Episode 3 Calling Time

The Welsh pub, a traditional haven from domestic conflict,

that oasis of light in the gloom, is under a three-pronged attack

from the smoking ban, the recession, and cheap supermarket booze.

This series is about the diehard battle to keep these pubs alive.

CHEERING

Over the past year we've followed some of those on the front line,

from city centre taverns to country village inns.

The triumphs

and the mishaps...

Aargh!

SHE LAUGHS

..the jubilation...

CHEERING

..and the tears.

Everywhere you look there's pubs boarded up and you hope yours won't be the next one.

All of them with the same goal -

to keep their locals from calling time.

In this episode we follow a gang of pub regulars as they stop propping up the bar

and have a go at running it.

-Nigel, you're doing the washing up.

-Don't throw ice at me! Who do you think you are? The Titanic?

But have they been sampling too much of their own stock

when they sink their time and money into setting up their own brewery?

Don't make it any stronger.

It's going to get stronger when we boil it.

We don't want to blow our customers' heads off on carnival day!

Fingers crossed.

December 2010, and just down the road from Carmarthen,

the village of Johnstown is coming together as a community

for a big, festive charity event.

Today we've got the Christmas fun run in Johnstown.

It's going to be taking place over approximately a mile course

and we encourage adults and children from the local community to come and attend.

Reindeer dust apparently is a bargain at £50.

-50 pence!

-Sorry, 50 pence.

This annual race signs up an eager crowd every winter.

But this year's turnout is a bit thin on the ground

and organiser Jenny Fox has a good idea why.

I'm pretty sure they've gone to The Friends Arms actually.

Excuse me a minute. I'm going to get some Santas out of the pub.

Back you come, please, drink up quickly.

Drink your beer.

Come on, it's nearly time. Angel Gabriel, out you come please.

Angel Gabriel, this is ridiculous pulling you out of the pub.

-Its community, we're making friends.

-Making friends?

Making friends with the pope.

Although it's guilty of kidnapping Santas and putting Christmas on hold,

Jenny can forgive The Friends Arms

because she knows how important it is to the community.

The Friends Arms is a community-based hub. Johnstown doesn't have its own community hall,

so therefore The Friends Arms provides that useful venue where we can meet.

As with any local community a public house is always the link.

To lose a pub like that would have a huge impact on the community

and also events in the area.

But in 2009, the village almost did lose The Friends Arms pub.

This centuries old tavern had drifted slowly from the black into the red.

And to cut their losses, the brewery who owned it put it up for sale.

And like many pubs meeting a similar fate, the only plans on the table

were for its pumps to be ripped out to make room for a restaurant.

But all of this was until three of its regulars said enough was enough.

Drinking buddies John Trott,

Nigel Stevens

and Roger Love

took it upon themselves to rescue the beer pumps from the scrap heap.

We were told it would close down and wouldn't reopen as a pub.

Three of us got together, myself, John Trott and Nigel Stevens, and we took it on and here we are today.

I've known John and Roger for many years.

We're all like-minded thinking people and thought, let's give it a go.

It's a valuable part of the community so it's important pubs like ours do stay open.

It's a business venture, but for us it's a hobby as well.

It's been my local for over 20 years.

We approached the brewery on the premise that if it was going to close, give us first dibs.

We've taken on a lease for the next five years to keep the pub open.

And now with the Christmas run about to start, it's clear that

with friends running The Friends, the pub is a big part of community life.

Follow us, we're going to the best place now.

And this year, the pub has a trained athlete entering the Santa fun run.

Nigel Stevens is running for The Friends Arms. I'm hoping we'll win the cup.

It's a nice day for it.

-My chances? Seeing I was pressganged last night...

-Nigel's very fit.

-And what do you think his chances are of winning?

-Nil!

HE LAUGHS

So off sets retired psychiatrist, Nigel.

With the winning line being the threshold of his own pub,

what more motivation does he need to finish the race?

Oh! So far, so good. Give me a mince pie!

Well done!

APPLAUSE

Come on!

Final spurt. Come on.

I can sprint from here all the way back to the pub.

There we are. Well done. Thank you very much for supporting us.

Let's give him a big cheer and a big clap.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Nigel might not have won the fun run, but he survived.

As has The Friends Arms, and his friendship with John and Roger.

But 12 months after taking over the pub,

Nigel's in no doubt about the difficult days ahead.

