A legendary York publican has been awarded with a one-of-a-kind personalised pump clip after years of serving “perfect pints”.
John Pybus, landlord of The Blue Bell on Fossgate, received the pump clip for his Timothy Taylor’s Landlord beer, and he couldn’t be happier.
The unique accolade recognises John’s commitment to serving the very best version of the cask ale.
He strives for perfection, and wants every single pint poured at The Blue Bell to be “tip top”, telling YorkMix, “my reputation is linked to the Blue Bell’s reputation, and locally, that means a lot over the long term”.
John was surprised with the new addition last month, by two of the Timothy Taylor representatives, Johnny and Rob.
John has a great relationship with the pair, and had been jokingly requesting his face should feature on the pump clip for years.
It’s the only one ever produced, which is makes it “so awesome,” says John.
Seeing the pump clip for the first time “was amazing! I was like ‘yeah!’,” he added.
“Timmy Taylor reps are serious reps. They’re old school, and for me, that’s amazing, because we’re an old school pub, and they have the old school values of a heritage brewery as well.”
‘Best I’ve tasted’
John has run The Blue Bell for nine years, and its reputation for serving great real ale, and particularly the perfect pint of Landlord, is recognised far and wide.
So much so, John had a coincidental compliment from the head brewer himself.
“At a beer festival I bumped into the head brewer at Timothy Taylor’s. He didn’t know who I was, I didn’t know who he was, and he started waxing lyrical about the best pint of Landlord he’d tasted all day.
“And I went, ‘that’s my pub!’ He said it was the best he’d had in months,” John told YorkMix.
Landlord beer is notoriously difficult to deal with due to secondary fermentation, so Timothy Taylor’s has their own internal auditors to assess it.
They travel around the country to judge the quality of pints provided in each of their pubs, with the top 100 making it into the ‘Champions Club’.
Around seven years ago, the Blue Bell made it onto the list, and shortly after, Timothy Taylor’s Landlord had a rebrand. The new image was a man pulling a pint of Landlord.
This is when the idea of John’s personalised pump clip was born.
“I jokingly said to the reps, ‘who is this bloke?’ He’s representing my beer on the bar, and I want my face on it, because I serve the best landlord in York!” He told YorkMix.
John’s dream is now a reality, and he currently stands as the only pub landlord to have a personalised Timothy Taylor’s Landlord pump clip.
Cheers to that!