February 2025. Sheffield. “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, it’ll be worth going to Torquay next month for the big CAMRA shindig to hear that motion debated. There’s been a good… Continue reading MORE DISAPPOINTMENT FOR THOSE SEARCHING FOR SUB-PAR GBG ENTRIES
Tag: Beer quality
THOUGHTS ON BEER QUALITY POST-COVID
Not many bloggers write about quality because a) it’s subjective and b) you might upset your local pubs if you say the beer isn’t great (even if the pub is). But I can say what I like, because all my local pubs serve good to great beer, and they did in Cambridge too. OK, some… Continue reading THOUGHTS ON BEER QUALITY POST-COVID
RUMINATING ON SCOTTISH BEER QUALITY
“Of all the beer you had in Scotland, what proportion of it came up to the standard you would expect in the Good Beer Guide? And how does that compare with south of the Border ? ” asks Pub Curmudgeon. What a good question. Let’s see the evidence; BEER SCORING I scored 28 beers (a… Continue reading RUMINATING ON SCOTTISH BEER QUALITY
A WEEK IN TIER 2
It’s a week since pubs re-opened in Tiers 1 and 2, presumably a Wetherspoons in Gorleston was first because the sun rises in the west. As BRAPA was crying about the other day, pub-going in Tier 2, which as you’ll know constitutes the parts of the UK that can behave themselves, isn’t REALLY pub-going. You… Continue reading A WEEK IN TIER 2
A GOLDEN WEEK FOR CASK ?
Four days into #ReturnOfPubs and I’ve only left Cambridgeshire once. What’s going on ? Well, it takes Grade II* military planning to determine whether pubs are open, if they need pre-booking (a no-no for me) and whether they will be playing 1980s M.O.R. soundtracks or not. I also want a free campervan spot a mile… Continue reading A GOLDEN WEEK FOR CASK ?
WE CLOSE OUR EYES AND WE CAN TALK TO STRANGERS (ABOUT GUEST BEERS IN BISHOP AUCKLAND)
The welcome committee was out for Simon today as the BRAPA bandwagon rolled into (newly shiny) Cambridge station. I took this great photo in the Flying Pig (BRAPA tick No.1) while we compared notes on beer quality across the GBG, taking extra care to make sure Simon can’t be identified by angry landlords. Statistically,… Continue reading WE CLOSE OUR EYES AND WE CAN TALK TO STRANGERS (ABOUT GUEST BEERS IN BISHOP AUCKLAND)
IS IT REALLY MY JOB TO TEST THEIR BEER ?
Alternative title: (Framlingham) Castle on a Hill Some more shameless raiding of modern pop culture today. My son Matthew was disgusted with yesterday’s effort, but it’s harder to work the LP he got for his 16th birthday into my post. Here’s a sample of his Lorna Shore album. So he gets the next best thing, the… Continue reading IS IT REALLY MY JOB TO TEST THEIR BEER ?
OPEN ALL HOURS – KNAPHILL’S ROYAL OAK DOES A PROPER JOB
Just 17 minutes on the train from Aldershot, central Woking feels a different world. Not always a world I’d want to inhabit, with an athletics centre of a football ground and only a Spoons and a Social Club for Beer Guide company. Type “Woking” into WhatPub and the first places you see are an O’Neill’s, a Slug, a… Continue reading OPEN ALL HOURS – KNAPHILL’S ROYAL OAK DOES A PROPER JOB
HOPE FOR HARROW
Regular readers will know my opinions on the area known in the Beer Guide as North-West London, or “most of Middlesex” to you and me. Flat, intermittently interesting and short of great pubs (never mind beer), with a few exceptions. Back in the ’90s my job took me to such exotic locations as Eastcote, Neasden and… Continue reading HOPE FOR HARROW
QUALITY v QUANTITY IN BRISTOL
I’ve been visiting a few of the pubs new to the Beer Guide on a trip to Bristol. I’m more convinced than ever that beer quality is being sacrificed in the name of choice and variety, and that this will have bad consequences for real ale in the long run. Firstly, Bristol is an increasingly… Continue reading QUALITY v QUANTITY IN BRISTOL
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