Okells

[GD4ELI]

12 hours ago, NoTail said:

I have just returned from Cornwall and had some very good Doom.

The Doom Bar stuff 'Up North' is not from Cornwall, it's brewed under licence.

[jackwhite]

1 hour ago, alpha-acid said:

It might be now but not in 1994 when I designed the new Brewery

How many HL does Okell's produce?

For comparison, the leading craft brewery in the UK, for me, Cloudwater, produce less than 10,000. Timothy Taylors is 103,000 from the latest information I can see.

2 hours ago, Happier diner said:

Interesting facts and appreciate the information. Just for further clarification though, TTs make a considerably greater volume of ale than the Okells brewery. I think landlord is about the 5th biggest selling cask beer in the UK. Its everywhere these day. 

I believe Doom bar is the biggest selling, probably due to their contract with Wetherspoon's. Greene King seem to have landlors as a regular in many pubs.

You're hardly making startling revelations here. None of those figures are remotely surprising. You're also not really comparing similar things, considering the markets each has. 

[jackwhite]

10 hours ago, Ďouglas Peel said:

1886 Where the barman couldnt make a Okells bitter shandy for the wife,Wtf. Walked out went to the British no probs. Okells Bitter stands tall amongst any beer when done right at that 3.6abv range. Love it ,but realise they can anoy the population with dodgy property bollox re/ LA and the ones in Ramsey. As for Wetherspoons being souless shitholes? Some have stunning propertys,hard working staff,where you can have 2 meals and 2 drinks for £16.Abbots ale £2,49 a pint.its a great beer.

Can't agree with you on either of those points.

There are better bitters out there than OKell's although it's decent and rates well in comparison to others. Not terrible but not the best either.

In terms of the Wetherspoons, still maintain it's people after a cheap pint. I wouldn't go out in a big city and drink either of these beers and even then, their beer is often past it's best or they have screwed the brewers over to such an extent they are making pennies on it. 

They may be in some historic buildings and have some decent staff but a number of those staff were screwed over royally by the ethics of the owner during Covid and I simply wouldn't put money in his pocket given that a number of other dubious things he's willing to peddle.

[Manxman1234]

Okells don’t seem to care their pubs are empty as they always have an over priced spar shop or petrol station to take your money. 
 

[Ativa]

4 minutes ago, jackwhite said:

Can't agree with you on either of those points.

There are better bitters out there than OKell's although it's decent and rates well in comparison to others. Not terrible but not the best either.

In terms of the Wetherspoons, still maintain it's people after a cheap pint. I wouldn't go out in a big city and drink either of these beers and even then, their beer is often past it's best or they have screwed the brewers over to such an extent they are making pennies on it. 

They may be in some historic buildings and have some decent staff but a number of those staff were screwed over royally by the ethics of the owner during Covid and I simply wouldn't put money in his pocket given that a number of other dubious things he's willing to peddle.

Most people don’t care.  They just want cheap and think cheap =good.

It’s sad really.  I would much rather pay for a quality product knowing that everyone is making a half decent profit.

[Barlow]

8 minutes ago, jackwhite said:

In terms of the Wetherspoons, still maintain it's people after a cheap pint. I wouldn't go out in a big city and drink either of these beers and even then, their beer is often past it's best or they have screwed the brewers over to such an extent they are making pennies on it. 

I thought you were somehow involved in the pub business? It is now well known that the "Oh, Wetherspoons buy beer near its sell-by date" pub bore rumour is complete and utter trash. Just think about what you are saying and how that could be possible on such a large and continued scale. 

Take a read of "Does Truth Matter" https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/news Yes, it's from Wetherspoons, your mate Tim, but I think you deserve to read the other side of your rumour mongering.

 

The people who trash Wetherspoons on the Isle of Man strike me as people who have rarely if ever been in one. The sort of people if you for example mention the government they reply with "oh they're shit" or you mention the horse trams or Steam Packet or whatever regurgitate their usual "they're shit" mantra.

