Things Are Bad In Blighty

[white.grant]

Saw this in the herald,

British beer sales slump to Great Depression levels:

full story here http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/british-b...7097183675.html

A bit sad really....

 

[Brewtus]

It might bounce back if the smoking rates decline. Since the population density is much high and most people can walk to a pub, the missed the effects of RBT in the 80s.

Hopefully they will sell less megaswill and sell more real ale at a premium price to make up. Their megaswill is as bad or wose than ours but the good beer is very good. Ahhh for a pint of Firkin Fruity.

 

[mwd]

Probably because the prices are more stupid than here.

And I read ours are going up yet again. No wonder home brewing is so popular.

Not so long ago draft Guinness here at $4.00 a pint during happy hour. Nice. :chug:

 

[cdbrown]

Probably because the prices are more stupid than here.

And I read ours are going up yet again. No wonder home brewing is so popular.

Not so long ago draft Guinness here at $4.00 a pint during happy hour. Nice. :chug:

Having just spent the last 2 and a bit years in London and returning to Perth only 3 weeks ago I'd have to say that the prices at bars here are a lot higher even after converting that they are over in the uk. It's no wonder that every day in London there are lots of people in all the bars, but here they only get busy the back half of the week. During the real ale month they had pints of ales from across the world for less than 1.50 each. Pints here are $7 plus. Thank goodness for homebrew!

 

[yardy]

the Father-inlaw just sent a clipping from the local rag (Leics) showing a lot of my old haunts had closed or were on the verge of closing, blaming the smoking laws.

One of my locals, The Barley Sheaf, is derelict now, pics showing it boarded up covered in graffiti, bloody shame.

 

[goatherder]

I've read news in the past about a real ale resurgence amongst the Brits, particularly the youngsters. If real ale is doing well and beer sales are falling then it might be that the shitty euro lagers are losing their market. Not a a terrible outcome...

 

[spog]

the Father-inlaw just sent a clipping from the local rag (Leics) showing a lot of my old haunts had closed or were on the verge of closing, blaming the smoking laws.

One of my locals, The Barley Sheaf, is derelict now, pics showing it boarded up covered in graffiti, bloody shame.

would'nt we all like to raid the old,closed pubs over there and grab as much as we could.
do i hear a 'bulk pommie pub raid' in the offing .......cheers.....spog.........

 

[yardy]

yeah I'm up for that B)

 

[Brewtus]

It would be great to get some old fruit machines, juke box, velvet bar stools, Foster's taps, horse brasses, crisp packets and sticky, red patterned carpet. We could also employee all the Aussie bar staff.

 

[dataphage]

CAMRA has a slightly different take on things: http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=whatsnew3

Last time I was back in blighty I went to the 30th anniversary of the Good Beer show. It was rammed to the rafters, even in a new bigger venue with lots of under 35s as well as the normal age groups you'd expect you'd expect. There is a bit of a resurgence going on with traditional beer. I guess that when you aren't smoking you can actually taste what you're drinking!

 

[white.grant]

I guess that when you aren't smoking you can actually taste what you're drinking!

So there's a silver lining in not have a cloud of smoke B) .

 

[Bribie G]

When I arrived in Australia in 1977 I had been paying 43 pence for a pint of Newcastle Exhibition, and the standard price for XXXX was 43 cents for a pot (half pint). The pound to dollar was roughly at parity in those days, what I mean by parity is that a dollar (ten shillings in the OUR old money) was worth about fifty pence (ten shillings in THEIR old money) Thus parity.

So beer was about at parity.

Nowadays a pint of lager in the UK is $A5.53 and a pint of XXXX in Brisbane would be about $5.00 most places. So in the last 30 years nothing much has changed pricewise.

Therefore price per se isn't probably an issue. Looking back to my days as a resident Pom, mass consumption of megaswill was really a working class, miners, steelworkers sort of scene. Maybe they are preferring quality over quantity nowadays, which theory would be borne out by the move back to real ale.

Time for a holiday back there

 

[mattwest]

If anyone is considering venturing to the UK for the beer do yourself a favour, pay a little extra and keep going to Germany. You will struggle to find better beer anywhere - Helles, Pils, Weiss, Kolsch all fresh superb beers and the quality is always spot on. It even seems to be cheaper than coke at some places.

British Real Ales can be good but finding a good one seems to be very hit and miss at the moment (although this may be the untrained bar staff serving the beer/not cleaning the equipment properly).

WeisstOz

 

[Trent]

WOB
I was just in munich the other day, and while I do agree that the beers are cheap, if you are after a nice fruity/estery ale, and are not so much into weissbier, then germany is not the best place to go. I am not really that much into lagers at all, so I could only drink weizens (which I love). But to a Bitter drinker, the german beers are a bit too clean, and nowhere near enough caramel and toffee character. And not much can beat a bitter being pulled through a beer engine....
All the best
Trent

 

[mattwest]

That's the problem - the ales served through beer engines here IMHO tend to be too cold (surprisingly) to get the full ale flavour. I think they just serve everything at lager temp nowdays. Also when the machinery is cleaned but not rinsed properly, you might as well go and grab a glass of dishwater. There are some good ales here but on the average they don't seem to be served to their full potential. Maybe the publicans are trying to cut costs with young staff to cope with the smoking ban and the quality of the serving is falling?

 

[mwd]

+1. I hate drinking semi frozen stout served in bars here in Oz after drinking the cellar temperature offerings of the national drink of Ireland in lots of pubs in Dublin and Cork.