Beer, Art, Pigs and TA

Well I'll start with the beer, it is once more time for the Boot Beer Festival, it kicks off on Thursday the 9th June with Curry and live music at Brook House Inn, the Band this year are called Diesel and are from the Ulverston area, they sound pretty lively so looking forward to that after a night cooking curry! We have some great beers to look forward to as usual, mainly from up north but a few from far flung places around the country.

The Eskdale Art Festival has just been held at which I am pleased to say I sold a couple of Photographs, bouyed up by the sales I have been out with my camera today, searching out some hidden waterfalls. I had a lovely walk up the valley to Wha House and then up the side of a pretty stream where I took the snap below.

Our three saddleback pigs are doing well, although not quite ready for the next step. I am amazed by how much feed they go through and find it hard to understand how pork can be sold so cheaply in the supermarkets, mind you in a supermarket you dont usually get to know the name of the pig! ( Hamilton, Podge and Soxy) We have also got a fair menagerie
with 20 odd hens and 3 ducks most of which are now laying, so along with Shirley and Claire we are supplying the pub with all its egg requirements.


Trip Advisor
Has TA changed the way we think about travel? Is nothing left to chance any more and do we believe everything we read?
Now I wrote this just after Easter but decided to let it sit on my desk for a while to kind of cool off. Trip Advisor (TA)  is a website which has reviews about peoples experiences at travel destinations such as Hotels and Inns and would appear to have become quite a popular form of media.
TA seems to have altered the way we book holidays, once upon a time deciding where to go consisted of choosing a destination then checking the beer guide or similar list of places to stay like the tourist board, maybe looking at a map ( also being phased out in the coming years) Then we would chance our luck and our own ability to make the best of whatever happens and enjoy the holiday. I am sure we are all still capable of the last bit but now we have TA along with the internet in general, we can research till we know every last detail. For instance a negative review is written about a spider in the corner of  room 8 at Incy Wincies BB. Maybe only 1 person saw the spider and decided to write a review out of hundreds of visitors, when the next guest arrives there may be a spider or maybe it will be gone, but if there are no good reviews arachnophobs would be put off!
I am not saying that TA is a bad thing, on the contary we have  had some great reviews over the past few years and propably gained a fair amount of trade from it. But as happens from time to time we fail to hit the right note for a customer or group of customers as happened over the Easter holiday this year. We served over 1000 meals to happy customers but it is the 4 unhappy ones we remember and also it is those 4 not the other 1000 that decide to post  reviews on TA.

Trip Advisor is there to be used but I always take the reviews with a pinch of salt, look out for reviews from people who have never posted before, these are often the bad ones and also any which seem too good to be true, that will be the owners Mother!
So Come on if you have had a good meal at Brook House Inn or anywhere else for that matter Please Please get on TA and reset the balance.
TA is not the only review site, we are also on icomparehotels, in fact you can find a review for just about anything. I am not sure if it is a good thing but it is here to stay so the more reviews, preferable positive the better.
I would like to say a big thank you to all the people who have written lovely reviews for Brook House Inn.
The links below should take you to our pages on TA
Brook House Inn Trip Advisor
Brook House Inn Restaurant Trip Advisor
We also have a facebook page

Feast of Strong Ales 11-13th March 2011

Brook House Inn is hosting a tasting session so that CAMRA can decide which beer to send to the GBBF this year. So over the weekend of the 11th-13th March we will have at least 8 beers available ranging in strength from 4-6% This is a great opportunity to try some beers from around the region which due to their strength are not always on the bar in your local. We still have some accommodation available as do some of the other local BB's.

This weekend (25/26th Feb) we have rooms available for the Friday and Saturday nights which due to some rooms already booked on Friday can be booked just for the Saturday night.

Happy New Year

This winter has been the quietest since we arrived, what with the snow and ice early on, the local paper writing the valley was snowed in for 2 weeks when most of our staff and deliveries got in every day! ( The newspaper editor got a bit of an ear bashing from Christine!)  Some of the breweries are getting upset because we have not ordered their beer, but we just haven't needed more stock after New Year.
We have not increased any prices yet after the VAT increase but are starting to see some marked increases in wholesale prices whether vatable or not. Now the snow has melted it is time everyone flooded back to the valley!
Sorry that was a bit gloomy -  but it will be nice to be busy again.


We have got a few events coming up including a Burns Night Whisky Tasting - on Friday 28th Jan 2011

A weekend of Italian themed cuisine for Valentines so book a table on Saturday, Sunday or Monday 14th Feb for a delightful selection of Italian inspired specials

On the 11/12th March we have got a feast of strong ales. We are playing host to the area CAMRA tasting session to pick the North Western representatives for the Great British Beer Festival in the category of "Strong Bitter" I can't tell you which beers will be available (it's a secret) but there will be at least 8 available in the 4 to 6% range - Enjoy

On the home front I am starting to feel like I am taking part in a remake of  "The Good Life" I spend most of my time messing about with the eco-friendly tree eating boiler or trying to get the hens to lay an egg, but spring must be on the way because we got 4 small eggs today and one a little bit smaller than a cadburys mini egg, honestly smaller than a sparrows egg!

We added to our livestock this week with the addition of 3 ducks. People keep asking what sort are they, isn't it obvious - they are white ones!
Next week will see the arrival of our biggest animals ( Lesley says I am not allowed a cow) when we take possession and responsibility for three saddleback pigs. These should be on the menu later this year at brook House, maybe with a duck egg on the side.

