Uncertain Times

Purple haze

As befitting my approaching status as an Official Old Man, I remember the Old Days here in Preston.  2013 to be exact, and it's longer ago than you think.  Back then, you would struggle to get a decent pint in the town (yes, it's still town to me). Perhaps the Old Black Bull would have something reasonable on, if you could get the attention of miserable old Stan to serve you.  But apart from that, it was either the Spoons Lottery at the Grey Friar, or a 20 minute trek down Fishergate Hill to The Continental.  So I used to go to Lancaster, which had a better offering.

On my trips to Lancaster on the 40/41 bus, I passed a place called The Moorbrook and it was not in good shape.  Owned by Thwaites at the time, said brewery preferred to invest in the (now closed) Lamb & Packet and the (now closed) New Welcome. "Oh look," I thought as my bus trundled up North Road "has The Moorbrook fallen down yet?"

Around this time, Thwaites were seeing a limited future for town centre pubs and were flogging them off.  The Moorbrook was deemed surplus to requirements and provisionally sold to a student housing company.  But, and here's where the story really begins, said company did not come up with the cash, so Thwaites passed it on to the second highest bidder, who happened to be the mother of Jeremy Rowlands, owner of the Continental.  After a bit of basic refurb, they installed erstwhile Conti employee Richard Fisher-Godwin as manager.

If you've ever been to The Moorbrook, you'll know its main problem as a pub is its location.  The sole survivor of a Victorian terrace, it's on the side of of a Y-junction, surrounded by sketchy-to-cross roads and large retail units,  There's very little chance a bog-standard pub with a bog standard drink selection would survive long there, and indeed the vast majority of pubs in the area have closed down in the last 30 years.  Luckily, at this time the whole "craft beer" thing was taking off.  Rich duly installed microbrewed cask ales on the pump, and probably Preston's first ever "craft keg" selection on the taps.  It duly opened in May 2014, to so much local publicity that even I went there for the opening.

Preston's beer scene since has pretty much followed where The Moorbrook led off.  The town has plenty of choice these days.  Even the Spoons upped its game.  The Moorbrook however, given said location has had to keep on offering more and more in an increasingly costly and crowded market.  Pizzas, a sheltered beer garden, football away-day trips, food home deliveries, constant menu innovations and even painting the frontage purple to stand out better.  Whereas a town centre pub like The Black Horse can rely on passing trade, The Moorbrook has to be a "destination".

I assume keeping all these balls in the air must get exhausting after a decade or so, and a couple of days ago Rich announced he was moving on from The Moorbrook in January.  As such, the future of the pub is up in the air.  While it's not likely to be targeted for the student housing market this time (numerous blocks have been built in the area in the past few years), finding someone with the required skillset to run such a pub will be a challenge.  They'll need someone with knowledge of drinks, food, management AND promotional skills.

The Moorbrook has an excellent reputation in the town and with the locals. As a pub, it's pleasingly "non-corporate", but hasn't overdone the decor to the point of tweeness like is seen with a lot of independent free houses.  But you do wonder what might happen if someone with a different vision to Richard Fisher-Godwin takes over.

You Can't Get There From Here

Experiences

 Was it ever going to end any other way?  One of the major bugbears of anyone travelling to a major event is "Why are they all in London?  It's a long way from me!" (of course, the rail network is specifically designed for no other reason than to get from Anywhere to London quickly).  CAMRA have found out why the big stuff happens in London.  In moving the Great British Beer Festival to the NEC in Birmingham, they turned a moderately unprofitable event into a six-figure loss-maker.  And based on the attendance figures, it will likely be the last of its kind.

That sound you're hearing right now is the CAMRA National Executive tightening its belt.  The £320k shortfall at the GBBF has no doubt resulted in it being pulled a few more notches than otherwise intended at the start of this financial year.  The savings targets are what you'd expect - moving printed matter to digital, and vague talk of "being leaner", "streamlining" and ending "nice to haves".

