Bibendum

2002-10-23T11:17:00.000Z

Colorado brewer uses waste to power brewery The New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado is about to start using methane gas - a byproduct of the brewing process - to power its brewery. Ultimately, the system will help to reduce the brewery's reliance on city power, lower its energy costs and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Ross Alarid, the brewery's environmental health and safety technician points out that "It's an environmentally sound process ... We'll benefit, the community will benefit and the environment will benefit." The system works when methane is captured in what looks like a big balloon and is then piped to an onsite cogeneration plant where it powers an engine, which creates electricity and heats water for the brewery. Methane alone cannot power the brewery, so the balance is bought in from the Fort Collins' wind power program that uses wind turbines in Wyoming.

The plant is expected to pay for itself in 4-5 years in reduced energy costs.

2002-10-23T11:10:00.000Z

Norwich Fat Cat wins again The Fat Cat in Norwich has won the Good Pub Guide's "National Beer Pub of the Year" award for the second time in four years. The pub which effectively runs a permanent beer festival with its ever-changing list of guest beers picked up the award for its continued excellence in cellarmanship. The Good Pub Guide (as opposed to the Good Beer Guide) is an independent guide to Britain's top pubs , listing more than 5000 of the UK's best pubs. The entry in the 2003 Guide notes that keeping a wide selection of ales in top condition was "an extraordinary feat", especially as the Fat Cat manages to serve up over 20 at any given time.

"Open all day, this is a classic town pub, with a good mix of customers and a lively bustling atmosphere at some times of the day, and tranquil lulls in the middle of the afternoon...The no-nonsense furnishings include plain scrubbed pine tables and simple solid seats, lots of brewery memorabilia, bric-a-brac and stained glass."

Your editor can confirm that the Norwich Fat Cat (along with its smaller sister in Ipswich) are both fantastic pubs, and well worth a visit or eight.

2002-10-21T09:42:00.000Z

Plastic glasses rule for rowdy pubs A government consultation document on managing the anti-social effects of "circuit" drinking has identified broken glass as one of the major hazards. The document notes that "The most visible effect many of us see from alcohol misuse is in our town and city centres: pavements littered with broken bottles and streets too intimidating to pass through" Rowdy city centre pubs could be forced to serve drinks in plastic glasses and bottles with local authorities being told to grant licences to the worst pubs only if they ban glass.

Unsurprisingly, Nick Bish, chief executive of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers was unimpressed."It's a knee-jerk reaction to a particular issue. There is a real world out there in which violence plays a part, but the solution is to create an environment in which violence is diminished." Other ideas being studied include whether improving late-night public transport could reduce rowdiness and whether policing methods could be altered to deal with drunks more effectively.

Oddly enough, missing from the list is the long-awaited review of licensing hours which, by effectively staggering (no pun intended) kicking-out time, has long been feted by both the trade and the public as an easy solution.

2002-10-21T09:29:00.000Z

Real Ale suffers due to incoherent advertising Market reserach group Datamonitor have written an interesting piece here about why Real Ale is atill having problems expanding its broad customer base. It suggests that it's not merely the fact that the marketing budgets are considerably smaller, but that each brewery is "doing its own thing" based on the perceived strengths of their own product. Lager advertising on the other hand is much more homogeneous in terms of look-and-feel resulting in a HUGE "Drink Lager!" message with brand-specific messages on top. It would be ironic if one of Real Ale's greatest strengths - the tremendous variety and choice from a large number of producers - was one of the things which prevented easy growth of the market.

2002-10-20T12:50:00.000Z

Beer is good for you (the story continues) Research by specialists at King's College and St Thomas' hospital has found that a glass of beer a day is one of the best ways to ensure ensure strong and healthy bones. The resarch programme showed that your intake of silicon (absorbed from the soil by plants, especially by cereals) can be directly linked to bone strength. They also noted that beer is one of the richest sources of silicon in the modern diet. According to Jonathan Powell, senior lecturer in nutrition and honorary senior lecturer in medicine at King's College "Silicon is a potentially very important element in bone function, and there is no doubt that beer is a very good source of silicon. The average intake of silicon is 30 mg a day, and half a pint of beer will give you 6 mg — 20 percent — of that" he said. "Moreover, not only is beer a relatively high source of silicon in our diet, the amount we absorb from it is more than from other foods."

2002-10-18T10:55:00.000Z

Conkers bonkers Health and safety officials in Kent have made a pub erect a sign warning patrons that, at this time of year, conkers fall from horse chestnut trees.
Rochester council have enforced the move on the Golden Lion after a mother complained that her five-year-old son had been hit on the head. The entrance way to the beer garden at the Wetherspoon's pub now features a sign warning drinkers and staff: "Please be aware of falling conkers from tree above." The tree itself, is safe from harm as it has a tree protection order on it, imposed by Rochester council...

2002-10-18T10:44:00.000Z

National Award for St Peters St Peter's Brewery has won two gongs at the Organic Foods Awards, sponsored by the Soil Association. St Peter's Organic Ale won the award for best organic beer and St Peter's Organic Best Bitter received a highly commended.

Head brewer Mark Slater is collecting the prizes at the awards ceremony at London's Dorchester Hotel today. "St Peter's Brewery was one of the first breweries in the country to recognise the importance and potential of organic beers some five years ago. Now organic beers comprise 30 per cent of our production and we export them all over the world. They are not the easiest beers to brew, but the end result justifies the effort."

The brewery has already grown threefold since it started in 1996 and now produces about 1.5 million of the distinctively shaped green glass "flask" bottles a year and has just finished installing a modern bottling plant. Capacity is still increasing, and it expects to be brewing more than than 2.2 million bottles a year by January. St Peter's Organic Ale is described by the brewery as a delicate, clean, crisp, lightly carbonated, traditional English ale with a full citrus hop after-taste.It is made with water from the brewery's deep well, which is combined with Soil Association accredited light malted barley from Scotland, organic Hallertau hops from New Zealand and yeast from St Peter's Brewery. The Organic Best Bitter is described as a unique, full-bodied, organic best bitter, with a refreshing after-taste.

2002-10-14T09:57:00.000Z

Bibendum goes International Checking through the referrals lists to see who's actually reading Bibendum, I see that someone is reading it via Google's automatic translator so that the pages get translated into German for them. It's not a bad service, given that auto-translation ocasionally comes up with some interesting word choices, but it's obviously close enough to keep them coming back. Now I don't speak German, so I took one of the translated pages and ran it back through the translator again.... I hope that Bibendum's musings make a little more sense in their first incarnation however, because what came back was an even more inane string of gibberish than I originally wrote.

