Not Again!

I'm getting properly old now. Yesterday was the start of The Rake's annual Welsh Beer Festival, a concept we came up with four years ago and haven't looked back since and I had a few sips of beer to celebrate Dewi Sant.

But why am I getting old? Three pints I had yesterday and I am utterly ruined this morning, three pints!!! This is not good. This is very bad! It's not like I was drinking three pints of Sink the Bismark either(is there even that much left in the UK?). The strongest beer I had was 5%!

Suffice to say I'm sure I'll wake up even more hangin' tomorrow, what with the Tiny Rebel Urban IPA going on the bar today! Oh well, hair of the mutt anyone?

Thanks

This is a shout out to everybody who came to The Rakes Welsh Beer Festival this year. Every single cask is now sold out! We are now running on cask ale fumes! Holy Empty Casks Batman!
So we went through 23 of the 24 casks I ordered, one was undrinkable, it shall not be named or shamed but I will say that we are more than likely to run out of casks by the end of Saturday night. Our average cask sales at The Rake is 15 firkins a week, this week, if we sell everything we would have sold 30. Bit busy then, completely unprecedented and I hope we have your patience and understanding, we have NEVER sold this many casks in one week before.
So I'm going to say thanks, I mean it from the very bottom of my heart, thanks to Buster and Melissa for the Lovebeer events on sunday, Ysbrid Y Ddraig..legendary, thanks to Nick Otley for arranging the beers I chose to get into London, thanks to the bloggers who helped publicise it, thanks to the tickers who spread the word just by talking about it and getting excited about the event, there will be more to tick next year. Thanks to my friends and family who turned up and showed their support, thanks to the people who turned up that I have never met before, I hope you had a great time and come back, thanks to my bosses who have let me do this two years in a row, most of all I would like to thank my staff, guys, you did a great job this week and without you this couldn't happen, I really appreciate it.
Thanks.

Apologies

I've been a bit quiet recently due to the sheer volume of work I have on at the moment, I'm hoping that normal service will be resumed after the 10th of March(moving house). There will be a post this coming sunday though.
In the meantime apologies for the silence and hope to catch up with you all at our Welsh Beer Festival this week!
Iechyd da!

Welsh Beer Festival 2010

It's nearly here, one week to go before the big kick-off to a week of Welsh Beers at The Rake.
Doors open at 12pm on Sunday don't try getting in any earlier because you'll get told 'mynd allan a lluosi'. Well not really but I just wanted to put something Welsh there!
There will be two Lovebeer Meet the Brewer sessions with Buster from Breaconshire Brewery and he'll be going through the following beers :

Cribyn
Golden Valley
Ramblers Ruin
Winter Beacon
Night Beacon
Ysbrid y Draig

The tastings will be at 1pm and 3.30pm and you can get tickets at The Rake or by calling 020 7378 9461 there are only 15 tickets per tasting so get in there quick, knowing Buster this'll be a lot of fun!

The beer list for the week is as follows :
Otley : O1, O-Garden, O-Rosie & Motley Brew
Purple Moose : Dark Side of the Moose, Snowdonia & Calon Lan
Breaconshire : Cribyn & Ramblers Ruin
Monty's : Mojo & Midnight
Warcop : Caspa Lager & Raiders
Tudor : Blorenge
Tomos Watkin : 1879(kegged fizzy for Cooking Lager) & Cwrw Ceridwen
Vale of Glamorgan : Grog Y Vog & Wheats Occuring
Great Orme : Celtica
Ryhmney : Dark
Bryncelyn : Buddy Marvellous
Conwy : Telford Porter
Plassey : Offa's Dyke Ale
Swansea : Deep Slade Dark

There will also be a hot food offer provided by Andy Wright owner of Loaf Supplies and Tom Harding of Mootown will also be doing a cheese selection for your enjoyment.

Remember if you can't get down on the Sunday then don't panic there will be Welsh beers on all week!
I personally am really excited about trying some of these beers and it should be a great week in general. Iechyd da!

