Decline in British Pubs

I blame Bar Rescue.

 

Isn't there's tax based on Abv as well? The higher the Abv the higher the visit? It would limit experimentation. Maybe London needs a Stone brew pub like Berlin.

 

Any independent confirmation of this out there? Anybody? It seems a bit like Murder, She Wrote.

 

Yes. And beers over a certain strength are taxed even higher per percent.
But pub beers are generally low strength because that's what pub goers want. No point in getting yourself to a pub and then only being able to drink one beer because of DUI laws. Pub goers generally want to be there for some time and sink a few pints.Country pubs find it difficult to sell anything over 5% ABV.

 

Ha. I was actually in one of the Samuel Smith owned pubs last week and overheard people joking about swearing. I didn't realize there was actually a ban on it. They didn't really stop swearing, and didn't seem to get reprimanded, from what I saw.

 

I don't know, I grew up in rural>suburban central NJ ( so. Middlesex - western Monmouth - eastern Mercer) at the time there were lots of working > middle class small towns and there were many more bars in the region than there are now, even with the exponential growth in many of the municipalities. Every bar that I ever stopped in "after work" is gone (as well as the "before work" ones when I worked nights ).

I drive around that region today and often think to myself:

"That used to be a cool little bar ... used to be a bar & grill there in that building with the nail salon ... Never made it into that bar when it was opened, I guess the "bucket of blood" rep scared me off... That's where Jimmy's was ... Whoa, there's a Wawa where the Town Tavern was... When that place was an old man's bar there was still a cool Krueger Pilsner neon sign in the window..."

Once lived in a small formerly-industrial city (10k pop) that was long rumored* to have more bars per person than any town in the state (there sure isn't now). I lived in a turn of the century "foursquare" and on the next block, across the Raritan River Railroad tracks, there was a legal bar in the living room of the exact same style house.

* (Altho IIRC South Amboy actually held the record - when NJ changed the laws in the late '40s which based the number of licenses in a town on population, in any town that was over the limit, the excess licenses were grandfathered in.)

 

Yes, I forgot about that one. I have read that it played a factor, even though people only need to go outside. I have to say that, even as a huge proponent of the smoking ban, it has made pubs feel less puby, though I wouldn't change it for the world.

 

Here is a little more info, aside from Private Eye, other UK press organisations have also reported the apparent conflict of interest. It was debated in the house of Commons last year.

https://www.ft.com/content/6c23ddc4-557c-11e6-befd-2fc0c26b3c60

http://lunchbusiness.co.uk/fleurets-director-appointed-pubs-code-adjudicator

https://www.politicshome.com/news/u...ughing-stock-pub-code-adjudicator-appointment

https://www.britishpubconfederation...eration-calls-for-adjudicator-to-be-replaced/

 

Amazing how different, here except for Guiness and Light Beers you'd be hard pressed to find beers under 5%.

 

But 17* of the Top Twenty best selling beers in the US, accounting for over 2/3's of the total beer market, are all 5% or under.

* (The only exceptions being Bud Ice, Keystone Ice and the combined "Blue Moon" line - all 3 under 6%.)

 

I was just in London in April and I was amazed at how many US beers were being served out there. Lots of advertising around them in the pubs as well. The London pub scene seemed to be pretty vibrant from what I could tell.

I do remember going to a pub up in Manchester a few years back which looked like it had been there for hundreds of years. Once I got inside I realized it was really only a few years old and they made it to look like it was old, complete with short ceilings. I also recall lots of rules around what beers could be sold and which couldn't which I've got to imagine puts a damper on sales.

 

Early in the thread someone brought up pubs serving coffee in Europe. Never been to the UK, but something I've noticed here is coffeeshops starting to serve craft beer. I think it's a strategy to lure a day crowd for coffee and a different night crowd for beer and whatever food items they may serve.

