New beers to showcase!

You’ll remember I mentioned last time the Great British Beer Festival was looming up fast. What I couldn’t tell you then – as it was still under wraps – was that we’re showcasing a completely new cask beer at Earl’s Court this year.

It’s called Old Golden Hen – a 4.1% golden beer based on a new hop variety called Galaxy, which gives it a tropical, aromatic, fruity nose. Absolutely gorgeous, even though I say so myself.

I got the idea when chatting to our local hop merchant. He was telling me about some hops he’d brought over from Australia, and I felt it was worth experimenting with. Everyone at Bury St Edmunds is really excited about it, and I’m sure the CAMRA crowd will love it too.

So, a real scoop for my blog readers – a world-exclusive, and you saw it here first!

Obviously, that’s pretty special in itself. But it’s not all we’re unveiling at the show. For the first time ever, we’re serving in cask form two much-loved beers that are normally only available in bottle. Very Special IPA – our 7.5% tipple based on a traditional 1820s IPA recipe we researched at the brewery a few years ago – is one of these little gems. The other is the 6.5% Old Crafty Hen. The beer tickers will love it! So will any real drinker.  Three new beers, or one totally new and two variants, is certain to draw lots of attention. But rest assured, there’ll be plenty of old favourites too, like Old Speckled Hen, Greene King IPA and St Edmunds.

Doors open at 5pm on August 2^nd, and it runs through to 7pm on Saturday the 6^th, and unlike the 2012 Olympics, you’ll have no trouble getting a ticket. I’m really looking forward to it.

What you’ll not find there is IPA Smooth, but I was happy enough to sink a few at the Abbey Bar at Cambridge United’s ground the other day when I went along with some Rotary Club mates to see them play Ipswich Town in a pre-season friendly. Trouble was, we were still supping our IPAs when the game started, and by the time we took our seats 10 minutes late, Cambridge were 2-1 up! Given they’re three divisions below the championship side, that was pretty good going, and we were kicking ourselves for missing the action. Still, we saw Ipswich pull one back, and Cambridge miss two late chances to win, so it was still a good evening with the lads.

With the football season almost on us – it kicks off again on August 13 – I’ve been keen to watch a bit more cricket, so 16 of my neighbours were at Chelmsford the other night watching Essex Eagles play Kent Spitfires in a 20-20 evening game. Good game, but Kent just pipped us at the post. There’s always next season…Guess who supplied the beers for the journey?

I mentioned my Rotarian friends a moment ago. I’ve been in Rotary for some time – it’s played quite a big role in my life. I helped found the Bury Abbey Club about five years ago, and we’re all quite ‘young’ and active in local business life, which makes it a bit easier for us to fund raise. In our best year we raised  £20,000, and this year I’m part of our fund-raising team looking for new ideas. Every year we hold a big quiz in Bury called “Test the Town”, and people pay £100 for a table of four. For our auction of promises we aquire some pretty decent prizes. I managed to get hold of an England player’s rugby shirt one year, and the bidding for that went very well. It’s coming up in October, so I’d better start seeing what auction prizes we can get together this year.

Before that, though, I’m taking a short break. We’re off to the Cotswolds to stay at a lovely Old English Inn in Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire. We’re really looking forward to that – it’s a beautiful part of the world and there are some amazing pubs to visit and sink a few good ales in. Excellent preparation for GBBF, I’d say.

Beers all round

 Beers All Round

It was Celebration Time last week. Greene King’s Annual Results were released to the City while we were attending our End of Year Conference, and Brewing and Brands had another good year.

I’m really chuffed that our sales continue to grow, even though the beer market as a whole is still having a tough time. Of course, it does help if you brew the UK’s Number One Cask Ale (IPA), the UK’s Number One Premium Cask Ale (Abbot Ale), the UK’s Number One Premium Ale (Old Speckled Hen), as well as Belhaven Best, Scotland’s Number One Ale.

Success like that reflects well on the hard work we all do at Bury, and Dunbar, just as much as the quality of our beer. We’ve a great team, and it was very satisfying to look back on another successful year and feel all the effort has been so worthwhile.

It was good fun catching up with the boys..and girls.. from Belhaven, who were down for the conference, and we enjoyed a few Belhaven IPAs with them. Would have been rude not to! 

But no rest for the wicked, and we were quickly all hard at work again planning the next event which was at Goodwood, where we were operating an Old Speckled Hen  Bar, for the Festival of Speed weekend.