It is a lot of work.

I totally sympathise with someone who's trying to run a pub.

Going into 2011, we are certainly aware of the challenges ahead.

The strain on our customers' purses. We're certainly aware of that.

And not long after Christmas, the first challenge of the new year comes along

with another very important season.

The Six Nations should be a sure-fire pub-filler,

particularly when Wales are playing England.

On the trade front, Nigel knows the score.

Tonight he's banking on a full house at The Friends Arms.

It should be a busy night.

The internationals are very popular here.

It's good for business as well. These games are important to us.

Not just internationals, but rugby generally.

We'll have a good night,

and everybody here will probably have a good night.

The pub's kitchen's too small to offer food on a big scale, but the plan is to encourage beer sales

by tempting in punters with a free half-time bowl of cawl and cheese.

Look at that, eh? Well worth coming out for.

Just like mother used to make.

-Oh!

-LAUGHTER

It's the first time we've seen Nigel in the kitchen since we took over the place.

I'm coming in to help out with the preparation,

but I'm going to be the other side of the bar tonight

and doing a lot of shouting, screaming and praying.

Whilst culinary enthusiast, Nigel, prepares for kick-off,

the punters are pouring in on the promise of free grub and rugby.

Nigel stakes his place between the bar and the box.

Five minutes in, he's already getting emotional.

SHOUTING

You're having no support from your touch judges, mate!

No support at all!

SHOUTING

Behind the bar, John and Roger are keeping well out of the frame. And Nigel.

-He loves his sport, especially rugby.

-Like Jekyll and Hyde.

Anything to do with Wales, or the Quins, the Carmarthen Quins.

Jekyll and Hyde.

Come half-time, John and Roger get busy dishing up the cawl.

Nigel stays out front, getting worked up over the cheese.

There was a far better service before Christmas here. Come on. Where are we?

He's good at giving orders today, isn't he?

I am a culinary scientist. I'm an artist.

Nigel, if you want some more cheese, there's a mousetrap in the corner.

The cheese farrago aside, the punters are wolfing down the cawl.

And 67 bowls later, the last helpings are served up.

Last bowls of soup going out to the bar.

-Cheers.

-I would say cheers to you, but...

Cheers.

With the second half well underway, Wales are seven points down.

Maybe Nigel's team talk will turn the game around.

Bring James Hook to centre-half. Lee Byrne to full-back.

No disrespect to Steve - good lad. Let's give him extra options.

What do you know?

Don't throw that ice at me. Who do you think you are, the Titanic?

Despite Nigel's enthusiasm and articulate advice, Wales lose.

But what's been a bad night for the Welsh team

has been a good night for the pub.

We're normally quite busy on Friday night,

but nowhere near as busy as this. It's been excellent.

Nigel was surprisingly quiet tonight, believe it or not.

I've seen him a lot more animated than that at certain games.

Oh, the atmosphere was absolutely tremendous.

It was better here than in the Millennium Stadium.

In fact, we were thinking of taking the roof off here.

Sporting events are great one-off sales boosts.

But keeping trade constant is a different challenge.

With a kitchen too small to provide extra income,

events, ideas and variety are key to keeping the beer sales strong.

And, with this in mind, the friends have turned to outside help

and enlisted a seasoned publican into their fold.

Their new pub manager, Mark Han, brings a wealth of marketing ideas.

The biggest problem is maintaining the momentum.

And keeping people wanting to come back to your premises.

But if you've actually got things going on,

it persuades all to come here rather than sit at home or go elsewhere.

As a free house not tied to any brewery,

the friends can sell any booze they choose.

And Mark's hit upon the idea of selling a range of real ales

that drinkers can't find anywhere else.

To publicise this new direction, the pub's holding a beer festival.

We hope there is a lot of interest in the real ales

and my ambition is to see these barrels in the tilted position,

which means they're empty.

Mark's embracing of the real ale market

attracts an unexpected benefit - recognition.

Groups like the Campaign for Real Ale celebrate pubs that

respect a good quality pint, and the Friends Arms has caught their eye.

Every year, CAMRA survey all the pubs in the county

for entry into the Good Beer Guide.

And this year we decided that today we were going to present

the pub of the year to The Friends Arms.

APPLAUSE

And it really is a real boost to us to be nominated

and given this award today.

Look at that. First time!

