Chapter Arts centre in Cardiff always has a good German beer festival if you like that sort of thing 😉 but I was pleasantly surprised to hear about a Scottish one which is happening from 06/03/2012 to 11/03/2012.
This first Hopscotch Festival rejoices in all that is good from north of the border, including a mouth-watering selection of 30 real ales from small, independent Scottish breweries like Inveralmond, Kelburn, Angus Ales, Atlas and Tryst.
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I’am a big fan of cake – but don’t eat it as much as I would like – but that may change when a new tea shop opens in an historic building in Cardiff some time in March.
photo from bara-koukoug
David is opening a tea shop in the West Lodge by the animal walls in Bute park in Cardiff – I may have to divert my walk to work – so instead of 2 mins from Cardiff Central – a 15 min walk up the stadium walkway may have to do 🙂
So all the waiting is over and the hardest part of starting my Tea Rooms business so far is concluded. I am proud, delighted, elated, humbled and jubilant as I tell you that I have been successful in my tender for the operation of a Tea Rooms as part of the West Lodge redevelopment within Bute Park in Cardiff City Centre.
They will have some competiion as the coffee shop in Bute park is not bad (in the summer) – but at least two coffee shops by the castle have closed recently but we wish him well and look forward to his cakes.
you can follow him on twitter for the latest updates.
From Camra.
The Bridge End Inn in Ruabon, North Wales, was bought in 2009 by Peter McGivern after it was closed for six months, and is now a thriving local, selling beer from the family’s microbrewery as well as ale from more than 100 local and regional breweries.
Real ale campaign group Camra, which gave the award, said the pub was one of the most remarkable success stories in the history of its annual competition – and the first Welsh winner.
Judges said the inn had everything that makes a great pub – atmosphere, decor, service, value for money, customer mix, a warm welcome, and excellent beer.
Mr McGivern said he decided to take on the pub after retiring as a local teacher, and to give an outlet for a microbrewery run by his son Matthew.
Asked how he coped with switching from the classroom to a bar, he told the Press Association: “It’s terribly similar really. It’s all about interacting with people.
“We are a family business and the pub has been a real labour of love.
“What we strived to do was create a pub not focused on food that we would enjoy visiting, putting the product first and offering a wide range of traditional beer styles. As a result we’ve built up a mixed trade of locals and beer lovers from all over Britain.
“We are delighted with this national award, particularly as we were told when first taking on the pub that there was little demand for real ale in the area.”
The Bridge End Inn beat three other finalists to claim the award – the Engineers Arms in Henlow, Bedfordshire, the Front in Falmouth, Cornwall, and the Swan with Two Necks in Pendleton, Lancashire.
This week the beer of choice at the City Arms Cardiff – has been the excellent OLD VIC PORTER (4.7% ABV) from Butcombe brewery.
a great example with top aroma – could drink this all day – shame it’s just run out 🙁
on another note the City Arms is having another of it’s tuesday night Meet the Brewer evenings – this time with Buster from Brecon Brewing on 28th feb 7ish – formerly head brewer at Breconshire
Established in 2011 by Buster Grant, one of Wales’ best known brewers, Brecon Brewing have created a range of beers full of flavour and character inspired by the dramatic locality, working with the local community and reigniting interest in Brecon.
so should be a good night.
Every blog post you read the last few weeks is mostly about Pinterest and as they say.
Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.
People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes.
I was invited a while back and added a few photos of sheds on there and other stuff i like- and forgot about it – but in the last month I have seen an increasing amount of traffic to my sheds sites – readersheds.co.uk and shedblog.co.uk from pinterest – which is nice.
But I was not using it – so how did photos of sheds from my sites get on there? are other people interested in the sheds? of course they are and they were pinning them.
The principe is very simple – you like something you see on the interweb and you bookmark it (or pin it) – that’s been around since day 9 of the WWW – but for some reason the way that pinterest does it – making the photo/image the main bookmarkable item is what every one likes.
Ok previously it was mainly soccermoms and crafters and cat ladies on there – and a mainly a female audience – but it’s changing and us blokes are having a look in – if you ignore the cute overkill (ahhh cats in jumpers_ – there are some great images on their.