It was a superb event, with over 180,000 racing and car fans attending, and the stars were out in force – Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button (with his very pleasant girlfriend, I’m pleased to say) and Mark Webber of the current crop of Formula One heroes, plus some of the biggest names from the past including Nigel Mansell, John Surtees and Sir Stirling Moss.

There was also an amazing sight, which you may seen in the papers, of a jaw-dropping 28-metre high sculpture of a white Jaguar E-type, created to celebrate its 50^th anniversary. Quite extraordinary, and what with all the other dream cars around, my Volvo seemed just a little less alluring when I drove home on the Sunday.

Elliot, [Bexon the younger] was at Goodwood, helping out on the bar, and he’s now looking forward to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend. Let’s hope Lewis and Jenson can give the crowds something to cheer about.

Elliot will be over this weekend and I hope to put him to good use in the garden as we tackle the tri-annual cut of the hedge. Being a rugby player he is better at lugging logs than me

If the weather stays warm we will need to seek refreshment afterwards at the local. The weather has certainly been helping beer sales – and I suppose if you can’t sell beer in this kind of weather, you really shouldn’t be in the game. It’s interesting to see how well blonde beers have been doing, including our own summer seasonal, Sundance. I’ve always felt blonde, or golden beers, are every bit as refreshing as a lager in these temperatures – but with the advantage of carrying rather more flavour

Not that I was drinking blonde at the Lobster Potty Festival the other day. I mentioned previously we’d soon be up at Sheringham for this lovely weekend, and the weather was fantastically kind to us. Seven of us steadily worked our way  through the 36-pint IPA pin and the bottled beers I’d brought, and we also enjoyed cask Abbot in the Lobster pub. A great event, and you could certainly tell we’d been spending time outside – lobster faces all round, I’m afraid.

Talking of great events, it’s not long now until the Great British Beer Festival, and we’re starting to plan our stand for the Earl’s Court exhibition centre. It’s the country’s biggest beer festival by miles – they had 66,000 people there last year over the five days, and apparently ticket sales are up by 27% on this stage last year, so it could be a record-breaker.

It’s CAMRA’s 40^th birthday this year, and it’s also the last year it’ll be held at Earl’s Court before it returns to where it used to be held for many years, at the smart new Olympia. There’ll be over 700 real ales, ciders and foreign beers, so it should be an amazing party atmosphere. August 2-6. Might be an idea to book your place now. See you at the Greene King bar…where the best beer is of course.

ends

The Potty Festival

We’ve just had a great time on a camping weekend up at Sheringham on the North Norfolk coast. There were 20 of us with myself and Sharon, mainly mates from our local, and the idea was to plan ahead and get some reconnaissance in for the great Lobster Potty Festival we’ll all be going to next month. You’ve got to do these things properly, haven’t you?

It’s a wonderful event, the Potty Festival, with about 20 sets of Morris dancers from round the country taking over the town for the weekend. All the streets are closed, it gets very busy. As well as all the crustacean delights, there’s a beer festival too, so you can see why I’m keen to get along. Nothing like following your own shellfish interests. Boom boom!

The beer festival’s held at the Lobster Pub, which we naturally checked out during our recent stay.  An excellent pub, with some rather fine Abbot to enjoy along with our Cromer crabs and crayfish. All in all, a most successful planning weekend, and we’re all looking forward very much to the real thing.

Last week I attended an intriguing beer tasting event at the English Wine Competition with six Masters of Wine at Bury St Edmund’s Apex Centre last week. They’d asked me along to discuss the possible overlaps and synergies between beer and wine, and get to know each other and just share an enjoyable debate. Which is exactly what it was. They weren’t wine snobs, quite open-minded in fact. I think I educated them about the error of their ways!

While at the Apex, I was tickled to see there’s a country music evening called “Three Essentials For A Great Night Out – Wine, Women and Song”. Well, they got two out of three of them right.

They seem to be keen their drinks in the Apex marketing department – the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band are also in town soon, and the evening’s called “The Hair Of The Dog.” It might be fun.

I think I’d probably prefer it to another Apex event I also saw on the billboards: “The Lady Boys Of Bangkok – 16 of the world’s most beautiful showgirls, and every single one of them a Thai male.”