If we're being honest here, the financial climate in the UK has not been great for a long time, so it's surprising CAMRA hasn't seen this looming over the horizon for a while.  Discretionary spending is down, and prices in pubs have only been going up.  But CAMRA's main enemy is simply the passing of time.

CAMRA's membership, despite the impression you'd get from the literature and posters, has skewed to the elderly for some considerable time.  I've heard I'm in the youngest 20% of members - and I'm 50 in three months.  There's always been churn as the older members, well, die off.  The problem in recent years is they're not being replaced.  The org's traditional recruitment method was to get people into beer festivals and sign them up to a direct debit (a practice frowned upon by even the rapacious Street Fundraising companies, but I'll let that slide for now), but as Beer Fest numbers decline, so do the potential new members.

Average cask ale drinkers

The "Young People" (by which I mean the under-40s) CAMRA want to attract rarely go to things like Beer Fests.  They have a reputation as being infested with middle-aged, drunken, bigoted and sexist dinosaurs.  If the Millennials drink at all, it's either at home or quiet times where they can use their phones in a corner.  And as for CAMRA's offer?  If you become one of the desperately-needed "active volunteers", the activities offered are a combination of an OAP's charabanc and a 70s trade union branch meeting.  As a result, CAMRA will likely be moribund within the next decade.

I did joke on X yesterday that maybe CAMRA could make up the losses by sending membership forms to the UK's retirement homes and sheltered housing schemes.  But on consideration, I think these are the only people who would seriously consider joining now.

Every Dog Has Its Day

I may as well admit it now.  BrewDog and I have history. This blog was making fun of them long before it was fashionable.  Back in the day, 12 years ago amazingly enough, those plucky young upstarts from Ellon were shaking up the craft brewing scene with stunts and other assorted attention-grabbing publicity.  I'd love to be able to say I saw straight through them from the very beginning.  But I just thought they were ridiculous and needed making fun of.  And the hipster posturing with over-hopped beer and distressed typefaces was a trout in a teacup as far as targets went in 2013.

The actual beer BrewDog made at the time was still reasonably ok as far as I recall.  I ordered a few from the website (navingating past the "opportunity" to become an Equity Punk, of course) and even visited their now soon to be closed bar in Camden.  It was echoey and expensive, but there was clearly a market for such things back then.  There was a formula behind it, clearly, but it seemed reasonably innocent and authentic.

2017 was, I think, the point when questions started to be asked.  BrewDog's founders James Watt and Martin Dickie sold a large chunk of the company to private equity house, TSG Consumer Partners.  At that point, people began to wonder it BrewDog was as "punk" as it claimed to be.  It seems laughable in retrospect, really, as Watt and Dickie were clearly on the same startup/grow/sell out path as all those other "upstart" businesses like Innocent Smoothies and Teapigs.  The difference being was that craft beer is seen as a "community" and sellouts are seen as a "betrayal".  It's likely that BrewDog never came back from this.

Ex-fishing boat captain and friend, yesterday

A few years of misfired publicity, a highly critical BBC documentary, and the questionable antics of James Watt himself later, BrewDog as a brewer and bar owner is barely mentioned now in what remains of the "beer communication industry".  Punk IPA is now a commodity product sold in Wetherspoons and Tesco.  The bars are much the same as they were in 2013, with their now dated menus and industrial design aesthetic.  James Watt is virtually a pariah due to his many "sins" both serious and minor - being one of many people using "neurodiversity" as an excuse for dubious behaviour.  And the company itself?  The FT has revealed that BrewDog is loss-making, debt-ridden and its shares virtually worthless.

Is BrewDog doomed?  Hard to say.  They've announced closures of 10 bars, but service businesses both good and bad close branches all the time.  It could become yet another piece of corporate infrasructure to be sold off either whole or piece-by-piece, or it could just rumble on as a zombie business for a few more years.  Either way, Jimmy has made his pile and is no doubt looking to get out and spend more time with his Made In Chelsea wife and banal YouTube channel.

What I think will doom BrewDog in the end is the fact the world has moved on and it hasn't.  It's just not fashionable any more.  Every dog has its day, and this dog has had it.