beer

Missing your local? Why pubs mean so much to so many

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

Our Beerhunter points out the way our lives connect up around good times in pubs and people we meet there

I’m not sure if I’ll manage to keep a beer column going for the duration of our current exile from pubs but here’s one, inspired by Mark Gilliver, landlord of the Coach & Horses at Draycott, which he has built into a marvellous community facility.

This was Mark’s Facebook post which spurred me into action:

“Life just doesn’t seem the same without The Pub. A pub should be a cornerstone of every village, like a post office or church. It’s a place where a community knits and socialises. It’s a second front room, where you go to meet your neighbours, vent your woes, wind down after a day at work, solve all the world’s problems or join a pool team. You can have a bite to eat, watch the football and it’s the perfect place to take the in-laws when the conversation at home dries up.

“Call me old-fashioned but I think the good stereotypical English boozer has an esteemed place in our history and whether it will still be living and breathing in the future remains to be seen, but for many of us it’s an essential part of every decent community in this fine land. Looking forward to seeing all our friends and neighbours back at the Coach, hopefully sooner rather than later.”

If anyone reading this can’t agree with that then they might as well move on. Wrong article, wrong column! Continue reading →

How good does the most expensive pint in Britain actually taste?

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

 

The world is an expensive place

How much would you spend on a pint of beer? Depends on where you live most likely, but it’s safe to say that the majority of British people would draw the line at around £7, which itself is ludicrous.

But what if we told you that there is a pint of alcoholic liquid that would set you back more than £20-per-pint? No, this is not some cruel prank we’re playing on you ahead of pints actually costing that much after a no deal Brexit, it is in fact the real price of a pint of a particular stout in London.

The rare stout is quite strong – 12 percent – so it traditionally comes in sizes like a third, or a half of a pint, but travelled down to see how good probably the most expensive pint in Britain actually tastes.

Spoiler alert: it’s probably not worth the money.

Source: How good does the most expensive pint in Britain actually taste? | JOE.co.uk

Camra: more than half of UK adults struggle to afford to drink in pubs

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

More than half of adults in the UK are struggling to afford to drink in pubs, according to the Campaign for Real Ale

The average price of a pint of beer in London is now £5.20 and regularly tops £6. Across the country, the average is about £3.50, leading to many drinkers staying at home with cans of beer bought in supermarkets instead, said Camra, which warned that more than a dozen pubs a week were closing as a result.It said its research found that 56% of drinkers believe the price of a pint of beer in a pub in the UK has become unaffordable.Prices have risen steeply in recent years, with various taxes including beer duty, business rates and VAT accounting for a third of the cost, said Camra.

The most expensive places for a pint outside London are Oxford (£4.57), Edinburgh and Bristol (£4.35), and Brighton (£4.24). The cheapest is Carlisle £2.35, which is two-thirds of the UK average.

Craft beer in supermarkets costs about £1.50 per bottle or can (330ml) and while mass-produced lager and bitters averages less than £1.

Camra is concerned that the government is planning to increase the tax paid by pubs in the November budget. Beer duty is to rise by about 2p per pint under Treasury plans, and small pubs are to lose the £1,000 in business rate relief introduced in 2017, but scheduled to end in 2019. [ . . . ]

Continue reading at THE GUARDIAN: Camra: more than half of UK adults struggle to afford to drink in pubs | Money | The Guardian

Pubs in danger: Six charts on how the British drink 

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

Across Great Britain, adults are drinking less often. So how are tastes changing and why are they cutting back?

But 18 pubs across the country closed every week in the second half of 2017, according to The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra).

So how are UK drinking habits changing? What are the UK’s favourite drinks and how often are adults drinking?

1. Pubs are closing their doors

In 2016, 500 pubs across the UK called last orders for the final time.

Since 2000, the number of pubs in the UK has fallen by 17%, or 10,500 pubs, according to the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA).

The decline has been blamed on a number of reasons – high taxes on pints, the smoking ban, the price of food and drink going up, and the 2008 recession meaning that consumers had less to spend in their local.

But the BBPA say that the rate of pub closures is slowing down.

About 1,100 pubs closed their doors in 2015, but fewer than half that number closed in 2016.

2. More beer bought in shops than pubs

The volume of beer sold in supermarkets and off-licences (off-trade) in the UK topped the volume sold in pubs, clubs and restaurants (on-trade) for the first time in 2014 [ . . . ]

Read more at BBC: Pubs in danger: Six charts on how the British drink – BBC News