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Raise a Glass to St Elizabeth Hospice

As you are well aware, even miserable landlords are always happy to give away jugs of tap water. This is a service we have always been happy to provide and will continue to do so unless government pass a law that says we can charge. Alistair Darling may look at this as a way of raising more tax to keep the country afloat.

As a country we are very fortunate that we can go to our tap and receive fresh drinking water in an instant and not worry. There are many countries that do not have the luxury, whether it’s because of poor purification or lack of water full stop.

This year is the 20^th anniversary of St Elizabeth Hospice. It costs £10 a minute to run the hospice and they work solely on funding. As a pub we have decided that with help from our customers we would like to help them to continue helping others

We are asking for customers to make a donation for the tap water they receive. We had a figure of 10p per glass, but feel free to give more or less. This service will not appear on your bill, and you will not be asked or forced to give anything. This is purely a donation thing. If you feel you can, and would like to help in this very difficult financial time, please do. There is a collection point at the bar and all money raised will be donated to St Elizabeth Hospice at the end of the year. 

I must point out this is not a way for us to make money. We genuinely want to do this to raise money for a good cause. All money raised from the provision of tap water will go to the hospice.

Cleaning the Pond - 7 and 8 February 2009

For the first time in about 30 years, a team of pub regulars donned their wellies and cleaned the pond at the Queen ably lead by Alan’s dad, Andrew. In the photos below, the mud is obvious and people are literally getting stuck in ... but try to spot the landlord!

The team getting ready William and Dan keeping dry Chris, Sam and Andrew Andrew and Chris in the mud Sam, Andrew and Chris Alan's uncle resting William, Andrew and Chris planning Fred keeping fairly clean

New Year’s Eve 2008

Midnight in the bar New Year's Eve David and Gill Catherine, Greg and Chris Hialary and Peter Sue with Jacki and Tim Chris and Eve June Greg Sue and Barry Barry enjoying the New Year with Gill Gill, Darryl and Sue Pat Sue Catherine Tim and Hilary Fred and Jacki Greg and Chris Mike and Gill Peter and David Eve - a song sheet - a spoon  ??? John and Don Fred and Alan Jane and Jodie John Elliott Jane, an Abba song and John Pam and Rick

The Queen’s Ducks are Coming Home

(with a little help from the village)

Latest message from the ducks on 19 December 2008.

After months of worry it seems that the “Brandeston 3” will be returning to their home at The Queen’s Head as they have spent far too much time trawling around bars and clubs in Europe. With each postcard that arrives and e-mail received, we just can’t help worrying. It seems that they are safe and well and wish to get involved with village life once again.

Could it be that they have heard of our “Credit Munch”, could it be the sound of the local shoot or is it that they want to be here for next year’s village fete and beer festival. Either way we will be pleased to see them.

Now it is up to you to assist in their safe return. They need your help and support to encourage them back into the community and welcome them home with open “wings”. There is no huge ransom “bill” to pay just a little money. Don’t worry we haven’t gone “Quackers”, we are just doing our bit to ensure they come home to roost. How do we do our bit? Well, it is reported today that the price of land in this beautiful Suffolk village has hit an all time low. Many plots in the village have seen a dramatic downturn and it is now possible to buy areas of Brandeston for £1.00!!!!..............

Have we all gone “Quackers”.

Not quite, but nearly. Buy a square on the Brandeston map near the bar in the pub and guess where you think the ducks will land. The winner will receive a meal for two at The Queen’s Head.

All money raised will be divided between the village hall and the church fabric fund. There will be some random runners up prizes as well so it’s worth a go. Simply decide on your square, pay your money at the bar and we will enter you on to the chart.

Remember, this is all for charity - our village hall and our church - so please buy your square now. Those little ducks have been gone for far too long and it’s time they came back to roost where they belong.

It’s going to be lonely this Christmas without them here so dig deep - our ducks need you.

Once the map is all sold, the ducks will be informed and will come back into the village. Where they land is their choice.

Good luck and keep your eyes peeled. They could make an appearance very soon.

Missing Ducks: Latest - 28 November 2008

All being well, the ducks should be home for Christmas. To encourage their return, a money raising game is being planned at the Queen. All proceeds will be split between the village hall and the church fabric fund. Full details to be announced soon.

In the meantime, check our Credit Munch and other events at the Queen.

