New Allergen Laws Cause Confusion!!

Dear oh dear..........does this government not think we can walk down the road avoiding the cracks in the pavement??............recently on the newsletter, we highlighted Nottingham City's fumbling around the Late Night Levy.......(lets get all the pubs outside the city centre to pay for policing in the city centre, whilst the pubs actually in the city centre don't pay for it!)

Next on the list is central government misguided attempt to implement a complicated allergen law......derived from the powers that be in sunny Brussels...........so here we go......none of the following is made up.....you couldn't make it up anyway.....no one would believe you!!

The basic premise is that many European folk are allergic to one or more of 14 principle allergens...........therefore, if they dare to go into any type of restaurant or purchase any food every product must have either clear lableing and/or the staff have access to a compendium of information on every food and drink item sold by that business identifying any allergens in every food product....eg a pint of Harvest Pale and Lasagne, salad, chips and garlic bread......read it again before continuing.

This law will be implemented on 13 December 2014............OH YES right in the middle of the busiest trading point of the year.......WHOEVER made that decision should have their face on the front page of every newspaper in western Europe.

UKIP State..."throw it out with the beer slops!!" and we couldn't possible comment!
But maybe CAMRA should be commenting on the relevance to micro brewed ales and the added costs to brewers.

Here at the Lion we have a pretty simple food menu....as you know...The Rock n Roll Burger Menu.........so whats the problem......well even for that small menu we have to break down every ingredient in every dish and identify and record any possible allergen.....then produce a document that could be shown to a worried customer..........BUT hey don't forget this also includes all the special sauces that go with the burgers.......all the desserts.......coffee.......the  specialty nuts and crisps......all drinks especially the beautiful bespoke real ales and hand made ciders.......oh and don't forget the Friday buffet and team food for the jazz and darts folk..........this is bureaucracy gone absolutely crazy........

So how is it going to be policed.......it is a trading standards issue not food hygiene...............in 12 years at the Lion....you can count the number of people who have mentioned food allergies on one hand and that has always been gluten.........a prize for the first person to email in with all 14 allergens listed....andrewcrawford@pubpeople.com First three in win a cup of smokey nuts and a pint of Harvest Pale!!

Why can't the government leave our industry alone for a couple of years......meddle meddle meddle.....lets make up a job......But leave the NHS in total and utter crisis..............ELECTION YEAR is 2015!

Oh and just to end it, do you really think the French, Spanish, Greeks or Italians will take one jot of notice......unlikely......but our Civil Servants have a job to do and boy will they do the job properly............So, on December 13th, if you want to cause mayhem get down to your local Chinese takeaway ask for all the allergen info.....in Mandarin........oh yes....must all be in relevant languages....

See you down the Lion at tea time for a gluten free pork pie and a bloody good pint!!

Andrew Crawford
Operations Director
Pub People Company

Rant over!!......excellent ale and cider choice down here this weekend, along with top live local bands, Fri, Sat and Sun
CAMRA members very welcome, with 15p per pint off real ales and ciders

What Does Doom Bar Tell Us About Cask?

Almost 20 years ago as a Greenall's Regional Manager based in Cornwall, I went to see a chap called Bill Sharp. He had started his little brewery a couple of years before in Rock, over the estuary from Padstow....... Greenall's, having bought the Devonish Pub Co, owned the Golden Lion in Padstein........... the tenant here had been badgering us for this locally brewed ale and having a longstanding love of real ale I did not hesitate to make a visit.......in the full knowledge that persuading the Company to stock it would be virtually impossible............. Greenall's, whilst no longer a brewer at that time sold cask Bitter, Mild, Thomas Greenalls Original, Shipstones and Davenports range and having now inherited pubs in the South had access to Flowers IPA and couple of others....... Their new guest ale policy allowed the tenant to purchase from a painfully small range from mainly regional brewers, like Tim Taylors........by paying a £25 surplus per 9 gal firkin on a full list price...CRIMINAL!

Anyway, back at Rock, Bill Sharp was a wonderfully ethical gentleman........he already had a decent range, with Sharp's Best the biggest seller.........and was keen only to sell to one or two outlets in any town, barely venturing beyond the Cornish borders.
I managed to agree with the marketing automaton at Greenalls HQ in Warrington that having a local brew would culturally endear us to Cornish folk and Bill chose a couple of pubs in deepest Cornwall for a trial.......Cadgwith Cove inn and the Roseland Inn Philleigh.........

