You know when you've been walloped!
The Wallops Wood is almost ready to be released and will be going out to the pubs at the very end of this week. As we've found in the past, beers with a bit more colour in them take a while longer to condition up, so it's been sitting in the conditioning vessels for a few more days. It is rather different to our other two offerings. It's a light chestnut in colour which I suppose puts it into the 'brown beer' category. This should please some of the people that won't drink the Swift One or the Quiver Bitter because they feel it's rather too light and that they feel at home with something that is more traditional. It isn't as red as we wanted it to be and I think we could improve on that with the next brew. As far as flavour goes, it tends rather more towards the malt than the hops, though there is a pleasing hop taste right at the finish. The aroma is light and pleasant. At 4.0% it is very drinkable and I look forward to trying a few pints.
There's been a nice uptake on our retail sales but most of it seems to be going out to Phil and Ross the builders. They say that it's being bought for friends but I reckon they drink it all themselves. It was Phil and Ross who managed to get the beer into their local, The Hop Inn in Southampton.
Things are settling down with sales to pubs. The peaks and the troughs are flattening out to a good solid customer base of regular outlets. These are the bread and butter accounts that are worth their weight in gold during the long dark winter months. My heart felt gratitude to all of them. So it all looks very promising as we go towards our fourth month of trading. Mind you, having said that, I could have done without the penny increase in beer duty that was announced in the budget today. If by some small coincidence the Chancellor is reading this blog, can I just ask him to lay off beer duty and put it instead on whisky, which he has left alone for quite a few years now. But of course he won't do that because he's Scottish.
And now........
It's very Spring like here with the temperature fluctuating like a mad thing and the occasional snow shower scudding across the valley. Nighttime frosts, have been quite nasty over the past few days. This is nothing to the large flocks of Fieldfares that seem to like the grassland down on the road towards Soberton. (In case you are interested Fieldfares rejoice in the slightly dubious latin name of Turdus). They also seem to like the masses of mainly juvenile Starlings. Other things in the bird department have been stalled a bit by the weather but there is still an impressive dawn and dusk chorus.
Greenery continues to appear in the hedgerows with the Elderflower leaves being much in evidence and the Honeysuckle starting to burst forth. Primroses are everywhere and the woodland floor is tightly covered in the brilliant green of young Bluebells. It's too soon to say if it will be a good blossom year but if the Celandines and the Primroses are anything to go by, it could be good.
There's been a nice uptake on our retail sales but most of it seems to be going out to Phil and Ross the builders. They say that it's being bought for friends but I reckon they drink it all themselves. It was Phil and Ross who managed to get the beer into their local, The Hop Inn in Southampton.
Things are settling down with sales to pubs. The peaks and the troughs are flattening out to a good solid customer base of regular outlets. These are the bread and butter accounts that are worth their weight in gold during the long dark winter months. My heart felt gratitude to all of them. So it all looks very promising as we go towards our fourth month of trading. Mind you, having said that, I could have done without the penny increase in beer duty that was announced in the budget today. If by some small coincidence the Chancellor is reading this blog, can I just ask him to lay off beer duty and put it instead on whisky, which he has left alone for quite a few years now. But of course he won't do that because he's Scottish.
And now........
It's very Spring like here with the temperature fluctuating like a mad thing and the occasional snow shower scudding across the valley. Nighttime frosts, have been quite nasty over the past few days. This is nothing to the large flocks of Fieldfares that seem to like the grassland down on the road towards Soberton. (In case you are interested Fieldfares rejoice in the slightly dubious latin name of Turdus). They also seem to like the masses of mainly juvenile Starlings. Other things in the bird department have been stalled a bit by the weather but there is still an impressive dawn and dusk chorus.
Greenery continues to appear in the hedgerows with the Elderflower leaves being much in evidence and the Honeysuckle starting to burst forth. Primroses are everywhere and the woodland floor is tightly covered in the brilliant green of young Bluebells. It's too soon to say if it will be a good blossom year but if the Celandines and the Primroses are anything to go by, it could be good.