Hunting gall bladders and other odd activities

Someone said to me recently "I did not know you were a blogger". Well having not posted for over 3 months "blogger" is probably too strong a word for my occasional utterings.  I thought It was about time I gave it another go, after all it can be added to the list of odd activities that I get involved in. Now for instance I am writing this, nursing a tender back from splitting logs a few days ago, but this morning I was chasing chickens round in circles, something I find I do quite often.
Lesley, Emma and I have moved out of room one at Brook House to a cottage up the road, which had some resident hens and some newly hatched chicks. We are really enjoying the sense of space and the partial outdoor life with the hens and the wood burning heating system.
At Brook House the year is quietening down rapidly, Dad and I have started work on room one bathroom, we were quite surprised to find it had a cast iron bath, we left it in the bedroom only to find that when we came back after lunch it had miraculously found its way outside -thanks to Owain and Phil!
We have had a bit of a change around with the beers on the bar, after 12 years on the bar, Tim Taylor's Landlord has been replaced, this was a hard decision but with prices increasing we decided it would be better to offer a cheaper local brew in these troubled financial times.  "Cumbria Legendary Ales - Langdale" is now a permanent fixture, cheaper it maybe but the quality is excellent and at 4% it provides a good step up from  "Hawkshead bitter", allowing us to have some stronger guests such as "Yates IPA".
In the kitchen we have a new supplier for butchery which has proven to be a good addition. The butcher has introduced some new cuts of meat including a "lamb cradle" which is cut from the leg, we pan fry then roast it and serve very pink with a minted port berry sauce. Also they supply Cumbrian pork which we have been curing and turning into our own bacon. Chicken livers are now also sourced from Cumbria but you do have to look out for those little green gall bladders, they can ruin a lovely batch of Pate!

The valley is looking lush and vibrant. We have had about 40cm of rain since the beginning of August, which has made it difficult for campers and maybe put a few people off coming, hopefully the coming month will see a bit less water and a little more sun as the trees put on their autumnal cloak. All the pubs in the valley are in good shape now and with the ratty still running October is an excellent time to visit Eskdale. We have rooms available for some weekends and during the week.

Off back to my proper job now - time to do a bit of cooking.

Beer Festival and Beyond

Another Beer Festival has come and gone, once more in fine style with good weather and fine folk drinking lots of Britains' finest ales, over 130 real ales in fact!.

This is quite some achievement for a small rural valley like ours. All 3 pubs had a good festival, although we thought that there may have been slightly less people about than last year, but the ones here made up for that by drinking a bit more - well done all of you and thank you for coming.
I would like to thank everyone for their kind messages of support after the terrible events of June 2nd. A few people have suggested they would stay away to give the valley time to settle down and us all time to recover, this is a lovely thought, but I hope I can speak for all the pubs, B+B's,  campsites and cottages in the area and urge everyone to come and visit Eskdale. What we want is to see happy smiling faces back in the valley.
July is looking quiet at Brook House with some weekend vacancies available and plenty of space during the week, to book give us a ring on 01946723288 or go to our online booking page.

Wednesday 2nd June 2010

A day that will be hard to forget for so many people from West Cumbria.
As I am sure everyone is aware a man killed and injured many people on this day. He terminated his journey near Doctor Bridge finally taking his own life.
Just past Brook House  on  the way to the campsite he fired shots at several people, injuring at least two, we brought one lady into the pub and looked after her as best we could until the poilce finally took her off for medical treatment. We brought everyone inside and locked the doors, this was a tense time as we were told by the police that the man was now on foot and armed with a rifle with telescopic sights. Five helicopters were up in the air and at least 15 police vehicles passed by Brook House.
There was a sense of relief when we were given information that the situation had been resolved and everyone could go back to their business, the tourists moved on, staff changed and we continued work. A busy night passed in a blur, avoiding press and helping the police as required.
As the full horror of the day unfolded and the death toll rose a sense of numbness has descended upon many of us as I am sure it has accross the country. When I got up this morning I went outside, the birds were still singing, the cuckoo calling,  nothing has changed but the whole landscape seems softer, almost surreal.
Eskdale has got off lightly, only one death and that being the killer. Harry Berger from the Woolpack Inn has been seriously injured and is in hospital, he was shot whilst in Seascale and has recieved surgery on his arm/hand, as far as I am aware no one else from the Boot was injured.
Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all those killed and injured yesterday, a sad day for everyone.

Beer is Art

The perfect pint, is it displayed in a gallery somewhere? If it was would it have a tight creamy head on top of a bright nutty brown body, or would it be frothy like it had been pulled from the bottom of a mountain waterfall, maybe it would be black as night or pale as a harvest moon. Like art what beer suits one may provoke an adverse reaction in another! Hopfully this years Boot Beer Festival will have something to please everyone.
It is getting towards that time of year when our cellar starts to strain at the seams, jam packed with beer for the festival and a busy week at half term.  But first this weekend sees the Eskdale school turn into an Art Gallery for Eskdale Art, with hundreds of exhibits from local artists and the more famous such as Paul Hopkins. I have just dropped a couple of Photos off (late) and had a quick look at some of the other exhibits and I am glad to say the standard once more looks good.

I like this time of year when we stop worrying about having too much beer and start assessing if we have enough to last the week!
In general only having a small cellar creates an interesting project to mamage the beer, roatating stock, getting it racked etc, at the beer festival this is complicated by the shear volume of beer, this year we have to have 40 different ones on over the festival! so that should be fun!

In the kitchen we are settling back into the routine of being busy, we have some great local suppliers, especially for Cumbrian meat, but one of the best things for me at this time of year is to be able to go outside and pick fresh herbs from the garden. Also Sarah and Shaun now have a garden full of rhubarb so Eskdale rhubarb crumble is back on the menu!
The Boot Beer Festival kicks off on Thursday10th June 2010 at Brook House Inn with a curry night and music from Leather and Lace.