Roll on about five years..... Sharps grew dramatically and Bill had begun to focus on a secondary dark beer at 4% called Doom Bar, which was destined to be the company's vanguard product....a malty, quaffable ale. Production, sales and distribution had accelerated. No longer a hobby, Doom Bar was in huge demand way beyond Cornwall..........things were moving fast.

The man from Dolmio Italian sauces spied this and bought Bill Sharp out...........then spent around 8 years developing the Doom Bar brand and in 2011 Molson Coors bought them for a whopping £18m.........

So would Doom Bar simply disappear into the swamp of other Coors brands and replicate the journey of Deuchars IPA? Or was there a longer term plan to establish the product as the successor to the likes of Draught Bass and Marstons Pedigree......in the branded sessionable medium coloured cask ale market. Emma Bebbington, Pub People's Coors Account Director was put in charge as General Manager........ so jealous!!!

In 2014 the brewery in Rock, over seen by Emma, has seen £3m worth of capital investment and  is forecast to brew 350 000 barrels of Doom Bar going forward.......this is about a tenth the size of Carling... and already Doom Bar is the biggest selling cask ale in the UK.....recently overtaking Greene King IPA.

Doom Bar as a brand is here to stay.... Coors have remained true (ish) to the Cornish heritage by investing in the local brewery and generating more jobs. Doom Bar has meaning (it is a sand bar at the mouth of the Camel Estuary) and credibility which has been subtly and successfully communicated....... further entrenched by local Doom Bar boating related sponsorships and then the Boat Race sponsorship........ together with associations with the Padstein culinary fraternity and now their own pub, The Mariners at Rock

All of this knits well with the new breed of customer wanting the taste of cask ale coupled with the reassurance of a brand with a name and a story........before and alongside trying all the wonderful local microbrews that will be available at the Nottingham beer festival this weekend.............. here at the Lion Draught Bass is still one of our best selling ales........it has been on permanently since the Lion opened in around 1996 and we have very very loyal customers for it.............. there won't be many pubs in the East Mids that can say that....... in reality though it is us that has kept it going. The Bass owner has just milked the product and it is unlikely younger or female drinkers would give it a second glance.

Doom Bar has broken through that ceiling and whilst the beer snobs may turn their noses up.........customers awareness of the overwhelming number of micro brands is low......so a solid anchor point product with high credibility and consistency will be a winner with new drinkers of cask ale along with those who want to be loyal to a top pint.

Our range at the Lion today does not include Doom Bar (Hop Pole, Waggon and Horses, Bunkers Hill, Keyworth Tavern all have it on) but the choice is excellent........Bass, Harvest Pale, Scarlet Macaw, Red Baboons, Legend, XXXB, White Squall, Bradfield Stout, Grainstore, Pheasantry, Equinox.

See you at the Lion for a Friday tea time beer and a few pork pies!!

Andrew Crawford
Operations Director
Pub People Co

The Rock n Roll Christmas Burger menu is on the website. www.thelionatbasford.co.uk..... if you have not tried our excellent range of handmade burgers, then what are you waiting for??....... we have carnivores and herbivores fully catered for with luxury burgers at a realistic price!!..... all served by our team of executive chefs from midday to 8pm every day

Enterprise Inns Develop A Managed Division

The UK pub landscape is on the move.........as if it had ever stopped!!.......the trend in the past 18 months has been for the main pub co's and breweries to develop their managed estates of pubs or start up managed divisions........this is nothing new. It was perfectly normal for the main Brewers of old (Whitbread, Bass, Greenalls) to own a tenanted group of pubs and usually a smaller but higher quality managed group.

During the late nineties and 2000's the mode was to convert the bottom of the managed pubs to leases.......often blackmailing the existing managers with redundancy only if the took the lease......this strategy was a catastrophic failure as most managers struggled to convert to the requirements of the leased model......along with scandalously expensive tied beer prices and exorbitant rents............many, sadly lost their money.

In Nottingham, good examples of managed to tenanted pubs included.....Fiveways (then back to managed), Vale, Robin Hood Sherwood, Larwood & Voce, Hayloft Giltbrook, Bridge Sandiacre, Fairway Clifton, the Wollaton.  Predominantly, whilst the early transfer years for the leaseholder were tough, as time has gone on the quality of the pubs in this group have actually held strong. Most have weathered the storms and remain very good pubs even though the first leaseholders are probably not still there.

This new development therefore of pub co's beginning to transfer pubs back to managed is more than interesting...........one would hope that they will be less ruthless in their journey to convert tenancies to managed..........but what will they do....almost certainly not focus on the lower end as there will be no more money in it... if they are serious, the top end will be the target....physically big pubs, in good locations with good catering and car park facilities...........hey ho!!..........the worry is that a batch of established entrepreneurs who have gallantly and successfully tackled the pub co's could be moved out and with it a commitment to local products and services...........micro brewers in particular may not get the freedom to sell into a big managed division... at a fair price??

