Wednesday 30 January 2008

London Micro - Future in Doubt?


Young's have bought the Cock and Hen, a Fulham brew-pub from Capital Pub Company along with two others. Wish David Bruce wouldn't do this sort of thing! He has a kind of bad record of selling off microbreweries.

Do you reckon Young's will keep the brewery on? Let's hope so. A complication seems to be that the pub itself is leased to another pub operator, so it may well be "no change" with Young's trousering the profits rather than Bruce. Nothing is straightforward in this business at all.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess the questions is whether Young's are making a brave step into a new area or business, anticipating the trend towards locally produced, unique "premium" products; or whether they just fancy getting another few central London buildings in their "property portfolio". I hope it's the former...

Kieran Haslett-Moore said...

According to Stonch its history.

Tandleman said...

Yes I read that. Shame but not surprising. Stonch's review of it somewhat surprisingly did not allude at all to the quality of the beer. According to Scoopergen, it is nowt to write home about. Shame nonetheless. I'm in London in the next couple of weeks, so might try and get there before it is all dismantled.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many London-based beer bloggers would be worried about what happens to micros in the North West?

Tandleman said...

RedNev
One of the reasons I started this blog was to counter in some way the London-centric view of the beer world that some bloggers, in some ways understandably, have.

I comment on London for a couple of reasons. I have a property there and go there regularly and drink there. So it's in my purview. London in my view can't afford to lose micros. In the NW we have them coming out of our ears, so maybe we have to wait and see if the demise of any brings comment elsewhere. Also I like to comment broadly on whatever takes my fancy.

Stonch said...

Tandleman:

The brewery will be removed in a few weeks and put in storage. It will be reinstalled somewhere else when the team behind the C&H find a new venue.

Note that The Florence in Herne Hill (Capital's other brewpub) is unaffected. That came directly from the horse's mouth (the brewer) hours after the announcement, so I assume it is accurate!

"Stonch's review of it somewhat surprisingly did not allude at all to the quality of the beer"

I wrote a two part review - you obviously just read the first bit. If you click here you can see the second.

"...London-centric view of the beer world..."

I quite agree. Moreover, London's a bloody awful place that holds the rest of the country back.

As Alan Partridge said - "Catch the Train to London stopping at Rejection, Disappointment, Back-Stabbing Central and Shattered Dreams Parkway".

Tandleman said...

Stonch. Apologies. You are right. I didn't read on enough. You are kinder to the beers though than Gazza P!

My London- Centric comment was a reflection of the reality that the best bloggers, you among them, live in London. I just want to give a different perspective. I am not saying its an awful place, but beer-wise it isn't as good as it ought to be.

Stonch said...

If you go to London, you'll either be mugged or not appreciated. You can forget finding a good pint!

Yes, in comparison to some towns and cities in England, London isn' as good as it should be for beer, but then beer is only a tiny part of what makes this city special for me!

Anonymous said...

Oh dear, Tandleman. In your reply to me you said you started this blog to counter in some way the London-centric view of the beer world. Well, that was exactly my point, too.

I was simply reflecting that, whereas your blog in the NW covers matters in London and elsewhere, I really doubt that many London-based bloggers would give a damn about what happens up here.

So I was agreeing with you. Sorry about that!

Tandleman said...

Ah. I'm not used to that!