Our local brewery, Everards, has an excellent marketing tool. It is called “Meet the Brewer”. The aim is to encourage folk to visit their local pub, while at the same time promoting the brewery and the method is a lecture enlightening attendees on the history of beer, brewing, and Everards. Sounds tedious doesn’t it? But not when the event includes the opportunity to sample Everard’s products. The Heathcote Arms hosted a Meet the Brewer event last Tuesday evening, and so, since Tuesday is “dog walking night”, when we would at the Heathcote anyway, we dog walkers went along, and even invited our wives. On this occasion the dogs stayed at home.
In fact the lecture is fascinating, given by one of Everards Master Brewer, and is full of anecdotes, and facts, really amusing. On the tables in front of us were things for us to taste – not beer, but barley grains toasted for differing times depending on how dark the beer is to be. There were dried hops, pieces of fish bladder (used to clear the beer), and various other ingredients used in the brewing process. There was a quiz, and most of us came home with an Everards T-shirt. And there was the final product – 150 pints in 4 casks of Everard’s beers, to be shared between about 30 of us. And to accompany the beer, Andy and Trish, pub landlord and landlady, served a magnificent buffet. All for £1. Yes, everything for a quid.
Not surprisingly we are all great fans of Meet the Brewer, and this is our third at the Heathcote. This was the best value yet. Previous events had cost an astronomical £3, with a much sparser buffet.
It was a great evening. Well, as far as I can remember…..
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
