W. etherspoons ale festival.

[uproar13]

I had a Ninkasi cream ale last night, was very nice.

 

[The Goatreich]

The Ninanski Cream Ale was nice, but not amazing in my opinion.

I have no complaints about the food in wetherspoons.

 

[Mreddster]

Hi.

It's Called Hunters Hall in Galashiels. Nearest other one is 30 miles :/

 

[TRXnMe]

I think you will find a Weatherspoons Ale Festival really means the same out of date **** beer watered down by increasing amounts.

Ive never ate or drank anything that resembles decent food or beer in any weatherspoons yet. Its cheap out of date beer thats watered down and the food is all prefrozen and microwaved to order, Chicken Ding we call it.

Would never set foot in any of them again.

I don't know which ones you've been going to, but all bar a few of the wetherspoons I've been to sell decent food. It's not Heston's kitchen, but its a budget pub meal.
Having been in multiple wetherspoons kitchens quite a few times, I can also tell you that the food isn't largely microwaved either, although far too much of it is deepfried (upsettingly, one place even deepfried the steaks they sell cheap on a Tuesday :sick:)

As for the beer, it is not out of date. Selling anything past a given use by (as opposed to Best Before) date is illegal without informing the purchasing party, and believe it or not running a corporate franchise requires a lot of paperwork, and regular, often unannounced H&S visits. The reason Wetherspoons can (though often don't depending on location) sell alcohol so cheaply is because the amount of outlets they have available allows them to purchase casks and barrels close to the end date much cheaper, and to shift them in time. If you ever get to see one of their ullage books you would be very suprised, I think, at the amount of beer they do actually get rid of due to impaired quality or turning.

also this about watering down the beer is really old now, and also pretty unfounded.

its never going to be the best beer in the world, but I think almost everyone who visits a wetherspoons is pretty aware of that. For all its misgivings, and admittedly there are a few, I think wetherspoons deserve more credit than they are largely given. I've been in far more places run by private single publicans and had a bad experience than I have with any chain. IMO, far too many people try to fit spoons into a box in which it doesn't belong, and then decry it for not living up to expectations that it was never meant to. It's a budget pub that caters a little bit for everyone, and whilst it doesn't do profoundly in any single area, it does acceptable in most IMO. But then again, as I said, I probably haven't been in which ever ones your talking about, just my own personal experiences :).

as for the Ale festival, went in The Keel Row up in Newcastle this weekend and had a proxy brewed American ale of theirs that I was really impressed with. I'm sure the brewery was Stone, cant remember the beer, but it was a black American Ale loaded with big C hops. A real treat. Was not impressed with Sgt Pepper though. just too peppery for me and not a great deal else going o.

I have to agree with that ^^ in my experience Weatherspoons are one of the better town centre pubs to be in. The food is 'pub grub', not flash, but tasty enough and the beer is pretty good for the money.

I have heard that they tend to buy 'old stock' opportunistically from breweries, but I'm not sure how they manage that for the beer festival stuff which is well advertised, or even the regular draught stuff they sell.

 

[gl0ckage]

Kegs have to have 28 days before going out of date. However most wetherspoons that are serious about ale order from local breweries so it's usually just been casked. I bought an ale the other day that I was told it was just being racked.

They used to do this in the past but I haven't seen anything like it recently.

 

[Russ146]

well maybe things have changed recently

But when they offer a steak meal and a pint for £2.30 or whatever its hardly going to be any good is it?

personally i prefer proper cooked food and a decent pint which i am happy to pay for

You only get what you pay for

 

[critch]

i can tell you this ,they dont like paying money for what they sell.

 

[gl0ckage]

Hi.

It's Called Hunters Hall in Galashiels. Nearest other one is 30 miles :/

This pub doesn't sell enough ale to participate in the festival.

Sorry :-(

 

[nobyipa]

£2.80 p pint
15 beer varieties in Harrogate

so 14 quid to try em all out

thats 5 pints divided into 15 3rd pint tasters
trying tomorrow

:sick:

 

[Mreddster]

Hi.

It's Called Hunters Hall in Galashiels. Nearest other one is 30 miles :/

This pub doesn't sell enough ale to participate in the festival.