It's only their second year. Just to get in the guide is an achievement,

but to get pub of the year,

and say, "You're the best out of those 22 pubs,"

that is an achievement.

Pleasing the real ale crowd has really paid off,

and drunk on the success of their award, the lads have decided

to take their taste for ale one very big step further.

Right. Yeah, come this way, guys.

This is the room that is going to be the microbrewery.

Knowledge of the process needs to be refined at the moment

but, if other people can do it, why can't we?

Everything's up and ready to run.

We're just waiting to have a new power-line put in.

Once that is done, our first brew will start.

It'll be like a trial and error basis.

We just hope that the first brew will be spot on.

With a pub of the year certificate hanging up,

there's a lot riding on their own brew

and the ale anoraks know that when it comes to making beer,

there's no room for error.

It either goes right or it goes wrong.

There's no grey area.

It's either good or it's bad.

And there's the rub.

All this kit has cost thousands, and none of the friends have any brewing experience.

I think the question of it not paying off is probably

not open for discussion.

It's got to be spot-on because it's our reputation that's on the line.

That's going to be the biggest challenge.

Yes, it's getting a bit daunting now,

but it's starting to take shape.

At the end of the day, the vessel's in there.

If it all goes pear-shaped,

we've got our fancy dress costumes sorted out for the New Year.

Four Daleks and the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz!

With their lack of experience giving them butterflies, the lads have raided the phone book

in search of an independent brewery and some free advice.

They've found one in Barnstaple in Devon

and arranged a fact-finding trip.

Stretch my ankles!

We've come to see a pub with a microbrewery.

Very similar to what we're looking to achieve.

Focused on fact-finding, the lads check into their hotel,

but John seems to be after more than just a business trip.

Hello! Just what you're looking for. There's a gnome reserve here.

Can we go there later?

Having shed their bags, they head off to the brewery.

It's a good time to gather their thoughts and expectations.

Just nice to see the whole process going through,

sort of start to finish.

And hopefully we'll have some idea of what our own brew is going to be like.

-It's nothing too strong.

-Something nice and light, isn't it?

But in order organise a booze-up in a brewery,

you first have to find the brewery.

Is it down there?

-Are we any nearer?

-Hopefully we're no further away.

-Just round this bend.

We're off to Ilfracombe, then, Rog?

The town centre's off to the right.

-Abbey Road.

-A bit further round.

-Oh, it's just round the corner.

There we are. Well done, Rog. Master map reader. Well done. Get them in then, Rog.

Our brewing virgins have come to The Reform Inn

to meet master brewer, Tim -

a man with over 17 years more beer-making experience

than our four friends combined.

And their walk has made them

more than ready for a taste of what's to come.

Excellent.

Making beer's relatively easy. Making good beer's a bit harder.

There's brief periods of frantic activity,

followed by lots of sitting around, waiting for something to happen.

Yeah...

Real ale is classed as a beer produced using traditional

techniques and natural ingredients.

And the friends will make their brew using these same methods.

Homebrew was the norm for most Welsh pubs

until the rise of the big breweries 150 years ago.

Nowadays, running a microbrewery from your own pub

is a way to boost profits

by not having to buy beer from these big breweries.

Ours might be modern times, but when you're doing it yourself using old skills,

brewing is still a complicated and technical process

and very easy to get wrong.

Stir away. Bung it all in and stir. Off you go.

And as brew school starts,

it soon becomes clear who's going to be star pupil.

Come on, Nig. People are waiting.

Always the same, always the same.

Because it's not technical, he can't break it. Look at that technique, though.

He's in full flow now, isn't he?

Come on. Don't stop. Slacking, boy.

It's going to be a long, hard day of mashing, rinsing, scooping

and adding hops until the friends come even close to a pint.

So far, so good though, eh? Excellent.

It's a lot to take in.

Well, the brewing process looks straightforward.

But it's timing and temperatures. We have to get those

absolutely spot on. It's certainly challenging.

Hours of hard labour later,

the unfermented beer is far from finished.

But a thirsty Nigel can't resist a taste.

-It won't do any harm to try it?

-No, no.

Oh, that's very bitter, isn't it?

Very, very bitter.

Just put some lemonade with this and sell it as it is.

But before their work is through, it's time for some crucial maths,

knowing what alcohol level you want your ale to have.

