we have a lot of newbies lately

[bigdave]

I blame the big pub owners (ie; enterprise etc..) for the rising cost if beer and over all demise of the public house.

For example, a brewery brews a 4% ale and sells a barrel at £60. The brewery cannot sell direct to a leasehold pub but instead sells to the owner (ie; enterprise) for £60, who then charges their tenant £110 per barrel. If the tenant wants to buy ale direct from the brewery at £60 they can but their rent is increased to compensate.

The owners are happy to keep squeezing the tenants till the go bust because they know there's a list a mile long of prospective landlords ready to hand over their life savings.

 

[alawlor66430]

All these economic changes bring about changes in the way the average punter thinks about socialising with their mates and a nice beer, in Canada for example they obviously have pubs, but not a big pub scene and this has been the case for allot of years, most of the boys there like to grab a case each and pile into a mates house for a session and change the venue the next week untill it's back to the first guys shot to host, not because they couldn't afford to drink in the pubs anymore but because this is how they did things and in this country people may have been forced into this kind of set up through their financial situations but discovered its actually allot of fun and in allot of cases better than the pub, imagine a bar where the beer is brilliant and cheap ( if you home brew ) all your best mates are there and you can watch what you's want to on the box, get the crisps and twiglets in and everyone's happy,

 

[winelight]

We did that one year with BBQs, had a new plastic dustbin full of cans and bottles at the first one, any leftovers got carted round to the next place for the following weekend, then it got topped up, and so on, went on all summer.

That was the last time we had decent summer weather so it was a few years back!

 

[alawlor66430]

You could make it like come dine with me but more like come drink with me lol

 

[oldbloke]

well said but the pub prices are steep :thumb:

Couldn`t agree more....So where does the blame lie in the demise of the pub trade.

1, Over taxation
2, Have the big breweries brain washed us into drinking massed produced, tasteless crap
3, Greedy Landlords/tenants
4, the general lack of disposable income
5, Or have consumers cottoned on to he fact that they can make a better product for themselves

All except #3.
Plus, the vast majority of 'mainstream' pubs I've been in in the last few years were bloody awful. Frankly I'm not surprised so many are closing.
There are good ones of course, and they'll be the ones to survive.

 

[Gayle]

In our town there are no pubs worth going to, I can think of about a dozen pubs at least in the town centre but none I would actually go to for a social drink. There were a couple of little oldy style pubs but they basically kicked out their regulars and opened nightclubs and trendy sports bars instead, charge £1 to put the heat on outdoors for two mins if you want a smoke, and most seem to have it in their head that £4 is fair for a pint, cider is usually even more expensive.

There is a pub just round the corner from me and it used to be fantastic, but now it's so rubbish I'm convinced it is a front for something else because there's no effort been put in at all. It's sad because we'd love to be able to just walk round for a few pints, but sitting in our heatless conservatory really is the better option

Most of the pubs that closed down over the past couple of decades were bought by the Quakers, and those pubs have remained as boarded up, crumbling down structures ever since it's bad for the local economy and the look of the town.

 

[pronger1]

Liking the idea of come drink with me!!! lol :drunk:

 

[screamlead]

Well after getting loads of PM's and messages on facebook about brewing and cider making etc i set up a facebook brew club for the local community out here in Turkey where i live.
The response so far has been 112 members in less than 24 hours!! ... and they are not all english either ha ha : :drink:

 

[mereside]

I am one of the new guys and this is why i joined the forum .
I never go to the pub anymore as its much nicer to get a gathering of friends and have nice meals at home we rotate the houses to cook at but sometimes don't do a full meal as we sometimes just do a course each and i thaught this brewing beer and wine would add to the night.
my first brewing got underway on wed with a better brew pilsner and i got a beaverdale cab sav on the go last night, tonight i should have the ingredients to have a crack at the wow wine and i need to get an IPA on the go as soon as i can get two more fermenting barrels,hopefully something ok will turn out so fingers crossed and its a nice forum ,thanks wayne

 

[Brewbob]

and those pubs have remained as boarded up, crumbling down structures ever since it's bad for the local economy and the look of the town.

I agree, pubs, the poor mans golf course. It breaks my heart to see the state of the publican trade now. I worked intermittently in pubs from 1989-2005, man and boy :) , started as a 16yr old glass collector to helping to run a fantastic bar in Bath, and I had a great time, and I found working bars got you places others couldn't go, and into situations otherwise unnatainable. I left just before the smoking ban came into effect, in England, and I do believe it, among other things has had a detrimental effect on the trade. Cheap supermarket booze and pubs closing and not re-opening have also hurt the trade. Now it really is a hard business to make a decent living, especially if you want to maintain your integrity. My friend has decided to build a pub in his back garden which he kitted out with bits and pieces he picked u from refurrbed and closing down pubs (Ijust need to convince him now he needs to make his own beer).

Whenever I move somewhere new I check out the locals within respectable walking distance, and the last three times I have been severely downhearted. There are two pubs close to me now, one is like an airport departure lounge, the other is some sort of budget Harvester with absolutely no atmosphere or recommending features, even the food is rubbish. The departure lounge has the better local beer, at a decent price below 3quid I think, but its just horrible, it only redeeming feature is through one communal door left is the bar and right is an Indian restaurant, but even there the food isn't great. The first "half-decent" bar is about 25-30min walk away down a busy road and I can't be bothered with that, failing that its into town where there are a couple of decent boozers, but that means getting there and back and if you anly want a couple of social pints its a bit of a ball-ache.

So, fed-up with the limited supply from supermarkets, especially after they got rid of the 4 for 5.50 Summer Lightning deal in Morrisons, I decided I'd go back to making my own, and I'm very pleased I did, as the options are now endless, and one day, yes one day I'll try cloning Summer Lightning, I've found a recipe, so I'll give it a go :