The article which started life as the top item here ended up saying:
The world bowl, which announces beer of the profit customer freely for living football fan Peter guest, had the agreement with its local landlord for receiving its marking sign with the name of the publication on it - which was waived bull hotel with Hardway close Brewham in Sued Somerset - on the television set during the world Cup. His, flag through TVKAMERAS as Michael the Owen, which was counted in the profit 3-0 of England against Denmark

2002-10-13T13:09:00.000Z

Time please ladies and gentlemen Anyone who has ever been on the other end of robust language from the licensee at kicking out time should take comfort from the fact that at least we're not in Bratislava. A group of English football fans, who not only refused to leave but started trying to pull pints for themselves, discovered the hard way that the Slovaks take "Time" very seriously when two members of a private security firm pulled out guns and opened fire on the crowd.

Mark Steels, a spokesman for the National Criminal Intelligence Service in London, said: "If it's true that the incident began with England fans refusing to leave a bar, then travelling supporters need to remember that they should not outstay their welcome, as in many countries property is protected by people who are prepared to use weapons."

2002-10-07T13:00:00.000Z

Munich Oktoberfest bigger than ever Both attendance and consumption were up at this year's Oktoberfest in Munich, according to the organisers at the end of the two-week event. The annual Oktoberfest had 5.9 million visitors this year – compared to 5.5 million last year. The city council said that beer sales were up by 20%, with 5.7 million litres served since the festival opened on September 21.

2002-10-06T07:41:00.000Z

"Have you got change for the washing machine..?" The Caledonia pub in Liverpool has come up with a new take on horizontal diversification by making a laundrette available. The pub is in a popular student area, and licensee Ingo Aicher originally thought that this would be popular with them, but it seems that a large number of his other customers use it as an excuse to nip out for a few pints while helping with the house work.

2002-10-06T07:10:00.000Z

Swansea brewpub wins Champion Beer of Wales Swansea's Bryn Celyn Brewery triumphed at Cardiff's Great Welsh Beer and Cider Festival when their "Buddy Marvellous" was judged Champion Beer of Wales. Brewer William Hopton is a huge Buddy Holly fan and all his beers have a "Buddy" theme. The tiny Bryn Celyn Brewery, with a brew length of just 27 gallons, is based at the Waun Fawr pub in Swansea. Wales's largest brewer, Brains, made it into third place.

2002-10-03T12:35:00.000Z

"It seemed like a good idea at the time..." St Albans may be the home of CAMRA, but it's also home to at least one judgement-impaired drinker. Richard James agreed to let his friends swap his name in exchange for a pint of beer. His creative friends scrawled suggestions on the back of a beer mat and then used a laptop and credit card to fork out the £38 legal fees required to rename their friend by deed poll.

The man formerly known as Richard James is now officially Mr Yellow-Rat Foxysquirrel Fairydiddle with a bank account etc in that name to prove it. Mr Fairydiddle is, however, getting tired of the gag now, but unfortunatley lacks the funds to change it back.

2002-09-30T13:13:00.000Z

Robinsons to take on the US Following the continued growth of the US microbrewery market and the success of those British companies who have managed to arrange distribution deals in the States, 164-year-old brewery Robinsons from Manchester has signed up to export two specially prepared beers to the Mid-West. The first 15,000 bottles of 4.4 per cent Northern Glory and five per cent Double Hop will arrive in the US next week to be distributed by the Wisconsin-based Capital Brewery who will market the beers throughout the states of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin to a population of some 50 million people.

2002-09-30T12:51:00.000Z

Invest in your vices A new US Investment fund launched on Sept 3rd hope to profit from the relative stability of people's spending on "unethical" products. The Vice Fund bills itself as a "socially irresponsible fund" that will put investors' assets into four industry sectors: tobacco, gambling, liquor and defense.

According to the fund's prospectus, only tobacco stocks -- which have been under legal attacks by state governments, the federal government, and class-action attorneys -- underperformed the US Standard & Poor 500 index over the past five years. The largest gainer was alcoholic-beverage stocks, which include beer stocks. They gained 62.57 percent over the five years, compared with an 11.8 percent gain for the S&P 500.

2002-09-27T09:41:00.000Z

Hi-tech beermat fails We reported here back in April about a new hi-tech beermat which was supposed to be a simple way to test for date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol in drinks. It is being reported today however that the product has now been withdrawn from sale on the grounds that it doesn't work properly. Tests at St George's Hospital in London for BBC Radio's PM programme showed that in a number of instances the product failed to detect benzo-diazapines, a drug used in date-rape cases. The manufacturers, SureScreen Diagnostics, have withdrawn the product pending further tests.

2002-09-25T12:11:00.000Z

Fresher's Week is for drinking! Students at the University of East Anglia are up in armsover the "unreasonable" demand that they should attend lectures. Posters have erupted all over the campus, and academic staff are being heavily lobbied with the students' union demanding that, in future, a week be set aside exclusively for freshers to settle in and socialise.

Ned Glasier, 22, the union's communications officer, said: "This is the biggest issue in terms of our membership. I don't think they're fighting for it because they just want to go out and get drunk in freshers' week. People need time to settle in and make friends. We are furious the university is going to put extra pressure on students who may already be feeling lonely or homesick."

The protest is believed to be the biggest at the university since anti-apartheid demonstrations in the 1980s and anti-Vietnam war protests in the 1970s, and while only 200 students signed a petition opposing war with Iraq, more than 1,000 have already put their names to one protesting against the idea of lectures during freshers' week. University officials admitted being taken aback. A spokesman said: "Research among our first-year students showed many wanted to get started more quickly so they don't have time to sit around and think."

2002-09-25T11:41:00.000Z

That's another fine mess you've got me out of... The Barton Arms in Aston, frequented by Laurel and Hardy, has been saved thanks to award-winning Oakham Ales. The Peterborough-based brewery (winners of the 2001 Champion Beer of Britain) has stepped in to buy the Grade II listed building, which has been empty and boarded up for over two years. Management at Oakham Ales said they had been unable to resist the challenge of restoring the pub, built in 1901, and hope that it would be open again for business by Christmas.

CAMRA's Heritage Pub spokesman Geoff Brandwood said: "This is great news because for years nobody recognised how to make a success of this pub.Now we have committed owners who will help to market the pub's heritage as an asset."

2002-09-23T12:52:00.000Z

GBG 2003 is here See editor Roger Protz's article in the Guardian about the launch of the new Good Beer Guide.

2002-09-23T12:48:00.000Z

From Beer to Chocolate Pete Slosberg, the man behind Pete's Brewing Company and the creator of Pete's Wicked Ale today announced the official launch of his new chocolate company, Cocoa Pete's Chocolate Adventures. "I exceeded my goals in beer, one of the 5 major food groups," said Pete Slosberg. "I felt compelled to accomplish similar things in one of the remaining four, and I picked chocolate!"

