tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68481067298651320952009-05-11T21:32:35.390+01:00Days In The Life Of An English BreweryBuntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-89431161926794344282009-02-18T17:38:00.003Z2009-02-18T17:40:53.038Z

Yup. After ages of doing nothing, the Brewers Blog is moving to new home, where it will no doubt be equally ignored. That said I am getting death threats now for my lack of posting, so I will try harder in the new home:brewersblog.buntingford-brewery.co.ukThe decorators are still in by the way....

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-78152979513958357562008-12-04T18:17:00.002Z2008-12-04T19:14:23.127Z

...and here is the plot synopsis.There is a country, which has a government. This government is seemingly made up of people from one nation in this country - a nation which also has it's own government (unlike the other 3 nations that make up this fictitious country). The public at large don't seem to find this strange, but then they are more interested in people who are famous for no obvious

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-40411858857260350852008-12-04T17:38:00.002Z2008-12-04T18:16:52.433Z

Sometimes you have to wonder why people do what they do - like, for example, take on a pub tenancy. For they are entering into the shadowy world of the 'Pubco', and, admittedly with their eyes open (but temporarily blinded by 'promises'), a very weird business world indeed. A world where you are forced to buy product (ie beer, cider, etc) at very high prices, a world where if you do well your

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-72977363852886132002008-11-27T11:09:00.003Z2008-11-27T15:06:06.040Z

It can't have escaped your notice that Alistair Darling has decreased VAT to 15% in order to save all our lives, and it can't therefore escaped your notice that has been a massive rush of folks saying 'Well done, Darling. That's just the ticket'. What? You hadn't noticed that second bit? No, well neither have we, mostly because no-one in the business world feels it will make a big difference.

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-70714158720609288272008-10-21T19:02:00.003+01:002008-10-21T19:45:34.167+01:00

I was just having a sly rummage in Google earlier, and I discovered we are listed in the Swedish langauge 'area' of Wikipedia. Brewery in Swedish is Bryggeri - which would possibly make me a Brygger, something many may think rather close to the truth!Of course, looking for yourself (or your company), is possibly a vain excercise, but one I suspect we have all done at some point, and at least I

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-39179055241146922872008-10-21T13:04:00.003+01:002008-11-27T11:09:18.350Z

Slowly catching up (see below for the first bit...)!November News:The beer supplied to Tesco (my, didn't it take some time to get the first order - thought we'd run out of date...) has sold well. Not that we have seen any official figures, but feedback from across Herts & Cambs and parts of Essex suggest that once on the shelves, stock was sold in a few hours, then shelves sat empty until the

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-65636011366212722632008-10-21T12:25:00.002+01:002008-10-21T13:04:38.925+01:00

So much to report, so little time to do so. So here is the first part of a few updates etc, some of which I may expand on in due course...A Beer A Day is the title of the latest book by Jeff Evans (published by CAMRA), in which he suggests 366 different beers to try over the year, with some historical facts to tie them with. Of course these things are subjective, and we'll all have a different

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-92054835608025882492008-09-29T18:24:00.004+01:002008-09-29T19:04:07.645+01:00

You may have noticed an absence of blog through August and most of September. I would like to say this was due to there being no internet access at the tropical beach paradise we decamped to for that period, but it would be a lie. We've all been very busy brewing, selling, delivering, cleaning etc etc. Whilst this is still the case, a few minutes have been found to ramble on in, so here we

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-41404302672775845752008-09-29T15:29:00.002+01:002008-09-29T18:24:01.945+01:00

...And once again we have forgotten to send in our entries - although we did know about in plenty of time, so it's our fault.This is a real pity, as this year we had some really viable art installations and mass pieces, such as:Look At What We Have A Pile Of - in which we collect all the spent hops from 3 months brewing, and make a pile of compost in an empty room, that cannot be seen into,

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-3498772367629725662008-09-24T11:42:00.004+01:002008-10-21T13:17:49.935+01:00

No posts for ages, then I come back really, really, really angry. Oh, yes - and a few more reallys for good measure.You see someone has raised all the hackles today, and whilst this is not the place to do our dirty laundry, the repercussions need some explaining.So, basically, because of numerous false accusations, lies, rudeness to our staff, and not being provided with the right information (

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-2873161320937199442008-07-28T17:45:00.002+01:002008-07-28T18:36:28.479+01:00

According to a report from the BBPA (British Beer & Pub Association), the pub trade saw a 10.6% drop in sales from April - June, compared to the same period last year. And over the first 6 months of 2008 there has been a 9.6% overall drop in sales. This compares with a rise in sales in the off-trade (ie shops, and supermarkets) of 7.6% in the same 6 month period. Now of course given then

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-9793315380993076442008-07-26T13:00:00.002+01:002008-07-26T13:27:50.746+01:00

Well, I was to tell a couple of jokes, but it appears that they will probably cause offence, and so telling them would no doubt have me shot or locked away for several years - even though they may only cause offence to the sort of people who feel beholden to get offended on behalf of others, without consulting them first. And given that I can't think of any jokes that would avoid poking fun at

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-27084744868126175712008-07-24T18:48:00.004+01:002008-07-24T19:11:31.388+01:00

So far, it's been a slightly disappointing year - the Barn Owls (indeed all the owls) had seemingly vanished, and no Marsh Harriers or Hobby.OK, so we had more Lapwing chicks in close view than you could shake Bill Oddie at, and there have been loads of Reed Buntings, plus Sedge & Reed Warblers nesting in the reeds. But it was the big stuff that impressed folk last year, and this year we could

