Brothel Creepers?

Another new customer today. It's the exotically (or possibly erotically) named Rai D'or in Salisbury. There has been a pub on the site since 1292 when it doubled up as a brothel. It is now a Thai restaurant and bar and the interior is wonderful with higgledy piggledy chairs and tables and a massive inglenook fireplace. Simon the owner, who is a sensible chap, cares about the food miles that things clock up so he would only take the beer if I was delivering to someone else in Salisbury or passing through to somewhere else. What's nice about this place is that he rang us on the recommendation of his locals. We must be doing something right if we are being talked about as far afield as Salisbury.

We are over halfway through the first brew of Wallops Wood and it seems to be going down a storm. It's very strange but we've had a number of dyed in the wool lager drinkers say that they would drink it in preference to their usual tipple. I would have thought they would go for either the Swift One or the Quiver Bitter as they are a hell of a lot more hoppy that the Wallops Wood. This was mentioned by one of the tasting panel when we did a stint on Radio Solent at the weekend. Mike Powell the presenter was great fun and thanks to him for getting us on the show. It was a simultaneous broadcast with Southern Counties Radio so the coverage was huge.

That's all for the moment as I've a bucket of things to do.

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.

No such thing as.......

..........bad publicity. Especially when we've had a couple of very good articles in the local papers. One was a small piece in The News and the other was a much larger piece in the Daily Echo. This came complete with a colour photo in which I made a very good impersonation of a large Cheshire cat. We hope to appear on Radio Solent within the next few weeks to talk about beer and stuff so keep an ear open for that. All of this sudden media interest is a result of a press release prepared by McKenna Campaigns and many thanks to them for that.

All things being good and true we hope to brew the Wallops Wood on Friday. It would have been tomorrow but we've run a bit low on oil for the boiler so it will have to wait another day. I'm really looking forward to this one. It is always more difficult to sell darker beers but I do believe we need something like it to create a comparison with the Swift One and the Quiver Bitter. I'm also rather partial to a more malty than hoppy pint on occasions, so that's me catered for.

We've picked up another couple of customers this week with the addition of The Alresford Golf Club and The Southdowns Hotel. Welcome to the fold. At long last I've also spent some time trying to sort out the delivery days so I'm not flying around Hampshire, Wiltshire, West Sussex and a little bit of Surrey like some blue bottomed thingy. And now... It's the Wallops Wood Nature Page

The last two days have had a tangible hint of Spring in them and the dawn and dusk chorus have responded with a massive increase in volume and participants. Arriving at work this morning I was greeted by three Skylarks vying for supremacy in the heavens, our standard pair of mewling Buzzards, noisy and nosey Pied Wagtails, the peeping of the feral Pigeon squabs in their nest above us, the harsh cry of the Sparrowhawk as it blasted through between the buildings, a Green Woodpecker laughing like a drain on the other side of the lane and the distant calls of Blackbirds and Robins. Not bad for the first week in March!

There are also signs of greenery. The hedgerows are just starting to show a little emerald with the first few shoots of Hawthorn bursting through. This used to be picked by kids on their way to school to put into their cheese sandwiches. Which reminds me. I saw my first Yellowhammer yesterday. I haven't heard his call of "little bread and no cheese" but it can't be long.

Out delivering yesterday I passed a massive patch of Lesser Celandine which was so poke your eye out yellow that it is beyond description. Amazing! The primroses are starting their first show as well and if the weather holds the banks will soon be decked with their beautiful pale flowers.