Sadly, Brewery Bird has decided to stretch her wings and leave her nest here at Ocelot Towers. So, I have packed up my music column and moved in to take over writing about beer, my other passion. This column will look at all the delights that our local brewing and beer scene has to offer, so I am calling on the fantastic breweries we have here in Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire, as well as all of the specialist beer pubs, bars and retailers etc to send in all your news, views and brews to the magazine, where they will find their way to me.
January is a tough month for the beer industry, as along with the usual post-Christmas slump in sales driven by everyone’s parlous financial state and general misery there is the recent trend for “Dryanuary” to contend with. This happening finds over-indulgers and generally morally superior sorts abstaining from alcohol for the good of their waistlines, bank balances and souls. All well and good until you consider the poor old landlord of your local pub and the good folks of the brewery down the road who consequently see their already meagre income disappear to new levels of scarcity, a level of scarcity they can ill afford. Now, whilst it is very noble of you to abstain for a few weeks and gives you a temporary talking point over coffee at work, consider a worst case scenario at the end of your month of self-discipline – you rock up to break the booze-fast at your favourite watering hole to find the shutters down, permanently, as the regular trade they rely on through the tough times has deserted them for a month of boxsets, soft drinks and reclusive behaviour.
Fear not good people, for the industry is fighting back, launching a national campaign in 2015 called “Tryanuary” to support local beer throughout January. The basic concept is simple – create a mechanism to encourage beer fans to support independent breweries, pubs, bars and other retailers during the industry’s most challenging month, to attempt to inspire people to try something they haven’t drunk before and perhaps experience this in a place they haven’t been before. Run entirely by volunteers both nationally and regionally, the movement has proven a huge success so far, with more and bigger events happening each year. For the full lowdown check the website www.tryanuary.com where you can also get involved as an area co-ordinator or champion.
But locally, what is happening? Not much has been officially announced yet but the big event can be found over at the taproom of West Berkshire Brewery on 26th January from 6.30pm, where they are hosting as many local brewers and their beers as they can fit in, along with good food and live music. Expect to see beers from the likes of Love Beer Brewery, Tap Social Movement, Elusive Brewing, Double Barrelled Brewery, Wild Weather Ales, Oxbrew, Binghams, Two Cocks, Tring and Little Ox as well as the hosts. At the time of writing, tickets were still on sale on the West Berks website, and transport is available from Newbury Train Station. Rumours abound of events taking place across the bars of Oxford, Newbury and Swindon, so keep an eye on the Tryanuary social media feeds for details as and when they are released – a good one to follow is twitter.com/TryBerkshire.
The Unwise Monkey 