London pubs

scottdisco

rip this joint please
Not exactly, but on the right wind you can smell the Nestlé (neé Rowntrees) chocolate at York railway station.

I love the smell of Edinburgh. Is it yeasty?

ooh York and chocolate, two favourite things of mine :cool:

as for the smell, yeah, not just Edinburgh, though perhaps it's more obvious there (for a start, isn't there at least one brewery in Edinburgh in the town itself, i dunno like, but i'm thinking that Caledonian brewery might be; quite a lot of city breweries aren't in the city centre are they, they tend to be ind estate jobs in quite far suburbs, well the large ones anywhere, of course you get city centre brewpubs, but they're simply not very big in physical terms so presumably create less odour).

i can definitely say that on the southern outskirts of Mcr city centre in a particular place i worked for a few years we were near (like a mile or less) from two of the large local breweries and not every day, more when the wind hit like Lichen, but it didn't half pong. not an entirely unpleasant smell is it? but you can definitely tell.

(i used to work in an otherwise rural Mancunian country estate - ie you know, when the cities dumped a load of families in what was once a tiny village in the 50s - and the muck spreading some days from local farmers was monumental.)

as for how the new growing-stronger super regional breweries acquired their estates, mainly buying some off pubcos (and occasionally buying up smaller independent breweries and so taking over their trade, like when Fullers' bought up the Hampshire based Gales brewery and most of Gales unique beers went down the swanney) i'd have thought.
my last post kind of implied maybe that there are freehouses all over the show that are ten a penny these days. that isn't the case, my bad, a true freehouse remains a bit of a rarity AFAIK. the pubcos are willing to sell now and again (i know in the area where i grew up in the last year, a resilient Lees, one of the big Manc indies, has bought about eight estate pubs from i think Enterprise Inns or Punch), especially w so many pubs in general closing and it being such a tough trade w very tight margins.

i think i'm right in saying cask ale is the only economic growth area in UK beer. sales of keg bitter, lager, Guinness etc are down year on year.

and oh yes actual new build pubs are very very rare. (i think. i can't think of any in Brum and Mcr, the two large British cities i'm most familiar w.) it's fairly rare to even get a conversion from another use these days, though breweries that have money often tart up older boozers, granted. (whether that is for the better or not is definitely a case-by-case, i have seen some perfectly lovely community or estate pubs ruined into bland tat, though OTOH have seen some sympathetic spruce ups.)
 
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matt b

Indexing all opinion
And I've got another bloody question for youse, and an off topic one at that. Edinburgh city centre has a very strong smell in the air thanks to the breweries there. Has any other town or village suffer from this predicament.

Leeds, down by the Tetley brewery. Get there quick as its shutting next year (just have a drive round the inner ring road for a bit with the windows down). Awful, awful beer though.
 
At first I thought Aul Reekie had a large dogfood factory somewhere, it was only when I got back from my holiday and looked it up on the internet that I discovered it was the breweries. It's a kind of warm meaty smell, I'd guess it's got stronger since the phasing out of coal fires. But it's definitely a strange characteristic of the city.
 
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scottdisco

rip this joint please
btw Matt i know you are going to Ireland for cultural/nature/music etc reasons but if you are in Dublin for a night or two (i would spam this thread w loads of views of micros etc in different Irish cities but i gather Dublin is your base so i will leave it at that) and in the perhaps unlikely event you'd want to sample a micro as opposed to just good Guinness the Porterhouse outlet opposite Trinity College is quite nice. perhaps a bit less hectic than the Porterhouse outlet in Temple Bar (which is five to ten mins stroll away i guess). Messrs Maguire the other Dub centre micro AFAIK, though Porterhouse better, they do a very, very good Plain IMO if you like your dark beers.

tbf if you did want a beer/had the time for it, in Dub, it would be remiss to not just go in a classic local pub and have the inevitable you know what as it is lush over there :)

spamming the thread rather than PMing in the event anyone has any other views!
 

scottdisco

rip this joint please
Is that so? Great news if it's true, there's life in the old pub yet!

well certainly for last year, it's little acorns as the growth is not much, but it is there (and you know in the midst of a recession w a lot of pubs closing and supermarkets selling canned beer as a loss leader)

Although growth in 2009 was a modest 0.04%, it compares favourably to the 5% fall in on-trade beer sales last year. Among smaller brewers, total cask volumes are up by over 1% and turnover by an average of 16%.

The cask category started to decline in the early 1980’s, losing drinkers and market share to lagers and keg bitters until the early 2000’s. Since then, resurgent consumer demand, the expansion of the small, craft brewing sector and renewed investment from many regional brewers, have rescued cask ale from near-oblivion. Cask is now the only sector of the UK beer market in growth.

nicked from here
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
btw Matt i know you are going to Ireland for cultural/nature/music etc reasons but if you are in Dublin for a night or two (i would spam this thread w loads of views of micros etc in different Irish cities but i gather Dublin is your base so i will leave it at that) and in the perhaps unlikely event you'd want to sample a micro as opposed to just good Guinness the Porterhouse outlet opposite Trinity College is quite nice. perhaps a bit less hectic than the Porterhouse outlet in Temple Bar (which is five to ten mins stroll away i guess). Messrs Maguire the other Dub centre micro AFAIK, though Porterhouse better, they do a very, very good Plain IMO if you like your dark beers.

tbf if you did want a beer/had the time for it, in Dub, it would be remiss to not just go in a classic local pub and have the inevitable you know what as it is lush over there :)

spamming the thread rather than PMing in the event anyone has any other views!


Cheers Scott- Pubs will be visited! Sorting out itinery tonight, so will post update on relevant thread tomorrow.
 

scottdisco

rip this joint please
Ha - just read that my favourite author drinks at the Harp (mentioned upthread quite a bit). How strange.

oh who's that Bab?

(fucking lovely pub the Harp. the small Italian caff right next door is quality, i've only ever grabbed panini to take away from there, but simple and lush. nice looking pastries etc otherwise. the geezer who runs it seems a smashing bloke whenever i've had a chat.)

vicariously excited for Matt's Ireland trip :D
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
oh who's that Bab?

(fucking lovely pub the Harp. the small Italian caff right next door is quality, i've only ever grabbed panini to take away from there, but simple and lush. nice looking pastries etc otherwise. the geezer who runs it seems a smashing bloke whenever i've had a chat.)

vicariously excited for Matt's Ireland trip :D

it's Dan Rhodes. Though I dont think he lives in London any longer - the interview was a few years old.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
What are some good London pubs for nice weather drinking, then? IE places with some sort of garden / outdoors option...
 

hucks

Your Message Here
At the Palm Tree nr Mile End, you can sit out in what I gues is still Mile End park, by the canal. Often, this old couple turn up on their motability scooters and play loud 60s music from their stereo.
 

Brother Randy Hickey

formerly Dubversion
anyone know the Woodbine on Blackstock Road? We've got a DJ gig there tomorrow night - it sounds like quite a nice place, but it's WAY outside my south London comfort zone...
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
anyone know the Woodbine on Blackstock Road? We've got a DJ gig there tomorrow night - it sounds like quite a nice place, but it's WAY outside my south London comfort zone...

Not familiar with that one, though my friend used to live on Blackstock. Was thinking about that area yesterday, in terms of finding a good Algerian place to watch the England game in.
 

Brother Randy Hickey

formerly Dubversion
It is an acceptable pub.

What sort of stuff will you play?

doing under my Randy & Earl's Old Record Club guise - so soul, rockabilly, gospel, country, blues, jazz, ska... that sort of caper. all very danceable.

the guy who asked us has done it playing a similar blend and said it went pretty well...
 
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