Today, John runs the Smog with his son, Cameron, known to friends and regulars as Boomer. He took the plunge on the pub after travelling to Belgium and Germany, which made him realise that the beer choice was generally poor in Stockton’s pubs. There were the town’s bankers—the nearby Sun Inn is famous for serving pints of Bass with cumulonimbus-like heads—but John argues that this strong local beer culture has held back Stockton.