The following are a few snippets of advice from a publican who has learned by his mistakes and experience over the past twenty one years !
DO not stock too many real ales. A barrel should be shifted in 3 days maximum. If ales are on sale too long, flavour of the slow selling beers will deteriorate. Too many ales on sale is definitely the most common cause of bad beer. Have no hesitation in reducing the number of ales sold if there is a throughput problem.
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Posted in Licensed Trade, Tradetalk | |
Britain is rapidly becoming the Obesity Epicentre of western Europe. Our national dress is in danger of becoming the Elasticated Trouser.
There is a clear correlation between the huge amount of shelf space devoted to alcohol in our supermarkets and the Fat tsunami, as alcohol is high in calories. Before long our supermarket aisles will need widening. This has already happened to cars. By 2084 we will need fatter roads.
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Posted in Licensed Trade, Tradetalk | |
One frosty January morning in 2001 I had a brief encounter and chat with Prince Charles who was out walking on the Cumbrian fells, near Orthwaite. I mentioned that about six rural pubs were closing each week. He was genuinely disturbed by this statistic and said that he would look into the matter. Later that year he became involved in the setting up of the Pub is the Hub initiative, which actively encourages breweries, pub owners, licencees and local communities to work together to help retain and enhance rural pubs.
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Posted in Licensed Trade, Tradetalk | |
When new beer lines are installed in an outlet, it is now commonplace for the beer to be pushed through each line by a Flojet gas-operated pump. These pumps have superseded electric pumps.
It was common for real ale to pass through large bore plastic line and to be simply pulled though the line by a handpump at the bar. The industry standard now seems to be for real ale to be pulled though the same small bore lines (via a chilled python system) as for keg beers, assisted by an inline pump.
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Posted in Licensed Trade, Tradetalk | |
Local magistrates looked after licensing in England for over 600 years. The system worked well, was cheap to administer and there was just a simple form to fill in every 3 years. Then, a year or so ago, the Blair administration transferred licencing to local Councils and at a stroke turned the system into a bureaucratic growth industry and job-creation scheme. At time of writing, some councils have still to issue the new Premises Licence certificates, which are a year overdue, as they are snowed under with mountains of newly-created paperwork.
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