In 1979, Pete started out in his ambition to create great American ale in his own kitchen. The target was to make a world-class beer and have some fun doing it. Pete's Brewing Company then became one of the top 100 fastest growing companies for 3 consecutive years before it went public in 1995. The company made a name for itself selling nearly one billion bottles of beer and helping to pave the way for the craft beer category in an industry historically dominated by three big commercial brewers

2002-09-23T12:34:00.000Z

30 not-out The licensees and staff of 17 pubs across the country are celebrating today after having achieved the admirable feat of appearing in all 30 editions of the Good Beer Guide. Roger Protz, editor of the 2003 Good Beer Guide which was published today, said, "The achievement is all the more remarkable when you consider there is a high turnover of pubs in the Guide from one year to the next. Camra members chose the pubs in their localities and they can only select in total 5,000 of the country's 60,000 pubs. Camra members are sticklers for beer quality and it speaks volumes for the dedication of the licensees in the 17 pubs, that they have beaten off competition from other pubs to stay in the Guide for 30 years."

2002-09-23T12:29:00.000Z

Bath Ales celebrate their 1000th Brew Rare Hare, a strong ale, is brewed only to commemorate special occasions and this time it was jointly to celebrate brew 1000 and their three millionth pint. The Siston-based brewery named its beer after the brewery logo of a leaping hare.

2002-09-23T12:22:00.000Z

The end of the off-license? Kevin Threlfall, Chairman of the T&S group who own One Stop stores and high street discount shops Supercigs believes that off-licences will disappear within a decade. Threlfall says: "We're spending money and putting refrigeration in so we can give a complete offer. We're taking away the raison d'etre of having off-licences as stand alone shops because there's no need for them. I believe in five to ten years, they just won't exist any more."

2002-09-20T10:58:00.000Z

Drink Beer not Milk says PETA American animal rights loonies PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have relaunched their controversial advertising campaign which tries to persuade people to drink beer rather than milk.The campaign (which was pulled last year after a string of complaints from substance abuse and anti-drink driving groups) has been brought back with advertisments in four college newspapers.

Bruce Friedrich, director of vegan outreach for PETA claims that "College students care about cruelty to animals, and they need to know if they're consuming dairy products they're promoting animal abuse and harming their own health", but dieticians and nutritionists have ridiculed the claim that drinking beer is healthier than drinking milk.

"I think, really, it is a stretch to say that beer is going to be better, that you can't drink milk responsibly," says Lisa Ritchie, assistant professor of family and consumer sciences at Harding University, Arkansas. "Beer is an empty-calorie food where you get about 130 calories in a can. It's not a real nutrient-packed substance, where milk, in an eight-ounce serving, you get an awful lot of nutrients."

2002-09-20T10:47:00.000Z

Beer gimmick in German elections The Germans have the type of interest in their elections that the UK can only dream about, with turnouts frequently in excess of 80%, but the current set of elections are being helped along by a whol series of gimmicks designed to help voters decide. This article in the Guardian covers off some of the more silly ones, including the brewery which has produced bottles of election beer with labels depicting the faces of the main election personalities. Apparently, of the 200,000 bottles sold so far, 22% have had labels featuring Gerhard Schröder (Social Democrats) and 18% Edmund Stoiber (Conservatives).

2002-09-18T12:12:00.000Z

Cream of Manchester goes West Belgian brewery conglomerate Interbrew have decided to move the production of all its keg ales, including Boddingtons, to Magor (near Newport) and Samlesbury in Lancashire. Cask ales will still be brewed at the Manchester Strangeways brewery but only part time.

2002-09-18T11:58:00.000Z

Anheuser-Busch wins rights to Budweiser trademark in Italy Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch have won their a trademark court battle in Italy. The Italian Supreme Court ruled Czech Brewer, Budejovicky Budvar, must stop use of “Budweiser” and “Bud” as trademarks for its beer, securing Anheuser-Busch’s exclusive right to use “Budweiser” and “Bud” as trademarks in Italy.

2002-09-06T19:23:00.000Z

"English men are only into footie and beer..." Neighbours starlet and wannabe pop-singer Holly Valance has joined Gwyneth Paltrow and Heather Graham in showering scorn on the dating styles of english men. The 19 year-old Australian claims in an interview with GQ (well it must be true then - Ed.) that "I think the guys in Britain are far more laddish than the Aussie boys. They're all into footie and their beer, they get really off the rails.". In a certain pot-kettle moment however, she goes on to complain that the pressures of stardom leave her little free time. "I can't go out and get drunk and puke everywhere like other 19-year-olds" she said.

2002-09-01T05:11:00.000Z

One for the road Yugoslavian Slobodan Ristivojevic who claims to have drunk nothing other than beer for the last 30 years is having beer bottles built into the headstone of his grave. Ristivojevic, 72, told a Serbian newspaper "There is no drink that refreshes like beer. I used to drink up to 20 bottles a day but nowadays it's only about six a day. I'm not an alcoholic, but I simply can't drink anything else but beer. If I were to drink a glass of water right now I think I'd just collapse on the floor."

2002-09-01T05:06:00.000Z

Decline of the Amber Nectar Several sources are carrying the story that Fosters is now selling more win worldwide than it is beer, although it;s still making more profit from beer sales.

2002-09-01T05:01:00.000Z

There's more to life than bitter Over the last couple of weeks we've seen the return of Schnee Weiss, Whim's wheat beer in our local which happily coincides with Michael Jackson's article in the Observer on the subject of wheat beers in general.

2002-08-29T11:45:00.000Z

Apologies Not many updates of late, but it's been a busy old time with work and hols etc. More soon I hope.

2002-08-13T08:07:00.000Z

Cheapest beer in the North-West CAMRA's national price survey of 7,000 beer prices in over 1200 pubs shows very wide variations in the prices of beer in pubs across the UK but that overall price rises are below the rate of inflation.

In summary
Average price of a pint of real ale in a UK pub - £1.92
Average price of a pint of lager - £2.11
Lowest priced pint of real ale - North West - £1.69 (23p less than the national average)
Most expensive pint - Lager in London hits £2.31 a pint with real ale at £2.12
Real ale prices have risen by 3.33% on average – less than the rate of inflation

CAMRA's Mike Benner said "Real ale remains great value compared to lager which costs 19 pence per pint more on average. It’s good news that beer prices have not risen above inflation, despite the high levels of excise duty paid on beer in the UK. It just goes to show that enjoying a decent pint in your favourite pub is still great value."

2002-08-13T07:50:00.000Z

Sports sponsorship goes teetotal There's an interesting piece in the Guardian about how sport seems to be moving away from the drinks companies in their search for sponsorship. commercial shift is taking place in sports sponsorship. Having been forced by the government to cut its ties with tobacco firms there now seems to be a growing trend to move away from alcohol also. For example in rugby union financial services company Zurich has replaced Courage , and the cup competition which used to be backed by Tetley's is now covered by Powergen.