Yes, well moving swiftly on, I was amazed to find my boy Elliott actually remembered Father’s Day. Not something he’s made a big point of over recent years. Perhaps it’s because he’s moving across from Burton to Bury and will be living at home with us soon. Oh dear, oh dear. Time to start cramming the fridge again – locusts have nothing on my lad. The Bank of Mum and Dad had better stand by for some serious action.

The Gardener’s Arms in our village will probably be seeing as much of him as we do. Must warn landlord, Steve Gardener. Yes, that really is his surname  – not that the pub’s named after him, as it’s been there since the 1500s. But it’s a nice coincidence, and I wouldn’t mind a pub being called The Bexon Arms. Got rather a nice ring to it, methinks.

Here’s something else it’s hard to believe – it was the longest day of the year on Tuesday (21^st) and it’s Midsummer’s Day on Friday. Where’s the summer going?! It’ll soon be gone at this rate.

Still, I’m looking forward to some cricket in a few weeks. I’ve got tickets for a 20:20 evening at Chelmsford next month when Essex Eagles take on Kent Spitfires. It’s my favourite form of the game – five-day Test Matches can be hard work, but these 20:20s are a great way to relax with a few beers and mates after work. I may very well see you there.

Doing the rounds….

As I do my rounds in the pubs – I’ve always told you it’s a tough job – it’s been fascinating over the last year or so to hear people talking about the new IPA font.

You’ll have seen it, I’m sure– the one with the silver, stream-lined ultra-modern look standing high on the bar. You really can’t miss it.

But it’s not the font’s stylish good looks people are talking about. No, it’s the fact it can serve up two very different heads for your pint. There’s the Northern head – rich and creamy. And when the barman/maid flicks a switch, bingo, there’s the Southern head – crisp and clean.

Clever stuff, and from Greene King’s point of view, a big financial investment– these fonts don’t come cheap. But it’s proving well worth it because this unique bit of kit really does the business. Real ale aficionados are intrigued by something they’ve never seen before. They love the idea of being able to order the head they want on their IPA, whichever part of the country they’re in. And it’s also creating fresh interest around real ale and encouraging people who might not have tried it before to give it a go. Which has got to be a good thing, as a number of ex-lager drinkers are now discovering.

If you’ve tried an IPA from one of the new fonts, you’ll probably know the two different heads mean the pint will taste slightly different, depending on what you choose. Dispensing a creamy Northern head gives the IPA a smoother, softer mouth feel. That’s because some of the beer’s hoppy quality gets caught in the foam, and as you drink through the head you’ll get a less bitter taste.

With the Southern head, the taste feels lighter and crisper, with a tad more bitterness.

Speaking personally, as I was brought up in the Midlands, where the beer always had a tight head although now a bit further south I have tuned into the Southern style. But it’s good to be able to drink the Northern head on my Abbot when in Burton on Trent seeing my lad.

So then, two beers from the same font – something that’s never been seen before in British pubs. Must be why the Marketing Department came up with the strapline “Taste the Revolution in Fresh Cask Beer” when we launched it.

And I’m glad to say a lot of people are tasting it our “revolution” ,liking it, and that IPA drinkers often switch between them of a session, as they like both tastes.

There’s something else about the new font that’s also intriguing for customers. Because it sits so high on the bar, they can actually see the bar staff pouring the beer in to their pint. Most fonts, of course, dispense the liquid lower down, out of sight below the bar.

This high visibility adds to what many people in the trade call the “theatre” of the occasion, and I can see what they mean. It reminds me, though, of the old days of summer when I was a boy and Mr Whippy used to come round our street and we’d be hooked watching as he teased out the ice cream and swirled it round the cone. A bit like that Fry’s Chocolate Five Boys advert, with the face changing from desperation through to expectation, acclamation and realization – it’s Fry’s!

Anyway, you get my drift. People very often drink with their eyes and the new font certainly catches the eye.

We had the fonts in action at the Suffolk Show the other day – yes, another festival I’ve been involved in, this time at Trinity Park in Ipswich. It’s our county’s biggest event, and this year we sponsored ‘’Eat Street’’, featuring the best local food and drink, just as we did at Bury St Edmunds for our own festival a few weeks ago. Our bar looked great and with over 100,000 people over the 2 days they worked up a lot of thirst for IPA, Abbot, St Edmund’s Ale and our seasonal Ale Fresco.

As you know, I’m usually flying the flag for Abbot Ale whenever I can. But I have to say – and I would, wouldn’t I? – that St Edmunds is a mighty fine drink too. I was pleased to find it in very good nick when I popped into The Ivory Bar, a new café bar in Bury that opened at the end of last year. The staff were nice and I certainly enjoyed an extremely flavoursome pint.