I'm a millenial and I NEVER go out to bars - literally never unless I'm invited by a friend. Why the hell would I spend twice as much for a glass of beer in a room full of strangers I may not necessarily like when I can stay home or hang at a buddy's place and drink much better beer for a way cheaper price? No idea what it's like in the UK, but I've never understood bar culture in the US. Why do you have to go out to hang with your buds? Our generation is financially squeezed as it is, so why throw even more cash away when a higher quality drink is cheaper at the grocery store?

 

Because beer is more that a drink, for centuries it has been a valuable social lubricant. I do not understand the "hermit" drinker, he is missing a large part of the pleasure.
Also in a pub I can buy cask beer which lies on a different plane from bottled or canned beer drunk at home.
I meet people, have unexpected conversations.,make friends and have a great time while enjoying beer in its ultimate form.

 

Do you go to coffee shops? You can have much better coffee at home for much cheaper as well. The beer served at coffee shops is certainly a way to get longer hours but there's also an overlap of high quality coffee drinkers to high quality beer drinkers.

 

The Welsh town of Amwlch in the late 1800s had one pub for every 4 inhabitants.About 1200 of them for 5000 people.
QUOTE="jesskidden, post: 5625606, member: 33806"]I don't know, I grew up in rural>suburban central NJ ( so. Middlesex - western Monmouth - eastern Mercer) at the time there were lots of working > middle class small towns and there were many more bars in the region than there are now, even with the exponential growth in many of the municipalities. Every bar that I ever stopped in "after work" is gone (as well as the "before work" ones when I worked nights ).

I drive around that region today and often think to myself:

"That used to be a cool little bar ... used to be a bar & grill there in that building with the nail salon ... Never made it into that bar when it was opened, I guess the "bucket of blood" rep scared me off... That's where Jimmy's was ... Whoa, there's a Wawa where the Town Tavern was... When that place was an old man's bar there was still a cool Krueger Pilsner neon sign in the window..."

Once lived in a small formerly-industrial city (10k pop) that was long rumored* to have more bars per person than any town in the state (there sure isn't now). I lived in a turn of the century "foursquare" and on the next block, across the Raritan River Railroad tracks, there was a legal bar in the living room of the exact same style house.

* (Altho IIRC South Amboy actually held the record - when NJ changed the laws in the late '40s which based the number of licenses in a town on population, in any town that was over the limit, the excess licenses were grandfathered in.)[/QUOTE]

 

My local micropub also hosts a coffee part which serves incomparable coffee. Generally I make myself a cup when I get back from a pub -I buy my beans from a top class roaster-but when I visit this micropub I have my coffee there.

 

I enjoy home drinking and pubs in equal measures. There's nothing quite like a night of beer and table football round my house with the gang, or just kicking back and watching silly stuff on YouTube. On the other hand I go crazy if I can't get to a pub a couple of times a week. Apart from the fascinating surroundings and atmosphere it's the only place to get cask ale!

I love the variety of different pubs we have too. One of my very favourites, the Hand on Heart, is a proper working man's pub in a terraced street with a flat roof and bench seats round the sides. It's really like going back to the 1940s and their beer is immaculately kept, always. It was almost sold last year but people thought it worth keeping and through a campaign they managed to find the 200K needed to save it.

Marquis, if you ever find yourself in Peterborough I implore you to search out the Hand on Heart.

 

We too have a Hand in Heart in Nottingham, an amazing pub which looks normal from the street but which includes rooms created from caves.in the back.

 

I was in London in March (vacation) and Dublin in June (business). In both places, I went to several pubs and had a great time. Sure, they had become more corporate (probably because a lot of them are now corporate owned) as compared to the last time I had been to London (30 years ago).

I found the pub food to be better than my last visit and the cask beer to be just as good. Loved both cities and hope to get back soon (next five years).

 

I was in London in January for a short vacation and visited as many pubs as possible. All were crowded and I found a ton of great cask ale. The biggest surprise to me was that it was cheaper than drinking out in Boston, which seems to be one of the most overpriced beer markets in the world. Which is why I mostly drink at home.