Sport has certainly done well by the drinks companies - by 1988 sports sponsorship and associated activities accounted for more than a quarter of the drinks industry's aggregate advertising budget of £158m. In 1993, the Bass brewery had persuaded the F.A. to name the new league "the Carling Premiership" and five years on were spending more than £1m a month sponsoring the Premiership alone - but by then sales of Carling had risen by 31% to become the UK's top alcoholic brand.

In his article, Frank Keating suggests that maybe drink companies are trying to get out while the going is good.
Perhaps ... recent government campaigns against "yob culture" and the banning of drinking in public are laying the basis for a wider assault on alcohol's association with sport, especially if there were to be any resurgence of football hooliganism (although no alcohol-related blame was suggested by last week's Home Office revelations on the rise of violence among First Division supporters).

2002-08-13T07:37:00.000Z

Zzzzzzzz Well we're back. More on Olympia later, but time for a quick check through the pub news.

2002-08-03T12:05:00.000Z

Time Out #1 Bibendum will be taking a short break now for a week so that your hard working editorial staff can run off down to Olympia to work at the Great British Beer Festival. Normal service will be resumed as soon as the hangovers subside.

2002-08-01T10:17:00.000Z

Three pints of lager and a... box of hand-grenades? It would appear that regulars at the Weather Vane pub in Stoke on Trent have been buying more than the traditional beer and peanuts after Private David Meredith was arrested yesterday on suspicion of selling live hand grenades at the pub. Private Meredith, from the Staffordshire Regiment, was arrested at his home in Stoke by armed officers from the Royal Military Police.

2002-08-01T10:00:00.000Z

Booze cruising a matter of balance We've reported in these pages before about the huge trade in illegally imported booze which is flooding into the UK and causing special problems to brewers and licensees in the South East. According to the Brewers & Licensed Retailers Association, around 1.5 million pints a day are being imported of which around 75% is then being illegally resold into the trade, primarily into clubs. However, yesterday's decision in the High Court seems to indicate that HM Customs and Excise have been over-zealous in their attempts to crack down on this very real problem.

Broadly speaking, the ruling says that customs officers will no longer be entitled to stop and search anybody returning from the Continent without reasonable grounds for suspecting those individuals of smuggling goods for commercial resale in order to avoid duties. The court specifically noted that Customs had been guilty of "reversing the burden of proof" and re-enforced the legal position that it was definitely up to the authorities to prove that an individual is engaged in smuggling, not for the individual to prove that they weren't.

2002-07-31T15:01:00.000Z

One week and counting... As has been mentioned in these pages before, we are now drawing close to that orgy of real ale quaffing that is the Great British Beer Festival. Held at London's Olympia between August 6th and 10th this year, it is a fantastic opportunity to find more bitter, stout, mild, porter, cider, perry (and all manner of interesting things on the foreign beer bar) in one place than you're likely to find err... until this time next year. Book your leave now !

2002-07-31T14:27:00.000Z

Beer and Bowls - last bastion of the Empire? There was a quite amusingly whimsical piece in the Guardian on Monday about the Commonwealth Games. Frank Keating makes the point

Who has not supped at "The Bowling Green", although its green has inevitably long gone? "From time immemorial," rhapsodised the Licensed Victualler in 1900, "bowls has been linked with the village inn and drink." In 1950 the Birmingham brewer Mitchell & Butlers reckoned it still owned 150 pubs with an adjoining bowling green. Sir Francis Drake, by the way, was not playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe itself when he was told of the Spanish Armada's approach in 1588, but on the green attached to the nearby Pelican Arms tavern.

2002-07-31T14:14:00.000Z

Drink to avoid the stock market crash As someone pointed out to me in an email the other day...

"If you had bought $1,000 worth of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00. With Enron, your $1,000 would be worth $16.50. With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left. If you had bought $1,000 worth of Budweiser (the beer, not the stock) one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the 10-cent deposit, you would have $214.00. Based on the above, current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle."

Not bad advice, but please can I drink something other than Budweiser?

2002-07-31T14:10:00.000Z

Molson don't exclusively own the word "Canadian" In the astonishing world of trademarking and copyright ICANN - the people who allocate domain names on the internet - have had more than their fair share of controversy. Pleasingly, however, common sense occasionally seems to win out as in the case of Ottowa businessman David Black who contested their allocation of the "canadian.biz domain name. Bizarrely enough Molson owns the trademark for the word Canadian, as it applies to beer, but many firms have Canadian in their name and an Ontario Superior Court judge decided that Molson had no particular plans for canadian.biz, unlike Black who told the court he intends to use the domain as a meeting place for Canadian businessmen.

2002-07-26T05:58:00.000Z

MPs gag themselves in protest against live music restrictions To many, a group of MPs sitting around with their mouths taped over sounds too good to be true, but the protest - by the all-party Parliamentary Music group, with the assistance of singer/songwriter Billy Bragg - was over the continued exiestence of the archaic and arcane law on live music in pubs. Under the law, licensed premises must have a live music licence if more than two people are performing and in the past licensing officers often turned a blind eye to minor infringements, but now they have clamped down in what the Musicians' Union is convinced is a way for local authorities to raise revenue.

The law as it stands is almost unenforceable as shown by recent cases including one where a pub in Greenwich was threatened with prosecution when the audience stamped their feet to folk music, and a pub in Dorset where the landlord got a formal warning after pensioners sang Happy Birthday.

The difficulty for pubs is often that the cost of the licence can be up to £5,000 in some areas, a crippling extra cost for small community pubs especially if they only have live music on an occasional basis. The result is a collapse in the number of pubs with live music, particularly pubs formerly well known among musicians for informal sessions. Reform has been promised by the government, but has failed to happen due to lack of parliamentary time despite the fact that more than 200 MPs have signed an early day motion demanding urgent action.

2002-07-26T05:44:00.000Z

So its bye-bye Brakspears After 200 years of brewing and because of an alleged "declining market" for real ale Henley-upon-Thames' Brakspears brewery now plans to close by the end of the year. There has been much opposition to this with a multi-way campaign supported by staff, customers, CAMRA, and even local MP Boris Johnson but to no avail. There are strong concerns that this will now result in the loss of Brakspears' tied estate to one of the other PubCo groups.

2002-07-26T05:33:00.000Z

Beer is bad for the young After a series of articles about how moderate alcohol consumption is good for you see links here), in the interests of balanced reporting, we must now pass on the views of a group of Cambridge medical statisticians who feel that this only applies to men over 34 and women over 44 . Younger people who drink on a regular basis, even if their intake is less than recommended safe alcohol limits, can "substantially" increase the risk of death, the study says.The analysis of drinking habits of men and women in different age bands from 16 to 24, 25 to 34 etc. up to over 85 estimated the relationship between alcohol consumption among certain age groups and the risk of death.

