Men Only Clubs

Back in December I wrote about my visit to a working mens' club which had a men only bar. Well now I discover that a social club which is totally men only has won a CAMRA club of the year award.

This is worrying on a couple of fronts. Firstly I thought CAMRA had some sort of inclusion policy, part of which is to encourage women to become members. There's a real desire to shift the stereotypical image of beards and beer bellies that this isn't going to help one bit.

Secondly who actually drinks in these places? What's wrong with the company of women? Ok we all like a night out apart from our partners ocassionally, but that doesn't mean the whole evening should be spent purely in a male environment. The amount of testosterone in that club must be frightening!

Close examination of the picture in the article I linked to though, does reveal a woman member of staff. That's right Mid-Boldon Club - your obvious idea of a woman's place is to serve the men. Additionally this quote "There's a great atmosphere here, and we wouldn't want the wrong type of person to spoil it." says a million words for the chauvinists of this Neanderthal part of the World. I sometimes wonder what century we are living in.

I see no similarity at all here with men only gyms, or womens' swimming sessions. Wanting a single sex drinking den is just not right.

Greene King Penny Pinching

Talking of Greene King, I see that the Loch Fyne fish restaurants which they own are failing to pay its staff the legitimate national minimum wage. GK obviously feel that the tips its overworked and underpaid waiting staff receive elevate their incomes to respectable levels.

Clearly the multi million pound brewery closing company are struggling if they are counting the pennies to such an extent.

Summer Breeze - A Deception

I picked up a bottle of Summer Breeze at the weekend. To the uninitiated you would think this beer is brewed by a certain George Gale & Co Ltd; that being the company name emblazoned on both the front and back labels.

There is no mention of the actual brewing company Fullers anywhere although the postcode of the West London site can be spotted. A further deception exists on both the beer cap and the small neck label. Both have the old Gales horsehead emblem and the words "Established since 1847" No mention then of "Acquired in 2005".

So why should I care? Well, I'll try not to let it get my blood pressure too high, but obviously Fullers care enough to have made the decision not to print their own name anywhere. I have no real objection to their using the Gales name, especially if the beer existed before the takeover, although I'm not so sure it did. However a brief mention of the actual brewing company should be somewhere on the bottle.

After all even Greene King do that on their fake brewery beers such as Ruddles Rhubarb et al.

What I Detest About Nitrokeg

Of course I prefer my beer to be dispensed by handpump (without sparkler) or straight from the barrel with the assistance of good old fashioned gravity. This is natural beer served naturally. Adding gas to a beer is unnatural and unnecessary. It does nothing for the taste and even less for the aroma if that matters to you. Carbon Dioxide is bad enough, nitrogen is much worse.

The biggest bugbear for me though is how long it takes to pour a bloody pint. I haven't done a scientific time trial but I will guarantee it takes less than a quarter of the time to pull my foaming pint of real ale than it does for Mr Old Duffer's pint of Extra Creamy Smooth to arrive. Waiting for my pint is bad enough at the best of times but when the delay is being caused by waiting for some crappy flavourless nonsense to be poured, I'm even more agitated.

Still, I'm off to Coventry Beer Festival tomorrow. No gas there (except plentiful flatulence).

Thanks Very Much Then, Goodbye.

No, this is not me signing off from blogging, but hopefully a discussion on what is another element of a good pub. We all use the phrase "the pub was welcoming", but then it's pretty obvious that they are going to nice to you when you walk in their door. After all you're signalling to them that you are about to spend some of your hard earned money. It's hardly appropriate that you'd be given short shrift and a cold shoulder before you've even dipped your hand in your pocket. Hey, if the welcome's that good you may feel inclined to stay longer and spend some more.

But what happens when you've had enough and it's time to move on? What would you say to friends when they leave your house? Something along the lines of "Thanks very much, goodbye" wouldn't go amiss. After all you've been a valuable customer and that adieu message may encourage you to return.

Why then is it so rare to be thanked for your custom and wished nice things on your way. I swear goodbyes and thanks have become rarer over the last twenty years. I don't expect a goodbye from an understaffed drinking barn, but one wouldn't go amiss at a more civilized pub. Has anybody else noticed this phenomenon or is it just that I'm not a valued customer and it's only me??

Warm Glasses - Schoolboy Error

My grandparents ran a pub until they retired in the late 1970s. Although they lived quite far from us I was still lucky enough to go visit them a few times a year, and was allowed access to all areas which shouldn't really have been the case for one so young.

One of the things I actually helped with was washing the glasses. Everything was done by hand back then, so in the corner of the bar area was a sink and draining board for that very function. Things have, of course, moved on from then, and time spent hand washing glasses is wasted time, so it's all done by machine now. Basically a glass washing machine works in a similar way to a domestic dishwasher, but unlike at home, when we would empty the dishwasher at our leisure, the urgent need for clean glasses often leads to the machine being emptied immediately upon the cleaning cycle being completed.

And what does this lead to? Warm glasses! or in some cases, even pretty hot glasses. Beer should not be served in warm glasses; the heat can transfer to the beer at an unwanted rate. I was served a beer yesterday in a glass which had clearly not been allowed to cool properly. It put me off. I'm sure you've experienced this once or twice, and actually it's not good enough. Should I have rejected my beer and asked for a more temperate glass? What would you have done?