Reuben does a runner
Reuben Crouch, General Manager at Ludlow Food Centre for the past seven and a half years, has joined Hobsons Brewery as their new Commercial Director, swapping award winning local food for award winning local beer. Hobsons believe in sourcing locally, they use hops that are grown seven miles from the brewery and instigated a programme for local farmers to grow Maris Otter barley for their brews, so it made sense to hire locally as well.
The new boy is getting to grips with the brewery, but wasn’t quite expecting his induction to include the challenge of running to work after his company car got delayed. In his first week he has also experienced the role of a brewer, drayman and ‘dogs body’, with a day’s brewing, weighing out the hops to digging out a very steamy mash tun, delivering cask beer to pubs in Herefordshire and helping to assemble the new Green Hop Beer gift packs.
Reuben commented “I believe in mucking in, and there’s no better way of getting to know a business than completely immersing yourself in it. Hobsons has a small friendly team and it’s been a fantastic first week, I particularly enjoyed putting my swimming trunks on to clean out the copper!”
Reuben frequently ran the three mile commute to work at Ludlow Food Centre but the brewery is in Cleobury Mortimer, 16 miles from his home in Bromfield and with the daunting ascent of Titterstone Clee hill en route. At 1,749 ft above sea level this makes it Shropshire’s 3rd highest peak and a challenge for any regular runner.
“I gave myself 2 hours to do the run and not wanting to be late for work it was an early start. At around mile five my knee flared up and the pain slowed my pace. Not wanting to give up I stopped for a drink and Ibuprofen at Clee Hill Stores. In the end I was about half an hour late. On a positive note the carbon footprint of my commute must have been pretty minimal, which fits well with the environmental sustainability policy we have at Hobsons.” said Reuben.
Hobsons Brewery is passionate about sustainability and is a champion of green technologies and local sourcing. A wind turbine provides about a third of their power requirements and a ground source heat pump utilises natural energy to keep the bottle conditioning room and cold store at the right temperatures.
Asked whether this would become a regular means of getting to work Reuben replied. “I don’t think I’ll be doing it every day, but I’ll definitely do it again, reaching the top of Clee Hill was really rewarding and a few of the Team have suggested they might join me next time!