I follow some great artitecture boards and technology boards – it’s very addictive – I wish they did an andriod app so I can pin stuff on the go.
So before you make the leap check if people are pinning your content
a quick way to find out if people have pinned your content is just to go to a source page and replace your url.
pinterest.com/source/readersheds.co.uk/
pinterest.com/source/shedblog.co.uk/
and you will see all the pins people have done – as you can see I have been busy adding some of my favourite sheds that are entered into Shed of the year 2012 over the past few days.
I have added a button to the shed pages – so I can show sheddies if people have added their sheds to boards which may be useful in the future.
When pinterest release their API – then people will do some great things with the content and I think the stats would be very usefull for seeing trends – which could make it an essential tool for business.
If you want an invite just let me know.
The torygraph did a story on the subsidised food and drink for our elected members of parliament
The taxpayers’ subsidy for the bars and restaurants in the Houses of Commons has risen to £5.8m a year, despite promises by parliamentary official to cut public funding for politicians’ meals and drinks.
They did not mention the price of a pint, but after a quick search of the parliment website (hat-tip @arfurD)
The Strangers bar (where MP can bring guests) sells Guest Ales/ Cellarman’s reserve £2.40 a pint.
You can view the full list here.
Or the other prices for the various outlets that we subsidise.
Maybe I should have gone into politics instead of sheds.
I wonder how many pints get quaffed in a year by our MPs at their bars?
Spoons are having a january Sale – in the past they have done their food cheaper which was a good deal as the prices have rocked over the last few years, But this year would you just go for a cheap pint (a few years ago they sold it for 99p a pint, If I remember but Greene King told them off)
Maybe 2011 has passed me by in terms of great films – the ones I went to see were dissapointing –
i have been mostly been watching great DVD and streaming!
the whole 3D expericence has totally put me off the cinema experience
Here are some montages of the films of the year from various youtubers who have edited the clips together added some funky music and they look like the films may have been great!
What films should I have seen in 2011? or should be looking forward to in 2012?
My local store said they had a few bottles but they were gone 🙁
UPDATE: Looks like they are all up on ebay starting at £100 !!!
Scottish Quality
Glenbridge has been carefully matured in European Oak Sherry casks for at least 40 years in one of Scotland’s premier distilleries.
Intense Flavour
Open the cap to find a beautiful mahogany liquid with the aroma of dark chocolate and dried figs. Then taste the elegance. Vibrant fruit flavours with a spicy aromatic oak nuttiness fade into a lingering sweet and mellow finish. Bliss.
Limited Edition
Only 3000 of these exclusive limited edition gift sets will be available from Aldi. Perfect for connoisseurs, a whisky of this quality and age at this price offers truly exceptional value and would normally sell for many times this price.
I know I go on about Brains pubs too much on this blog and yes the City Arms does feature a lot – but sod it.
From Wednesday 23rd to Wednesday 30th November we’ll be holding our stout and porter festival!
We’ll be celebrating the best in dark beers here at the City Arms!
We’ll have 16-18 different stouts and porters for you to choose from. These will be available on both the stillage and hand pull.
These beers will be limited edition so make sure you get your hands on them whist they’re around! We’ll be introducing some well known and some more obscure beers from all over the UK.
Some great beers
Purbeck, Studland Bay Wrecked
Blackwater Brewery, Pre-Raphaelite
Thornbridge, SeaForth
Banks and Taylor, SOS
Brentwood, Lumberjack
Brentwood, Spooky Moon
Brentwood, The Dodo
Salopian, Vortex
Salopian, Shropshire Gold Stout and Porter Fest 2011
Brentwood Weald Porter 4.9%
Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild 6%
RCH Old Slug Porter 4.5%
Banks & Taylor Black Dragon Mild 4.3%
Burton Bridge Damson Porter 4.5%
Blindmans ,Icarus 4.5%
Amber Winter Ruby 5%
Neathergate Umbel Magna 5%
Titantic Plum Porter 4.9%
Montys Midnight Stout 4%
Waen Blackberry Stout 3.8%
Waen chilli Plum Porter 6.1%
Bristol Beer Stout 4%
B&T Edwin Taylors Stout 4.5%
Mighty oak Oscar Wild 3.7% Dark
Otley Oxy moron 5.5%
