Let\u2019s face it, the quality of life would be so much worse without a good local pub or club. Well I would say that, wouldn\u2019t I, as a CAMRA Branch Pubs & Clubs Officer, but I think most of us like to get out and meet other people over a drink somewhere convenient and congenial, supervised but without too much formality. All the more so in January, and this year\u2019s seems to be particularly dark, wet and getting colder as I write. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, it\u2019s a good time to enjoy some beer or cider, or indeed a\nrefreshing non-alcoholic drink if we prefer. \u2018Dry January\u2019 campaigners,\nwhatever their motives, need not be deterring pubgoers. From a CAMRA\nper-spective, to quote the \u2018Tryanuary 2020\u2019 website, \u201cWe\u2019re encouraging you responsibly to support local, independent\nbeer businesses. . . If you\u2019re still intent on taking part in Dry January, you\ncan still support Tryanuary! A visit to the pub for some food and a soft drink,\nor trying zero alcohol beers from a number of independent UK brewers, is\nstill not only supporting the beer industry, but keeping you on track with your\nresolutions too!<\/em>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last issue I reviewed what the 2019 Cask Report had to say\nabout promoting cask ale. I noted how its average price, especially in London, had\ncontinued to rise above inflation, questioned the suggestion that we should be\npaying yet more and noted the vast price difference we might find for the same\nbeer in different pubs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But how much less should we be paying for lower strength beers?\nThe higher the ABV, the higher the beer duty and, if I\u2019d take twice as long to\ndrink a pint at 6% ABV than at 3% ABV, I might expect to pay twice as much for\nit. Finding Prince of Denmark (7.5% ABV) on cask in a well known Harvey\u2019s pub recently, I\nthought a pint at \u00a36.60 was quite reasonable. For that matter, I can understand\nthat a high strength KeyKeg or canned beer may be good value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In many places, though, there seems to be little difference in\nprice between a 3% ABV cask beer and a 6% ABV one. So by my reckoning either\nthe stronger beer is a much better deal or the session beer costs too much. For\naficionados of stronger beers that is good news but, for brewers and publicans,\npromoting the Tryanuary message makes even more sense when sales of lower\nalcohol beers, not to mention soft drinks, can be that much more profitable. So\ndrink responsibly, in moderation; it\u2019s best for us, and for the prosperity of\nour pubs and clubs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are not a campaign for cheap beer as such. For that, there are\nplenty of Wetherspoon\u2019s pubs offering locally brewed cask beers in good\ncondition reflecting their rapid turnover. But should CAMRA discount vouchers,\nespecially for those bargain strong beers, be allowed, in effect, further to\nerode microbrewers\u2019 profit margins? I am sure the Editor would welcome letters\nfrom readers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Geoff Strawbridge <\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let\u2019s face it, the quality of life would be so much worse without a good local pub or club. Well I would say that, wouldn\u2019t I, as a CAMRA Branch… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":793,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions\/793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Regional Director<\/em>
CAMRA Greater London Region<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n