Kernel Saturdays no more?

I hear that the Kernel brewery are planning on stopping opening up and serving beer on Saturdays, possibly just doing sales. Rumour has it lots of residents have complained.

Is there any truth in this? A shame if true as it is in an industrial estate and they shut at 2pm on a Saturday so its not like they're keeping residents up all hours.

[technically se16, maybe]

The Dean Swift sells Kernel - five minutes walk from the brewery

NOTICE

From 5th September we will no longer serve beer to drink at the brewery.

We will be open on Saturdays only as a bottle shop (for our normal hours of 09.00 - 14.00). This is in line with the ethos of Spa Terminus, whose focus is produce that can be bought to take home.

We cannot satisfactorily accommodate the volume of people who wish to come down on a Saturday: we feel that our space has been outgrown and we are unable to give our customers an experience, service or environment that we are happy with.

We are working on a more suitable way to be able to serve beers directly to our customers, but this will take some time.

This is not a decision we have taken lightly, our Saturday tap room has been a huge part of who we are and what we do. Thanks to all of you who have come down and shared it with us.

http://www.thekernelbrewery.com/

That's a shame - however Brew By Numbers have recently taken on more space so that they can accommodate more Saturday visitors and I prefer their beers anyway.

Kernel seem to have been a little against the Saturday afternoon 'brewery tour' culture that has emerged over the last 18 months or so along the railway line. The reasoning behind their closing the bar at 2 rather than 4 (as it was) was to make it more difficult for people to treat the Kernel as a stop along the way in the middle of a route of 5 breweries.

Hopefully BBNo, Anspach and Hobday, Partizan, FourPure (which has an excellent set-up on a Saturday), and the other couple of newer breweries continue to open their doors to customers. Kernel is, as BSB says, available in plenty of local pubs and I'm sure they'll continue to thrive - they even had a few bottles at a wedding I went to last weekend in Cambridge (although the groom had inside info).

Anspach & Hobday is currently facing a review of its licence - there's a hearing next month.

I have to say I walked along Druid Street one Saturday a few weeks ago (before the new market started) and if I lived on the Arnold Estate I would be annoyed about the noise etc. I can well understand why there are complaints.

fusionsnow wrote:

... Rumour has it lots of residents have complained...

James Hatts wrote:

... I would be annoyed about the noise etc. I can well understand why there are complaints.

Fusionsnow doesn't specify the source of the rumours; I'm not sure whether there were complaints about Kernel. I notice pnagle didn't mention any problems with local residents in his posting.

I was in there buying some bottles a couple of weeks ago and the chap who served me was clearly a bit frazzled. The tap room was heaving with loud (albeit cheerful and well behaved) drinkers including a large stag party and there was a big queue of people queuing to get in, even though the 2pm closing time was looming. He mentioned to me that they were thinking about ceasing that part of the operation simply because it wasn't really what they were there for.

The beer outlets on Druid Street are a different proposition I think, not contained in the same way, adjoining a residential area and open longer hours. Hence the inevitable minority of disrespectful/discourteous twerps among the clientele are bound to cause a problem with noise, broken glass etc.

Anspsch and hobday are good people, but they might want to be a bit careful alright, they don't have very much space inside and a lot of people spill out onto the street there at the junction, can get a bit messy. I hope they don't get their license revoked though.

I don't blame the kernel, it's too hectic in there on a Saturday by midday. Shame to see it go but understandable from their part. Doubt it was anything to do from complaints, can't see anyone getting annoyed with where it is.

It'd be great if someone opened a pub around there with just beer and food from Se16. There's enough breweries to do it now, plus local bread, cheeses, etc.

Kernel is available in local pubs, but have you seen how much they charge for it?

Shame if A&H lose their license. I guess that these small breweries aren't really set up to deal with big crowds and probably don't manage the trouble they bring that well.

fusionsnow wrote:

Kernel is available in local pubs, but have you seen how much they charge for it?
Shame if A&H lose their license. I guess that these small breweries aren't really set up to deal with big crowds and probably don't manage the trouble they bring that well.

Plenty of the local beers are stocked in local pubs - the St James, the Grange, the Dean Swift, Simon the Tanner to name a few all have Kernel, Partizan, FourPure, Southwark Brewery beers at various times. The price point will be largely a result of the price the breweries charge though - these are not huge operations so overheads are relatively high and this does impact on price. When you're paying £3+ for a 330ml bottle direct from the brewery you're obviously not going to get it cheap in a pub who will put their own mark-up on it.

Entirely unsurprising that the Saturday opening of these various breweries is causing problems. I live close to the centre of all this and it does seem to be getting a little out of hand of late.

However there might be a cunning solution. The Marquis of Wellington on Druid street is closed down. I do not know what is going to happen to it but it would be good to see it re-open. Better still if the various breweries in the arches were to join together, buy the building and re-open it selling their various beers. Add food from the local markets and I think it could be a winner. Just a thought. I hope somebody runs withs it.