Shapes Of things to come, I hope not

[Mobyduck]

I heard this week some disconcerting news regarding Darkstar. My local pub now stocks Darkstar beers most weeks but last week and this no Hophead was available,according to sources I wont name just in case ! Darkstar took an order(and supplied) of 500 x 9 gall barrels for Greedy King leaving the majority of their regular recipients( including my local) on the dry side, in fact high and dry. A nice one off order I'm sure, but not really good long term business sense surely, unless..... well I dread to think.

[rpadam]

I heard this week some disconcerting news regarding Darkstar. My local pub now stocks Darkstar beers most weeks but last week and this no Hophead was available,according to sources I wont name just in case ! Darkstar took an order(and supplied) of 500 x 9 gall barrels for Greedy King leaving the majority of their regular recipients( including my local) on the dry side, in fact high and dry. A nice one off order I'm sure, but not really good long term business sense surely, unless..... well I dread to think.

Well, that would explain its appearance here at the weekend...

[Wittenden]

I saw Hophead through the door of the White Horse in Cranbrook. I'd never go in, myself!

[Aqualung]

I heard this week some disconcerting news regarding Darkstar. My local pub now stocks Darkstar beers most weeks but last week and this no Hophead was available,according to sources I wont name just in case ! Darkstar took an order(and supplied) of 500 x 9 gall barrels for Greedy King leaving the majority of their regular recipients( including my local) on the dry side, in fact high and dry. A nice one off order I'm sure, but not really good long term business sense surely, unless..... well I dread to think.

There's a similar problem with Brodie's. They are brewing at full capacity and the William IV is struggling to get any cask beers in. On Friday they just had three regular ones on. Despite this he has been sending his beer to America, Australia and Fuller's pubs! When he touted on twitter for suggested pubs to do a tap takeover a while ago I was sorely tempted to say the King William IV in E10,
There's always lots of keykeg stuff on but I won't drink it now as it's too expensive.

[Bucking Fastard]

I heard this week some disconcerting news regarding Darkstar. My local pub now stocks Darkstar beers most weeks but last week and this no Hophead was available,according to sources I wont name just in case ! Darkstar took an order(and supplied) of 500 x 9 gall barrels for Greedy King leaving the majority of their regular recipients( including my local) on the dry side, in fact high and dry. A nice one off order I'm sure, but not really good long term business sense surely, unless..... well I dread to think.

There was a rather limited range of Dark Star beers in The George ,Croydon on Saturday.Maybe that explains it,normally there is a wide range.The previous visit two weeks ago was most impressive ,although the Green Hopped IPA led to the usual chaos.
However I just cant see myself going into a GK tied house,on the off chance they might have some DS on offer.Might squint through the window though

[london calling]

There's a similar problem with Brodie's. They are brewing at full capacity and the William IV is struggling to get any cask beers in. On Friday they just had three regular ones on. Despite this he has been sending his beer to America, Australia and Fuller's pubs! When he touted on twitter for suggested pubs to do a tap takeover a while ago I was sorely tempted to say the King William IV in E10,
There's always lots of keykeg stuff on but I won't drink it now as it's too expensive.

I have not seen Brodies beer around West London except for 1 pub and that was 4 years ago approx.To my amazement I had 2 last night one in a Fulllers pub the other at the Magpie at Brentford.Sorry Auqalung your loss our gain.And yes Kiwi and London fields were on top form.You might like to know the Magpie charged £3.60 a pint for Kiwi and the Fullers £2.03 for a half of London Fields

[london calling]

I heard this week some disconcerting news regarding Darkstar. My local pub now stocks Darkstar beers most weeks but last week and this no Hophead was available,according to sources I wont name just in case ! Darkstar took an order(and supplied) of 500 x 9 gall barrels for Greedy King leaving the majority of their regular recipients( including my local) on the dry side, in fact high and dry. A nice one off order I'm sure, but not really good long term business sense surely, unless..... well I dread to think.

Darkstar have a fair sized automated brewery now so I don't think it is a problem for them to supply 500 firkins .Two of the origonal owners have left recently so maybe they have a different approach to selling beer.I was talking to the owner of the Queens Head in Kings Cross last week and he has got rid of Hophead as his regular beer as he had a lot of wastage problems with it due to it not settling.Interesting to see what your local thinks of that assuming you get some more in. cheers

[london calling]

Darkstar have a fair sized automated brewery now so I don't think it is a problem for them to supply 500 firkins .Two of the origonal owners have left recently so maybe they have a different approach to selling beer.I was talking to the owner of the Queens Head in Kings Cross last week and he has got rid of Hophead as his regular beer as he had a lot of wastage problems with it due to it not settling.Interesting to see what your local thinks of that assuming you get some more in. cheers

Actually I think they had hophead in a Greene King pub in Ealing last week.

[Aqualung]

Sorry Aqualung your loss our gain, and yes Kiwi and London fields were on top form. You might like to know the Magpie charged £3.60 a pint for Kiwi and the Fullers £2.03 for a half of London Fields

Actually I found that I didn't like to hear that about the prices!
As Moby recently suggested, these beers are off my radar in the William, the Old Street or Hackney Red being session beers.
The only low ABV one I will go for is the Mild.
I did spot the Old Street in the Carshalton Hope and London Fields with Bethnal Green in the Brighton Evening Star where some bloke who looked even more weird than me was trying one of them.
Personally I think he is brewing far too much keg stuff and the Sours (which just taste rank to me) that need a far longer fermentation time so they can become rancid. His latest tweet announced the return of London Lager. Great!!
There was a Kentish Town Brown (a brown American IPA) brewed a while ago but I've seen nothing of it.

[Mobyduck]

Darkstar have a fair sized automated brewery now so I don't think it is a problem for them to supply 500 firkins .Two of the origonal owners have left recently so maybe they have a different approach to selling beer.I was talking to the owner of the Queens Head in Kings Cross last week and he has got rid of Hophead as his regular beer as he had a lot of wastage problems with it due to it not settling.Interesting to see what your local thinks of that assuming you get some more in. cheers

This is Quite interesting, I have had quality issues in my local particularly with Darkstar and Portobello. It is only a very small pub and despite it being North Hampshire CAMRA pub of the year for the last two years and runner up the year before that , it only has a very small (ground level) cellar, used to in the past supporting two real ales at a time but now between four and six depending on the time of the week, but due to lack of storage space sometimes beers are coming on much to soon. So sometimes good and sometimes not so good , but in this case I cant blame the brewery .