Guidelines from the medical colleges advise men to drink less than 21 units of alcohol a week and women to drink less than 14, but the study shows that among women aged 16 to 54 and men aged 16 to 34, the risk of death from all causes increases in proportion to the amount of alcohol consumed. For women, the risk of dying increases by five per cent if they drink between eight and 20 units of alcohol a week, as opposed to none. Men incur a similar risk if they consume five to 34 units a week.

To limit this risk, the researchers advise both men and women to drink well below the recommended levels. Women should limit their drinking to one unit a day until they are 44, two units a day up to age 74 and three units a day for those who are older. Men, on the other hand, should ideally limit their alcohol intake to one unit a day if they are under the age of 34, two units a day up to age 44, three units a day up to age 54, four units a day up to age 84, and five units a day if they survive beyond 85.

2002-07-23T10:58:00.000Z

Pub jokes I'm REALLY not sure if I want to be starting this, but here we go.

A brain and a jump lead go into a pub and order some drinks. The barman says "I'm not serving you two!" "Why?" asked the brain. The barman replies, "Because you are out of your skull and he's bound to start something."

A man walks into a pub, and notices Vincent Van Gogh is standing at the bar. "Do you want a pint, Vince?" he asks. "No, thanks," replies the artist. "I've got one 'ere."

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman walked into a pub, followed by a lesbian, a dog, and a white horse. The barman says, "is this a joke or what?"

A neutron goes into a bar and asks the barman, "How much for a beer?" "For you, no charge," the barman replies.

2002-07-22T02:42:00.000Z

Beer is good for you. Part III Our Plymouth correspondent has pointed me to this article from Prague where gerontologist Dr Pavel Zemek has been quoted as saying "If men drink two beers a day they can stave off impotence." Apparently beer in moderation works well to stop arteries becoming blocked which is not only good for your health generally (as reported previously in Bibendum here and here) but is also one of the major causes of erectile dysfunction.

2002-07-22T02:23:00.000Z

How on earth did you get here? One of the things about having been effectively off-line for new postings over the last week or so, is that we've had a chance to go back through some of the server logs and see where people are coming to us from. Unsurprisingly, there are a large number from people Googling for "Bibendum", but modesty leads me to think that they are in fact searching for a well-known wine merchant or restaurant rather than your humble editor.

I've started picking up a few hits from homebrew.com who have been kind enough to link to me from their blog page. The ever-reliable daypop - a specific news and blog search engine - consistently throws people my way, and most of the rest come from various webring links. Wherever you have come from, I hope you find something that entertains, educates or amuses you.

2002-07-22T01:41:00.000Z

Hmm, looks knackered from in here, but looks OK to you lot out there...

2002-07-22T01:40:00.000Z

Is it still broken? Kick, thump, twiddle

2002-07-18T09:48:00.000Z

I'm still here, honest The lack of posts here for the last week or so has been accompanied by the muffled cursing of bloggers everywhere waiting for our gracious hosts to fix some server problems. If you can read this, we're all back on line now.

2002-07-15T09:40:00.000Z

Widescreen TV, Cask ales and stomach pumps Two Glasgow pubs are having to scrap their advertising campaign in which they claim to be responsible for, among other things, 89 people having their stomachs pumped, and 11 divorces. The poster adverts on the Underground are being removed after complaints that they are both tasteless and irresponsible.

2002-07-15T09:33:00.000Z

17 year old boy drinks alcohol - News at Eleven So Prince Harry has been seen drinking - well who'd have thought it? One one hand we have the media screaming on about how the Royals are "remote" and "disconnected from the public they serve", and then we find front page headlines which express shock that a 17 year-old lad goes off to a party and DRINKS ALCOHOL! Of course these same hacks never touch a drop themselves...

2002-07-12T09:14:00.000Z

My Beergut saved my life OK, it's a story from the Sun, but I'm not proud! 37 year old Sean Reaney from Birmingham was attacked with a petrol-driven circular saw when he took on a group of men he suspected of fly tipping. However, because Mr Reaney weighs in at 22 stone, despite receiving an 18 inch cut across his stomach the saw didn't come close to any of his vital organs. He is now recovering in hospital.

2002-07-12T09:07:00.000Z

Interbrew - the lurker in the dark? An interesting piece here from The Independent's city editor Nigel Cope about Interbrew's undercover plans for world domination and how they fell foul of the regulators in the UK

2002-07-11T10:30:00.000Z

Only in America Not wanting to rush into things, the town of Tallmadge in Ohio, a suburb of Akron, finally got around to repealling Prohibition last Monday. Despite the fact that the rest of the United States did so nearly 80 years ago (on December 5th 1933 when the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, therebye ending the "Noble Experiment"), the town fathers of Tallmadge still refused to allow local sales of alcohol, fearing that too many taverns would be built. The change, approved by voters last year, was finally prompted by a desire to attract chain restaurants that depend on sales of alcohol to boost profits.

2002-07-10T12:07:00.000Z

Llangollen hotel scuppers Euro experiment A week-long experiment in North Wales to accept Euros during their annual Eisteddfod festival has met with mixed reaction in Llangollen. Around 80,000 people, many from overseas, are expected at the festival and they decided to accept the new European currency during the week long as a gesture to continental visitors and their new money. Raections, however, have been mixed with one of the detractors being The Royal Hotel who firmly rejected an offer of euros for a pint of beer. "We didn't think it was worth changing our tills just for one week," said the staff.

2002-07-10T12:00:00.000Z

Beer is good for you (still) New research by Dr Manfred Walz from Austria's Graz University shows that not only can drinking beer can halve the risk of having a stroke, but that moderate beer drinkers live longer and are less likely to suffer some serious illnesses.In addition, beer drinkers generally have better blood circulation and are not as prone to developing cancer.He said: "It's widely known that by drinking moderate amounts of red wine the risk of suffering from a stroke is reduced by 5%, but it is reduced by 50% by drinking small quantities of beer each day."

2002-07-05T09:54:00.000Z

World Cup advertising wins customer free beer for life Football fan Pete Guest had the deal with his local landlord for getting his flag with the Pub's name on it - the Bull Inn at Hardway near Brewham in South Somerset - on the TV during the World Cup. His banner was picked up by TV cameras as Michael Owen scored in England's 3-0 win against Denmark.

2002-07-05T09:38:00.000Z

Greene King profits up after a busy year After a year which saw Suffolk-based brewer and pubCo Green King firmly on the acquisitions trail (Bibendum reported last week that Oxford-based brewers Morrells were now part of the Green King empire), the company has posted pre-tax profits up 10% to 69.2 million pounds.