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-50853106747129523302008-07-24T15:04:00.005+01:002008-07-24T18:47:19.595+01:00

There has been much talk of going carbon neutral of late. And as a result many large corporates now claim to carbon neutral. But are they? It's all down to 'off-setting' - which in very simple terms allows an energy efficient company, that is below it's CO2 limit, to sell the excess CO2's to a company that is not so efficient, and either over it's limit, or perhaps more likely, keen to show

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-23685194380039383932008-07-17T14:25:00.002+01:002008-07-17T15:49:27.858+01:00

...Is actually a bit sparse.It has been noted, accurately, that this year - so far - is not going well in the Pub Trade. This may be the smoking ban, it maybe the Daily Mail convincing folk they will be stabbed by a drunken teenager every time they enter the Plough & Taxman. It may be they have read that beer is now £27 per pint, or that Tesco are selling cask beer for less than a tanker load

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-71759465881673988132008-07-17T11:20:00.003+01:002008-07-17T14:01:08.818+01:00

Well, the title might have woken up a few Trekkies, but they will be disappointed and will, as I speak, be e-mailing us explaining how we spelt Troy wrong. If you don't understand any of this, then congratulations, you still have some semblance of a life - which is seemingly a rare thing these days. Anyone else pissed off with hearing Council workers moaning about not earning enough money to

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-47927144807174376472008-07-03T12:41:00.002+01:002008-07-03T12:51:20.052+01:00

If you have been concentrating over the last 6 months, you would know that our Britannia was the first of our beers to be affected by hop shortages. Well, it's back. We secured a small amount of Bramling Cross hops late last year, enough to do a 'few' brews of Britannia. Well, we have just done the first of 2008, and it will be reaching the cellars next week (ie from 6th July). There is a

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-50518441795140239892008-07-03T11:22:00.005+01:002008-07-03T14:31:46.280+01:00

There is, out there, on the interweb, a website called RateBeer. This site is inhabited by some hardcore beer drinkers who record every beer, and publish their opinions on it for the world to see. Now we have known of this site for a while, and like most breweries shudder slightly when anyone mentions it. This is a shudder of fear and foreboding, for the reviews of the beer are at times

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-28701683929977251002008-07-03T10:43:00.002+01:002008-07-03T11:22:35.921+01:00

One of the things that raises the eyebrows of those who come up here for the official 'tour', is that the beer is mostly water. Now admittedly some beers may appear to be more mostly water than most (and this includes a few micro's), but water is around 90% of your pint. This means that in terms of transport, moving beer around the country is much the same as hauling plain old water about -

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-29403618942789863062008-06-24T15:00:00.002+01:002008-06-24T17:56:01.672+01:00

On the beer front, the Britannia Class Range has been going from strength to strength. Lightning was a popular beer, and was almost brewed again but I decided to ignore the requests and so out came Polar Star. It was brewed using wheat malt & maize, so it was something of a new direction for us - and what a beer it was. It is certainly the palest beer I have brewed, indeed one of the palest I

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-69045706383653621862008-06-24T14:20:00.002+01:002008-06-24T15:00:44.144+01:00

Having in the past been proud of our Swallows & Spotted Flycatchers, this year they are noticeably down in numbers. This may of course be a false statement, caused by the noticeable increase in birds of species simply drowning out the Swallow / Flycatcher numbers. So here is a run-down of what we have been seeing in the last few weeks...Sparrows by the shedload - mostly of the House variety, but

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-11113462192911030242008-06-24T14:10:00.003+01:002008-06-24T18:05:13.996+01:00

Well, do you? I know we do.Here then is something of note:http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=38227Of course we all want a fair and equal society, where all can benefit from good healthcare - even lager drinkers. But I can't help thinking the best way to do that is just to say 'Here Is The GP, And This Is Hospital', then allow people in. How can that not be a fair and open policy?

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-29563404915450447122008-06-05T13:16:00.002+01:002008-06-05T13:50:07.086+01:00

No, we've not been on holiday, asleep or even pretending to be the potential next US president. Well, Ok, so we tried to do the latter, but the queue was a bit big. The truth is I couldn't be bothered. Far too busy watching and doing things to actually sit down and write about them. So here is a quick synopsis of what has happened since early March...The Beers:Golden Plover is now a regular,

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-40295085386154940322008-03-13T17:28:00.004Z2008-06-24T18:03:27.096+01:00

By my reckoning, I must now be a D-List Celebrity. Soon the Tabloid press will be publishing photo's of me wearing nowt but a thong, Relaxing on a carribean beach. Of course it will be a fake - partly because I can't afford such a holiday (nor do I have the time), but mostly because there are some things that even the tabloids wouldn't dare publish. But that is not the point. I have studied

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6848106729865132095.post-39773788027099735362008-03-13T16:53:00.003Z2008-03-13T17:28:24.727Z

In hindsight, it appears I may have appeared anti-tax, anti government & anti health. Well, I maybe guilty on one charge there - but the others? No.I fully appreciate we need a tax system to pay for a civilised society. Obviously roads have to be mended and cleaned, rubbish collected regularily, the Police, Fire Service & Armed Forces need full funding to a job that is of prime importance to

Buntingford Breweryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02830064650813745571noreply@blogger.com0