Globalti
Legendary Member
Stopped for a swifty when out riding on Tuesday evening and got chatting with the barman about his selection of five great cask ales. He agreed that freshness is important when you're dealing with a living product and explained that his biggest problem was offering enough variety while keeping the stock moving because about three days after opening the beer begins to taste noticeably less fresh. If you've ever had a pint from an old barrel followed by the same beer from a fresh barrel you'll know this.
This seemed to be the nub of the problem; if it's not a busy town centre pub serving overpriced pasteurised Euro-piss to kids with too much cash, a pub has to be very good to survive on beer alone. If the beer is in good condition with fast turnover the discriminating drinkers will keep coming back but as soon as consumption drops, the beer gets stale and you're into a vicious circle of declining business. So many factors affect turnover but location is key along with the personality of the landlord and the kind of customers he encourages or discourages.
The next step is when the pub begins to take deliveries of frozen food from Brakes, 3663 or Food Service and tries to sell it as "Home made food", employing a kitchen technician with a few microwaves and a grill. However even food reheating can be cocked up; we've all had disastrous pub meals in shonky places run by inexperienced kids and vowed never to return.
So down the pan goes our local and the next thing is that it reopens as a theme pub with sport TVs and serving the aforementioned Euro-piss. This might last for 18 months but the lager crowd is fickle and will soon move on.
Next, a Chinese restaurant. There are even a couple of pubs I know that have managed to survive by offering an odd combination of beer and Chinese food.
That fails and along comes an Indian or Pakistani with some family cash. This might survive if the cooks are good and not just using industrial sauces; competition is intense.
What next? Permanent closure. They say ten pubs a week are closing; recently a barmaid in a busy and successful pub told me they were probably doing well because there are fewer and fewer pubs open.
What does the forum think about all this?
This seemed to be the nub of the problem; if it's not a busy town centre pub serving overpriced pasteurised Euro-piss to kids with too much cash, a pub has to be very good to survive on beer alone. If the beer is in good condition with fast turnover the discriminating drinkers will keep coming back but as soon as consumption drops, the beer gets stale and you're into a vicious circle of declining business. So many factors affect turnover but location is key along with the personality of the landlord and the kind of customers he encourages or discourages.
The next step is when the pub begins to take deliveries of frozen food from Brakes, 3663 or Food Service and tries to sell it as "Home made food", employing a kitchen technician with a few microwaves and a grill. However even food reheating can be cocked up; we've all had disastrous pub meals in shonky places run by inexperienced kids and vowed never to return.
So down the pan goes our local and the next thing is that it reopens as a theme pub with sport TVs and serving the aforementioned Euro-piss. This might last for 18 months but the lager crowd is fickle and will soon move on.
Next, a Chinese restaurant. There are even a couple of pubs I know that have managed to survive by offering an odd combination of beer and Chinese food.
That fails and along comes an Indian or Pakistani with some family cash. This might survive if the cooks are good and not just using industrial sauces; competition is intense.
What next? Permanent closure. They say ten pubs a week are closing; recently a barmaid in a busy and successful pub told me they were probably doing well because there are fewer and fewer pubs open.
What does the forum think about all this?