2002-07-05T09:28:00.000Z

Free beer on the NHS In a study being carried out by the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, men are being asked to drink a litre of beer per day to examine the possible link between a vitamin called folate - found in beer - and a reduced risk of heart disease. Unfortunately the beer in question is non-alcoholic, but project leader Dr Paul Finglas defended this decision and suggested that alcoholic beer was unlikely to ever be the ideal way of delivering folate to the body. "It would be difficult to do a study where we are giving people alcoholic beer because people have to get on with their lives. Also alcohol impairs folate absorption in the body." he said.

2002-07-04T10:44:00.000Z

The Bear Necessities? It's "silly season" in the mainstream press at the moment, and Bibendum is no exception. Apparently villagers in Dobratic in Bosnia have had a young bear living in the meadow close to the village since hunters killed his mother. The villagers have fed him and according to locals he is so tame that you can sit down and enjoy a beer with him without fear that he will turn aggressive. However, the bear, named Mrki, has been tricked into going on the wagon when people grew tired of his drunken 'singing' after finding half-drunk cans left over by the locals.

According to village coffee shop owner Tadija Sugic "It got to the stage of him drinking up to 20 cans of beer a day and getting drunk. We tried to give him soft drinks like cola and orange, but he just didn't like them so we decided to trick him with non-alcoholic beer - and it's worked a treat. He loves it."

Bibendum is sure that the manufacturers of Kaliber will be delighted that someone enjoys their products, but feel that Congleton's famous brewery has missed a marketing trick on this one.

2002-07-04T10:31:00.000Z

Lager flavoured crisps A couple of months ago Bibendum reported that a group of food scientists at Purdue University in Indiana had figured out a way of stripping the moisture out of beer to create a "beer spice" which could be used to flavour foods. Yesterday McCoys announced the release next month of a new range known as "Lager" which, unsurprisingly, allegedly taste of lager. The company said the new flavour was made with brewing yeast and hops used in the production of lager and also claims it is considering a milder flavour for women, (a half-pint taste "for the ladies"???) and a real ale variety for traditional drinkers.

Sounds to us like a great way of ruining two perfectly good foodstuffs.

2002-07-04T10:21:00.000Z

British drinkers still switching from beer to wine Research from market analysts Mintel yesterday, showed that despite falling wine sales in France, British drinkers are steadily pushing up their consumption of wine. We have gone from averaging 7.7 litres each in 1981 to 22 litres each in 2001, with sales rising over 4% last year alone. A Mintel spokesman said: "Wine has been the success story of the alcoholic drinks sector in the UK. From a beer-drinking nation, wine has grown to become an everyday drink for much of the population. Indeed, almost two-thirds of the population drink wine and over a third of these are heavy users." The UK now tops the European drinking league, with 89 per cent enjoying alcohol at home or in the pub, compared with 88 per cent of French, 76 per cent of Spaniards and 66 per cent of Germans.

2002-07-01T10:40:00.000Z

ScottCo to sell off pubs? S & N's Chief Executive - Brian Stewart - is to announce tomorrow the results of a review of the company's pub estate. Many analysts are predicting that disposing of some or all of the c. 1500 pubs will be the outcome in an attempt to finance the acquisition of Kronenbourg which it bought from French food group Danone in 2000. The details have yet to be worked out, but it is believed that the estate could be worth up to £1.5 billion.

Update Well sort-of. It looks as though they intend to sell off the pubs, but continue to run them as part of their managed estate. The Independent is carrying the story here.

2002-06-28T13:12:00.000Z

Russians develop Space Beer Apparently the Russian Academy of Agricultural Science is working on developing a non-alcoholic beer full of tasty additional vitamins and minerals for cosmonauts working in the International Space Station. BBC news is carrying the full story here.

2002-06-27T09:26:00.000Z

Great British Beer Festival tickets for sale online We are now in the run-up to CAMRA's annual Great British Beer Festival, which this year is open to the public at London's Olympia from 6th to 10th of August 2002. Tickets for all sessions are available to members and non-members either from the CAMRA website here, or by telephoning CAMRA during office hours on +44 (0) 1727 867201

2002-06-26T08:26:00.000Z

Scientists discover genetic aversion to alcohol Ongoing work on genetic profiling in the wake of the Human Genome Project has identified a gene - labelled ADH2*2 - which causes people who carry it to find drinking alcohol an unpleasant experience. This gene, which prevents alcohol being detoxified by the liver was originally carried from mainland China to Taiwan about 5,000 years ago and is now much more common in the Far East and Australasia than in Europe. Blood sample testing by Victoria University in Australia shows that more than two-thirds of Polynesians have the gene while fewer than one in 10 people of European descent have it.

2002-06-24T11:13:00.000Z

USA to get Carling and Worthingtons - our revenge for Bud? After buying the Carling brand from InterBrew last December, Denver-based Coors are now planning on offering Carling to American drinkers as one of their "speciality brands". According to Leo Kiely (Coors president and CEO) plans to export Carling were at an early stage, but preparations to export Worthington's were more developed. 'The provenance of Worthington's is an authentic British ale".

I wonder if he wants to buy a bridge ?

2002-06-24T10:52:00.000Z

MPs "drowning their failure in beer" A number of news sources are carrying this story about disillusioned MPs straying to the bar rather than taking part in debates. Seemingly initiated by the story (as carried here at Bibendum last week) that the beer consuption at Westminster has doubled, veteran Conservative MP Sir Teddy Taylor claims that this is because realisation that they are useless drives young MPs to drink.
"The tragedy is that young people get elected to the Commons believing that they can play a part in putting things right," he said. "When they find they can't - because so many of the decisions are taken outside Westminster now - they resort to the drinking dens."

2002-06-20T09:55:00.000Z

Green King takes over Morrells Green King has added further to it's country pub portfolio after it's previous acquisition of Morlands. By adding Oxford-based Morrells to the list, GK now gain a further 57 managed and 50 tenanted pubs within a 30-mile radius of Oxford.

2002-06-20T09:33:00.000Z

Football fever leads to mass sales of beer, pizza...and condoms? In preparation for the Big Match on Friday, supermarket chains are reporting massive increases in sales of beer and snack food. Apparently Sainsbury's are shipping a thousand pints of beer a minute, whilst M&S and ASDA are selling pizza as fast as they can get it on the shelves. Interestingly ASDA are also reporting a doubling in condom sales.

2002-06-19T11:53:00.000Z

Churchill was worried about beer for the troops Reuters are reporting that some wartime records, just opened by the Public Records Office, show that even at the height of the war Churchill was concerned about a myriad of matters including litter, grammar and the availability of beer to the British soldiers. "A serious appeal was made to me by General Alexander for more beer for the troops in Italy. The Americans are said to have four bottles a week, and the British rarely get one" he complained.

