GOOD BEER GUIDE TO BE SLASHED

April 2025 sees the CAMRA Members Weekend head for that hot bed of real ale on the English Riviera,

with Torquay hoping to enhance its reputation as a top Pub Crawl destination as successfully as Dundee and Coventry Warwick University in recent years.

I intend to be there, if only to support the honourable member of Stafford East as he skips the debate on defining craft to head for TQ Beer Works.

I had hoped CAMRA would be getting a local celebrity to the launch of cask Madri on the Members Bar,

but Manuel is strictly a San Miguel man.

It’s going to be a pivotal weekend in CAMRA history, with members invited to once-and-for-all define “quality”.

“MOTION 7 : This Conference instructs the National Executive to reduce the number of pubs in the Good Beer Guide from the 2027 edition onwards, to ensure only quality pubs are featured.“

Well, that’s OK then. I’m sure that’ll be an easy task, defining “quality” and then agreeing reduced branch Guide allocations. Is this pint of murk from an independent Mancunian brewer “quality” ?

The main beneficiary of this motion, if approved, will be this fella;

Look at the state of those gloves; ticking pubs in Lincolnshire is an expensive business now ESB in the Parcel Yard costs £7 a pint.

Simon “Compo” Everitt will welcome having to visit a thousand fewer pubs in order to “complete” the GBG, though of course it will devalue the achievement compared to Duncan and myself and there’ll be an asterisk* after his name like the one after LiVARpool’s 2020 COVID league title.

On reflection, I see major problems trying to persuade Greater Manchester to forego two dozen of their GBG allocation, or getting Scotland to give up even a couple of their 344 Spoons.

Here’s a suggestion. Scrap the Beer Guide completely and just run with Quinno’s list of “quality” pubs.

Who could possibly argue with that ?

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

9 thoughts on “GOOD BEER GUIDE TO BE SLASHED”

  1. “The main beneficiary of this motion, if approved, will be this fella”.

    I thought for a minute that you were talking about the tree behind him, although I’m sure that like other CAMRA publications the GBG is printed on sustainable paper. I have a vision of the proposer of that motion taking a chainsaw to the next one with a glint in his eye, like Elon Musk or that mad guy who became president of Argentina.

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  2. Damn, here was I expecting a mad April first post, and what do we get? The most sensible, thought out post from Martin in years.
    Simon should have a specially curated list from each CAMRA branch, so he ends up at every cask outlet in the UK, before he’s allowed to call himself a completist.

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  3. Don’t forget Martin, 9.30am prompt for the official opening of the AGM by John Cleese to start Fawlty Towers’s fiftieth anniversary year.
    I doubt if as a good case will be heard for motion 7 as Roger Ptotz successfully made for a reduction many years ago and won’t be surprised if it’s defeated, months before the NE decides to reduce numbers regardless. You’ll be aware of the 340 posts on Discourse about the GBG review and the two motions, but there’s no response in two days to “I didn’t think …. either Conference motion properly addresses the imbalance between branches who already genuinely have top notch pubs they can’t put in the GBG and a remote area where allegedly having a handpump is about all it takes for a pub to be listed”.
    The Members’ Weekend Handbook makes interesting reading. Pages 18 and 19 about Torquay pubs lists only four short of “requires a bus for at least pert of the journey” – a “Taphouse”, a Wetherspoons, a former Wetherspoons and the town’s Proper Pub which closes permanently from the Sunday. Never mind my bus pass, trains will offer a quicker get away to Paignton and Newton Abbot for the evenings. And they must be much safer towns, the whole of page 11 being about “Staying safe in Torquay” including “it’s always a good idea to have a buddy or group to accompany you, especially at night”, “Keep your phone charged and have important contacts saved”, “Keep your belongings secure at all times, especially in crowded or busy areas” – more like Belarus than an idyllic Riviera.

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      1. I must admit Martin that I wouldn’t have included that sentence about John Cleese three hours later !
        Four miles for a pint of St Austell reminds me that I could have had a Proper Job in Penkridge three days ago, but opted for the local Banks’s.

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