Month: May 2018

 

This weekend marks the second anniversary since the opening of The Last Heretic on Station Street. They are celebrating in style with a beer festival which runs from Thursday to Monday.

“We have a range of beers, strong to pale, to fruit beers,” explains landlord Pete Spittles. “If the weather stays good, we will shift more beer which means more will be on. I’ve got about eighteen on at the moment and at least another ten ready to go.” The current beer list can be seen at the end of this article.

Prior to becoming a publican Pete worked as cabin crew for Thomas Cook: “I’d got knowledge of beer from drinking it, I’ve never drunk lager, even when I was sixteen / seventeen; too cold too fizzy.”

Before settling on The Last Heretic, Pete did his homework: “I went to around six micropubs, some I liked and some I didn’t. I think you need a bar,” he muses. “It’s a focal point especially when people come in on their own, also if I hadn’t got a bar and I was busy I’d be spilling more beer on the floor as I wouldn’t be able to get through people to serve the drinks!.” There is also a practical reason, “I wanted to keep down the staffing costs, if you’ve got a bar near the cool room you haven’t got to leave the area; three paces I am pulling a pint, three paces I am back in the bar. The glass panels work well as people want to see the barrels, 99% of pubs you won’t see a barrel as it’s down in the cellar. The flipside is you have to keep it really clean as there are people looking in and taking pictures so it’s always spotlessly clean in there! Most pubs wouldn’t want you to see inside their cellar, there are bags of potatoes and all sorts!”

The Last Heretic is situated right next to the railway station and attracts a lot of the visiting football fans.

“It is always busy with the football crowd. When Bristol City came we sold more cider than real ale, six lots of twenty litres in a day! That’s a lot of pints,” he laughs. “I’ve just learnt how to use Twitter in the last six months, the football fans tend to be into Twitter more than Facebook, so they just re-Tweet where they are meeting. I am the first pub open on a Saturday at eleven o’clock, so they all pile in here; before you know it there are five … ten … twenty and then thirty in. Will it be that busy next season if Burton go down, I don’t know.”

Pete has his eye on a second micropub: “I am looking at trying to open another, not too far away from here, probably five or ten miles. I’d looked at one in Stretton but I backed out. I’ve heard that someone else is interested and they’ve asked if they can use the plans I had drawn up, it’d be good for Stretton to have a micropub.”

As well as a wide range of beers, there is a barbecue on Saturday and Sunday, so what better way to enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend?

 

 

 

 

 

CURRENT BEER LIST

Black Hole Brewery Milky Way 6.0% Pale ale, honey & banana notes, dry spicy finish

Dancing Duck Duck A L’orange 6.4% IPA infused with orange peel

Dancing Duck Dark Drake 4.5% Oatmeal stout

Blue Monkey Evolution 4.3% Golden Ale, fruity & dry hopped

Blue Monkey Funky Gibbon 4.1% Copper session ale, hoppy finish

Blue Monkey Infinity + 1 5.6% Pale ale, citra hopped

Fernandes Brewery Dragon’s Breath 4.3% Golden, spicy ale from Yorkshire

Kinver Brewery Over The Edge 7.5% Golden strong winter ale

Leatherbritches Brewery Bohemian Dark 5.9% Dark ale, coffee, malty, dried fruit flavoured

Leatherbritches Brewery Lemongrass & Ginger 3.8% Pale ale with real lemongrass and ginger

Lincoln Green Tuck 4.7% Full bodied porter

Muirhouse Brewery Shopping For Hops 3.9% Pale, fruity, hoppy session ale

Tiny Rebel Stay Puft 5.2% Marshmallow porter

Titanic Brewery Iceberg 4.1% Pale, citrus & hoppy

Totally Brewed Punch In The Face 4.8% Amber ale, fruity, packed with American hops

XT Brewery XT8 4.5% Porter, rich, smooth roasted coffee flavour

XT Brewery XT13 4.5% Red Ale using US/NZ/Oz hops

@Micropubheretic      https://www.facebook.com/The-last-heretic-480571588810654/