By Phil Mellows I’m now in my 40th year of writing about beer and pubs and people think I must know every drinking hole in the country. Sometimes I feel guilty that I don’t. But I can delight in the knowledge that I still have lots to discover, and so it’s proved over the past few months as I’ve travelled the UK seeking out the best places for beer.
Have you ever looked at the beer available at gigs? I go to lots of gigs and the beer is generally appalling - the chain brands who bid to run venue bars. Some now have the horrible, fizzy, over-hopped IPAs that come under the misnomer of "craft beer". As if that's enough for the beer drinkers. The odd one will have a Guinness. Luckily my local venue, which has great bands, is a pub - the New Cross Inn. They sell local beer from the Brockley Brewery plus real cider. At the four-day punk rock festival in Blackpool, many of us congregate between gigs at Albert's Ale Micropub as the beer in the Winter Gardens is so poor.
Have you ever looked at the beer available at gigs? I go to lots of gigs and the beer is generally appalling - the chain brands who bid to run venue bars. Some now have the horrible, fizzy, over-hopped IPAs that come under the misnomer of "craft beer". As if that's enough for the beer drinkers. The odd one will have a Guinness. Luckily my local venue, which has great bands, is a pub - the New Cross Inn. They sell local beer from the Brockley Brewery plus real cider. At the four-day punk rock festival in Blackpool, many of us congregate between gigs at Albert's Ale Micropub as the beer in the Winter Gardens is so poor.