The Pub Curmudgeon

I am the man, the very fat man That waters the workers’ beer And what do I care if it makes them ill If it makes them terribly queer I’ve a car, a yacht, and an aeroplane, And I waters the workers’ beer.

An ongoing theme of this blog has been the conflict between the interests and desires of pub customers and the commercial companies who own and run pubs.

From the beginning of this month, new government regulations prevent restaurants and fast food outlets from providing unlimited refills of drinks deemed to be high in sugar.

The Morning Advertiser reports on research carried out on behalf of Ossett Brewery showing that cask suffers from a visibility problem in the pub.

Having left the Old Swan, a short walk back west towards the town centre of Atherstone brought us to the Hat & Beaver, its plain frontage brightly illuminated in the Autumn sunshine.

Atherstone is a market town in North Warwickshire with a population of about 11,000, located between Coventry and Burton-on-Trent, very close to the geographical centre of England.

Over the years, I have often praised Wetherspoon’s business success in building an empire of large, thriving pubs from scratch in the face of an overall declining market.

The Waggon & Horses, a large Greene King-owned dining pub located in Handforth, just south of the Stockport boundary, has recently closed its doors for the last time.

I recently saw this interesting post on X/Twitter about how smoking bans are a touchstone for a society’s general attitude to freedom.

Scarcely a week goes by without the present government announcing a policy to antagonise yet another group in society.

The licensee of the Wonston Arms in Hampshire, a former CAMRA National Pub of the Year, recently had an article published in the Daily Telegraph entitled The village pub I run is being taxed to death.

Budweiser Brewing Group (the new name for AB InBev in the UK) have announced that they are relaunching Boddingtons Cask Bitter, which was last produced in 2012.

In an attempt to combat “food poverty”, the government have announced a pilot scheme to set up state-subsidised restaurants offering cheap and nutritious food, with the first examples set to open in Nottingham and Dundee.

The Morning Advertiser recently published figures confirming the continued decline of cask beer sales in the UK, which were reflected on by beer writer Phil Mellows: Once a month I’m privileged to have sight of the official beer sales figures for the UK.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the government have spent over £35,000 on beermats to boast about increasing the minimum wage.

When you ask people about how to improve the fortunes of the British pub, one issue that often comes up is the beer tie.

Earlier this month, Keir Starmer announced that pubs would be allowed to stay open until 1 am on Thursday 8 May, to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

A few weeks ago, I was browsing the Wetherspoon’s app and noticed that the chicken breast bites were “temporarily unavailable” I thought nothing of it, as branches can run out of food items and deliveries can be late.

The Drinks Business reports on concerns that German beer is losing its lustre both at home and abroad.

I recently saw a couple of posts on X/Twitter expressing dismay at the rising price of beer in pubs.

At the beginning of last year, Carlsberg-Marston’s announced that they were discontinuing the use of the Union sets at their Burton brewery, which were used to brew Marston’s Pedigree.

Last month, Wetherspoon’s announced that they were removing steaks, gammon and mixed grills from their menu.

The Guardian newspaper always has a tendency to regurgitate nonsense on lifestyle issues, and its latest effort is a piece entitled Everyone’s drinking mid-strength – but what actually is it?

The Manchester Evening News reports that the Sparking Clog pub in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, has recently reopened after being given a unique “Two Door Pub” concept.

Today marks the fifth anniversary of that fateful day when Boris Johnson announced to the country that the pubs would be completely closed until further notice due to the Covid-19 pandemic.