Pizza Night - 7 November 2008

Alan, along with Stephen and Maria (head and sous chefs at the Queen), invited any children who were interested to prepare pizzas for customers during the First Family Friday evening in November. Hayley, the web site’s Young Brandeston editor, was there to take notes for a report which will appear here shortly. After an apprehensive start, the three trainee chefs, Madeline, Matthew and Kate, got into the swing of things and prepared increasingly oversized pizzas for the lucky customers. They also waited on the tables, serving their dishes along with chips and salad. Their evening’s work ended with them eating their own pizzas in a quiet corner of the pub.

Alan getting Matthew ready Madeline, Matthew, Kate and Hayley with Steve and Maria Matthew adding the cheese Maddie spreading the tomato sauce Matthew with a prepared pizza Maddie with a pizza ready for toppings Young Brandesto n reporter Hayley Kate, Maddie and Matthew about to serve Kate adding the tomato sauce Maddie adding the peppers Matthew adding the cheese Maddie serving chips Kate serving a pizza Group pizza-making Final pizza ready for the table Kate enjoying her pizza Matthew about to eat his pizza Hayley enjoying her pizza

Ducks at the Queen - 10 October 2008

The ducks at the Queen’s Head have been missing for several weeks now and all investigations to date have turned up no evidence at all. The people responsible for removing the ducks have sent some e-mails suggesting that they are safe and well and enjoying a holiday in Europe although no postcards have been received. So the mystery surrounding their disappearance remains. On the right is the last known photograph of the ducks, taken at the fete in June.

On the morning they went missing, Alan thought it was pure vandalism. As usual, there had been absolutely no trouble in the village overnight so this was ruled out fairly quickly. The next thought was that someone had taken them as a joke. A few likely candidates were mentioned but the fact that the skilled use of a screwdriver was involved ruled out most of the suspects. The others were ruled out because they weren’t travelling.

The days passed with no sign of them being returned and then, out of the blue, came an e-mail from ducksonholiday@yahoo.co.uk clearly suggesting that they had done a flyer to warmer climes. It’s not clear whether this is a hoax  as I believe Alan hasn’t seen any photographic evidence.

Nothing much was heard until further e-mails were received two days ago – the contents of which are secret, apparently – but rumours in the Street suggest that a ransom is being asked for. How this will be paid remains to be seen.

Perhaps if and when the ducks come back, we might see some duck down cushions in the bar, duck liver pate, confit of duck and duck in orange sauce on the menu and a small bill at the end.

In the meantime, feel free to lobby the e-mail address above and report any information you obtain to Alan.                                                                                          

The Queen’s Quackers go Missing - 18 August 2008

The three ducks on the fence outside the pub were removed on Friday night. They had been there for a long time and were featured in the advertising for the pub. “I was livid when I discovered they were missing,” said Alan Randall, their owner and landlord of the Queen’s Head, “and I really want them back.”

It appears that there is more to this than just casual vandalism as on Sunday morning, Alan had an e-mail from their kidnappers claiming they had been taken abroad.

With at least three ex-policemen in the village, it shouldn’t be too difficult to solve the matter. Asked whether there were any distinguishing features, Alan said they looked like ducks, each one having dark legs, webbed feet and a bill but unusually for ducks, they were made of wood.

If you have seen any of these ducks (pictured below) or can help in their return, let Alan know.

Photos: MP&D; June 2008

The Queen’s Head Hog Roast and Jazz Band - 22 June 2008

Alan can make good weather happen! The Hog Roast and Jazz on the last day of the Beer Festival and Fete was a lovely day in the grounds of the Queen’s Head. The garden looked festive as the tents were still up from the fete – apart from one. Alan’s luck with weather is not always perfect; with seven or eight big tents and gazebos on his front lawn, what weather condition would he really not want ..... gales! So, that’s exactly what we had on Sunday morning. We noticed some fabric flapping on one of the tents and when we were fixing it, the other end, thirty feet away, collapsed under the force of the wind. Some emergency dismantling with the help of Arthur (the hog roaster) and Peter from across the Street stopped it blowing away completely and possibly damaging the other tents. Unfortunately, some of the poles bent and the plastic joints broke so it’s just good for spares now.

