If only I was ten to Fifteen years younger.

[Bip 88]

!rulez! If only I was ten to fifteen years younger.

Heard yesterday that the couple that now serve behind the bar in the Shaftsbury Club are leaving to where I haven’t the foggiest, with the job comes a Bungalow nearby.

Wouldn’t this be a good time to get someone in who is sympathetic to the small brewer, someone who would rip out the gas pumps and the chillers for some hand pulled pumps and real micro brewery beers.

This maybe a one off, but yesterday I was talking to a bloke, who has lived around these parts for some years, you now how conversations goes, and it wasn’t long before the subject of going out for a drink popped it’s tired head above the bar stool.

Apparently he goes in the Nags Head most Saturday nights with the woman he is living with just for a social drink.

We got talking about beer and I told him about my predicament regarding not being able to get a descent pint of real ale here around Sawley.

He seemed to be amazed when I told him about the small brewer, I got the feeling that he was unaware that there was any.

When he goes in the Nags he drinks pedigree, I said to him have you tried anything else and the reply was no, lack of choice I told him, yes he said.

He seemed quite comfortable to pay £2-55 a pint which you might have guessed by now really annoys me.

I explained that the beer he was drinking came from Green King down in Suffolk some 140 miles away I also explained that Green King bought out Hardy and Hansons and not long after that closed the brewery with hundreds of local jobs lost.

I also explained how detrimentally to the atmosphere of the planet bringing that beer to Sawley was.

So I basically was right in my earlier presumption in a previous Topic that most of the general drinking public in and around Sawley are unaware of the smaller brewer even though not five miles away we have a very good small brewer at Shardlow.

The job in the Shaftsbury Club has to go to a couple of which I’m not but if by turning gay gets me the job then look out sailor here I come.

Bip.

[mick2me 3,033]

Hello Sailor

Never heard of the Age discrimination Act BiP

Get in there!

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Thats one job that always looks attractive, running a pub! Take it from me though Den, I worked behind the bar of a pub for a mate part time when I was in my late teens early 20's. It was the hardest work I've ever done! AND that includes crawling up a coal face with a heavy bag of tools around my neck all shift!

The good thing about the coal face was after 7 hours it was over for the day, someone else cleaned up after me and it was but five days a week.!!!

[Beefsteak 305]

I ran my own boozer in Ibiza for four years ,up to 20 hours a day 7 days a week for 8 months a year, I certainly couldn't do it now (Although it was fun at times but our bodies only let us remember the good times not the bad i.e. the 30 good nights in a season not the 160 others that totaly stunk

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

I only did it part time to help a mate out Ian and even though it was usually Fri, Sat and Sunday nights, I found it bloody hard work, and that was way back when closing time was 10-30pm! I also helped out on Saturday lunchtimes when Forest was at home and the pub was full of punters on their way to the match. Did some Wednesday evenings as "Manager" while the boss took his lady out for the night too.

No, a lot easier being a pit electrician than working behind the bar, and more sociable hours too!

[Beefsteak 305]

Usualy open at 11.00am close at 6am plus one and a half hours cleaning restocking fridges, and ,the best part of the day, 'Cashing Up', quick bite to eat into bed for 3 hours and back to work for 11am (if it was my turn, I had an assistant manager and we took it in turns to open up.) I always closed up though 'cos daft as it sounds there is no better feeling than closing up knowing that you have done for the night, and then that strange walk home in the twilight as Ibiza was just waking up.

But the best feeling of all was when SWMBO would come out for a visit and we'd go for a 'Skinny Dip' in the sea on the way to my appartment.

Next best was the last night of the 'season' knowing you could have a bloo*y good drink with your mates for a few days before flying back to the U.K. (Just in time for Bonfire night) to visit freinds and family before finding a real job for winter .

[Bip 88]

Listening to your two has right put me off?

Better stick to what I’m doing know that is ripping out old stuff and replacing with new stuff.

Found out too that the landlord isn’t tied down to a brewery so getting some hand pumps in to vender real micro brewery ale wouldn’t be a problem.

I suppose time will tell whether or not a new land lord will break from tradition and go for real beer as apposed to pasteurised beer from pasteurised swill producers.

Bip.

[Frank 13]

No good me and you taking it on mate - we'd end up drinkin' all the PROFITS !rotfl!

[radfordred 6,284]

Being brought up with my parents being landlord & landlady for over 40 years, plus Mrs Reds parents still running a watering hole & Mrs Red being a licence holder of a NUS student bar, I must admit if the sh1t hit the fan and I ended up out of work, I’m afraid taking a pub on would have to be last resort I would sooner clean toilet bowls with my tongue.

As for trying to keep real ale don’t do it nightmare just making yourself more work can’t beat pasteurized stuff chuck it down the cellar serve within minutes, I remember when we lived and helped out at my father in-laws pub which had quite a good reputation for real hand pulled beer, the 3 or 4 gallon you pulled off each day to clear the pipe sediment and beer flies (they do exist), had to be put back in the barrel that had the most in !!! Whatever it was!!! Through a stainless steel funnel and paper filter and a hand full of finings (fish swim bladders), don’t mention finings in the poacher (you’ll get barred for life) they all do it.

Dens don’t do it.

Next time your in IKEA get some kopparberg pear cider !!! honest its the nuts .