Signing off then, they often say the test of a good beer is if it’s worth travelling for. I’m delighted to say a few of our military boys felt a 600-mile round trip to pick up some IPA was well worth travelling for the other day. Their unit is deployed with NATO in Brussels, and to help celebrate the Queen’s Birthday we offered them 100 cases. Offer gratefully accepted, they made the round trip in the day and I’m sure received a massive cheer when they got back to base. I hope the party went with a swing?. Here’s me, my boss Steve and Lt Col Duncan Hardy from NATO. Can you tell who’s who?

Real Beer & Food Festival at Bury St Edmund last weekend

Our Real Beer & Food Festival at Bury St Edmund last weekend just couldn’t have gone better. The sun shone on both days. The beer and food lasted ‘til the end (just).  And if the marquees were billowing a bit in Sunday’s winds, the heavens were kind – which, when you’ve got six to seven thousand people to entertain and nearly 30 outdoors stalls, was a mighty relief for myself and all the brilliant Greene King organizing team.

The nine real beer tasting sessions I conducted in one of the marquees were packed every time, and my double act on stage with beer writer Melissa Cole worked very well (though I reckon some of the men were  surprised to be taught beer by a sparky young woman who obviously knows and adores her ale).

 Audiences were a mixture of knowledgeable drinkers and some real ale virgins (they loved it!). We only had 30 minutes in each session, so had to move briskly through the basics of brewing and ingredients (plenty of barley on the tables for sampling purposes) and then explain how our taste buds and olfactory senses operate when we’re savouring and comparing beers.

After that, it was a question of getting the audience to slurp and taste the three beers on their tables, with T-shirts for those who could identify them correctly. Old Speckled Hen, Abbot Ale and Strong Suffolk were our ‘mystery beers’ and quite a few people walked away with prizes – no surprise really, as they’re all highly distinctive beers that beer connoisseurs would recognize instantly.

My beer and whisky tasting sessions also went down extremely well. I hosted them with David Fitt, who used to brew with me at Bury but is now distiller at the English Whisky Company in Norfolk. The synergies between our two products and our commitment to top-quality local produce meant we really ‘blended’ as presenters.

While this was going on, Greene King’s chief beer taster, my colleague Susan Chisholm, was conducting masterclasses in beer tasting across the road in our sample room in the heart of the brewery. These were more in-depth beer analysis sessions than our 30 minutes allowed, with flavour wheels and sniff pots, and they were just as well attended.

There were also a couple of women-only sessions called A Girl’s Guide To Real Beer, where Susan and Melissa explained the kind of things many women would like to know about beer but are often afraid to ask. Who knows what they actually discussed in there, but they seemed to have fun. Just as long as they weren’t rude about my splendid new red-striped shirt, which far too many people, including my rugby friends, seemed to think was pink. I may be a modern brewer, but come on, please!

Standing around outside in the lunchtime session on Saturday, with Abbot in hand, listening to local bands and watching the young children dancing away, it felt quite magical really. Bury St Edmunds is a lovely town with a great sense of community, and this festival reflected that superbly. I think it’s something all brewers should think of doing if they can. We all need to reach out to our communities and connect what we’re doing with the people around us, some of whom are customers, some just good neighbours.

It was a nice feeling to retire to the nearby Fox at close of play on Saturday, and catch up with Sharon and my boy for a quiet meal. Not that quiet, actually, as we bumped into some of the organizing team and guests also dining there

Over a few well-earned ales, we estimated we’d have helped over 6,000 people learn a little more about beer by the time the festival was over – a pretty good weekend’s work I’d say.

Incidentally, the Fox, which is run by one of our former employees and had a fabulous makeover a few years ago, is a great example of a pub supporting its local community. All the materials that went into its six very glamorous new bedrooms were sourced locally, even though it meant the licensees Ron and Sheila Blackmore had to trawl hard and long to find what they wanted. It was well worth the effort – and they get a lot of customers who appreciate what they’ve done (just look at their Trip Advisor site to see).

So, with the marquees now packed up and the festival and my Head Brewer’s Lunch over for another year, it’s back to ‘normal’ life again. Though I’m sure that won’t last long – something new’s always coming along at Westgate Brewery.