By the time the Hog Roast got under way, the weather was sunny and warm. The Brandeston Pickles jazz band was playing in the shade of the big tent and people started pouring into the grounds. Tables and chairs were moved out of the restaurant to help seat over 100 people. The different beers from the festival were still available. Arthur, the Randalls’ family friend, roasted the pig while Steve Cannell and his team in the kitchen prepared the salads and puddings. The attentive staff as ever provided excellent service.

This was a good end to a terrific weekend – a warm and sunny afternoon in the gardens of a country pub in England with good food, good beer and lots of people just having a relaxing time with friends and family.

The Brandeston Pickles Waiting for lunch Tiger and friends The Salads The Diners One of the families Another family Peter and June Mike Greg Catherine

Brandeston Beer Festival - 20, 21 and 22 June 2008

If you throw hops, malted barley, yeast and water together you eventually end up with beer. It seems essentially to be a very simple process and one that has been around for a very long time. It’s amazing, therefore, how frequently it can go wrong and, as far as most home brews are concerned, very wrong. My father-in-law went through a phase a long time ago of making homebrew. On one visit, I was offered a glass of his “really good” beer. I said that I didn’t like to taste the yeast, which is often the case with home brewed beer, but I was assured that his beer was not like that and was more or less perfect. I think he must have been drinking too much of it because I could smell the yeast as soon as I went to drink it and the overwhelming impression? Well, it was of yeast, of course. I finished the glass but that was the last time I’ve had homebrew.

For a long time, I stopped drinking Adnams Best because it tended to give me the mother and father of all headaches and while in my younger drinking days, a hangover was a minor side effect and possibly a badge of honour for a good night out, there comes a time when the unfortunate but seemingly unavoidable secondary effects become more significant than the primary effect. Lagers, wines and G&Ts were the substitutes but in recent time, I’ve moved back to Adnams and the side effects don’t seem to happen as often nor to the same extent as they used to.

So, the Brandeston Beer Festival, the excellent backdrop to the village fete at the Queen’s Head, was an event where a variety of beers could be sampled on our doorstep without worrying about how to get home - very much like the village hall’s Wine Club, really.

Unlike homebrews which always go wrong, all these beers were well produced. That’s not to say that all the beers tasted good or that I would spend an evening in their company. There were definitely some winners but there were also some odd tasting ones among them.

Brains from Cardiff was a good place to start. I’d never liked it much – we had Hancocks (another Cardiff brewery) or Felinfoel (from near Llanelli and on one occasion a guest beer at the Cretingham Bell) locally. I quite enjoyed it but there could be a bit of bias in this. It reminded me a little of Adnams but without the depth of flavour.

Festival Beers Wickwar Brewery, Station Porter 6.1% St Austell, Tribute 4.2%% Copper Dragon, Golden Pippen 3.9% Arundel ASD  4.5% Oakleaf Brewery, I cant believe its not bitter 4.9% Westons Organic Cider 7.2% Brains SA 4.2% Wells and Youngs bitter 3.7% Mauldons, Suffolk Pride 4.8% Earl Soham Brewery, Victoria bitter 3.6% Earl Soham Brewery, Brandeston Gold 4.5% The Adnams Range on the Bar Bitter, 3.7% Broadside, 4.7% Expolrer, 4.3% East Green, 4.0% Regatta, 4.3% Tally Ho, 7.0%

My fellow taster didn’t get past the first sip.

My favourite without any doubt was the St Austell beer. It clearly travels well and was easy to drink. My fellow taster thought it was fruity and tasty. We both had more of this than any of the others.

This can’t be said of the Youngs beer. Youngs always tastes pretty good on a trip to London but this one was slightly thin and tending to be flat. The bouquet, as some of the wine tasters would say, was of a dirty dishcloth. It was just not pleasant and not to my taste. Unlike the St Austell brew, the A12 was a road too far for this beer.

My fellow taster thought the Mauldons beer was fruity and fragrant and reminiscent of Adnams Regatta.

Brandeston Gold, made from our own Victor’s malted barley, was good and can be found locally.

Then there was Adnams East Green – a carbon neutral beer. This sort of thing is an absolute, major turnoff for me. There’s a restaurant in Southwold with a menu that shows how many food miles each dish has consumed alongside its price. It just doesn’t do anything for me and makes me cross by implying that if I eat there, I will save the planet. I won’t eat there, not because I don’t want the planet saved nor that I don’t like local food. I just don’t want it pushed down my throat and any restaurant would do more for the planet by not being there in the first place. East Green seems to be trying to do the same but Adnams, I feel, forgot to add flavour presumably because it would be carbon negative to do so. Some of the comments at the brief tasting were anodyne, watery and unpleasant. Someone did think that it had a hint of Adnams flavour.