Enterprise have almost 5000 pubs.......it won't be worth doing unless they have a mark of around 500 managed pubs in mind......they are saying the first 10 will be converted in two months!!...............

More topical stuff from the UK pub industry, with a local slant next week.........What does Doom Bar and the Cask Report tell us??

Here at the Lion, a top selection of real ales, ciders and entertainment this weekend.........Bradfield are brewers of the month

If you are Goose Fair bound, then why not come to the Lion for a decent burger before or after.......easy parking and walk down Noel St

Andrew Crawford
Operations Director
Pub People

Greene King Bid For Spirit Pub Company

You can tell the economy is on the move..........can't remember when there was a seriously big hostile take over in pub world in recent times......GK have bid £100m for Spirit and it will probably go through for around £120m.......You will recall GK bought Hardy & Hansons a few years back, promptly closing the brewery at Kimberley and whilst their large managed estate was heavily invested in, the independent tenancies were by and large left to fend for themselves..........GK own the Hungry Horse brand and Eating Inn (Wolds and Goose Gamston), along with the likes of Test Match, Bell and Ye Olde Trip'..........Spirit meanwhile have big managed brands aswell.........Flaming Grill (Rose & Crown Derby Rd), Chef & Brewer (Ferry Wilford) and Fayre & Square (Nottm Knight), together with some really good lease pubs like the Hayloft, Giltbrook, Vale, Arnold and Larch Farm, Ravensh ead (Good Beer Guide 2015).......Spirit incorporated the old Greenalls managed estate which will GK strong exposure in the NW England..........the leases will improve the GK stock...BUT it will inevitably lead to more smaller tenancies being sold.............the question will be whether GK follow Marstons and sell large batches of pubs to supermarkets or direct them towards the likes of the Hawthorne pub co who are a new tenanted company on a big growth track.........we will be following this one closely.

In the normal mad world of tenanted pub cos....Enterprise Inns have hired two Ex Wetherspoons Execs to develop a managed house division with the Enterprise group.............this needs to watched really carefully....here is a company with C5000 pubs nationwide (Share price 121 down fro 2014 hi of C170).....It is a significant move and away from where Punch Taverns are thinking currently..........but in a similar vein to Marstons who have a quasi franchise division along side leased and managed pubs.....these are signs that the pub market is evolving rapidly.

At Pub People, we have finally got a completion date for the Nags Head at Newbold in Chesterfield.......this is lovely multi roomed character pub. We will be giving it a small refit before installing extra handpulls and providing customers with an excellent range of local micro brewed ales and traditional ciders.........it is quite close to the Chesterfield Arms and we are working on a collector card sheme covering our other cask ale pubs in Chesterfield (Woodside, Blue Stoops and Rutland Arms (Good Beer Guide 2015))

The Lion has some fine live entertainment this weekend...see below and the Post for details

Andrew Crawford
Operations Director
Pub People Co

Lion
CAMRA Discount on ales and ciders 15p
Ossett Brewery Yorkshire are brewers of the month Sept
Bradfield Brewer Oct

Friday 26 September 2014
Live Music from 9pm
Vince Eager and the Memphis Tones (9pm)

Saturday 27 September 2014
Live Music from 9pm
Firewire (9pm)

Sunday 28 September 2014
Sunday Lunchtime Jazz@ the Lion...from 1.30pm
Our ever popular Live Jazz sessions. We are incredibly lucky to be able to have some of the most talented, grooviest performers showcase themselves at The Lion.
DELI (1:30pm)

Bradfield Lined Up as Octobers Brewer of the Month!!

We are delighted to announce that the excellent Sheffield-Peak District brewer, Bradfield will have their ales showcased during October...........They rarely travel south and it is unusual to see their range in Nottingham anywhere........famous for their Farmers Range, the Lion will be stocking as many as we we can including Farmers Blonde, Farmers Bitter, Farmers Brown Cow and the Halloween beer Jack O Lantern.........many of the beers are award winning and have distinctive pump clips...........check their website at www.bradfieldbrewery.co.uk

 

Pub People's brewer of the month is run in several pubs in the Nottingham area including here at the Lion aswell as the Waggon and Horses, Bunkers Hill and the Plough all in Nottingham, the Maltshovel and Hop Pole in Beeston, the Rutland Cottage and the Poacher in Ilkeston, the Great Northern in Langley Mill, the Queens Head in Marlpool, the Steampacket in Swanwick, the King Alfred in Alfreton, the Midland and the Thorn Tree in Ripley and the Black Swan in Edwinstowe. If you have any brewers that you would like us to bring onto the list then make contact through the website www.thelionatbasford.co.uk