 

[P.K.]

14 minutes ago, jackwhite said:

They may be in some historic buildings and have some decent staff but a number of those staff were screwed over royally by the ethics of the owner during Covid and I simply wouldn't put money in his pocket given that a number of other dubious things he's willing to peddle.

Exactly why I will not give Tim Martin any of my un-earned cash. He sent a drunken video message to his staff with this advice:

"The millionaire boss of Wetherspoon pubs has suggested his 40,000 staff should go to work at Tesco amid uncertainty over their futures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Tim Martin indicated the company would not continue to pay employees who were now not working after pubs in the UK were closed to stop the spread of Covid-19.

"Instead, in a rambling video sent out late on Monday, the 64-year-old said that supermarkets were hiring – and wished his workers good luck finding new employment."

Now the truly horrible Tim Martin is struggling to find staff.

What goes around...

[Happier diner]

5 minutes ago, P.K. said:

Exactly why I will not give Tim Martin any of my un-earned cash. He sent a drunken video message to his staff with this advice:

"The millionaire boss of Wetherspoon pubs has suggested his 40,000 staff should go to work at Tesco amid uncertainty over their futures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Tim Martin indicated the company would not continue to pay employees who were now not working after pubs in the UK were closed to stop the spread of Covid-19.

"Instead, in a rambling video sent out late on Monday, the 64-year-old said that supermarkets were hiring – and wished his workers good luck finding new employment."

Now the truly horrible Tim Martin is struggling to find staff.

What goes around...

I agree he is an odorous character, but you cant knock the business model. Whatever @jackwhitesays, they do sell good beer and wine and spirits. All branded stuff. I mean the white wine is Villa Marina marlborough sauvignon blanc FGS. Sold at less than most pubs sell some cheap Chilean crap that's not even drinkable. 

I dont mind most Wetherspoon's really. The food is a bit plain but

1. No TVs

2. No music

That's a start for me.

[Barlow]

3 hours ago, Ativa said:

A good day/night out last night which included The Bridge, British, Railway, O’donnels, San Webb’s, The Albert and Oscars from Okells.  I have no idea why they have done The Railway up and not touched the toilets.  The gents don’t even have tops on the taps.

All busy and a much younger crowd than I expected on the Quay. Especially in The Bridge to the extent that I think we were the oldest in there.

1886 also busy as were The Front Porch and The Thirsty Pigeon.  Sir Normans is just weird with no draught beers!

Jaks was rammed as usual, and Quids inn like a social experiment.

Decent food in Coast and Barbary Coast.

All in it was surprisingly busy considering the beer festival was on at the Villa.

I didn’t see any evidence of an industry struggling and people not spending.  There were bottles of wine and cocktails (not in Sam Webb’s obviously) and people buying food all over the place.

Okells pubs had something for everyone as far as I could see with live music in most of them and good service.  The girl behind the bar in the British remembered our round without me having to tell her and we are rarely in there.

A good solid 14 hours out and about, so back to bed for an hour now before a 13:00 lunch reservation.

Nice pub crawl.

The quality of the toilets seem to be way down the list on many Okells premises. O'Donnell's bogs were for many years an Irish country byre experience if ever there was one. Now sorted of course but it took a number of refurbs for the brewery to suss that one out. I would have thought they would have learned for The Railway (I take your word for it, I've not been in yet)

Sir Normans is just weird with no draught beers!   It is weird. The Sefton received monster amounts of pandemic handouts and The Promenade works should have catapulted the place as the pearl of Douglas Promenade. They don't seem bothered. Sir orman's said they were going to get draught beer in "next month " last Summer. And we wanted to organise a do there last year but they said "the bar is going to be in a major refurb at that time". 8 months later, it hasn't happened yet.

Interestingly, The Sefton Hotel was overwhelmingly voted by its shareholders to become a private company again in June 2021.

