Lambley microbrewery looks towards an uncertain future

The Woodlark Inn really puts the micro in microbrewery.

Just off of the main streets in Lambley, you can feel the village vibes all around.

It is the sort of place you look forward to seeing when turning the corner, as you know a great pint is ready and waiting for you.

It is genuinely surprising how much the team at the Woodlark manages to do in their small premises, serving an extensive food menu on the one side and a large, ever-changing selection of ales, beers and wines on the other.

But the pub faces the same challenges as the rest of the industry – rising fuel costs and customers with less money to spend.

And it means, for now, their brewing days have stopped.

“It has been pretty horrendous actually,” says Elaine Delaney, chef patron and landlady at the Woodlark.

“Number one we’ve not had much time to brew, and number two with all the energy hikes it has seriously compromised our potential for brewing. Crazy.”

“We’ve had to halt that completely.

“And we’ve seen some of the smaller breweries that we were dealing with fall by the wayside as well.

“But we do, at the same time, try and support the small Nottinghamshire breweries that we have been supporting, and the new guys as well.”

While they have not been able to sell their own beers, they do like to keep it local with their produce, both because they want to help businesses like their own and, more importantly, they know the locals love them.

But in the difficult times of rising costs and supply prices, they were left with a dilemma of taking the hit themselves, passing the cost to their customers, or doing a bit of both.

“We’ve done a mix of them all really,” she adds.

“It’s just you have to stay relevant, you have to stay affordable and you have to stay current.

“We’ve been in the trade for 25 to 30 years, and it’s the most challenging we’ve had.

“So the old guys in there right now (the bar) they come in every day and drink their Theakston’s, we try and keep that down for them, so they do come in every day.

“We’re a lifeline for some of these guys.

“But then we’re also fully booked for tonight (Friday 12), we’ve got a couple of birthday parties and an anniversary party. We just try and stay as relevant as we can.”

The Woodlark has a separate bar and restaurant area, which Elaine describes as being: “Same building, separate thing, same owners.”

The dining area is cosy and compact, with space for 40 covers, and a menu that reflects Elaine’s experiences across her years in the industry.

“I suppose the menu, because of our background, where we’ve been and travelled, you can expect British to Mediterranean, predominantly fish dishes.

“But we have a standard menu where you can get a great steak that is locally farmed.

“We specialise in fish that we get from all over the country, from Cornwall to Grimsby to Norfolk.

“We deal with a lot of independent fishing people.

“We’re massive supporters of the Cornish fishing industry because we saw the struggles with everything that went on, so we’ve got lots of good mates that are skippers and they FedEx their catch straight up to us.

“We do a very ‘shore to door’ policy of freshness, but we’re not formal at all. You get a nice plate of fish and chips served by smiley people.”

Elaine has had a varied career in the industry, starting out in Calverton followed by Scarborough, Cornwall and Portugal before coming back to the borough five years ago.

And despite having such a career, with many other financial crises striking during those times, Elaine thinks the current landscape presents the biggest challenge the industry has ever faced.

Independents are ceasing to trade, chains are becoming supreme, and covid showed those in the sector the sort of things they can do outside of it. Workers in the industry, particularly in the kitchen, are hard to come by.

Elaine said: “Pre-covid, you’d have put up an advert for a chef or a kitchen assistant and you’d have 40 people in a room waiting to apply.

“You do that now and you get four to apply if you’re lucky, two may come in for an interview, and you may get one genuine applicant for it.”

And on the bills front, Elaine says there are no signs the burdens will ease, and furthermore, energy companies are overstepping their mark and billing incorrectly.

“We’ve just had two of our bills in last week and there’s no indication of that (the prices) slowing down, even though we’re using less heating at this time of year,” she adds.

“We’re constantly on the phones to energy companies telling them they’ve got to get this right.

“For example, this week we got a bill in and they overestimated it by 700 units, and that equates to about £1k. You then spend three hours of your life on the phone to them to get it back down, but they still overestimate the next one.”

It is because of this Elaine suggests the future for microbreweries is not a pretty picture.

She believes the Woodlark’s survival is down to their diversification, with the food on one side and beers on the other, but if a new brewery was to try and strike out at this time, it would be destined for failure.

“If you have more than one string to your bow then yes you can.

“But I think striking out as a microbrewery on your own is a very difficult thing, purely because of the energy to make your beer.

“Then how much you can sell that cask for, as it’s a super, super competitive market out there? The future’s going to be quite hard.”

And yet, despite the obvious challenges facing the industry and the Woodlark themselves, Elaine and the team still ooze positivity and affection for their pub and what they do, and it seems whatever happens, that is one thing that will never change.

She says anything you eat there will be “cooked wit love and care and attention, and served with the same”.

Elaine adds: “We’ve done three recessions and a pandemic in our careers so far, and we’re still here and sort of smiling.”

The team at Woodlark are ready and raring to face whatever may be thrown in their direction, and they will battle it with the experience to boot.