WELSH BEER FESTIVAL 2010

It's that time of year again! No, not sodding Christmas! It's time to start banging on about The Rake's 2nd annual Welsh Beer Festival. Yes it went so well last year that I've decided to make it an annual event!
Last year, to my amazement we managed to sell 21 casks of beer! This year we're going for even more!
The event will kick off on Sunday 28th February with 18 firkins on the decking and 3 inside on the handpulls.
There will also be a couple of Meet the Brewer sessions with Nick Otley from Otley Brewing and 'Buster' Grant from Breaconshire Brewing Co.
Again food will be supplied by Andy Wright of Loaf supplies and Tom Harding will be supplying cheeses from Mootown.

Breweries will include : Otley, Breaconshire, Purple Moose, Brains, Celt Experience, Great Orme, Ffos y Ffin and a few new breweries that have never come to London before!
There will of course be a reappearance of the now infamous Motley Brew as well as last year's Beer of the Festival, Otley's 06 Porter.
If you're rugby union fans then there will probably be a couple of players from the London Welsh making an appearance.
You will of course have the opportunity to vote for your favourite beer again, last years winner won a mixed case of Welsh Beers to take home with him and in fine Camelot tradition...IT COULD BE YOU...
It'll be big, it'll be informative and, most importantly, it'll be FUN!
Join the Facebook group to let us know if you're coming, don't forget to re-tweet it if that's your bag, thanks for reading and I'll hopefully see you there.

And the Winner Is.....

Morning all!
Well, I for one am feeling a bit bleary-eyed today after the 1st Utobeer Awards(otherwise known as the Christmas Party).
A good time was had by all(I hope) and although some of the staff had been out the night before, indulging in the Hedonism that was Imogens leaving party, they turned up for this too. Even Chris, staunch Man Utd Fan(scab) turned up after I told him that our hosts, Brick Lane, All Star Lanes would show the football for him.
There were notable absentees such as our Drivers Derek and Lee(probably lost), true to the end Harriet turned up fashionably late. Jodie wasn't there to pick up her award because of Flu, get well soon!
Anyway the everyone that did turn up got an award, so here's the list of who won what...

We'll do a Welsh Beer Festival just to annoy Mike Award
Winner :Richard Dinwoodie
Bloody Welsh! Award
Winner : Mike Hill
I spanked cheesus' arse and want to do it again Award
Winner : Becca Knapp
The Advertising Award for making The Rake sound like a whorehouse
Winner : Dave Gardner
The Sup then Top-up award for serving shit customers.
Winner : Joe Mulleady
For Driving Stock around London at the best and worst of times Award
Winner : Derek Pugh
Man Management Award for righteous tellings off
Winner : Lee Pugh
The I've gotten over my brain damage from working for Tescos Award
Winner : Imogen Bennett.
The Lovebeer Award for who's gonna be my bitch this saturday(probably Glyn)
Winner : Melissa Cole
Just because I have a Mohican doesn't make me a photo opportunity Award
Winner : Al Byrne
The Asparagus Award(You'll have to ask the winner to embellish on this one)
Winner : Eddie Baines
I'm a saint for marrying a brewer Award
Winner : Gina Baines
The Every Damned Saturday Award
Winner : Jane Salvesen
The Lone Star Award for trying all the new tasty beers
Winner : Denise Herman
The Proper Pint Glass not a wussy Veltins One
Winner : Hans Herman
I also work for Boris so clearly I'm mental award
Winner : Jodie-Lee Tormey
The Pear Cider Award for being from the Faarest
Winner : Lee Knickenberg
The Redneck Lumberjack Award for dodgy shirts
Winner : Joe 'Def' Leppard
The Back from the Dark Side Award
Winner : Annie Talbot
Employee of the Month for October 2009
Winner : Harriet Holt
The Happiness is a cigar smoking Utobeer Employee Award
Winner : Chris Collins
The Begbie Award for going to Awards Ceremonies and trying to start fights with strangers
Winner : Tom 'The Cad' Cadden

That's it, everyone a winner with my thanks hope to see everyone again next year, here's to 2010!
Cheers!