Brewdenell 4

What a great way to stick two up to the new ridiculous alcohol guide line bollocks than with a cracker of a beer festival in January!

Yes this weekend saw the fourth annual Leeds based beer festival at the Brudenell Social Club - Brewdenell! Fourth time held and fourth time visited for this ghost.. and once again it didn't disappoint. The whole venue was rammed full of people, more so than last year I'd say, but this was no bad thing.. I got there slightly later than my Beer Ritz colleagues but we soon found a nice spot just by the keg bar (under a well placed fan) and tucked into a lot more beers.

My tipple of choice for the night was the strong IPAs from places I've never heard of, and places I can't remember! I do however recall trying some Edge Juggernaut DIPA and thinking it tasted far too much like hop oil. I then followed that with some Odell Myrcenary and once again was throughly impressed at how good that beer is!

I sampled a few dark beers too, but nothing really stood out apart from some Founders Dark Penance and Kirkstall Barrel Aged Drop Hammer, which had a very good condition to it compared to the last time I tried it and it was completely lifeless..

That's something I did notice about this year compared to last, there wasn't that much beer on offer. Maybe it was just because I went late on Saturday night and a lot had run out, but the selection seemed pretty slim in my opinion. That's to be my only gripe, I had a good night indeed and look forward to the next! Still going strong at the fourth showing and continuing in popularity, it's definitely on the beer festival calendar of the not to miss category.

I was interested to hear that Friends Of Ham had a stall down this year, but was unable to sample any meaty goods as they'd gone by the time I'd arrived. Oh well.. It's not like the pub is far away!

January is an interesting time to have a beer festival if you ask me. I think it gets missed off a few people's Golden Pints beer festival of the year as they might have forgotten about it by December. Only a minor point, it takes nothing away from a great festival.

When Did Beer Shops Stop Selling Beer?

Beer Ritz has been a shop selling beer in Far Headingley for coming close to twenty years now.. That's older than most breweries.. Well all the "crafty" ones anyway. We've moved with the times we like to think, but have remained relatively unchanged in what we deliver to our customers.

We brought Belgian and European beers into the heart of Leeds before it became cool. We started to stock Brewdog beers when they first opened way back when, and still do regardless of their "punk" rhetoric. We saw the mass importation of American hop forward beers, and subsequent following of style from British brewers. We've seen duty rises, brewery openings and even the unfortunate closures.. Hell, we nearly even closed ourselves, and would have if it wasn't for a man who's just as passionate about beer as I, if not more so.

The fact is that we've seen a LOT in this industry, and I can personally maintain that we've always given the customer what they really want... Beer.

It's no secret that over the past few years there has been a flourish of specialist beer shops opening around the UK over the past 2/3 years. More than a couple on our city doorstep as well. Now I'd never say this is a bad thing, in fact we're loving the competition!

The thing that interests me though is what the shops deliver. While these shops have good beer selections (some better than others) I've personally found that there's a lot of extra things to be bought in said establishments. Things like beer T-shirts with the shops logo printed upon. Beer mats in the similar ilk, carrier bags too.. it seems like it doesn't matter what beer you've bought as long as everyone knows where you bought it from!

Don't get me wrong, of course getting the word out there is important for business - so I guess the open question here is, do you think Beer Ritz is missing a trick buy not having lots of personalised merchandise?

An Old Enemy

Well I hope you're all rested and well after Christmas and New Years celebrations, because there's an old foe rearing it's ugly head.

It seems Dry January is back once again, but this time I personally think they've gone a step too far with their advertising... If you haven't seen it already there's a TV advert doing the rounds at the moment to promote this most ludicrous of "months" which I take a great deal of offense towards.

In the advert itself it's claimed that by partaking in Dry January you have "One less sin to worry about". Sin? SIN?!? Since when did drinking anything become a sin?? Except for drinking dragon seamen maybe!

Being not only a religious man, but also a man who's income is based upon alcohol, I find this term which is used in such relaxed referral to be very offensive! You know what really worries me about this advert though? ..
There's plenty of idiots who watch TV...

Let's not fudge the issue. There are a lot of people in this country who have a problem with alcohol, but these people aren't who the advert is directed at! Hell, most of these people probably don't even have a TV! The advert is directed at some people who will blindly follow the rules to make themselves feel better about themselves for no real reason.

Am I being too harsh? I don't think so.. Because If we start so publicly demonising alcohol in this way and making everybody think they're doing something wrong for consuming it, how long will it be before the Temperance prohibitionist movements come back and take the pints out of your hands?!

Want to give money to cancer funds? Just do that! It's a damn good cause, but you don't need to come up with an excuse to give money or raise money!

I just read the other day that the recommended daily limits are going to be changed soon.. Hands up if you think they're going to put it up...

If you put enough crap out there about how drinking is wrong, and how it's really, really bad for you it won't be long before enough idiots follow on and call for restrictions and bans to be put in place.

Since when did you people let someone else tell what and what not to drink? These snake oil salesmen have let themselves into your lives and made you think that you need to do what they say. Drink what ever the hell you want, just do it in moderation. I've seen this Try January thing going round at the moment. At least some people out there have some sense and don't want to see the fun/relaxation/joy/jobs/industry/fucking beer taken out of the common mans hand.