I’ll sign off for the week with a good luck message to pubs everywhere who’ll be screening the European Champions League final this Saturday, at 7.45pm (on Sky and ITV). It should be a cracking match, and a great end to the season.

May the Abbot be with you.

Oh and here’s a pic of yours truly with George Howell, Brewing Director of our sister brewery Belhaven, doing what we do best.

here’s a pic of yours truly with George Howell, Brewing Director of our sister brewery Belhaven, doing what we do best

Ten years ago this week

It was ten years ago this week I joined Greene King as Head Brewer, and by happy coincidence, the anniversary fell on the day of my annual Head Brewer’s Club Lunch. What a tremendously satisfying feeling to celebrate my decade at Bury St Edmunds with 100 of the country’s top licensees and their partners, and enjoy a very sociable meal, beautifully complemented by some of my favourite beers.

Ever since I took over at the Westgate Brewery, I’ve felt privileged to be custodian of the nation’s finest ale portfolio. It’s been a joy throughout, and we’ve done so much in time, including major investments in the brewery. But all the work I and my brewing team do is just the first part of the process of delivering a perfect pint. As you’ll  know, real ale is a living product that’s still developing after it leaves the brewery. It only achieves its best state when it’s been looked after properly in the pub cellar. Which means we’re totally dependent on the licensee to nurture our beer and present it in tip-top condition to the customer.

It’s because the role of the licensee is so crucial to real ale that we set up the Head Brewer’s Club two years ago. We wanted to salute and encourage the great real ale licensees. And by giving them a Head Brewer’s Club plaque to put on the wall, as well as other promotional assistance, we could help them show the world this was a pub well worth drinking in. A bit like a Michelin star, really. And as hard to come by, too – we  don’t just give these out to anyone. There’s an independent quality-checking process, so for a licensee to be invited to join does really mean something.

We’ve now got 260 licensees in the Club, all of them wonderful ambassadors for our beers. It’s another of my very pleasant duties to get round as many of their pubs as I can to say ‘Well Done’ in person.

I’ve a way to go yet, as several of my guests at the lunch this week reminded me. But I’ll push on happily, not just for the beers I’ll enjoy there but for the welcome and the friendships you make as you go round the trade. That’s such a central part of our business, and it’s why so many of us wouldn’t work anywhere else.

Pub camaraderie  was picked up by our guest speaker at the lunch, Gyles Brandreth, the former MP and multi-talented media man, who quoted Hillaire Belloc’s famous remark “that there’s nothing worth the wear of winning but laughter and the love of friends.” So true, though he might have added in Abbot Ale as well!

Gyles must have made a lot of new friends on the day – he was hilarious, and not because of those woolly jumpers, which he’s long since abandoned. He reminded the audience they’d won first prize in the lottery of life when they became a member of the Head Brewer’s Club, and threw in anecdote after anecdote about his time in Parliament and his dealings with the Queen.

He’s written books on the Monarchy, has Gyles, and he clearly knows the Royal Family pretty well. When he was Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s Government, it was he who had to physically sign off every cheque – and the other signatory had to be the Queen herself. He said he asked her once why there had to be two signatures. “Which of us, Your Majesty, do you think they don’t trust?”

He also let slip that not only is St Edmund’s Ale, his favourite beer, it’s the Duke of Edinburgh’s too – though he confessed later the Duke might not have been concentrating fully during that part of their recent conversation. However, he was on totally firm ground, he said, when reporting that the Prime Minister was a fully-signed up pub supporter. Gyles had bumped into David Cameron recently and said he was speaking at Greene King soon. The PM had instantly replied: “Good for you, the pub is right at the heart of this thing I keep talking about.”

I certainly feel that’s true. As long-standing community supporters, we’re very much part of the Big Society. It shows in so many ways. To take just one small example, we had a charity collection at the lunch – and a lot of money was raised for Focus 12, a local drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization, whose patrons are Russell Brand and Davina McCall. They do some great work, and it was heartening to see the Club members give so generously.

You’ll also see lots more of our community involvement in the Real Beer and Food Festival Greene King is staging this weekend at Bury St Edmunds (21^st and 22^nd May). There are many local suppliers involved, as well as live music from local bands.

There’ll be so much to enjoy – lots of lovely sausages, cheese, chutney, beef, oysters, cakes, jam and ice cream, as well as local whiskies and ciders – plus, of course, the finest real ales in the world!

I’ll be there, hosting beer tastings at various stages over the weekend, and I’m so looking forward to having a wonderful time.

