How blue do you like it?

A better summer this year than last, we think. Probably because more people are learning about what we do. Although the weather hasn't been fantastic, it's not been as bad as last year and we've had lots of very nice people here, many joining the increasing number of returning customers. Amongst them is a well know film actor who came for lunch earlier in the year and then came back to stay overnight last week. No we're still not going to say who, apparently he used to come here years ago but hasn't been here for a while.

The summer brings out the campers of course. They have never really been our main source of trade so we don't try too hard to please them. Not that we mind campers. Some can be very nice people and are very welcome if they like something less mainstream. Some of the campers still get confused though, no bar food in the evening - but if you were us, who would you rather have in your house for dinner, campers, or a film actor?

Since then other return visitors included Chris and Ivan, the Blue Bore Bomb fans. But apparently the Blue Bore Bomb isn't blue enough anymore, according to them. So if you've been here and had this desert then perhaps you can give us feedback- how blue do you like your Blue Bore Bomb? Are the Bombs really turning into a shadow of their former self? Do they need to mature for a week? Or are Chris and Ivan just getting fussy?

Lager Numpties

What do people think of lager drinkers?

Drinking Real Ale shows sophistication.

Not for Numpties[1]

We found an article recently by The Economist, (The Economist - GBBF ), which gave us the idea for the above marketing ploy. Dave wants to display this above the bar but Ann thinks it's being rude to lager drinkers. The question is, do we care?


It reminds us of the Yorkie tag line "Yorkie - Not for Girls." The defence Nestle used was that there was an ever increasing number of products that are designed for the woman but men losing much that is in their preserve. Well, we wont start a sexist argument here either way but it parallels the ever increasing battering we get from the mass producers tying to convince us that we are more sexy if we drink their lager, more food discerning if we use their mayo or more intelligent if we buy their comic. We don't know about the reader but for us we find it insults our intelligence.

Here, we like to encourage those who are intelligent enough to see through this barrage of multinational consumerism. If you don't, then we're probably not for you.

The fact of the matter is that beer sales generally are declining. Real Ale is gaining popularity, partly due to the work done by CAMRA, which were responsible for helping to reduce beer duty for small breweries.

However another reason we believe that Real Ale sales are increasing is because the consumer wishes to have the right to choose something that is different.




[1] Someone who (sometimes unwittingly) by speech or action demonstrates a lack of knowledge or misconception of a particular subject or situation to the amusement of others.

The opening of Brewers Union Local 180

If you have been following events here for the last year or so you will know about Ted, from Oakridge, OR, USA. (He still can't decide which). Ted came here around May 2006 and drank some of our ale, played guitar with Dave and ate our food. He was in the UK for a job inteview as it was one way he could get to drink English Ale a little more often. He only stayed one night and we thought "Well there's a crazy American, wonder if we'll see him again?"

He didn't get the job but saw what we did here and decided that if he couldn't support himself and his family in the UK he would export one of our greatest assets, our ale. However, physically transporting ale over 8 time zones is not very practical, so setting up a brew pub seemed the best option.

So, around September 2006 Dave received an email entitled "Greetings From Oregon plus an Unusual Enquiry".

And progressed:

You may or may not remember an American by the name of Ted Sobel wandering into your inn around the middle of May this year. As a memory jog, he was graciously given a tour of the brewery, consumed around 8 pints of your ale, and was allowed to play an unusually shaped guitar.....

.....The reason for my enquiry, other than shameless flattery, is that I'm in the process of planning a real ale public house in my little town of Oakridge.....

..So, I was wondering if I could come and visit for a bit, help with brewing, see how cellar is operated, etc....

..and so started the task of training an eager and very well intentioned Amercian on the art of brewing real ale, cask conditioning, line cleaning and scowling at lager drinkers...

But the best bit of all. The Brewers Union Local 180, which is the rather long name he's given his Pub, is now well and truly open.

Email received this morning.

It's 1:33 AM here in Oregon. I'm sipping a cider from Canada. Our sales were fantastic on our opening day, more than I expected. 28% was real ale brewed in Oregon, the new home of cask beer. Tomorrow night (tonight later, actually), 250 mountain bikers are descending on the town for the second Mountain Bike Oregon event. They don't feed those people on Thursday and Sunday, so where do you think they should go for a bite and a pint?

We had 15 fire jumpers sitting outside drinking proper pints of cask beer. They don't drink this stuff. Never have, in fact, because it's hard to find.

Pictures forthcoming...

Now we are not going to try and hide our huge pride in Ted. Having complete, and possibly blind faith in his ability to take a style of pub we have here and prove that something similar can be made to work in a country where Ale is considered very niche.

So it just goes to show that Real Ale can be the future of beer and pubs and why we, here at The Woolpack Inn are unashamed in our promotion of Ale as our main beverage.

Anglo Amercian media experience

Well Ted (our very good friend from Oregon) has just about got his brew pub going. We were so delighted to have been in part responsable for his endevour that we thought we'd slip the story to a few press people.

Check the following links:
BBC Radio Cumbria Interview (Might breach copywrite, sorry Auntie)
Whitehaven News article
N W Evening Mail article

And some background, again this has copyright, but has agreement.



Full file: River Journeys clip

Old friends and new friends

One of the best things about being at The Woolpack Inn is the number of great people that we meet. So many people who love real ale and good food and a nice quiet break. The Swindonians for instance...and then the many crazy people in the trade, like beermanwalking and the many Good Beer Guide entry pub owners who have great policies similar to ours.

