In common with many other small brewers, we seem to be bucking the general trend in the UK, indeed global, economy.  I could espouse theories on this all day long, but we are seeing a number of pubs reporting the sort of sales that would look good for the summer.  Now this is not all pubs, and I might be right in feeling that this is because some pubs are doing a better job of being attractive at the moment.  So what is this attractive factor that works, I hear you cry (or whimper maybe)?

Well, it seems the magical formula is for the pub to look appealing, but not expensive,  and the interior to be the same.  The atmosphere welcoming, but not oppressive.  The beers to be a varied range, and not just the usual suspects.  In fact going on would be more of the same - and it's all common sense.

I know brewers can have a tendency to 'expand' their production volumes (I think it's a man-thing...), but the recently published SIBA Annual Brewing Report makes for positive reading.

From our position, we had a fairly dull Nov/Dec/Jan, which whilst not unique in the industry, can for us be explained by our unwillingness to join the game of 'Selling Beer At Or Below Cost'. something that was prevalent amongst our competitors at the time.  February is traditional a hard month to predict sales-wise, but we were happy.  March (so far) is looking to be a good month, but it's early days.  What is certain is that we don't usually expect to short of empty casks to fill at this time of year, but that is where we are know.  To that end, another 300 have been ordered, and further fermenting capacity is back on top of the agenda.

So here's to a good 2009 - someone has to be positive or nothing will ever improve!