That was about it on the tasting; we didn’t get around them all and we forgot to write things down at times. We tried to start again at the Hog Roast but decided that Adnams Best was actually what it said – the best - and we stuck to it for most of the afternoon before drifting into the G&Ts when I felt that I was drowning. What was remarkable was the variation in flavour, bitterness and alcohol content across the 18 beers of this event and if I lived in any of the areas where the festival beers were made, I would enjoy them tremendously but the great thing about the Queen’s Head event was that we could compare others with our own Adnams. Alan did an excellent job of nursing them through the three days and the black bags containing ice helped to keep the barrels in cellar-like conditions.

The Festival was an excellent event and good fun. Roll on next year when we’ll do a better job of getting around the beers and taking notes.

If anyone else want to write a piece about the event, please send it to me and I’ll add it to this review.

Outside the Queen Chris and Richard If only ..... Sarah and Daniel Marian and Mary Tiger, Pete and Tim

New Year’s Eve 2007

At the bar At the bar Gangsters from Kettleburgh   Sue and Sandra Peter and Jacki June, Mike and Pat Greg and June Toby and Alan Eve - the Macarena - don't ask! ... still dancing the Macarena June Toby   Peter Toby   David and Gill !!?? Sue and Pat Gill, Eve, Sue and Pat Gill, Eve, Sue and Pat Hillary Chris and Diana Gill and Eve David and Mike June and Catherine Pat, June and Catherine Greg and Catherine   Fred and Tim Tim reprising the Full Monty Mike Gill Peter, Chris and David Alan

Firelight Night - 17 December 2007

The Firelight Night at the Queen was a good idea that really worked. The restaurant was closed off and extra tables moved into the bar. There were three fires glowing but not giving out too much heat, fortunately, despite the evening being bitterly cold outside. With some subdued lighting and candles, the packed bar was all set for a fire-lit dinner.

The chefs served up honey-glazed gammon with a baked potato and roasted seasonal vegetables along with butter and parsley sauce. This was followed by everyone’s best memory from school days – steamed jam roly-poly (made with suet) with custard. With an accompanying large drink, this was an excellent start to the last week before Christmas.

These special evenings at the Queen are good fun whether you’re out as a couple or as a gang and such good value. Alan has plans for more in the New Year with, perhaps, food from a specific country as the theme.

Click here for more photos.

Feast on a Tenner is Back - October 2007

The autumn “Feast on a Tenner” evenings are back with a celebration of National Sausage week. On 15 October, the pub was full of people enjoying a choice of three pork sausages with mash, onion gravy and roasted seasonal vegetables followed by bread and butter pudding and washed down with a glass of wine ... and all for £10. Toby photographed the event and some photos can be seen by clicking here.

Hog Roast - August 2007

At last, on a Bank Holiday Monday we had a warm sunny day - just right for the Hog Roast. After being unlucky with the BBQ earlier in the year when it poured down, Alan was determined that it would go ahead, come what may, and he had plans to roast the pig in one of the outbuildings if the weather were bad. In the end, with around seventy people attending, the sell-out event in the garden was a superb occasion with groups of friends enjoying the sunshine and the delicious roast pork. We’ll spare you the technicalities of cooking a whole pig so that it’s ready to eat at a particular time, but the Randalls’ family friends, Arthur and Rosie, from Peterborough are experts at getting it right. It was served with boiled new potatoes and mixed salads and followed by a choice of three summery puddings - and all for just £12. The photo here shows the pig just out of the roaster and ready for carving by Arthur, the cook, with Alan, chef Steve Cannell and assistant Greg Gaughan ready to serve. See more photos of the event by clicking here.

Jane’s Time on the Front Line - June 2007

Earlier this year in a moment of some recklessness, Jane, Alan’s partner, volunteered to help out while Toby, the bar and beverages manager, was on his family holiday in Portugal. What did she think about the experience? Read her report on her time on the front line here and find out.

Alan has written an open letter to the village which you can read by clicking here.