Sorry :-(

Ah that's a shame :/ Cheers for checking

 

[rocket ronnie]

Spoons, only pubs I drink in when I am not at home supping my own brew. Never been unsatisfied. Many beers over the times have been beers that I had never heard of before, but good taste and flavor. As for the food what do you want for the price that you pay? In the past I have been to so called gourmet pubs where you pay an arm and a leg to eat and then you find you are eating under cooked veg, meat that you would sole your shoes with, and beer that would not make washing up water out of place, and five times the price you would pay at spoons. Spoons give me the pub grub that I require and a decent pint. Plus you don't get all that infernal so called music blasting away. plus the clientel are the friendly type most of the time where, just as on this forum you can discuss the various beers on tap.

 

[TRXnMe]

This pub doesn't sell enough ale to participate in the festival.

Sorry :-(

Now that's a heck of a catch 22 for the manager

You don't sell much ale, so you can't join in the promotional event to get people to try ale that they then might buy more of

 

[TRXnMe]

well maybe things have changed recently

But when they offer a steak meal and a pint for £2.30 or whatever its hardly going to be any good is it?

personally i prefer proper cooked food and a decent pint which i am happy to pay for

You only get what you pay for

Around me I've got the option of Weatherspoons in town or pubs that are very pricey and don't have even a whiff of a real ale on the bar.

If I go out off town I can find free house pubs that have good food and good ale, the food isn't that much better than Weatherspoon, if at all, and the food and ale will cost me at least 50% more than in the spoon.

You can buy a Ford Mondeo for £19,000 or a BMW for £27,000 both very well built both get you from A to B in comfort, if you're a badge snob you'll pay the extra for the 'better' BMW, if you're a realist you'll buy the Ford.

 

[artyb]

id go to weatherspoons in my ford ...

 

[Runwell-Steve]

Well I am totally out of my comfort zone tonight, staying in a town I have never been to before. Swindon.

Had to work late, and the menu in the Hilton did not look great so we got a taxi into town and grabbed a curry, very good it was, then we went to grab a beer and found the savoy, a wetherspoons pub, I had a couple of really good, and well kept pints of beer, if all of the chain were like this I would frequent them more often.

 

[gl0ckage]

This pub doesn't sell enough ale to participate in the festival.

Sorry :-(

Now that's a heck of a catch 22 for the manager

You don't sell much ale, so you can't join in the promotional event to get people to try ale that they then might buy more of

The pub gets asked if they want to take part, so most likely the pub said no, it costs for the POS and choosing ales, before I was in charge of ales my pub only had 3 pulls and 2 were riddles and Abbot. We didn't take part as they beer would go off or we wouldn't shift it in the 2 days.

We now have 6 pumps, I buy from locals only unless I want jaipur or Abbot reserve on.

If that pub did participate it would end up wasting beer or selling crappy beer.

 

[Russ146]

You can buy a Ford Mondeo for £19,000 or a BMW for £27,000 both very well built both get you from A to B in comfort, if you're a badge snob you'll pay the extra for the 'better' BMW, if you're a realist you'll buy the Ford.

I'm not so sure about that mate, Ive had fords, i drive a transit for work but my car is a P reg Audi cabriolet 2.8 it cost me £2000 5 years ago and its just gone straight through the MOT for the 4th year running. Apart from tyres and a UV joint its never gone wrong even the electric hood works.

 

[gl0ckage]

Look after a vehicle and it will last forever. I've got 5 motorbikes and 1 car. One if the bikes is older than me, since I've had them all they all pass MOT. Had one if them 5 years. Most of them stock bar 2 with little or no work done bar chain lubing.

Audi nowadays are crappy.

 

[Good Ed]

Harpoon IPA :thumb: :thumb: very good pint, just a couple of hops, Apollo and Cascade, in this American IPA brewed by Jamie Schier from Harpoon Brewery in Boston, at Bank's Brewery (well you can't go wrong there), highly recommended.

 

[artyb]

well done to weatherspoons ... :party:
i spent a few days in devon and corwall last week and went into a couple of weatherspoons,

they had american beers and british beers ,
there was a great choice and the beers were really good,

they had tastng notes and a booklet of beer infomation, well worth a read,
the american brewers came over here and used british brewerys ,bank's adnams etc,

my favorite was the titanic stout from a brewer in staffs,