If asked which were my best pub in St Albans then it would have to be The Mermaid. Not because I’d met landlord Mark Powell in London the week before at the […]
A Day in the Life of an Activist; CAMRA Mass Lobby Day 2018
I’ve never considered myself as an activist, outspoken maybe, ‘say it as it is’ definitely, but not an activist, not a political lobbyist. Not until I enlisted to take part in the […]
The Nags Head Inn, Lyme Regis
The Nags Head was another Oddfellows Arms. A brilliant pub with excellent beer just a short walk out of a small Dorset town thronged with tourists. The hill was even steeper in […]
People & Politics? GBBF 2018
I thought this should have been two separate posts – People & Politics. They are, for me, what makes GBBF such a fascinating event and they seem to be the driving force […]
Do the Majority of Britons really find the price of a pint unaffordable?
CAMRA’s latest press release tells us,’ (the) Majority of Britons find the price of a pint unaffordable.’ Do they? Really? I’d best nail my colours to the mast; I broadly agree with […]
‘Five Beers, Three Ways’ at the Mended Drum, Huby
Man walks into a pub in a small North Yorkshire village. Nice village, nice little pub, but beyond being in GBG2018 it doesn’t offer much hope. Maybe a York Brewery beer if […]
Room with a Brew, Nottingham
I had high hopes of this place. A friendly crowd of people sat outside waved as I took a photo from the other side of Derby Road. It’s in the GBG so […]
Hand & Heart, Nottingham
I didn’t know what to make of this GBG listed place? If it went on the market, the estate agents blurb might say something like, ‘baronial styled theme pub, would suit troglodyte’? […]
Has the Dust Settled Yet? CAMRA Revitalisation a week on.
I thought long and hard before writing about the Revitalisation shennanigans. I probably wasn’t going to write anything until I saw a reply to my comment on another blog post from Pubcurmudgeon, saying […]
Banks Beer Factory
At first glance this his probably reads like a polemic against Marstons. It’s not really, it’s more a series of observations from a pub tickers outing to Banks’s Brewery in Wolverhampton. Even […]