2002-06-18T10:50:00.000Z

Beer consumption doubles in the Houses of Parliament According to Tyne & Wear's Federation Brewery, who supply beer to the Houses of Parliament, MPs and visitors are now drinking 2,500 pints a month. In the last 6 months the beer order has doubled although this may be due to more visitors rather than MPs being permanently addled.

2002-06-18T10:42:00.000Z

Famous Drinkers - Dylan Thomas Chloe Diski's series on "great drinkers of our time" moves on to Dylan Thomas this month. According to Diski, Thomas used beer as a way of washing away his middle-class background and allowed him to "taste the gutter". In Thomas' own words "I liked the taste of beer, its live, white lather, its bright-brass depths." Dylan Thomas died in 1953 aged 39.

2002-06-13T13:53:00.000Z

...unt your mother dresses you funny The latest round in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek row between the British and German press was fired off by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung yesterday, with a pot-shot at British beer. The war of words, which seems to have started when Der Spiegel last month attacked the Queen as a "non-descript housewife" and provoked a tirade of abuse from the Spectator has now stepped up a gear. In the latest sally, the Germans claim that "Great Britain is a degenerate country, riddled with complexes because of its loss of power, inhabited by fox-hunters in ludicrous costumes and hypocritical lefties who send their spoiled children to private schools. The British have bad healthcare, bad teeth and bad skin, which they regularly burn on southern beaches because they find suntan lotion unsporty. Their food is inedible, and their beer tepid and tasteless." We eagerly await Shepherd Neame's advertising agency to enter the fray.

2002-06-13T13:32:00.000Z

Breakfast time is no small beer The British Beer and Pub Association estimated that fans went through a million pints during the England v Nigeria match and landlords were hoping to have sold 21 million pints by the end of the day, only slightly less than the 27 million sold on Friday when England beat Argentina 1-0.

2002-06-07T13:57:00.000Z

Youngs post good results Wandsworth brewers Youngs have posted good results with turnover up 10% and operating profit up 3% although the company did show a slight reduction of overall profits.As well as brewing their own beers, Youngs also contract-brew for people like Courage and Whitbread.

2002-06-06T13:56:00.000Z

Swansea pub upsets the Commission for Racial Equality The Strand pub in Swansea has come under fire from Ray Singh - the former Racial Equality Commissioner - for offering free drinks every time England concede a goal in the World Cup. Singh claims that this would bring about divisions between the English and Welsh, but landlady Julie Jones is unrepentent, claiming that both her Welsh and English customers see it as a bit of fun.

2002-06-06T13:49:00.000Z

Chancellor's tax cut filters through for some The cut in beer duty for small brewers came into effect on Saturday, and some small brewers have decided to pass at least some of the benefit along to drinkers. For example Itchen Valley Brewery, which supplies pubs in Surrey, Sussex and Hampshirewent the whole way. "We are delighted to be able to pass on the reduction we received in full to our customers. We hope they will celebrate the fortunes of the England football team in style with a pint of Arkells real ale" said Itchen Valley's Matthew Nye.

2002-05-28T08:31:00.000Z

£50m for W&D Shareholders In a windfall bonus for investors, Wolverhampton & Dudley Brewery is planning on handing back another 50 million pounds to its shareholders. It also announced that it will be keeping the fragile "Pitcher & Piano" chain.

2002-05-23T10:50:00.000Z

Robot barman one step closer At the Electronics Entertainment Expo this week, Californian company Evolution Robotics are demonstrating a laptop-based robot which can perform a number of tasks including going to get you another beer from the fridge.The basic kit, which costs US$599, includes a rolling platform to mount the laptop on, a Webcam for capturing visual data and the necessary software.Teach the software to recognize a beer bottle and a fridge and next time you're need a top-up, you just need to wave a bottle in front of the laptop's camera and request a refill.

2002-05-23T10:41:00.000Z

Three pints of lager IN a packet of crisps? Food Science students at Indiana's Purdue University have developed a 'beer spice' by stripping out most of the moisture from both lager and dark beers. They claim that the residue can then be used to give foodstuffs the taste of beer.

2002-05-20T13:19:00.000Z

Australia declares war on the beer gut Health authorities in Australia have launched a major new initiative on what is known as "Beer Gut Syndrome" (or metabolic syndrome to be more correct) according to a report in News Interactive. The syndrome groups together four health risk categories including high levels of abdominal fat, high blood pressure and blood sugar and cholesterol factors which, together, form a potential recipe for coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and premature death.

2002-05-16T16:00:00.000Z

UK drinkers taxed until they scream The European Union's single market commissioner Frits Bolkestein warned today that large differences in tax and excise duty between the member states does little to help the smooth running of the EU. Only Ireland and Finland enforce higher taxes on beer, which results in Britons paying nearly ten times as much for their beer as in some EU countries.

2002-05-16T10:03:00.000Z

Pulling your Punches The UK's largest PubCo, Punch Taverns, who own around 4200 tenancies have withdrawn their flotation at the last possible moment. The shares were due to start trading today, but Merrill Lynch, global co-ordinator for the issue, told the Financial Times: "We have taken the view that in the current environment it was unlikely to perform well in the immediate aftermath."

Punch were expecting to float at around £2.50-£3.00 per share which would have valued the company at around the £700 million mark.

2002-05-16T09:58:00.000Z

Eldridge Pope on a high Dorset-based PubCo Eldridge Pope have had an excellent year, posting a 22% rise in profits off a 6.8% rise in turnover. The group (which demerged from the renamed Thomas Hardy brewery in 1996) has done especially well from its 19 "Toad" pubs which complement its 60+ tenancies and 120+ managed houses.

2002-05-13T07:46:00.000Z

Bass and S&N to merge? Six Continents (the artists formerly known as Bass) and Scottish & Newcastle are in merger talks it is reported in the Telegraph this morning. The companies, who have been disposing of their tenanted estates in favour of managed houses would then become the UK's largest PubCo with nearly 3,500 pubs and a turnover in excess of £2.4 billion.

2002-05-10T12:09:00.000Z

Guinness is good for your bank balance That well known overseas development agency Guinness, have announced that they are offering incentives worth £1k - £15k to Cameroon players who perform well in the upcoming world cup. In addition, Guinness Africa will pay out £685,000 to any African Team which wins the world cup (seems like a pretty safe bet to me). The money would be split between the team & staff, and sports development projects across the country itself.

2002-05-09T07:16:00.000Z

Beer v. wine - the two cultures gap? Anyone who has ever found themselves out in a restaurant with a taste for beer, but found themselves confined to the depths of the wine list will empathise with this piece from Michael Jackson (no, the real one, not the one whose face is falling off). In an article designed to provoke reaction, he argues that in some instances beer should be made more expensive rather than cheaper to lift it out of the "ubiqiuitous lager" trap and elevate it to its rightful place alongside wine.

