than 25 on delivery will have to have some proof of age handy when we turn up with the beer. Sorry – that’s the law.
by andy on 16th October 2009
I’ve always had the ambition to be an international supervillain. In the same way that Moriarty was more interesting than Sherlock Holmes, and The Master more fascinating than The Dr (see the recent John Simms portrayal for further proof), I’ve felt that being a poster boy for black hearted villainy would be a more interesting career than mild mannered family man and programmmer. That’s of course why I became a brewer.
I see via Dick Puddlecote (no mean jewel thief himself) , that the World Health Organization no less has endorsed my choice; my crime of course is encouraging passive drinking.
Fame at last. Now if you’ll excuse me I have rather a lot of work on my top secret hidden Artic lair to get on with.
by andy on 13th October 2009
…well I’m back, slightly the worse for wear. Lots has happened while I was away and no doubt I’d have commented on some of it. I am going to comment on Slovenia (lovely place) in another post. However, one story did catch my eye over the weekend.
As I’ve mentioned a few times around here – I’m not a smoker, never have been. On the other hand even I can see that our anti smoking rules have left the realm of reasonable and are now actively verging on the cruel. It’s also quite clear that as a beer drinker and an overweight one to boot, I’m next in the sights of the health police. I’ve therefore become rather sensitive to what the anti smoking lobby is up to.
The story of Mathew Millington, an Iraq veteran who was given a transplanted pair of lungs from a heavy smoker and who subsequently developed lung cancer and died is absolutely tragic of course. To go through the rigors of a transplant only to be given a cancerous organ must have been absolutely horrifying.
But one thing did strike me as odd. I can recall seeing a series of NHS Posters showing images like the one above showing what a smoker’s lung looked like compared with a healthy one and in fact a few months ago I did a market where the next stall over was a ‘Stop Smoking’ service. They had a very similar 3D model.
Surely the surgeon must have been able to see that the lung he was about to transplant was a smoker’s lung and distinctly dodgy ? I doubt that a hard working and busy man at the top of his profession would have hesitated to veto an organ that wasn’t up to scratch.
My conclusion is that the surgeon must have thought the lungs were OK, either from tests and certainly from their appearance. He couldn’t have failed to have seen them while he was transplanting them.
Which leads me to wonder, are photos like this true ? or are they actually propaganda ?
by andy on 4th October 2009
As part of Yugoslavia, Slovenia was ruled over by General Tito. Now I’m off to vex them for a week. If there’s wifi in the hotel and if I get a free moment I may be able to post something on the local beer situation but generally blogging will be lighter than usual.
The brewery will be looked after by Dicky, Chance, and Piers.
by andy on 4th October 2009
I see a widowed 71 year old, with osteoporosis and living on her own has been prosecuted for poking a 17 year old in the chest.
In the old days I imagine that this one would have ended at the police station lobby with the desk sergeant raising an eyebrow at the arresting officer. These days it’s actually the CPS that decides whether a prosecution should proceed. What were they thinking ?
In a way the story is symptomatic of the changes in government over the last decade, exercise of judgment has been replaced by a set of forms and a procedure. You might as well ask a computer to do the job – at least it would be easier to debug.
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