If you havn’t  got yourself a ticket yet, I’d really encourage you to come along. We had over 4,000 visitors last year, and I expect even more this weekend. Do take a look at us on Facebook.com/stedmunds, and come on down. I look really forward to meeting you.

What a wedding! What a great day!

What a wedding! What a great day! Made me feel extremely patriotic and proud.
Not that I was there, mind you. Sharon and I spent all morning watching from the comfort of our own bed.  Sad to say, my Celebration Pale Ale didn’t make it either – despite our offer to supply as much as they’d like for the Wedding Breakfast.
Still, that was always a bit of a long shot, and I know that gallons of it were drunk in Greene King pubs across the country to celebrate the occasion. There was a tremendous feel-good factor around the place, wasn’t there? Sharon and I were very conscious of it when we went to our local The Gardeners Arms for afternoon BBQ.
It was still there a few days later when I took part in a Charity bike ride. Thirty of us went on 15 mile circuit, taking in six pubs along the way, so I was definitely very feel-goodish after that!
More celebrations this weekend – a real sporting bonanza if ever there was one, and most of it on the doorstep.
Top of my list is Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club’s Sevens Tournament on Sunday. Some of the country’s top 7s players were there, from clubs including Northampton Saints, Saracens, Welsh Warriors, Blackheath and many other high-profile names. But we also saw the full England 7s team, getting in some practice before their next big international event at Twickenham on May 21-22. That’s the penultimate round of the HSBC World Series. England are currently second in the league table, just behind New Zealand, so it’ll be great to see them up close on Sunday.
Sevens rugby really is pure entertainment: you see some amazing skills, all at supersonic speed. We’re also lucky enough to have England star Chris Ashton come along to watch and present the prizes at the end. A good lad, he was here last year. I couldn’t persuade him to do a celebratory dive as both Saints lost in the semi final and England just lost to The Samurai Barracudas in the final
Just down the road, though, at the Victory Ground, there’s another big event that day – Essex Cricket Club are played The Unicorns, the new scratch side of the best Minor Counties players plus old pro’s and up and coming youngsters. Essex are home to England players Ravi Bopara and James Foster, and of course Alastair Cook, who’s just been named England’s One Day International captain. Meanwhile, while that’s going off, Man U were playing Chelsea at Old Trafford on which the Premiership ‘was’ decided. Nail-biting stuff.
Truth to tell, I’m not quite the football fan I once was. Watching that TV documentary the other night on Bobby Charlton and Man U’s Munich air disaster reminded me why I’d slightly fallen out of love with the game. Just contrast the behavior of Sir Bobby with the prima donnas we have these days. Something’s gone wrong somewhere. That said, we all love a close-run race, and what a great result for Man U against Chelsea.
Back to my other passion, beer and food, and I’m glad to report The Real Beer and Food Festival Greene King is staging in Bury on May 21-22 is coming along very nicely. Ticket numbers are strong, and I’m starting to get pretty excited. Do try to get along if you can – I’m doing some food and beer tastings, and there’s so much lovely stuff for you to try. Have a look at the website, and prepare to be tempted. Very tempted.
As I’ve suggested before, why not join up to the ‘St Edmunds Beer’ Facebook group (www.facebook.com/stedmunds) for regular updates and announcements? And for more information on the Festival,  please email realbeerandfoodfestival@greeneking.co.uk. Do hope I see you there.
Finally, I’m delighted to say my old Mum is out of hospital and back home now after a  fall. She’s 93, so these things happen, but it’s awful whenever it does. Happily, she insisted we went to the pub for lunch as soon as she was out (you can see where I get it from – I had no chance, really), and thoroughly enjoyed her fish and chips. That’s my girl!

On holiday……

I’m on holiday. And rugby, beer, cycling and some more beer just about sums up my time away from Westgate Brewery this past week.

The  rugby – one of my other passions in life, after beer and curry – was when I went to see my boy play at his club, Burton Rugby Football Club. He’s in the Colts side and is a good prospect, and it’s always great to see him in action. Burton’s a fine place to learn his rugby – high standards and very sociable. It was founded back in 1870 by brewers sitting in the pub, so it was always going to be my kind of club.

Our local rugby club in Bury is also full of great lads, and it was a pleasure to be with them last weekend for the end of season Ball.

