POW's Beer Festival this weekend

[ptg]

Hi to all, more than a cheeky plug, I'm just trying to get an idea of numbers (and work out if we're going to need to re-supply mid-weekend). If anyone's planning on venturing down to the Prince of Wales in Merton for our first beer festival and hog roast, then I'd appreciate if you could just raise your virtual hand ;)

[trainman]

Provided I can rustle up a few quid I intend having a nosey. The beer list could be considered unadventurous but, I s'pose for a Youngs House it could be equally regarded as radical, with Darkstar & Brewdog being the key attractions. You may want to correct the spelling of Sambrooks on the pow website...

Sambrooks Junction (4.5%), Sambrooks Wandle (3.8%), Brains SA (4.2%), Chiltern Cobblestones (3.5%), Darkstar Solstice (4.2%), Darkstar Espresso (4.2%), Cotleigh Harrier (3.5%), St Austell Tribute, Youngs Waggledance, Courage Directors, Youngs Special, Youngs Bitter, Brewdog Physics (5%), Jorvik Blonde (3.8%).

For any others tempted, but not knowing that area, a visit could be twinned with the nearby Trafalgar &/or Sultan.

[ptg]

I'll get on the website as soon as I'm on my PC, cheers for that.

As you say - remember we're a tied Youngs tenancy - imagine how much grovelling I had to do to get this far ;) I also came across two breweries who weren't interested in supplying us, and a couple more that didn't even bother replying - which I found bizzare.

If it's a success, we'll be looking at doubling beer numbers next year, and without a refurbishment being stuffed in between, I'll have more time to build a more structured list looking at all areas of the country :)

[Maldenman]

I'll also try and get over for a couple of hours at some point.

[trainman]

Sadly, the Brewdog Physics was off. Compounded by the Aussie(?) guy in the carpark tent saying that 'the boss' had just tried some and said it was fine. It clearly (or, rather, muddily) was not. He then went outside to radio through what he called 'another complaint about the Physics' - audible in the tent where a radio receiver was open, hehehe. It was changed for summat else, no problem.
The music in the garden could have been deemed, by some, to be murderous to several classics, but I thought they did pretty well. Time to move on for the football though... No, I can't believe germany spanked the argies 4-0!

[ptg]

Physics has been a nightmare all weekend - drifting in and out of conciousness! Not sure where people got the idea from that I'd been testing it - it's not fizzy enough for my liking, but when we start the postmortem, I dare say we'll not be getting it back for the next one.

Glad you liked the music - would be interested to see if anyone found it "murderous" - they're exactly the sort of muso-types that I like to book - I'll keep people posted with when they're back at the POW.. For any other landlords out there, take a look, they used our house PA, came down on the tube, and were very reasonably priced - the video isn't from the beer festival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR5shh2v3TY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu9KVx7ul78

[ptg]

PS.. he's a Kiwi - apparently they walk differently.

[Maldenman]

I thought the duo were ok in the main, however covers of Pink Floyd tracks rarely work in my opinion!

Glad to see the refurb has worked well, and the pub character remains intact. Unlike the sheer vandalism the Youngs/Wells team have visited on some places.

Hope the festival went well for yourself and it is something you can repeat.

[ptg]

Cheers - From a fiscal point of view, it's covered itself and made a bit.. From a brewery point of view, I reckon they'll let us do it again, but from a personal point of view, even with seven staff on at times, I feel physically and mentally exhausted - I need to work out whether the praise outweighed the non-constructive criticism that has readily been offered - The number of people who seem to think that there's only four flavours of beer, and anything outside of the four flavours constitutes "turned", or anything that isn't crystal clear is "off" amazes me.. In the mean-time, I'm going to spend the next six months concentrating on our core beer range - keeping it decent, and getting us back in the GBG for next year.

[Maldenman]

I thought it was a good do, however the Brewdog certainly wasn't saleable if that's what you mean. I haven't seen any "non-constructive criticism" on here to be fair,good luck to you, and I hope you can repeat this sometime soon.

[ptg]

Nothing too specific to the forum - people are going to have differing opinions, and I can understand that fully - Brewdog as mentioned has been a pain in the arse, but putting that aside, I partially blame the fact we're tied to Youngs and as such, our locals that don't drink elsewhere seem to have forgotten that variety exists.. even at a pound a pint, I have five people sitting at the bar now that won't experiment at all and are sticking to ordinary.

Some stats for anyone interested (as I'm bored and sitting in the festival tent looking through the staff incident log and till reports):

Most pints consumed : Dead heat between Wandle, Jorvik Blonde and Cobblestones
Most Compliments : Tribute
Most complaints from staff : The Physics
Most complaints from customers : Espresso (as per my previous post, it doesn't "look" right was a common complaint)
Glasses purchased : 34
Glasses hired out : 249

[Pubsignman]

I didn't think I'd be able to make it down this weekend, but thankfully I found myself free on the Sunday afternoon and had a good time.
We enjoyed the hog roast and ate that whilst watching Nadal win Wimbledon on the big outdoor screen. I decided to start with a pint of Brewdog, but was informed by the barmaid that it had been problematic and was given a taster so I could make my own mind up (it wasn't drinkable), so I went for the Jorvik Blonde instead, which was lovely (even more so at £2 a pint!). I also tried the Dark Star Espresso (which poured a bit flat, but was still full of taste) and the Cotleigh Harrier.
The refurb looked pretty good and we spent the rest of our time inside, playing darts (thanks to the staff for helping us with moving furniture, finding chalk etc...).
I thought it was good for a first festival and I'll keep my eye out for any more in the future.

[ptg]

Thanks for the feedback - I don't suppose whilst you happened to be on-site you got a hi-res piccy of our sign that you can whizz over to me did you? my crappy little camera can't get the contrast right with a bright light behind it.

[Pubsignman]

Thanks for the feedback - I don't suppose whilst you happened to be on-site you got a hi-res piccy of our sign that you can whizz over to me did you? my crappy little camera can't get the contrast right with a bright light behind it.

No, sadly not. My other half borrowed my camera last week and left it at work over the weekend.

Liked the new sign though - a great improvement on the Elton John inspired previous effort!!!

[Maldenman]

I took a picture of the new sign and added it to the pub listing on the main site yesterday if that helps.

[ptg]

Cool - any chance I can steal a copy of it for our website? if so, could you email it to pow@letsgettipsy.co.uk?

[Maldenman]

I'll try later, as I'm at work now. My computer at home is in its death throes though so if I can't it might have to wait until I replace it.

[Conrad]

I'm happy to send an unwatermarked copy of what you posted from here if you like Maldenman? And just to check ptg, you do know that you will get increased spam by printing your email address on a web page?

[Maldenman]

I'm ok with that Conrad, feel free.

[Conrad]

Posted on now, quite a large file, brilliant sign as well.

Thanks for confirming that MM.

[ptg]

Cheers Conrad - Life's too short to worry about Spam - if a message gives even a slight hint of being from a non-human source, our spam filter's pretty good (and it's not my personal email addy :) ). If you could send it over, I'd appreciate it.

PG

[Conrad]

;) Watch my email get caught in your spam filter now.

[ptg]

;) Watch my email get caught in your spam filter now.

Nope - didn't trap it :)