Oatmeal now on Tap

KNOW your product. Any salesman will tell you that’s important. But far too often, pub companies and managers neglect that basic rule when training their staff.

When you walk into a pub and are faced with a plethora of unfamiliar beers, the bar staff’s insight or ignorance can make or break your pint. The bad barman or barmaid will shrug and leave the customer floundering. The good will pinpoint the perfect pint for the pondering punter time after time after time.

Some perfectionist landlords insist every member of staff tries every new beer that goes on the bar, so they can give a first-hand perspective to any undecided customers.

But York Tap, at York Station, have now gone one better even than that. Keen to increase their staff’s awareness of beer, the management packed them off to Brass Castle Brewery in Malton to make some themselves.

The resultant Oatmeal Pale was launched on Thursday evening, taking centre stage on one of the Tap’s three bars, and the staff would have been able to tell you exactly what had gone into it - from the hops to the water to the blood, sweat and tears.

“The idea was to get staff a little more involved and confident in their knowledge of the beer, and to get a better idea of how the beer we serve is brewed,” said the Tap’s deputy manager Rosie Pointon.

“Some had never seen the process before, but the Brass Castle guys got them involved, and digging out the mash and cleaning casks. They made good use of their six little helpers!”

The Oatmeal Pale is a novelty in these parts, oatmeal more commonly being associated with stouts when it comes to English beer.

Phil Saltonstall, founder and brewer of Brass Castle, spotted an oatmeal pale beer on a recent visit to Texas however. Realising a number of American breweries had tried the style, he decided to give it a go as well.

“What the oats do is give a softness and a quite velvety texture to the beer,” says Phil. “That’s why they are often used in stouts. In a beer like this, it gives a bit more body and warmth and that allows us to use a higher quantity of hops.”

The oats account for 15 per cent of the base, compared to 85 per cent malt, and the hops are a mixture of Boadicea and Topaz.

Oatmeal Pale was one of nine Brass Castle beers at the Tap on Thursday as part of a bar takeover. The others were Bad Kitty, Sovereign, Cliffhanger, Tail Gunner, Sunshine, Vampyre, Hazelnut Mild and Mosaic, a fulgent demonstration of the calibre and conviction of the brewery these days in producing innovate and impressive beers.

The Oatmeal Pale is, for now, unique to York Tap but Phil says they may well re-brew it if feedback is positive. Speaking at the launch itself on Thursday, he said: “I’m sure the Tap will want to go to other breweries as well now and do other beers, but if people like this then we can do it again.

“The great thing with nights like this is that we can hear other people’s reactions. This was a prototype beer so if people think it is too hoppy, too sweet or too bitter or whatever then we could alter it.”