Thirsty Musing: June & July

Pint Pouring ~ Peach Pales ~ Increasing Production Capacity ~ New Van (finally!) 

Hey folks,

I cannot believeee I’m writing this in August! The last 2 months have been a blur. So much so that I couldn’t find the time to write June’s blog. The start of July, when I’d usually write about the previous month, fell between organising our 1st and 2nd Pop up Pub, which were about a week either side. So I figured that since I and everyone else is super busy during the summer, I’d go for a double blog in a month’s time.

And here we are. As mentioned, we’re 2 events into our Pop up Pub career and genuinely couldn’t be happier with how it’s started. There’s so much uncertainty going into your own events; the main one, of course, being who’s going to turn up. But there were also the questions of what food was going to be there, what other drinks (bar beer) would land best with customers, if and what music to play, how to promote it. Peak uncertainty struck about 30 mins before we were due to first open up, when God, in turn, opened up the heavens and unleashed and thunderous, black hailstorm upon us. Who’s going to walk along in this? Why would people try out a new event in this weather when they could get a Deliveroo at home and stay cosy? Has the Melted Bun food van flooded? 

But no! The rain mercifully stopped and our first customers walked in 10 minutes before we were due to open. We couldn’t believe it! The flow of punters continued inwards as the rain flowed away, and by 7pm there was a queue of people waiting to get served, Matt Beresford was beginning his acoustic set, and the burgers were smelling immense - we were officially up and running! We’re very much looking forward to pulling many more pints and flying through the bottles of Vinho Verde in the months to come. The next Pop up Pub is on Friday the 21st of August :)

Our Thirsty Musings Podcasts continued to get released every 2 weeks, which made me very happy. I’ve listened to thousands of hours of podcasts of the years, so the appetite to make a few myself grew and grew. Having a good excuse to chat to friends in our industry is fantastic, and having the time to find out about how they’ve got to where they are is very fulfilling. If you listen and have the time to give it a review it'd be much appreciated.

A new release for July is our new peach pale ale: Peach to their Own. It’s our spin on the legendary demi-peche. Its earthy hop profile and peach essence, predictably, pair unbelievably well together. Look out some for funky social media posts on this in August.

July marked a significant milestone in Thirsty Moose’s history - our very first production capacity increase! This was thanks to getting a new 1500 litre fermentation/conditioning tank plumbed in, with its cooling system working like an absolute dream during these mega-hot temperatures we’ve had this summer. This means we can now have 4 beers brewing simultaneously. 

The sunshine may have made the brewing side of beer a little harder, but it certainly didn’t hinder the drinking side of it! Myself and Max were down at the phenomenal Ponteland and Tynedale Beer festivals pouring pints of our beers and chatting to people new to Thirsty Moose and those who like to keep an eye out for us. To be frank, sharing and enjoying our beers with folks in the sunshine at these fabulous venues is utterly joyous, and one of the best parts of what we do. We’ll be continuing the fun times at Whitley Bay Beer Festival on the August bank holiday weekend, and many more festivals I’m sure.

And finally, at very long last, we’ve had sourced and bought a new van! It proved a challenge for us, not least because of how busy we were but because of how vans there are out there that fit our criteria. It had to be electric; we want to reduce our CO2 emissions, and would rather power our business using renewable energy sources, of which the national grid receives an ever-increasing proportion of its energy from. On top of that, it had to be up to carrying its precious cargo. Yes we wanted it to be able to carry more casks, but crucially, it had to be able to fit Max and his twins in the front when the school run begins in September. So this little beauty is what we’ve landed on:

Name tbd; open to suggestions.

Onwards and upwards,

Sam

Stay Loose, Drink Moose.