And then just occasionally you get the old friends turn up. Dave was so delighted to meet his old school mates this weekend, some of whom he had not seen for over 25 years.....

We've got the hops

Last week 5kg of very expensive Willamette hops arrived at our door. We had been told earlier in the year that we had no chance of getting them this year. Having looked at alternatives to replace them in our Woolpacker we deciding that nothing was good enough. We went further up the supply chain to find what we might be able to get and where told that as we where not existing customers we could only have a limited choice off a "B" list.

After carefully explaining that we used a middle man but they did actually come from them originally and would they please make sure that our supplier did have them in stock, they relented and now we have them....

The price of the hops has still gone up 500%
The price of the electricity to boil the wort has increased
Heating, light and power uses 20% of our markup on product
The cost of staff has gone up and cost 40% of our markup
Maintenance on our big old building is 30% of our markup
Mortgage payments are 20% of markup
Now, we'll just quietly point out that this equals a deficit.
But as we develop our unique style we are finding this deficit is getting smaller and might just be eliminated by the end of the year.

But the good news is that a new batch of Woolpacker is getting to the end of it's fermentation and will to casks next week.

A busmans holiday?

Ann and Dave managed to get out for a few hours yesterday. Although we live in the Lakes it is often difficult to find time to enjoy the surroundings. It is nice to get some knowledge about attractions so we can pass on the information to customers. A visit to the Honister Slate mines was decided upon as our main objective. Leaving here after lunch (ordering to sort out first) we headed off. But what is the best way to go to Honister from here. Having SatNav does give a third opinion when traveling - it might not always choose the best route, especially when Hardknott is one of it's options. This was really interesting though. On the map the crow flies distance is probably no more than 7 miles but the route around the mountains was probably more like 25. The Satnav took us right past The Kirkstyle Inn - well it would be rude to not stop and try some Loweswater Ales, wouldn't it? Besides hunger also had an influence.

They had just finished serving lunch and were onto afternoon tea but had nice soup and sandwiches. But best of all they had a new ale - LPA - Loweswater Pale Ale - just right Dave recons. Normally Loweswater Ales are a little on the sweet side, nothing wrong with that but Dave prefers dryer beers. The LPA was a really nice hoppy, citrusy ale with just the right balance of residual sugars to balance the harshness of the alpha acids from the hops.

So the late lunch we set off towards the Buttermere Valley and up Honister Pass - quite an easy pass after you've driven Hardknott so many times. The Honister slate mine is right on the top of the pass - it's hard to miss. When driving in off the road the car parking is a little confusing. Still more confusing is exactly what to do if you want to go on a mine tour. It seems that you go straight to the shop and ask at the shop counter. By the time we had worked all that out and waited for the people who were buying memorabilia to pay for their purchases, we had missed the last tour.

It was all very interesting non the less - there was a number of slate activities in progress including cleaving slate for roofs and polishing slate slabs presumably for signs etc. This was all easily seen from the viewing area just off the shop. In the shop itself we were tempted by the £400+ slate chess table which would have looked very nice in our residents lounge. However we spent just a couple of pounds on a map of Lake District pubs and an amusing post card - all published by CardToons and rather excellent.

Next we had a trip down to Keswick, a visit to our friends Phil and Sue at Keswick brewery. They've now got their visitors rooms sorted and are taking brewery tours by arrangements. Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays if I remember right at 11am. But it's by booking only - it's a busy job being a brewer and they don't hang around just in case they get visitors - so call them.

After being slightly underwhelmed by the quality of food offering in Keswick itself we tried to book a table at The Pheasent at Basssenthwaite - we used our map bought earlier in the day and found the number was wrong!!! Out came the CRAG guide (can be bought at The Woolpack Inn) to find the correct number. The Pheasant was booked up, which was not a surprise.

Driving back along the A66 we decided to call at the Middle Ruddings Hotel. Having a good selection of ale whenever we've been in (they have even been known to have Hardknott ales on the bar) so we thought we'd try the food. We where very pleased to have stopped as the food was very good, a nice selection and nicely done. Certainly much better than standard pub fair. Dave had venison sausage served with juniper gravy and Ann had local slow roast Lamb. Now Ann doesn't normally like Lamb unless Dave cooks it but she risked it, probably just to prove the point, but she was wrong and really enjoyed it.

To complete our tour of the area we came back down the back road through Frisington and Cleator, past Egremont to Calder Bridge to call in at a pub that has been improving much lately - The Stanley Arms. They had 3 pumps with Thwaites and one with Hesket Newmarket Scafell Blond. Apparently they have also had Keswick as well. The landlord seems to be very keen and they recently got pub of the season from the local CAMRA branch. Well done to The Stanly Arms team and well done to CAMRA for encouraging a good landlord.

Lastly we called in to see our good friends at The strands in Nether Wasdale. Mark and Leslie have certainly made an impression here. Mark never seems to stand still. He's set up his own brewery which produces great ales. The food is really good and very interesting and the place always seems to have a nice atmosphere when we've been in. It's perhaps a shame that CAMRA have not recognised this enthusiastic team.

And so back home for a final pint and to check emails - only to find that Ted has finally brewed ale - Cumbrian Microbrewery skills have been sucessfully passed to Oregon.