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Brewing News 15/9/11

Sep15th
2011 Written by admin

CAMRA Announces Britain’s Top 16 Pubs For 2012

It’s that time of the year again and the Campaign For Real Ale has released its list of the top 16 pubs in Britain for 2011.  The pubs are voted on by the 130,000 CAMRA members around the country and judged on the following characteristics: clientele, quality of the real ale/cider, customer service, value for money and atmosphere.  Each geographical area has one winner and out of those 16 venues, one will be chosen early next year as Pub of the Year 2011.  The regional winners are:

  • Central Southern – The Radnor Arms, Coleshill, Oxfordshire
  • East Anglia – The Engineers Arms, Henlow, Bedforshire
  • East Midlands – The Crown, Beeston, Nottinghamshire
  • Greater London – The Southampton Arms, London NW5
  • Greater Manchester – The Magnet, Stockport
  • Kent – The Flowerpot, Maidstone Kent
  • Merseyside, Cheshire & North Wales – The Bridge End Inn, Wrexham
  • North East – The Boathouse Inn, Wylam, Northumberland
  • Scotland & Northern Ireland – The Fox & Hounds, Houston, Renfrewshire
  • South & Mid-Wales – The Ancient Briton, Pen-y-Cae
  • South West – The Front, Falmouth, Cornwall
  • Surrey & Sussex – The Evening Star, Brighton, East Sussex
  • Wessex & Channel Islands – The Nog Inn, Wincanton, Somerset
  • West Midlands – The Beacon Hotel, Sedgley, West Midlands
  • West Pennines – Swan With Two Necks, Pendleton, Lancashire
  • Yorkshire – Jemmy Hirst at The Rose & Crown, Rawcliffe, East Yorkshire

The list is released to coincide with the publication of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, something of a bible for real ale fans and something which can always be found dotted around pubs of certain quality.

Ancient Briton, Pen-y-Cae

Ancient Briton, Pen-y-Cae

A quick perusal of the list above should provide anyone with a hostelry to visit just a sort drive from their location and don’t forget that each one will now be trying extra hard to impress before the decision to name Britain’s best pub is made at a later date.

 

News, Organisations

The Best Beer Commercials – South Africa

Apr10th
2011 Written by admin

I bet you can’t name many South African beers – maybe you can name a couple of you’ve been there on holiday.  If you went to the 2010 World Cup, perhaps you had a few to drown out the drone of the vuvuzelas. I would’ve done, after smashing the nearest horn into a million pieces. Anyway I digress and this post is dedicated to the advertising industry of South Africa and its quest to market beers to the local populace.

It’s a hot climate so lager is generally the drink of choice and the market is dominated by South African Breweries (SAB) which produces some well-known brews such as Castle Lager, Castle Milk Stout and Black Label.  SAB is actually the world’s second largest brewery and owns several international brands such as Miller’s Genuine Draft and Peroni.

So let’s check out some ads – this first one is just funny, short, straight to the point and a but painful.  It doesn’t feature any girls unfortunately but you can’t have everything.  It’s for Hunter’s Dry.

No girls in this one either but it’s here just to prove that all countries can produce near identical ads when sporting occasions appear over the horizon.  The rugby and cricket teams are good – the footballers not so much.

This next one is not funny but is does seem to be a feature of some countries that they produce ads like this – sort of awe inspiring films that for some reason feel the need to inject some good feeling into it’s citizenry.  Canada is another country which seems fond of ads such as this.

…and lastly back to basics with a nice simple one – SA boy meets girl, girl turns out to be Australian, boy walks off in mock disappointment – the usual story.

By Country, Video

The Best Beer Commercials – Russia

Mar22nd
2011 Written by admin

Back to our occasional look at some of the world’s best beer commercials and we’ll move a long way North this time, to the largest country in the world and one which has an appetite for alcohol.  Unfortunately for us it’s an appetite for vodka which keeps them warm on these extremely long winter nights but they do also drink beers such as Baltika and Ochakovo and for our first ad – Stolichnoye.