 

We will be looking to develop this successful promotion into a Cider Producer of the Month...........interest in real cider is growing rapidly but the main producers lag behind the microbrewers in terms of their PR and promotional activity..........watch out for some good stuff in the coming weeks.........The Steampacket at Swanwick, run by Amanda, has won the Amber Valley CAMRA Cider Pub of The Year........which is brilliant news and she will be live on BBC Radio Derby tomorrow morning.

 

Back here, we stock 10 real ciders for you choose from every day with a separate chalk board.........ask for a sample at the bar.........

 

Looks like the weather will be warm and sunny so the new patio is getting plenty of use.........call in for a tea time beer tonight

 

 

John and Josie

Rock On For Beer & Burgers at The Lion!!!

Our Rock n Roll burger menu version 2 launched this week..........Wow!!....what a response...........five more burgers taking us to 25....... With a brilliant vegetarian choice...........a better beer and burger deal covering more cask ales............A burger and bottle of wine offer (which has flown out this week) and a special choice of Sundae Desserts to round off your meal.............check out the website for all the details www.thelionatbasford.co.uk or join our Twitter and Facebook feeds for snappy updates................we are now taking large bookings especially on Sundays........and already offices and workplaces are enquiring about Christmas Parties...........give us a call at the pub for more info 01159703506

I know Christmas is still a while off........and we have a great Halloween to get through first..........but the boss has agreed with Castle Rock that they will produce the Pub People Christmas Ale for 2014........ A specially brewed 4.7% dark malty beer will be rolled out in December with the launch being held here at the Lion........watch out for more details

Black Iris Brewery are making progress with their new venture. They have acquired one of the industrial units at the bottom of our beer garden and very soon, we will become their virtual brewery tap.........we had them as brewers of the month back in June and their ales were extremely popular. They get good coverage throughout Notts, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire and we are looking forward to a blossoming relationship with them.

The rails have been laid outside the Hop Pole!!.........the new pavement is slowly creeping towards us........but have to say it all looks fantastic........we may even have space for a pavement drinking area a la Broadway in Hockley!!........Karen deserves a medal, battling away, keeping the ales in perfect condition despite adversity and defending her corner from power cuts, phone lines chopped off, drayman stuck in chaos and generally feeling marooned!!......the support from the community has been inspiring, when other pubs simply closed their doors.

Stunning ale choice this weekend......Bass, Harvest Pale, Ape Ale, Scarlet Macaw, Jaipur, Legend, Brewers Gold (Ossett) Hook Norton, Grainstore, Hobgoblin and Atlas

See you at tea time
John and Josie

Rock n Roll Burger Menu #2 Next Week!!

Something really weird has happened at the Lion...........for years and years we could only sell the odd lasagne and chips to a few locals.......to now, where we have new customers travelling from all over the place to eat our fantastic hand made burgers............our food business has exploded and brought with it new real ale and craft beer customers........next week we launch our Winter Menu with FIVE more burgers bringing the total choice to TWENTY FIVE, including extra vegetarian options............the menu is served every day, inc Sunday, from midday to 8pm..............we will be taking Christmas party bookings and for the first time interest in having your office party here is high........email us through the website if you want info on what we can do www.thelionatbasford.co.uk

Osset Brewery from Yorkshire are our brewers of the month for September.......we love their beers and Excelsior is extremely popular whenever it is on.........you can also find their beers on sale at the Hop Pole, Bunkers Hill, Waggon & Horses (Redhill), Maltshovel amongst others.

The tram tracks are actually being layed outside the Hop Pole this week as work picks up at a pace.........it has been hard yards for Karen our long standing licensee, having been cut off for nearly 18 months........other pubs have simply shut but she has battled on with a great selection of real ales, excellent live music and top support from the community..........the annual Hop Pole songwriting contest closes in about 10 days, so if you are interested, there is a £200 prize, get your entries to her next week.

Work will begin to refurbish a new Pub People pub near Worksop in October....... the Three Legged Stool freehold was purchased from Marstons and will under go a £250k refit, opening just before Christmas.

On the bar this evening, along side Ossett, we have beers from Blue Monkey, Thornbridge, Castle Rock, Nottingham, Slaters, Oakham, Shipstones, Kelham Island..........plus ten real ciders

see you at teatime for a sarnie and a pint!!

John and. Josie