If you don't get it right, you end up with beer the wrong strength.

-What does that read to you?

-4.5. Spot on.

When this brew hits the pubs, it'll be a hoppy session ale of 4.5%.

And, for the lads, being involved in its creation has been invaluable.

From what we've seen today and all that's been explained to us, I'm not saying it's going to be easy,

but we'll have a good go at it anyway.

There's so much of the technical aspect there that just goes straight over our heads.

Actually seeing it here in practice now, it's been great.

Time to leave Tim.

The brew they've helped make won't be ready for another few weeks.

But Tim's offered to send a barrel once it's ready.

In the meantime, their trip to Barnstaple has left the lads

with a thirst for brewing.

It's August in Johnstown

and the event of the summer is just around the corner.

The Johnstown Carnival involves the whole village, and the friends

have promised that they're inaugural brew will be ready for the event.

Time to put all they've learned into hard practice.

-A nice light ale is what we're aiming for.

-I'd just be pleased

if we can get a good, clean, clear ale out.

-Is it three weeks this coming Saturday?

-No, two.

-Two weeks, Saturday.

-Two weeks?

So we are going to be pushing it. How long is the whole process? Two weeks?

-You're really looking at the minimum of two weeks.

-So, this is it.

As you say, John, we're not going to have time to do another one before the carnival.

With no room for manoeuvre, their brew has to be right first time.

But before they can get cracking,

there's a potential crisis unfolding.

We're starting to panic a little bit now as the ingredients

that were supposed to be delivered on Friday haven't arrived yet.

We really are starting to get a bit close to the edge now.

As they clean the equipment in hope of the ingredients' arrival,

Nigel's laid-back attitude starts to bug John.

We'll start again next week if it goes wrong today.

-We're quietly confident, aren't we, John, Rog?

-Yes.

Talked ourselves up on this for maybe eight months or so.

No, we've got to get it right first time. We've got to.

No ifs or buts. It's got to be done right.

And not a moment too soon, the delivery finally arrives.

The lads can only hope everything they've ordered is here.

Jesus Christ!

Well, this is the malt. The yeast, the hops.

Let's get it started.

A lot of people are waiting for this.

Eager to make up for lost time, the lads get stuck in

with Nigel taking the lion's share of the donkey-work.

Pleasure to watch him work all day. Such a rarity.

It's begun. We'll just leave that now for an hour and half

and then start the sparge process.

Mid-brew, Tim's barrel of beer arrives from Barnstaple.

The lads take a quick break to sample the wares they helped create.

This is what all that mashing and hopping was all about down in Barnstaple.

This is 4.6.

-Yeah.

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

-Cheers, boys.

-Lovely colour.

-Let's hope we get near to that.

The way we went through the process this morning, I think ours will be slightly more...

Just a bit more stronger, isn't it?

But Nigel's estimate might be a bit conservative.

When they rushed to get this brew started,

the misjudged a few calculations.

48...

The beer at the moment, it may be too strong. It may be about 5.4%.

We don't want to blow our friends' and customers' heads off

on carnival day.

It's a bit like rocket fuel at the moment.

I don't want over 5.

It's not going to get any stronger, though. It's going to get weaker.

It is going to get stronger when we boil it.

It's going to go up 2 when we boil.

At least we know the sparging process has gone well.

THEY LAUGH

Alcohol content somewhat sorted, the next step is to add the hops.

Hops will decide the flavour,

if, that is, your customers still have some sense of taste left.

Third degree burns!

After transferring the ale to the stills and adding the yeast,

they now have to leave it to ferment for two weeks.

Lid on. Let fermentation begin.

But time is tight.

They probably won't get to taste it until the day they launch it.

There we are. Fingers crossed!

It's the day before the carnival,

and almost everyone in Johnstown is pitching in to help set it up.

Well, there's loads going on today. We're preparing for the carnival.

It's our big, annual event in the village. Takes a bit of work,

but they've all volunteered their hours today to help us

and we're really looking forward to hopefully a dry carnival tomorrow.

John, Nigel and Roger are looking forward to playing an active role

in the proceedings.

We've got a float on, and obviously it'll be all hands on deck

for the hordes when they roll in tomorrow after the carnival.

It's going to be a very, very busy day tomorrow. Very busy day.

I just hope we've got enough beer and enough glasses!

The carnival's enjoyed glorious sunshine for the past eight years.