2002-05-09T07:03:00.000Z

Wetherspoons go from strength to strength Tim Martin's JD Wetherspoons have had a good year as they posted results showing a 25% rise on sales compared to last year. Wetherspoons have opened 56 new pubs this year, bringing the total to 577, and expect to open another 25 or so before then end of the year.

2002-05-08T17:25:00.000Z

Drink more to offset the rise in National Insurance! You may have seen this drop into your mailboxes already as it seems to be doing the rounds, but just in case...

"If you earn £30,000 per year you'll pay an extra £252 in NI this year. Fortunately, there's a legal way to claw back this cash by exploiting the fact that the duty on a pint of real ale from a small brewery will fall by 14p a pint. Roughly speaking, for every seven pints you drink, you `earn' £1. So you can neutralise the effect of the £252 NI increase by drinking an extra 1,764 pints this year. This is about five pints a night. Obviously, people who earn more than this will have to drink more. For instance, if you earned £60,000 you'd have to find room for 10 pints a night."

I'm not sure about the maths, but it'll certainly help take the pain away.

2002-05-02T15:37:00.000Z

Jennings feel the pinch Cumbrian brewery Jennings have announced pre-tax losses of £6.1 million compared to £2.5 million profit in the same period last year. Jennings, whjo have been restructuring to move out of managed retailing in order to concentrate on brewing and its tied houses were also heavily affected by last year's foot-and-mouth outbreak which decimated tourist numbers across the country, and especially in its Lake District heartland.

2002-05-02T15:32:00.000Z

Wetherspoons boss more important than the Prince Of Wales! -well, in the drinks industry anyway. Trade paper the Morning Advertiser named Tim Martin as the most influential person in the drinks industry, ahead of the chief execs of Enterprise Inns and the Punch group. Prince Charles slipped onto the list in 49th place, based on his "the pub is the hub" campaign.

2002-05-01T14:00:00.000Z

Tony Blair misses the pub UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is being widely interviewed today, looking back on his five years as Prime Minister. In what could be viewed as either a heartfelt plea or a cynical attempt to prove that he's still an "ordinary bloke" he claims that it's the little things in life he misses the most and that while he still had ambitions to fulfil, he missed simple things like being able to pop out for a game of football or to the local pub for a pint without sparking a major security operation. "You can't meet ordinary people in ordinary situations which is what I like to do. Of all the things you lose in your life, that's the one I miss most" he said.

Well mate, if you want to nip out for a swift pint let me update you on what's been happening to "ordinary people in ordinary situations" over the last five years. Your first problem might be finding a pub that's open in your vicinity, because your Consumer Affairs Minister is about to scrap the 1990 Beer Orders. One of the critical protections in the Beer Orders is one which stops brewers from selling pubs to be converted back into private dwellings - with this gone, you might pitch up to the "Scoundrel and Soundbite" and discovered that it's been flogged off and has Gordon Brown living in it.

If you find one, then don't get your hopes up too much about the choice of beer, as with the Beer Orders gone there will be little to stop the larger players refusing to supply pubs at all unless they take their whole range of products. And the price may not be much to your liking either, as yet another provision of the Beer Orders you're about to scrap required the brewer to publish a wholesale price list - now they'll be able to charge different prices to different customers, and a pub just down the road from the House of Commons seems like fair game to me.

Then, of course, if you actually want a WHOLE pint then you'd better be prepared to spend some time arguing for one, as your Department of Trade & Industry say that it's completely acceptable for the licensee to give you short measure as long as it's no less than 95% of the full pint that you paid for. You can try asking for a top-up if you like, but you haven't actually passed any laws requiring the licensee to give you one. Yes, I know that you promised that, but these promises have a tendancy to slip don't you know.

Well never mind, if you're really gasping for a beer then you can always hop on the train down to Kent and take advantage of some 'invisible imports'. The whole of the south-east is flooded with cheap beer carried across the Channel in fleets of white Transits to be sold on at car boot sales, in clubs and (let us whisper it) occasionally over the bar in pubs. This is because of the simple and inexcusable fact that in France only 5p of the cost of a pint comes from Taxes while here it's a stonking 31p.

Cheers!

2002-05-01T08:36:00.000Z

If this is May, it must be time for Mild Despite the rain and strong winds sweeping across the UK over the last few days, May is upon us which means that it's time for CAMRA to take up its traditional championing of Mild. Mild, which first appeared in the UK in the mid-1800s, is a beer with rather less hops and a rather darker malted barley than bitter. They tend to be a bit darker and a bit weaker than bitters and can frequently be found for a few pence less.

Does this mean that they are bland and insipid? Don't you believe it. You might have to hunt around a bit to find them regularly, but certainly during the month of May a large number of good pubs back CAMRAs mild campaign by ensuring that they stock a good selection of these wonderful and tasty beers. I'll happily admit that I personally prefer my beers from the weaker end of the scale and that I don't drink much in the way of strong dark beers accordingly, but mild gives you the opportunity to get all those tastes without the high alcohol content (and associated hangovers).

Some personal favourites: Batemans Dark Mild (3%), Highgate Dark Mild (3.4%),
Brains Dark (3.%%)

That's not to say that all milds are weak beers though. No discussion of mild could be complete without a mention of the sublime perfection which is Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby mild (6%). Find, drink, enjoy.

2002-04-27T14:53:00.000Z

When is a beer not a beer? To my mind, when it's been chilled, pasteurised and shot full of gas mix amongst other things. Frankfurter Allgemeine have a somewhat longer article on the subject here which tracks the history of beer purity laws from the time of the ancient Babylonian Codex Hammurabi up to Germany's own famous Reinheitsgebot (Beer purity law) which has just celebrated its own 486th birthday.

2002-04-27T14:45:00.000Z

That's alright Master Luke, I don't feel the need of lubrication just at present...Jean-Philippe Clerc, an engineering student at the University of Florida has invented a robot which will trundle along the bar top, taking the top off beer bottles for him. Now if they could only invent one which could pull pints without being distracted by the football...

2002-04-27T14:43:00.000Z

Honey, I'm home... Well I'm back from my unexpected ABEND (Absent By Enforced Net Deprivation) after spending a week at our training centre which didn't run to any kind of Internet access - anyone would think we were a major computer company or something... OK then, a quick run through the references to see what's been happening in the world of beer and brewing while I've been away.

2002-04-19T10:22:00.000Z

Wetherspoons to take Golden Kozel? According to this article by Roger Protz, JD Wetherspoons are considering adding the pale version of Kozel to the dark one which JDW have been selling for some time. Observant readers will also note that Mr Protz seems to be posting from a time warp as his new articles are dated 1902 :)