Humph

 

Humphrey Smith, owner of the Samuel Smith Old Brewery Tadcaster, has gone to the great Employment Tribunal in the sky at the age of 81.  The reaction to his death has been, shall we say, mixed.  Some have expressed sadness that one of the great old pub traditionalists has departed and the industry will never be quite the same again.  Others have said good riddance to the dismal old reactionary and are expecting those who'd been at the sharp end of his decisions over the decades will be rejoicing in the streets.

I never met Humphrey.  My local Sam Smith's pub, The Olde Blue Belle in Preston (see above) was probably too out of the way for him to give any major attention to.  Not even the cheapest pub on a street in rapid decline, it's well out of the way for most people, really.  Whenever I went in, the majority of the punters were freely ignoring Mr. Smith's famous dictums on device usage and naughty words.  I kept schtum, and my phone stayed in my pocket.  As someone who wasn't a "regular", I knew not to push my luck.

The Belle has endured several periods of closure over the last decade, and not all of them due to COVID.  Regular observers of the Sam's scene over the years will know the drill.  One day, things were normal and the next the front door was mysteriously shut with a notice taped to the window saying "MANAGEMENT COUPLE REQUIRED" and a phone number printed below (Humphrey's own, if rumours are to be believed).  This would persist for months until the next pair of suckers, sorry, young hopefuls, came in to take over.  Amazingly for Preston, the leaded windows remained unsmashed, as if any potential vandal feared Humphrey would charge down the road at them, demand they repair the damage and, the horror, take over the pub themselves. At the OBB, the latest new managers moved in just before Christmas 2025.  By all accounts, they're doing OK.

What will happen now the Humph regime is putatively over is anyone's guess.  It's presumed his son, Samuel, will take over.  Young Sam has experience, as he's run the London end of the pub estate for several years, and apparently is reckoned to be more liberal on the "draconian" rules about mobile phones and swearing than Old Dad was.  But this is more likely due to the location.  After all, it's one thing to lay down the law to a bunch of dishevelled locals in deprived Northern towns, but quite another to the overseas tourists who might wander into The Olde Cheshire Cheese in Holborn.  My prediction is that Mr. Smith Jr. will keep things the way they are.

Of course, there is a twist on Humphrey's legacy, and one not too well known in the beer blog world who have narrow horizons about refurbs, beer prices and megalomanical owners.  Sam Smith's owns the Fitzroy Tavern in Soho and for many years from the early 1990s it was the main meeting place of the capital's Doctor Who fans.  And there in their dozens they would drink cheap lager and plot and plan for the day they would take over the show and make it in their image.  And, yes, the last three showrunners of Doctor Who - Russell T. Davies. Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall - were regulars at the Tav.  And sometimes, there may even have been a woman there, but sources vary as always.

So, we can look at what Humphrey Smith achieved in his life.  The preservation of a pub estate.  The questionable employment practices.  The really cheap beer.  The ruination of a UK television franchise, even.  Would we all ever look back at our lives and think we'd even done a tenth as much.

Yesterday's Gone

I was browsing BlueSky yesterday.  A probably futile activity, I know.  My low-engagement presence there doesn't garner anything like my former reputation on Twitter did a decade ago, mainly because I don't do many "interactions".  If anything best describes BlueSky, it's the word "beige".  The butterfly logo should really be replaced with that of a bowl of tapioca pudding.

I'm not the only one to have noticed.  It seems that BlueSky isn't,  you know, as exciting for beer discourse as Twitter was.

Normally on BlueSky, such sentiments would engender rapid condemnation, if not outright cancellation.  But not this time.  Most said that yes, despite the wholesale migration of Beer Twitter to BlueSky about 18 months ago, there is a lot less discussion than there used to be.  Everyone is there, but they're not saying much these days.

If you can remember the beer scene of 10 years ago, everything seemed new and exciting.  New breweries and bars were popping up weekly, especially in the places where there were large concentrations of Young People.  Out were the staid old locals, dull beer and Wetherspoons habituees and in were cloudy IPAs, street food and "progressive" events.  But like all things that were popular, they eventually became unpopular as the trend-seekers either grew past it, or sought better remunerated activities elsewhere.  The world, apparently, can't be changed one pint at a time.

So, as the old scene declines, there is simply less to talk about.  Craft beer is rarely discussed in the mainstream media any more, unless some scandal or financial disaster happens.  The few remaining niche writers trundle about the remaining craft outlets picking up the last scraps of news and freebies (all YOURS on Patreon for £1 a month!).  And the world, as ever moves on.

Perhaps one day the pendulum will swing back, maybe in a decade when the next lot of 21-year-olds come along and need something new to define themselves against the previous generation.  But the present, the "beer social" scene has retreated back to niche it occupied 20 years ago.  It will never truly die completely, but it won't be as visible as it was in 2018.

Maybe like Doctor Who, it needs a bit of rest before a new group of people can make it relevant again.