BEER NEWS - July 2007

All change at Black Sheep

After eight years as second in charge of brewing, Alan Dunn (pictured on left) has taken over as Head Brewer at Yorkshire's Black Sheep Brewery. Paul Ambler, who had been Head Brewer since 1992, has been promoted to Operations Director. Paul comments: "I have seen Black Sheep grow from strength to strength despite a tumultuous time in the brewing world. I even designed and helped build the brewing plant, as well as developing the beer recipes, I'm delighted that Alan is taking over the mantle from me- he is as

Isle of Sheppey gets airborne

Out of puff

Pub-going smokers are waking up on July 1st to a smoke-free world of pubs as the new no-smoking legislation comes into force across England. Pub and Brewery group Greene King has joined forces with NiQuitin, producers of stop smoking products, to provide in-pub materials and advice on kicking the habit. While Greene King says it is "spending millions equipping pubs with outside smoking areas," the partnership with NiQuitin has been struck to help those who think it is time they gave up. Greene King's David Elliott said the alliance with NiQuitin was just the latest in a number of initiatives the pub group was putting in place ahead of the smoking ban for staff and customers alike: "The smoking ban is going to have a tremendous impact on pub life in the UK and we are determined to ensure our pubs welcome smokers and non-smokers alike. We already have a staff incentive in place to help our staff who smoke give up and the NiQuitin partnership now extends that to customers."

Bitter end for Margaret Thatcher

A popular north east brewery has launched a new beer to celebrate the world premiere of a play by Tyneside-based playwrights Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood. The Jarrow Brewery in South Tyneside, which specialises in real ales, revealed Maggie's End bitter on Wednesday, June 27, to mark the comedy play that has as its starting point the death of Margaret Thatcher. Jarrow Brewery boss Jess McConnell explained: "Ed and Trevor are big real ale fans. As two of the region's best-known and

Ice over easy

The phenomenal success of Magner's cider is attributed by most industry watchers to one simple fact: marketing the drink as a "cooler", poured over ice. The impact on the industry has been enormous, with already a Champagne and a wine being launched to be poured over ice. Fuller's has just announced that following successful trials, bottled Organic Honey Dew served over ice is to be launched across the estate. Fuller's say that Honey Dew works with ice as it is sweeter than a normal beer, and thus is able to cope better with the coldness of the ice. They add a wedge of lime to the drink to "add a further zestiness into the beer." Clare Draper, Organic Honey Dew's brand manager said: "We've seen the over ice long drinks market develop and we believe there is an opportunity for more drinks to be served this way." David Spencer, Fuller's brands marketing manager, adds: "Before launching we tried many different options, but Honey Dew was the clear favourite."

Brothers down and dirty

Brothers Cider made their debut appearance as the 'Official Cider' sponsor of Glastonbury and what an eventful weekend it was. With over 140,000 festival goers on site, the festival strength Pear Cider apparantly caused a quite a stir. Thousands of people sat on the grass outside the Brothers Bar in the Jazz Field enjoying a pint after putting their tents up for the weekend. Later in the evening demand was overwhelming. At one point people were queuing for 45 minutes and overcrowding became a problem - until the Glastonbury security team stepped in to secure the bar. For ten minutes the Brothers Bar was shut down whilst staff moved the crowd back. Barriers were finally put up and an orderly queue was finally resumed, however bar staff still couldn't get enough pints out to the masses to cope with the demand, so the Brothers looked next door to the coffee shop, after a few minutes of negotiation. the Brothers had bought out their neighbours for the weekend and transformed it into Bar mark II.