 

[Barlow]

15 minutes ago, P.K. said:

Exactly why I will not give Tim Martin any of my un-earned cash. He sent a drunken video message to his staff with this advice:

"The millionaire boss of Wetherspoon pubs has suggested his 40,000 staff should go to work at Tesco amid uncertainty over their futures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Tim Martin indicated the company would not continue to pay employees who were now not working after pubs in the UK were closed to stop the spread of Covid-19.

"Instead, in a rambling video sent out late on Monday, the 64-year-old said that supermarkets were hiring – and wished his workers good luck finding new employment."

Now the truly horrible Tim Martin is struggling to find staff.

What goes around...

Can you please put a link to all or any of your quotes and video. 

TIA

As my post above, here's a link for you https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/news

(second down "The Truth")

Edited April 9, 2023 by Barlow
linky added

[alpha-acid]

47 minutes ago, jackwhite said:

How many HL does Okell's produce?

For comparison, the leading craft brewery in the UK, for me, Cloudwater, produce less than 10,000. Timothy Taylors is 103,000 from the latest information I can see.

You're hardly making startling revelations here. None of those figures are remotely surprising. You're also not really comparing similar things, considering the markets each has. 

In 94 around 30,000 Hl

[Barlow]

1 hour ago, GD4ELI said:

The Doom Bar stuff 'Up North' is not from Cornwall, it's brewed under licence.

I remember when I first learned that Guinness was brewed all over the world. My notion of container ships leaving Dublin full of the stuff was destroyed. (This was in an era when container loads of Abba LPs were said to outstrip container loads of Volvo cars leaving Sweden).

In the 1970s there was a Greenhalls lager. It was the favourite for students because it was yellow, fizzy and if you had enough money you could get pissed on it. But it was not popular generally. Until there appeared on the pub scene a so-called 'German brew' called Grünhalle Lager. It was a few pence more expensive but everyone agreed it was quality beer and everyone got pissed and Greenhalls (Grünhalles - geddit!) made a bomb.

Don't get me started on Newcaste Brown...

[GD4ELI]

10 minutes ago, Barlow said:

I remember when I first learned that Guinness was brewed all over the world. My notion of container ships leaving Dublin full of the stuff was destroyed. (This was in an era when container loads of Abba LPs were said to outstrip container loads of Volvo cars leaving Sweden).

In the 1970s there was a Greenhalls lager. It was the favourite for students because it was yellow, fizzy and if you had enough money you could get pissed on it. But it was not popular generally. Until there appeared on the pub scene a so-called 'German brew' called Grünhalle Lager. It was a few pence more expensive but everyone agreed it was quality beer and everyone got pissed and Greenhalls (Grünhalles - geddit!) made a bomb.

Don't get me started on Newcastle Brown...

Decades ago, Manchester Guinness was often preferable to Dublin Guinness. Something about the water.

[finlo]

15 minutes ago, Barlow said:

I remember when I first learned that Guinness was brewed all over the world. My notion of container ships leaving Dublin full of the stuff was destroyed. (This was in an era when container loads of Abba LPs were said to outstrip container loads of Volvo cars leaving Sweden).

In the 1970s there was a Greenhalls lager. It was the favourite for students because it was yellow, fizzy and if you had enough money you could get pissed on it. But it was not popular generally. Until there appeared on the pub scene a so-called 'German brew' called Grünhalle Lager. It was a few pence more expensive but everyone agreed it was quality beer and everyone got pissed and Greenhalls (Grünhalles - geddit!) made a bomb.

Don't get me started on Newcaste Brown...

Do cars leave any country in containers? Apart from stolen Merc's etc.

[Barlow]

11 minutes ago, finlo said:

Do cars leave any country in containers? Apart from stolen Merc's etc.

I think Volvo are still produced only in Sweden.

 

And I wish to amend my previous post for accuracy:

"Over the course of the 1970s ABBA were second only to Volvo cars as Sweden’s biggest export."

Edited April 9, 2023 by Barlow