Fans will recognise it as a classic of the genre, the girl spends hours making herself look fantastic and trying on a variety of different outfits in the process before it all goes wrong when………..well check it out for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG5e_zN8xTk

A fairly gentle one next and you can’t help thinking that if this ad was made in some other country there would have been some sort of surprise ending – like the girl would have turned out to be a bloke or something but it’s a good’un anyway.  It’s for Lidski Kvas beer.

I’ve included the next one for the last scene as much as anything else – it’s a standard photographers-taking-pictures-of-the-pretty-girl-but-in-fact-they’re-snapping-the-beer type ad.  All well and good so far, but then she jumps in her car while still waving her bottle around.  Do the Russians encourage drink driving?  Is it a light beer? Who knows?  Can’t see that scene happening in many other countries though.

One last one then and this ones from Baltika. It’s always a shame when a Russian ad doesn’t feature a girl prominently – they’re all so damn good looking- but this is a quality one anyway.  It even features pool and funky last shot which prompts the drinking of beer.  Baltikas all round!

By Country, Video    , , , , , ,

Brewing News 16/3/11

Mar15th
2011 Written by admin

Health Groups Not Impressed by UK Govs Proposals

Something a bit more serious for this news item and it relates to the fact the the British WHO logoconsumption of alcohol units has been steadily (and not so steadily) climbing for some years now. The World Health Organisation recently released a report detailing the drinking habits of every country in the world and the U.K. ranks at number 17 with 13.4 litres of alcohol consumed per person per year (Moldova is number one with 19.2 litres). You can read the whole report here. The top 25 are almost exclusively European with the one exception appearing to be South Korea.

In light of this and in light of the constantly increasing costs of alcohol abuse for taxpayers, the UK government has attempted to formulate a strategy to make alcohol less affordable among other measures.  In the UK the costs associated with alcohol abuse are mostly related to pressure on the taxpayer funded National Health Service, although there are other costs such as policing in town and city-centres on weekend evenings.  Of course there are also social problems associated with alcohol related to domestic violence and anti-social behaviour.

So what did the government come up with?  Well, not much it seems if the response of many from the health industry is anything to go by.  There’s certainly nothing concrete in the measures and it looks like the government have just got together with the immensely powerful drinks industry and formulated a few impressive soundbites – the result of which is a continuation with the status quo.

Health groups seem to agree and the full list of those unwilling to sign up to these measures is a long and influential one – Alcohol Concern, the British Association for the Study of the Liver, the British Liver Trust, the British Medical Association, the Institute of Alcohol Studies and the Royal College of Physicians.

Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said: “It’s all carrot and no stick for the

Don Shenker - Alcohol Concern

Don Shenker - Alcohol Concern

drinks industry and supermarkets”, and this appears to be the view from the other organisations.  It’s worth pointing out that the measures will not affect pub-goers – the changes are mostly related to alcohol bought from supermarkets.

Facts, News, Organisations    , , , , , , ,

The Best Beer Commercials – UK

Jan27th
2011 Written by admin

The Best Beer Commercials – UK

For as long as beer has been sold and advertising has  been available, beer companies have devised ingenious ways to help you part with your money.  Most ads are amusing, some include pretty ladies, some include both.  This of course suggests that the commercials are targeted towards men and almost without exception they are.  But they’re still funny so let’s have a look at some of the best starting with the U.K’s offerings.

The first is for Boddington’s beer – originally a small Manchester brewery, but transformed into a national distributor around the same time as this ad was produced in the early 1990′s. Witness the pretentious background juxtaposed with the Manchester accent, classic.

The next one is for John Smiths bitter, a regulation ale also from the north of England.  It features comic Peter Kaye and is a great representation of Saturday/Sunday league football. The phrase “‘ave it” quickly became a catchphrase and not just in the playground.

Now this next one could well be one of the world’s best ever beer commercials.  It’s got everything – patriotism (possibly nationalism), historical dambusters references, anti-German humour, stereotypes and a low key ending.  Superb.

Okay, one more then and an ad of the viral variety.  This certainly would not get shown on TV.

That’s it for the UK for this article, we’ll have more ads in the future from the same location as well as the best from around the world.

Video    , , , , , ,
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