Rugby and beer go so well together – it’s just one of the reasons Greene King has got deeply involved with IPA sponsorships of England Rugby and three big clubs, Wasps, Harlequins and Sale Sharks. I couldn’t be there for that massive game at Twickenham on Easter Saturday when Wasps took on Bath. But given Wasps took a real hammering, perhaps it was just as well. Hopefully they can bounce back against Exeter in a few weeks’ time.

As you’ve seen from earlier blogs, I really like my cycling these days, and we’ve been drifting around the Suffolk countryside in fabulous weather. Popped in to the Five Bells at Hesset the other night, which does great steak and seafood.

The Mason’s Arms in Bury was another pub I wanted to pop into last week, and I wasn’t disappointed there either. My good mate Abbott was in splendid form!

The Mason’s Arms is on Trip Advisor, as are so many pubs these days – and someone described it as a “rather cool, ‘chilled’ place” with “homemade meals at uninflated prices.” Sums it up well.

I had to break off from holiday on Wednesday to be there for the opening of the Bury St Edmunds Beer Festival. Tough life, eh? I’m always happy to help the local Camra branch, and gave the organizers some St Edmunds Ale, XX Mild, Olde Trip, Alepril Fool and, of course, our new Royal Wedding Celebration Ale. That will have added some fun at the Apex over the bank holiday weekend.

Wasn’t it an amazing weekend? Not only Good Friday and Easter Sunday and Monday, but also St George’s Day too. And great weather too.

Lots of pubs are getting involved in St George’s Day activities these days, and I’m glad it’s starting to be recognised as an event worth celebrating properly. Some did beer festivals, some had the morris dancers in – and so many dressed themselves up in red and white to make people feel proud to be English.

Of course, it’s the Royal Wedding this Friday – another reason to feel proud. And many people are taking the Tuesday to Thursday off this week and treating themselves to a long break.

I see about 250 of our tenanted pubs are getting behind the Wedding in a big way, and “Partying For A Good Cause” as they put it. They’re going to be raising thousands of pounds for charities, including Help for Heroes. Well done, guys. Have a great day, and enjoy that Celebration Pale Ale!

Let’s just hope the rain holds off. Pubs could do with some luck – they haven’t had much for a while. What with the VAT rise in January and the Budget last month, things haven’t been easy for licensees anywhere – so I’m really hoping they’re humming with customers over the next week or so.

There’s few things better than seeing a pub garden full of happy people, soaking up the sun and hospitality and really enjoying themselves. As I carry on my cycling with the lovely Sharon this weekend, I’m really looking forward to seeing lots of happy pub goers everywhere. Here’s to a great weekend!

Says John, “I will be joining hundreds of thousands of others in deciding that the best place to celebrate the great event is a pub with a great pint of ale. On such an important national occasion it is totally appropriate to toast the happy couple with real ale, which is, after all, Britain’s national drink.

“Whatever the Royal Family choose to drink on the big day, people up and down the country will be supporting British brewers and farmers by raising a glass of fresh, flavoursome, cask conditioned beer to William and Kate.  I will be sending an invitation to them to visit our historic brewery in the heart of Bury St Edmunds to learn to appreciate the flavour, aroma and wonderful character of quality ale. Brewing has been part of life here for the last ten centuries, and, even if I say so myself, the beer produced here is fit for a king…”

Out on my bike

Got the bikes out last weekend and went in search of countryside and beer. Suffolk is blessed with plenty of both. The other great thing for weekend cyclists like me and my partner Sharon, it’s flat!

We headed for The Six Bells in the lovely village of Horringer, near the Ickworth Estate. The garden is perfect to sit out in and soak up the rays, and a few pints. They do a great gourmet burger too. You need your fuel when you’re pedal pushing.

   Back on the bikes, we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon’s cycling before finding ourselves at The Gardener’s Arms at Tostock, another lovely Cask Marqued and Head Brewer club pub, which I knew does a wicked curry.

Beer and curry being two of my favourite things, we just had to try the beef curry, with an Abbot or two to accompany. You can see why I wasn’t driving.

   We were fine, if a tad saddle sore, when we finally made it home. Turning on the news, I was staggered to see one of the Grand National horses I mentioned last week came in first. Kicked myself for being too busy to put something on it.

With the weather still glorious on Sunday, there was nothing for it but to catch up on the gardening. I’m not the most green-fingered of gardeners – a tractor and napalm pretty much sums up my approach! But it’s made easier and more bearable by a bit of light refreshment as you go along, and the prospect of a barbecue when it’s all done. With my good mate Abbot, of course.

