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I am not particularly fussy but I have heard bar staff do not like handled glasses because they are more difficult to collect and wash.
‘Jugs’ were much more common in the past. A ‘proper’ drinker never used the handle but grasped the body with a manly hand with handle facing outwards
A decent glass collector could always thread at least one empty per finger
Me, I always preferred a ‘thin glass’
I suspect the ‘jug’ makes a handy weapon in the wrong hands too.
I’ll always take one if offered but generally as long as the glass holds sufficient liquid and is clean then I’m happy.
Perhaps restricted hours would be a good thing, we’re always hearing about the good old days. We can go back to lockins which as an added ‘bonus’ allow you to smoke inside
“Shipstones, Home Ales and Hardys & Hansons of blessed memory”.
The Shipstones Brewery has been revived. I had a pint of one of their offerings in the Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem in Nottingham a few years ago.
Hardys & Hansons was another brewery bought and closed by the hated Greene King. The Bury St Edmunds brewer has started brewing Kimberley Bitter again, which is available in one of my local pubs. It is OK and only about £3.40 a pint but I do not know if it tastes anything like the original.
Anyone who is anywhere near a Sam Smith’s pub might like to know their legendary ale “Yorkshire Stingo” is available on cask this Christmas. Matured in oak casks and weighing in at 8%, it packs a punch but quite an enjoyable one!
I’m not sure they’ve made it this far south. Think I’d probably start with a half, maybe even a 2/3 😉
Smith’s has quite a large estate in London but I don’t think it has many pubs in the rest of the south. I sampled the Stingo in the Citie Of York, the spectacular pub on High Holborn.
Yes they don’t appear to be here in the westcountry.
The Christmas brew on offer when I went to the pub this lunchtime was a mere 4% unusually but it was a nice drop nonetheless.
Change from a fiver too which is becoming rarer in these parts.
Get to the pub quickly before Reeves closes the last one:
https://www.express.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/2063055/pubs-crisis-rachel-reeves/amp
The last government didn’t exactly do much for pubs either but Labour does seem to have a particular distaste for them. In the previous Labour government, Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling (difficult to imagine either in a pub) introduced the hated “Beer Duty Escalator” which massively hiked up the price of a pint. Now Reeves is at it with her tax rises.
It was often said the early Labour Party owed far more to Methodism than it did to Marx. I think there was a lot of truth in that (I certainly remember a lot of dour, teetotal, Labour voting old men in the Methodist churches in my youth). The New Puritan, “we must save the working classes from themselves” mindset hasn’t entirely gone away. It also explains the hostile attitude to gambling amongst a lot of Labour MPs.
No matter anyone’s personal opinion on pubs, it is an undeniable fact they still employ a lot of people and are a very important part of the night time economy. To be pushing so many to the brink makes Labour’s claims to be pro-growth look rather threadbare.
There are other reasons besides money why some pubs are struggling. There are cultural reasons as well. It is not entirely the fault of the government. But I get the impression the modern Labour movement wouldn’t much care if all pubs went to the wall and many in the party would celebrate it.
Changing times , I’m teetotal and a lot of 20 somethings are to, lol I’m de f no 20 something ( It’s effecting Xmas dos now ) look at it akin to church , times and people change , many now would rather sit at home and have a drink in front of the telly …
The “Daily Express” is quoting UK Hospitality, the British Beer & Pub Association, the British Institute of Innkeeping and Hospitality Ulster, Glad. Are they scaremongering? I thought a CAMRA member would recognise what they were saying.
As I say HDLG, there are cultural issues going on here as well. But governments have screwed pubs for years now. How much more do they want to squeeze out of them?
It is certainly cheaper to buy beer or wine from the supermarket and stay at home – but is that what we really want? An atomised society where fewer and fewer people go out and booze in front of the television? Far more alcohol related harm is done at home than in the pub but unfortunately lots of people are being priced out of the latter.
I’d say the current economic climate isn’t helping either , how many can afford to go out for a drink ? , as someone who doesn’t use pubs I’m not particularly bothered , if I was in the business of be making sure I had a menu to tempt punters in ….
For me personally I’ve never understood the desire of those who sit at home and get bladdered! Wednesday nights with 8 cans watching the footy??
To me drinking is a sociable activity. I’d rather do it with friends. But I’d much rather go to the pub on my own and strike up a conversation with a perfect stranger than sit at home and sink a load of beers whilst watching telly!
A good local pub can be the perfect place for happiness when it’s got the right atmosphere about it!
Sitting on my own steaming drunk in front of the telly would make me think I’ve got a bit of a problem with drink to be honest!
“Are they scaremongering?”
Yes, because it is in their interests to do so. We all know that drinking at home is more problematic than drinking in a safe, regulated environment like a pub, but money talks. The problem isn’t that pubs are too expensive, it’s that alcohol purchased off-trade (i.e. in supermarkets and off licences) is too cheap.
And, of course, the bigger problem is that most people aren’t paid enough to afford a reasonable standard of living. A couple of pints of beer in a pub shouldn’t be a luxury, which it is sadly becoming to a lot of people.
By the way, if the Express were a Simpsons character, it would be Helen Lovejoy.
Started with Thatcher in the late 80s when her government got rid of the brewery owned pubs replacing them with the pubco. This was supposed to give the ordinary man in the street the chance to run their own pub. All it did was to make the directors/shareholders of these pubcos very rich. A typical Thatcher enterprise.
the hated Greene King
I’ve been in Dundee this week which has plenty of pubs – or bars as they prefer to be known in Scotland – owned by the long-established Belhaven Brewery, and I discovered that they too are now owned by Greene King
Good unspoilt boozers mind. If you’re up that way pop into The Trades House which is an architectural gem. It could have been 1925 not 2025
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