Just have a bloody beer, it's a miserable enough month already!

Ghosty Golden Pints

Well, it's been rather a while so I figured I'd leave it right to the last moment to rock out my Golden Pints...

Best UK Cask Beer: Anything pale from Ilkley, but mostly Tribus.

Best UK Bottled Beer: Siren - Dippy & The Equinox DIPA, runner up Tempest Marmalade On Rye DIPA.

Best UK Canned Beer: Brewdog Black Eyed King Imp. (If not for the ridiculous price tag, I would have drowned in the stuff!)

Best UK Keg Beer: Roosters Baby Faced Assassin, if anyone says other wise, they're wrong...

Best Overseas Bottled Beer: Founders KBS (very well played to James Clays for getting this over here!)

Best Overseas Canned Beer: Firestone Walker Union Jack.

Best Collaboration Brew: Not hugely keen on colab brews, too much for the fan-boys in my opinion, but I'm currently drinking a Key Lime Tau from Crooked Stave and Hawkshead as I type this.. (it was a gift, I'm not a beer fan-boy)

Best Overall Beer: Talk about choosing your favourite child! Well if I did have any children, I'd have to choose To Ol Like Weisse Directors Cut Imperial Berliner Weisse - just purely for the shock factor of how damn good that beer was.

Best Branding: Tempest have done the magic for me this year. Great move to go into 33cl bottles, and they're flying out right now.

Best Pump Clip: I don't really pay attention to them, but I'd have to give my props to Northern Monk Brew Co for making possibly the biggest pump clips ever!

Best UK Brewery: It'll have to be Mad Hatter for me this year. Not only because their beers are very good, but also because of a few following things - They regularly email me stock lists and are very quick to reply to queries. They are very prompt in delivering beer, and never get it wrong. They are incredibly friendly. They also have great branding. Hard working guys if I ever saw.. If you want to sell beer in Beer Ritz take note.

Best Overseas Brewery: It's got to be Firestone Walker this year for the sheer quality of beer they produce.

Best New Brewery Opening This Year: I honestly don't know the dates that breweries open, but First Chop is new to us and does a storming range of very popular Gluten Free beers.

Pub/Bar Of The Year: In the last few months my regular haunt has shifted from Arcadia to East Of Arcadia so take from that what you will..

Best Festival Of The Year: Leeds International was solid as ever.

Supermarket Of The Year: Marks & Spencers for a great range.

Independent Retailer Of The Year: Have you heard of Beer Ritz?

Online Retailer Of The Year: HAVE YOU HEARD OF BEER RITZ??

Best Beer Book/Magazine: A book I'm always going back to is Michael Jackson's Great Beer Guide 500 Classic Brews.

Best Beer Blog/Website: Loving the balls-out approach thats been going on over at Zythophile this year.

Simon Johnson Award For Best Beer Twitterer: Martin (@6townsmart)

Dumbass Decision Of The Year Award: Goes to Green King to limiting the import of Goose Island beers to IPA, Honkers and Urban Wheat.. WHERE'S THE BOURBON COUNTY?!?

Let's hope 2016 brings bigger and better things..

Illusion Of Price

People just don't know how much beer costs, it's as simple as that. And it's a fact that's beginning to get on my nerves more and more.

How often do you hear people complaining about the price of a pint, or how much a bottle of lager costs in a pub? I hear it all the time! And I find it pretty funny that no one ever looks twice at the price of a bottle of wine in a bar!!

We get it in the off trade all the time too.. People asking if we "have any deals on" or "I'm sure it's a good beer, but I'm not paying that much"

We don't do deals. We don't have 3 bottles for a fiver or any of that selling strategy. We can offer a 10% discount when you buy a case, but that's about it. We stick to a strict mark-up across our whole bottle range and believe we offer a fair price for all our beers. If they cost more, it's because the breweries sell it to us for more! It's as simple as that.

People just don't seem to understand it though. When I say to customers that we don't offer any multi-buy deals they look at me like I'm from another planet and usually leave in a huff.

It's not these people's faults though, heavens no!

It's the Supermarkets.

They've been doing it so long now we just assume that what they do is the norm. Two bottles of wine for £5, 5 beers for a tenner, or a case of twenty stubbies for less! Supermarkets have been driving down the price of alcohol for so long that our attitudes towards price have become so poisoned and deluded that we turn our noses up at a bottle of wine for £8, but are perfectly happy to pay 2 POUNDS FOR A BAG OF LETTUCE!!

LETTUCE!!!!!

Why don't we do it then? Well because we'd go out of business, simple as. All we sell is alcohol, so unfortunately we can't make massive fat profits on selling people a sandwich, packet of crisps and a drink, calling it a meal-deal for a fiver, whilst not making a margin on a bottle of beer they might buy as well.

Bring the ban on multi-buys to England, a ban on selling below cost price, and a cap on how low margins can dip on alcoholic products! We need it.

...and grow your own chuffin lettuce!