Not sure the weather’s going to be quite so hospitable this weekend – looks like summer will be setting in with its usual severity, according to the forecasts. Still, there’s plenty of sport to keep up the spirits – four Cup semi-finals (two at Wembley, two at Hampden Park), and then on Sunday the Marathon. I may be able to cycle 20 miles or so across the Suffolk countryside, but the idea of running 26 miles fills me with awe and dread. Hats off to the 30,000 who manage it, quite a few of them from our office in Bury St Edmunds and many more from our pubs across the country, staff and customers.

  If you’re there in London spectating, or just watching the race at home, look out for the pubs that line the Marathon’s route. Apparently, there are 88 of them, and many of them dress themselves up on the Saturday night before to theme themselves and lift the spirits of the runners.

Last year, the Liberty Bounds at Tower Hill won the prize for the best-dressed pub and it’s certainly a decent place to watch the runners go by as I know for sure it looks after its beer.

I’m always impressed by the wheelchair race – extraordinary how determined they are. And how fast. They normally beat the men’s winner by a good half hour.

The Marathon is one of the biggest fund-raising days in the charity calendar – it raises £40-odd million each year, and it keeps on rising. That’s true of pubs too. I saw the other day they raise well over £50 million a year from their customers to give to great causes. One more reason why it’s amazing our Government’s not supportive of pubs. They are the original Big Society!

  I’m still waiting to hear back from Buckingham Palace after our offer to supply Kate and William with Celebration Pale Ale for their wedding breakfast. But I’m tempted to make another offer, this time to David Cameron and his wife. Did you see those pictures of them at the airport the other day, flying off for Samantha’s 40^th birthday break in Spain? Didn’t look very happy, did they? So to cheer them up, why don’t they come to the Real Beer and Food Festival Greene King is staging in Bury St Edmunds on May 21^st and 22^nd? They’d have a much better time, I’m convinced of it. And I’d promise not to bend his ear on how the Budget’s beer duty rise was sheer madness!

I’ve mentioned the Festival in my Blog before, and I’m really looking forward to a great weekend. One of my old brewing colleagues at the Westgate Brewery, David Fitt, who’s now a distiller at The English Whisky Company in Roudham, Norfolk, is bringing a couple of his whiskys along, and they’re well worth sampling. As David remarked to me when he was here last time, whisky and real ale have quite a lot in common. Both use only natural ingredients like barley and malt – which he and I source locally. And both go so well with food.

Do come along and enjoy finding that out for yourself.

Check out the story just below for all the details.

The food & drink event of 2010 is back!

Enjoy the Taste of Suffolk with Greene King

 St Edmunds Real Beer & Food Festival at Greene King

Saturday 21^st May & Sunday 22^nd May

Greene King Brewery Gardens, Bury St Edmunds 

The food & drink event of 2010 is back!

If you are interested in quality food and drink and want to sample a true taste of our fantastic region, you will love the “St Edmunds Real Beer & Food Festival”. Now in its second year, the Festival attracted over 4,000 visitors last summer, and organisers at Greene King are expecting even more success this May.

A wide range of top quality local food and drink producers will be joining the Suffolk brewer to promote their wares, offering opportunities to sample as well as to buy.  Among the delights will be locally produced smoked cheese, cured beef, jam, chutney, whisky, cider, premium sausages, seafood, ice cream, fudge – and of course, the finest real ales in the world!

There will also be live music in the gardens, food demonstrations, tutored tastings and beer master classes over the weekend. Families are welcome and we even have activities for the children, so get these dates in the diary!

Stand holders include Jimmy’s Farm, The English Whisky Company, Rodwell Farm homemade cheese, , Powters Newmarket Sausages, the Chilli Company, Yum Yum Tree Fudge, Pinneys Oysters of Orford and many more.

The ‘Festival’, which is being held in the Greene King brewery gardens in Bury St Edmunds takes place on the opening weekend of the Bury St Edmunds Festival, and is open Saturday 21^st, 10am-6pm and Sunday 22^nd May, 10am-5pm. Tickets are £3 each and are available from the Greene King Visitor Centre on 01284 714297, or from the Apex in Bury St Edmunds. Car parking is available for £2.

Join up to the ‘St Edmunds Beer’ Facebook group (www.facebook.com/stedmunds) for regular updates and announcements. For more information please email realbeerandfoodfestival@greeneking.co.uk.