Saturday 9th February 2013

There are certain moments in time that change the course of history and ignite a catalyst of events that bring us to where we are today.
(Saturday 9th February 1980) - 33 years ago there was such an event.
Did you know on this exact day some 33 years ago the Red Lion was up for public auction? The Red was a tenanted Cameron’s house and was to be released for freehold sale. The sitting tenants were retiring and the brewery were scaling down their property portfolio. The pub was bought by the tenant’s son and daughter-in-law Jim & Dreda Forster for the princely sum of £44500
Sadly Jim passed away on the 29th December 1997, leaving Dreda to run the Red for a couple of years until I purchased it on 1st March 2002.
At 21 I was bright eyed and bushy tailed, fresh with flowing ideas and a passion for cuisine. The years roll on, as they say, I’m now 11 years down the road! I’m still that same bairn and I’ll always have a passion for food but the real love in my life is my little 18th century pub. She’s aging well for a 275 year old and still brings a smile to the faces of all who use her. I love all her little scars that each tell a story of different times and show her ongoing reinvention and usefulness within the community.
The Red Lion is simplistic and homely, the fire draws you in and chatter fills the once, smoke filled room. Cask ale is a welcome sight on the small hatch like bar; the ongoing recovery of local craft microbreweries brings new exciting times for my little house. Gone are the days of keg beer domination; a new generation of discerning drinkers are emerging who look at you in a puzzling manner when you say "can you remember Watney’s red barrel?" I look forward to the day I can say to a generation, "Can you remember John Smith’s Extra Cold?"
From next week I will have a new permanent ale on cask. A quality, locally produced beer which holds all the traditional characteristics of what makes English bitter great and encompasses my values of the type of small brewery beer I’d like to promote.
Yorkshire Dales Brewery – Rowan Tree – 3.8% abv – Best Bitter.
A golden English bitter with a tight creamy white head. Brewed with Maris Otter then some sharp Amber malt and a kilo of Carafa special for that bite. English Sovereign hops all round.
This isn’t a beer you’d usually find leaving the doors of Rob’s brewery, far from it. There is no high alpha acid hopping and strong sharp citrus flavours. It’s a Yorkshire bitter from years gone by…..and made right proper too!
There’s still a place on the shelf for the old best bitter, Britain was built and raised on it; a staple element of the great British pub lunch, alongside the humble steak pie and spotted dick.
This bitter does exactly what is says on the tin and then some. It would seem whatever the style of ale that comes from Yorkshire Dales Brewery you can guarantee it will be full of Rob’s passion, with an emphasis on quality rather than squeezing every last available gallon of liqueur out of the mash!!
As the measure of a great chef may be as simple as cooking the perfect steak; I’d say the measure of a master brewer must be in his Best Bitter!

I wildly digress… so it is this day 33 years ago that’s played its part in bringing me to my home and my passion for traditional pub life and beer!
I wonder what moments in time lay ahead?

Cheers Richard