The Dizzy Pig Story

 

 

Once upon a time, having made some extra cash converting an old horsebox called Myrtle into a glamping room, it was agreed that some of the proceeds could be used to buy our own brewery. Whilst the take-over of Marston's was outside of our budget, as was a micro-brewery for that matter, we could afford a Grainfather all-grain brewing system. This excellent system allows you to mash, sparge, boil and cool in one contained unit, producing upto 5 gallons of any ale you wish to make. For us, another plus to having a small brewery, is that the spent grain can be fed to our pigs and chickens, who love it so much they ignore their usual sow nuts and corn. You will find more details of our beer on the Beer page and more about the brewery system on the Brewery Page.

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Although brewing beer using the Grainfather started in 2016, the concept of The Dizzy Pig only came into existence in 2017.

As we brewed and drank more ale, the idea of our own pub started to form. We had already hosted a number of "evenings", the most popular and informal were our clay oven evenings. We would fire up the clay oven to around 400C, put out a pile of dough and toppings, then guests would create their own pizza to be baked in the oven in a little over 90 seconds. ale, cider and wine would flow and the occasional dram would be consumed into the small hours, such fun. We also held a number of more formal ... ish "Festivals" and you can read all about these on our Events page. Despite the slightly more formal setting, these festivals still ended up with much consumption of alcoholic beverages well into the next day.

 

Our problem was all this took place in an old double garage, which was quaint, but was still a leaky old garage in the cold hard light of day. Many hours were spent daydreaming about how we could design and build our own entertainment space, but finding the time, skills and money to achieve this dream were all in short supply. Completing both Nelly and Myrtle freed up the time and gave us a range of new skills. We just needed the money and the motivation to make the first step. That motivation came in early 2017 in the form of Storm Doris, who kindly removed much of the old garage roof. The money, well the kids inheritance took a bit of a knock!

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So why the Dizzy Pig? Well, at the entrance to Pool Cottage we have a weather vane in the shape of a pig. and on a windy day he goes whizzing around and ends up looking very dizzy indeed. Hence we had to call the brewery and our pub, the Dizzy Pig, it's as simple as that!

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We had completed the external re-build by early May 2017 and then set about carrying out a complete makeover of the interior space. Unfortunatley, this meant the removal of our magnificant clay oven, which had been badly damaged in the storm. We were able to semi complete the interior work sufficiently to hold a pub warming over the late May Bank holiday, as this was our 21st anniversary at Pool Cottage. On draught, we had Spitfire and Heffalump Ale, as well as Tydeman's Late Orange Cider. Friends and family gathered and the atmosphere was awesome, The Dizzy pig was a true success and a proper pub.

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Following this success, the interior work has continued and evolved, including a log burner, an extensive bottle collection and memorabilia donated by many of the visitors to the "Dizzy". The pub has opened its doors many times since, with friends dropping in for a pint and a gossip as well as more organised pizza evenings using the new stainless steel oven, and numerous new beer tastings. 

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That is the brief story behind The Dizzy Pig, if you would like to know more of the details of how our garage was converted to The Dizzy Pig please visit the Pool Cottage Smallholding blog where you can read a range of posts.

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