Free Houses...Independent Pubs???

[Ian Marriott]

 I have noticed recently the increased use of the terms Free House and Independents! I wish   that people would stop using soundbites and terms from a system that does not apply to the New Zealand situation. We do not have very many brewery owned pubs in NZ anymore. All bars make a choice as to whose beer they will sell, it is not forced on them as it is in the UK.

Some bars choose to sell products from major breweries but they have a choice to  eneter into a contract or not. Some bars sell craft beers but the taps are aligned to a major brewer but just because they sell craft beer, someone wheels out the term free house. It is nonsense people!

There are a handful of outlets throughout the country who for various reasons choose not to support the major breweries and sell only craft beer. These are champions of the craft industry not Free Houses!  ( This is not meaning to be derogatory to anyone selling craft and Major Brewery beers as all situations are different and every craft beer sold is great!)

 

I know it is petty but it just p*%*es me of when writers and columnists can't use proper phrasing  in their articles!!

[Andrew]

I,m gonna break my own rules and say ..Lol.

[Ian Marriott]

Right sorry guys  would love to continue but I'm off to my Expensive House to sell bloody good beer..

 

cheers all 

[Stu McKinlay]

hey, you have a party to organise too!  is that all sorted? and have you invited people on here?

[Ian Marriott]

Been and gone Stu and yep invite was posted on here. All good we raised $600 for Chch and got an excessive noise direction along the way so successful night. thanks for the case of Rapture.

 

 

[Stu McKinlay]

our pleasure... or Sam's actually, it came out of his personal supply!

nice work on the fundraising.

Keep up the good work and I'll try very hard to get up there one day. I might even bring something special with me (hint: a spy from up your way mentioned you were a bit of a fan of Her Majesty 2010).

[Ian Marriott]

Stu, you are on the list for the Ellerslie Beer festival this weekend ...is that correct? Silke (my wife) and I both hold Her Majesty 2010 in high esteem....;-)

[Stu McKinlay]

No, unfortunately, we won't be there... I enjoyed last year but, as a part time venture, we currently only attend these things if it is with our distributor BeerNZ.

I've been told about this mysterious website we are mentioned on but when I searched for it everything redirects to eventfinder.co.nz. Odd.

[Ian Marriott]

http://www.beerfestival.co.nz/drink  FYI. Stu you are listed here mate.

Oh well we'll catch up at some point. I was sharing a Taieri with Jeremy last night, The spy ring is broken ha ha.

[Stu McKinlay]

false advertising... the only way our beer will be there is if someone is picking up some from a Liquorland or New World on the way.  They've not purchased from us, we're not on The Brewer's Guild Stand (if there is one), our distributor isn't there and we certainly aren't.

 

There's an outside chance I'll see you in the not too distant future.  It just relies on one of our least decisive friends making a decision.

 

 

 

[Stu McKinlay]

I agree with Dominic here. It is a colloquialism. Perhaps it is a formal word in the UK, with a definite meaning, but here it is a bar that does as it pleases in regards to serving beer.

If you purchase a car, under conditions of payment, you don't "own" the car until it is paid off. Same with taps, lines, cold rooms in a bar. Let's see how much tap beer they can sell when they decide to put Emerson's, Epic and Three Boys through their lines. I bet the owner of their equipment will demand a ridiculous payment on the spot or come in and pull out their lines and

I'm happy with anyone calling their bar a free house so long as nobody has a say in what goes through their taps other than the owners and/or management at the bar.

 

But, then, I'm the kind of guy who is happy to ask for a "pint" when I know it is not 568mls (it might well be 473mls, which is also a "pint" to some).

 

JT - "Craft Beer Capital" has been trademarked by The Moutere Inn. Cheecky buggers! I'd be very surprised if it gets through though. It's been in liberal use throughout the beer press over the last 3-4 months.

 

From wikipedia:

After the development of the large London Porter breweries in the 18th century, the trend grew for pubs to become tied houses which could only sell beer from one brewery (a pub not tied in this way was called a Free house). The usual arrangement for a tied house was that the pub was owned by the brewery but rented out to a private individual (landlord) who ran it as a separate business (even though contracted to buy the beer from the brewery). Another very common arrangement was (and is) for the landlord to own the premises (whether freehold or leasehold) independently of the brewer, but then to take a mortgage loan from a brewery, either to finance the purchase of the pub initially, or to refurbish it, and be required as a term of the loan to observe the solus tie.

[Andrew]

Apparently you can trademark whatever you like in NZ, like say..... a beer style. I,m thinking of trademarking water, then I charge you all who call it such.

[jt]

JT - "Craft Beer Capital" has been trademarked by The Moutere Inn.

 

Yep, had a nifty search through IPONZ after the mention of the trademark and use of 'craft' and came up with some beauties - so my next ale won't be a scummy low-OG 'Captain Cook' as Lion Nathan have had their dibs on it for years ...