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Thursday 28 February 2013

Watering the beer

Anhheuser-Busch InBev (such a catchy moniker) is being sued in the US for allegedly watering down it's Budweiser and Michelob beers. The lawsuits claim consumers have been cheated out of the alcohol content stated on labels.

I presume their defense is that they were trying to improve the taste.

Sunday 24 February 2013

More on Chester

It's worth noting that Sam Smith's 'Boot' is selling an excellent pint of Old Brewery Bitter for £1.80. The majority of beers in Brunning & Price outlets 'Old Harkers Arms' and the sumptious new 'Architect' are £3.60/pint. You pays your money..........

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Liverpool Craft Beer Expo

Anyone know anything about this?

http://livcraftbeerexp.eventbrite.com/#

Who's organising it and why would I risk my money on advance ticket sales?

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Liverpool Beer Festival 2013

I'm not the only one who's commented in the past on the method of selling tickets for the Liverpool Beer Festival. No pretence at attracting new blood, Liverpool & District CAMRA sell a limited amount of tickets by post, while the majority, including all Friday night tickets, sell out in an hour or so to those who queue up on a Saturday morning in December. Only those in the know and/or committed get tickets.

I forgot to apply on line this year and have better things to do with my life than queue up from the crack of dawn on a freezing cold winter's morning. So I was pleasantly surprised last week to see a supply of Thursday night tickets on sale in a Wirral pub. Is this some sort of unofficial, alternative market at work (tickets were on sale at face value) or the sign of a more enlightened attitude?

Sunday 10 February 2013

North/South Divide

I was in London yesterday. Lunchtime was spent in William IV, Leyton High Street. Standard strength cask beers were £2.45/pint and a bottle of The Kernel Double Scanns IPA 10.1% was a bargain at £3.50. The Euston Tap had a number of exclllent draught beers at £3.20/pint.

Later that evening and back in Chester the cheapest guest beer in Harkers Arms was £3.40. Checking the website of Manchester's Port Street Beer House, Double Scanns is out of stock but '#100' which is also 10.1%  and from The Kernel is listed at £6.50 per bottle.

Time to move down South?

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Still hope for pubs

Perceived wisdom is that street corner locals and estate pubs are lost causes. The 'experts' say that only pubs/bars in densely populated city centres and food-led pubs will survive.

In one of my earliest blogs I celebrated the fact that a run down pub surrounded by terraced houses in Birkenhead had re-opened as the Cock and Pullet. It introduced a range of cask beers and has thrived from day one. I was in there early on Saturday evening and marvelled at how busy it was. Even though the numbers were swelled by post-match Tranmere Rovers fans drowning their sorrows it was genuinely packed with a mix of young, old, male and female, from all social groups enjoying drinking in a pub just like thirty or forty years ago.

Although there was plenty of real ale downed from the five handpumps this isn't a 'pub for beards' as a certain blogger might say. There were lots of lager and alcopops drinkers too but the unifying factor was the atmosphere. It's an old fashioned noisy boozer where people go to have a good time. Many more pubs used to be like that.