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Much debate over JD Wetherspoon’s decision to sell pints of Greene King IPA at 99p. Now JDW is not perfect as a pub group by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a perfectly reasonable company to deal with, and you can’t argue with the amount of real ale they shift during a year. On the basis that ‘any publicity is good publicity’, the high profile the company gives to real ale is not to be knocked. Because they are all locally managed, some branches are much better than others, both in terms of beer quality and customer service, but find a good one, with a good range at a decent temperature, and there are worse places to settle for a couple of pints and watch the world go by.
But … I cannot be doing with 99p pints of Greene King IPA. Okay, the beer has its critics and probably wouldn’t be top of most people’s list on a pub visit, but the beer itself is not the issue here, it’s the pricing policy. This will be the final nail in the coffin for many pubs who cannot hope to compete with 99p, let alone make any money on such a pint.
I’ve been in favour of minimum pricing for alcohol for some time now, not to create a level playing field between JDW and other pubs, but to end the scourge of cheap supermarket and off-licence alcohol, which is the single biggest factor affecting the viability of our pubs in the UK. Yes, I know there’s the smoking ban, too, but this has been ridden through to a degree by most pubs, and anecdotal evidence from hosts tells me the supermarket pricing is a bigger concern.
Minimum pricing isn’t going to affect the average, responsible, social drinker, unless the limit is raised ridiculously high by a government eager to claw back tax wherever it can; it will help to end the practice of youngsters with no respect for alcohol binge drinking and giving us decent drinkers a bad name.
As Mrs N and I spent Christmas Day with flu (that’s the illness, not some visiting relative) we had our Christmas dinner today at my mother-in-law’s. Very nice: chicken, and all the trimmings, and with it one of my Christmas gift bottles of beer, Rudolph the Red Nosed White Horse, from the White Horse Breweryin Oxfordshire. What a great beer. It’s a classic winter warmer, but not too heavy, not too sweet. Chestnut red in colour, the 4.8% ABV ale is smooth and well balanced, with a hint of honeycomb from the malt and lots of tasty but not overwhelming hop balance, with nuttiness and some seasonal candied peel offering some deep citrus fruit freshness. The finish is quite long and well rounded. I’m tempted to see if I can get any more of this winter warmer, from Morrison’s where it appears to be exclusively available.
Winter … don’t you just love it? Jack Frost nipping at your vitals, scraping the ice off the windscreen, the cold virus circulating around the office air conditioning system. But then there’s always the beer!
In winter I revert to type. I shake off my carefully cultured image of Mr Hoppy, happy with a glass of something golden and fresh, and seek out the big, dark, chocolately, Christmas cake fruity brews that are the signature of the season. And the coming of the Exeter Winter Beer Festival next weekend is a great date in the West Country diary. Nothing but winter brews. Heaven in Devon.
I have enjoyed two excellent examples of winter beers lately. The Bath Ales Barnstormer in the Copperhouse, Hayle (see below), and over the past few days the Penzance Beer Company’s excellent Liberty (5% ABV) which has that waming dark, chocolate malty, taste, with some rich fruit in the background. I’ve drunk a lot of this over the past three days or so and can’t recommend it too highly. I understand it’s going to be a regular brew at The Star.