[Frank 13]

Mrs Red being a licence holder of a NUS student bar

Is that the Glo Bar Red?

[radfordred 6,284]

Mrs Red being a licence holder of a NUS student bar

Is that the Glo Bar Red?

No thats Trents ........... Mooch and The Venue formally The Ark Bar .

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Don't forget also Den, with "real ale" you have to keep the pipework immaculately clean all the time, or you'll have ruined beer!!!

Although it's still important to clean all beer pipes every few days or so.

No mate, it's bloody hard work behind the bar and most folks only see the "up front work", the rest is pre opening hours and after hours work. The worst is, even if you don't feel like doing anything, you've no choice!

[radfordred 6,284]

Don't forget also Den, with "real ale" you have to keep the pipework immaculately clean all the time, or you'll have ruined beer!!!

Although it's still important to clean all beer pipes every few days or so.

No mate, it's bloody hard work behind the bar and most folks only see the "up front work", the rest is pre opening hours and after hours work. The worst is, even if you don't feel like doing anything, you've no choice!

My Dad used to say " your like a budgie in a cage "

[Limey 242]

If it's a club, there must be some sort of committee, or board, that determines how things are run, who the next landlord will be, what the "feel" of the place is.

My suggestion would be to either get yourself on that committee, or find out who is on it and petition them for some local ales. A little education is probably needed (purchase price, minimum quantity, selling price, etc) - but I am sure a phone call to a brewery or two would set you up with that info.

Good luck!

[Bip 88]

Confronted the land lady of the Shaftsbury club last night with the rumour I had heard several days ago, about her and him her better half leaving, yes she said we are.

She told me they are taking over a place down south, Portsmouth to be precise.

Apparently she is from that part of the islands but he isn’t.

I had a feeling that she wasn’t local by the way she spoke.

She has family down there so I suppose we won’t be seeing them anymore once they have loaded the removal van so to speak, thank god.

A couple from Carlton is taking their place; lets hope one of them turns down the temperature of the beer chillers.

Worked out last night how to combat my bottom lip from sticking to the glass, I bought all my beer in one go.

I normally drink four pints while there but on the odd occasion have five. Last night I ordered four pints and took them on a tray to an empty table, [plenty of those on a Wednesday evening] placing the tray on the table I picked up the Evening post from the bar and proceeded to read the letters pages,.

By the time I had read those pages I was ready to start my first drink of the night.

Picking it up from the tray I could noticeably distinguish that it had warmed slightly having the effect when I took it from my mouth the glass didn’t take part of my lip skin away with it.

By the time I started my third pint the beer had warmed to the right temperature for me to taste what I had bought an hour ago. Next week I shall be ordering my beer over the phone an hour before I go, so as to allow the first pint to defrost a little and save my lip skin from being ripped from my mouth..

Bip.

[radfordred 6,284]

A year down the line is the Shaftesbury Social Club still open ?

[Bip 88]

I could give you a straight answer red and say yes it is but that wouldn’t satisfy me.

There’s no change in there, the beers still cold that hides the inferiority of it.

I stick to drinking Guinness now.

I did mention to the chairman about some hand pumps but got a distant look from him. I get the impression from the new steward he’s quite happy with the set up, well he would, less work for him.

Wednesday nights are a joke, only a hand full get in as apposed to five or so years ago when it was packed.

Last night it was ¾ full.

Sunday is the only night now it gets busy and that’s only up until ten-ish when people start leaving for their cocoa night caps.

Bip.

[.... 23]

Genuine question BIP.

The swing to local products including beer and various foodstuffs is encouraging I must agree. It's almost as though our tastes have gone full circle back to the days when pubs would have their own adjacent brewery and when we would eat locally-grown fruit, vegetables and meat.

It's heartening to see taking a swig of the local brew and I really think it's going to be huge in the future. North America seems to be picking up on this notion too if my experience is anything to go by with some excellent, what they term as 'craft breweries'.

Here's a point I'm interested in though. Where do the ingredients come from to make the likes of Harvest Pale etc. Are they locally grown or do they still travel hundreds of miles and in so contribute little to 'green issues'? Genuine question.

[Bip 88]

You have a point their Stu where do the likes of the hops and malt come from.

I hope locally or not to far away.

Until all the factors of producing a pint of beer are co-ordinated [sourced locally] one can’t really call a beer a locally produced product.

I would imagine that rule goes for more or less everything one buys in a shop or supermarket. Take locally grown potatoes where dose the fertiliser come from also the rain that’s watered them how far has that travelled in a cloud.

Bip.

[Limey 242]

I would bet that the hops, at least, are not grown locally. However, I think we need to be careful about getting carried away. The HEAVIEST ingredient in beer is, by far, WATER! So, even if the hops, malt, etc. are not locally sourced, you can ship many, many more pints worth per truck than you can the finished product. It is still more eco friendly to ship the ingredients (except the water) and brew the beer locally than to ship the finished beer!

Filled up two 5-gallon kegs yesterday for $75! 5 of "Big Mac" - a very respectable bitter, and 5 of "Sergeant" - a very drinkable "light bitter" very reminiscent of HP! Not bad at 75 cents a pint - both kegs are now installed in my basement "kegerator" and ready for drinking - well, except for the four pints Mary and I just finished off!