To prime or not to prime

[foxbat]

Ron Pattinson talks about that. I couldn't believe it - literally bottom of the barrel beer in returned casks put back into whatever was brewing.

On busy weekend nights the landlord in a skanky pub I used to like back in the 90s used to half fill pint glasses from the drip tray and keep them hidden under the bar. When a drunken group came in, which was all of them, he'd pick up the half-filled glasses, top them off from the pump and serve them up to the punters. Waste not want not eh?

 

[Clint]

Wasn’t the Plough in Gresford was it? Right miserable old git running that place back in the day...

 

[foxbat]

Wasn’t the Plough in Gresford was it? Right miserable old git running that place back in the day...

Nope, it was in Nottingham. Pubs weren't complete without a miserable old git mooching around behind the bar moaning about his customers back then.

 

[Galena]

Used to frequent a pub in the Peak District from the 70's through to the late 80's with various landlords but one of them was renown for draining the drip tray back into the barrel and the beer during that period was pretty rank

 

[Tim Wilkes]

Lots of rumours of drip trays emptied back into the mild back in the 70s/80s!

 

[Clint]

This practice of tipping the drip trays into glasses isn't just a 70's and 80's thing...I seen it going on in Aviemore about 5/6 years ago in a pub that looked a bit like an alpine lodge...

 

[CD]

I think there was also something called a utiliser, or similar, which automatically piped the drip trays contents back into the cask of cheapest beer in the cellar.

 

[Galena]

I think there was also something called a utiliser, or similar, which automatically piped the drip trays contents back into the cask of cheapest beer in the cellar.

Disgusting. Okay this is old but it does tell the story Pub landlords pour beer slops back into barrels

 

[RichK]

I think there was also something called a utiliser, or similar, which automatically piped the drip trays contents back into the cask of cheapest beer in the cellar.

Standard practice when I worked behind a bar in Leeds in 80s. Learned to never drink mild in the tap room pretty quickly.