Fancy that! The quirkiest stories of 2014
January
Music legends Status Quo revealed plans for rocking ale over the world when they teamed up with Marston’s. Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt launched Piledriver — a 4.3% ABV beer, named after the band’s fifth album.
Parfitt said: “Piledriver is renowned as one of those albums where it all went right: the chemistry was perfect and the fun flowed. Wychwood Brewery has helped us create a beer with the same ethos.”
February
BrewDog and Honest Burgers said their new creation, #Brewburger, had so much craft beer in the recipe, customers would need to prove their age before ordering it.
BrewDog’s James Watt said: “It’s the first time a burger has come with an ABV, which is pretty cool.”
March
Publicans are the least happy workers, according to research on well-being from the Office for National Statistics.
They reported the lowest job satisfaction out of 274 occupations surveyed by the ONS. Vicars and priests were found to be the happiest workers.
April
David Beckham and Diageo teamed up to launch Haig Club Single Grain Scotch Whisky, a new brand to emerge from the House of Haig, one of Scotland’s oldest whisky brands.
However, his involvement drew criticism from charity Alcohol Concern, who expressed disappointment that the former England footballer had chosen to promote spirits.
May
A Lancashire woman appealed for help on a pub crawl with a difference — to visit every Red Lion in the UK. Personal trainer Cathy Price started her quest in April 2011 and by May 2014 had managed to tick off 433 Red Lions stretching from Penzance in Cornwall to Fochabers near Elgin in northern Scotland.
June
Fuller’s pledged to launch a beer where no brew has ever gone before — by sending it into space.
The brewer said it would set off a weather balloon to carry a pint of London Pride 40km into the atmosphere, reaching the stratosphere.
Ros Bangs, tenant of the White Swan in Whitchurch, said: “We were tired of seeing every village pub go ‘gastro’ so we decided to go ‘astro’!
July
A Merseyside licensee was ‘fuming’ after his cleaner was given an on-the-spot fine by a council enforcement officer for dropping a cigarette in his pub’s car park.
Steven Hawthorn of the Bowring Park Hotel called the decision “disgusting”, mainly due to the lack of empathy of the officer.
You see, the pub had just been burgled, and the cleaner was having a quick cig before the police arrived. “She would have been the one to sweep the cigarette butt up anyway,” Hawthorn said.
August
Have we reached peak burger? In August, it appeared the nation’s number one dish, the burger, had reached its peak.
Foodservice consultancy Horizons revealed that 17% fewer dishes on menus feature burgers compared to last year.
But hot dogs are appearing on 86% more menus than in 2013, pork ribs are also on the up, with 15% more on menus than in 2014, and sharing dishes such as sliders are up 64% since the summer of last year.
Other top-growth items on menus include ‘gluten free’ dishes, which are on 8% more menus.
September
Marston’s chief executive Ralph Findlay became the first major industry figure to take on the ice-bucket challenge — getting drenched with icy water in order to raise funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association charity — at the brewer’s Wolverhampton headquarters.
He then nominated PMA editor, Rob Willock, to do the same.
October
One of the first customers at the newly opened Red Lion in Foster’s Booth, Northamptonshire, was Richard Morris and his vintage steam engine.
Morris was driving his 1911 JH McLaren traction engine 100 miles from Bedfordshire to Worcestershire when he stopped for a pint — and to fill up his engine with water.
November
JD Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin has admitted drink sales have been poor at its first motorway services site because “people just want a coffee”.
