Steven@greenius’s personal blog

The Oxford mail had a report the other day about how pubs are losing business because of the smoking ban. In particular the landlord of the Plough in Abingdon says he is closing down because he has lost over 50% of his trade since the ban. However some other pubs are reporting an increase in trade. I admit I rarely go the Plough because there is no good reason for me to do so. It serves only one real ale (Greene King IPA) and does nothing to differentiate itself from other pubs. It still has the look and feel of a local boozer.

I like pubs where I can take my children and hang out for a few hours in the afternoon drinking real ale in a friendly environment and possibly enjoy some snacks or food.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to read today on the BBC news website that Wetherspoons are discouraging children from their pubs by only allowing people to have two drinks in a pub if accompanied by children. Also see Stonch’s beer blog for more on this and my comment on BBC Have Your Say. I will be avoiding Wetherspoons pubs from now on even though they are generally good for real ales.

Another thing that annoys me is how difficult it is to get any food in town centre pubs at certain times of day, especially in the evenings.

The pub should be a social place where the whole family is welcome during the daytime. That is the only way you will get more middle class non-smokers to spend more time there and spend more money. If pubs continue to behave like they did before the smoking ban, discourage children and not have any real ale (preferably from local breweries) and not serve affordable bar food throughout the day, then of course they will lose customers.

Another thing I don’t understand is why pubs don’t have a more varied selection of bottled beers. It is fair enough that the cellars can only handle a limited number of draft beers, but bottles can be easily purchased and put in the cabinets behind the bar. Instead the only beers you normally see in pubs are just bottled versions of the same mass produced lagers that you get everywhere. Even when you see some Belgium beers they are normally the same readily available ones such as Leffe and Duvel, and you hardly ever see anything unusual such as a seasonal porter or selection of beers from local breweries.

If pubs do not go out of their way to encourage new customers, make them welcome and provide something you can’t get at home, then you can not expect new customers to magically appear. When you can buy a better selection of bottled beers in the supermarket and sit at home with friends then why go out to a pub that makes you feel unwelcome, only serves one beer, plays annoying music, fills every wall with TV screens showing football and makes you feel like a nuisance if you try to order food.

As a contrast to a previous posting which has since been removed about the poor service we received in an Abingdon pub, I thought I’d balance it with praise for some good customer service we received in various Abingdon pubs on the same day.

The Punch Bowl staff and landlady were friendly and welcoming as usual. In addition they offered free turkey and cranberry rolls, and warm mince pies to all the customers. The Morland Original I drank was in good condition and well served.

The Anchor was next… we were greeted in a friendly manner. Even though this is also a Green King pub, they try to have a good selection of the guest beers that Green King supply. We chose the Abbot Reserve, which being rather strong we only drank halves. I remembered this beer from the Anchor Beer Festival a couple of months ago and was eager to try it again and I was not disappointed.

The Brewery Tap near the entrance to where the old Morland brewery used to be before it was converted into flats is also a Green King pub. But similar to the Anchor they always have a good selection of GK guest beers. We ordered the Hardy and Hansons bitter which I have enjoyed there many times before. For some reason after the first sip, we did not enjoy the taste and thought it was a bit sour and must have gone off (bottom of the barrel?). We mentioned this to the barman, who called over the manager. The manager tried some himself and assured us that nothing was wrong with it. As we took some more mouthfuls, it started to taste better. I think that what happened was that our palettes were conditioned from the Abbot Reserve we had recently drank making the H&H fruity hops taste more pronounced. This is excellent customer service because even though we were wrong about the beer being off, we were treated with respect and offered replacements (which we declined as we realised that the H&H was actually all right). Generally the Brewery Tap always have their beers in excellent condition and served at the right temperature.

Finally we went to the Stocks Bar at the Crown and Thistle. Normally they have four real ales available including Wychwood and Brakspear beers, but unfortunately they only had one beer on that day. The bar maid gave a good explanation as to why this was. The one beer that was available was Old Peculiar, which we enjoyed a couple of pints of. The only problem is that the beer is served a bit too cold (though I have heard rumours that the cellars are being modified to remedy this soon). This is not a big problem.. just let it warm up a bit in your glass before drinking it. We were served our beer in handled glasses. Even though they were quite difficult for the bar maid to reach, she was cheerful and friendly. It is details like this that make good customer service.

So top marks to all of these four pubs. My Danish companions were very happy and impressed with the English pubs and beer.

I am making some cider at the moment. I have approximately 10 gallons (50 litres) brewing away. The juice was part of a bulk order from the nearby Millets farm which was split amongst members of our Oxford Brewing Group.

There is no recipe to speak of… basically I made some dried wine yeast (10 teaspoons) into a starter with a little brown sugar boiled in water and cooled. Pitched it into the apple juice in the containers I collected the juice in (food grade 5 gallon plastic). The next day it was fermenting out of the top and all over the floor… so I took it outside for a few days until it had calmed down.

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Following a news article on BBC web site about a charity lobbying to prevent children drinking at home, I actually got one of my comments published on Page 35 of the Have Your Say section.

My comment is that I am worried that now the moral brigade have been succesful making smoking in public places socially unacceptable that alcohol will be their next target.

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