But will this August's miserable weather break that trend?

It is the ninth year and I am expecting it to go a bit wrong by now.

We're all praying. We'll be on our knees later.

Whatever the weather, work is pushing on

and friends are getting on with their Top Beer float.

Where you going? Here, man.

Top Beer. Carmarthenshire CAMRA pub of the year.

It just seemed like a good idea.

A lot of imagination's gone into it.

I haven't been so excited since we went down to Barnstaple.

That's the last time I was excited as this.

But behind the excitement lies hard business fact.

The friends need to keep the tills ringing to keep their pub afloat.

Having invested a year's worth of effort and money on the microbrewery,

they cannot afford for the ale to flop. Manager, Mark, is well aware of what's at stake.

We're certainly a little bit nervous,

and we have been talking about it for so long that expectations are high.

It came out slightly stronger than we had originally intended.

The way I'd like to market it is value for money.

With so much riding on tomorrow being a success,

it's make or break time for the friends.

It's the morning of the big day. First on the scene, Nigel, cleaning.

We take it in turns. It's usually my turn, though.

So I have to travel up from Llanelli just to clean sometimes.

That's the sacrifice I have to make for the business.

Not far behind is John,

preparing to finish off his fun float

with appropriately themed balloons.

I never thought I'd need instructions to find out

how to blow up a balloon.

You'll need more than that!

Guard them with your life!

I'm a perfectionist when it comes to float construction, all right?

We're going to be battered to hell by those balloons, aren't we?

They'll have to do now.

But, for the boys, this day is really all about the ale.

With an army of expectant and thirsty revellers

about to descend on the carnival,

they nervously line up for their own first taste.

Will it be fantastic or foul?

This is the big moment.

-How many are we having, four?

-Shall we just have four tasters?

Oh, this has got to be spot on. This has got to be spot on.

Can we have a role on the drums, please, Mark?

-Right then, boys.

-It looks very good. Cheers.

-Cheers, boys.

Absolutely gorgeous.

This is better than what we expected.

I think that's going to fly out today.

People are quite eager to have a taste.

If we stay here any longer, there might not be any left!

SAMBA MUSIC

The carnival kicks off and the relieved friends reveal their costumes.

Mark's at risk of overheating as he's transformed into...the Swig.

I am having so much fun!

You could have made an effort, Andrew!

Andrew wears that to work as well!

With the weather holding out, the colourful carnival hits town,

bringing Carmarthen to a halt.

I am enjoying it. It is a bit mad, but it's all good. Good for the community.

And up on the Top Beer float,

John's really getting into his Jeremy Caskson character.

Excellent vehicle. Does it all. Wonderful.

Shit car. Absolutely shit car.

The parade's over, but the party's only just begun at The Friends Arms.

It's high time they finally reveal their Carnival ale to the waiting world.

But what will Carmarthen's real ale connoisseurs make

of their virgin brew?

-What do you think?

-Nice, summer drinking beer, not too strong.

Lovely aftertaste. It's great.

I've had a pint of that. That is absolutely superb.

The smell is there.

It makes me feel extremely proud.

Quite humble actually for you guys to say that.

Without the local beers, without the local brewers,

we ain't going to have any more pubs left.

So, hold your head up high. It's a local locals' pub.

Should be done more in the country.

I could sit here and drink this... And I will do! ..all afternoon. Cheers!

Good health.

The pub's packed. Their first ever brew has sold out

and life for The Friends couldn't get much better.

Time to look back on what they've achieved.

It's just been excellent.

We initially took it on as a hobby, regularly drinking in the pub,

to actually taking the place over.

It's just been a massive learning curve. We've thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's been a fantastic year. It really has.

It's been successful and enjoyable.

We made a mistake when we bought tandoori prawns in a car boot sale,

which we put on for an international.

It seems hard to believe that less than two years ago

this thriving pub was on its knees.

It took the passion, blind faith and vision of three best mates

to restore The Friends Arms back to where it should be -

the hub of its community.

In next week's episode, we follow a small community in Snowdonia as they group together

to buy their village's last remaining pub.

It's kind of a dead village since the pub closed.

You lose contact with some people.

Will this well-meaning community project find its feet?

Or is the Pengwern Arms destined to fail?

The amount of work needed does make you catch your breath sometimes.

-Oh!

-Careful, Vincent!

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