tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post8018942626707670568..comments2024-03-29T08:01:51.705+00:00Comments on The Pub Curmudgeon: Live and Let LiveCurmudgeonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02558747878308766840noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-65150702145131014772016-04-24T11:42:45.350+01:002016-04-24T11:42:45.350+01:00I used to have to deal with Pints Of View folk as ...I used to have to deal with Pints Of View folk as a member of North Herts branch. The magazine wasn't great and largely one man's campaign against everything. Little love lost between South & North Herts branches. (And it's fairly important not to conflate Sth Herts CAMRA too much with CAMRA HQ.)<br /><br />North Herts branch is possibly evenly split between festivals and pubs. The fests are very time consuming and are what attract most active participation in the branch. But the branch takes pubs seriously, tries to get folk to most of them on organised trips at least once a year (with 200 pubs this isn't trivial).<br /><br />My personal 2p as a former active branch member. (I'm no longer a CAMRA member and I live near Cambridge, but I still help out N.Herts fests.)Yvannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-63598142906535267962016-04-14T23:06:18.587+01:002016-04-14T23:06:18.587+01:00As I sit here having just poured a glass of Cromar...As I sit here having just poured a glass of Cromarty Brewing Co. "Happy Chappy" I am reminded that CAMRA's stance in non-RAIB is probably the single biggest annoyance I have with CAMRA maybe closely followed by cask breathers. So one is in full agreement with the comments about that aspect. Ohh and that I think the revitalisation project is asking the wrong question.Rob Nicholsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14871887147718814739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-50102915466275452942016-04-13T19:19:28.726+01:002016-04-13T19:19:28.726+01:00As I live in the St Albans area I think I'd ra...As I live in the St Albans area I think I'd rather sit at home with a can of Sainsbury's Basics Bitter than go on a local CAMRA social. It's bad enough reading the branch newsletter, only one 'Pints of View'. Such are their rabid views they refused an advert for a local pub's beer festival that included mention of beer in KeyKegs. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-62824168119723388352016-04-11T10:20:16.827+01:002016-04-11T10:20:16.827+01:00I'm a fan of their Nut Brown Ale and would hav...I'm a fan of their Nut Brown Ale and would have bought a bottle if they'd had it. I too got away with ordering a pint of Extra Stout at the end of the night without attracting any adverse comments and enjoyed it, it's got a lot more character than the Draught Guinness it replaced.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09310220100267028274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-21059984661702939922016-04-10T21:54:31.311+01:002016-04-10T21:54:31.311+01:00I share DaveS's impression of Cambridge; like ...I share DaveS's impression of Cambridge; like Stockport their meetings and events seem to be full of sensible folk. Remember it only takes a couple of evangelical/zealous types to make a branch newsletter seem over-the-top (as Cookie just said).<br /><br />I did attend the odd North Herts meeting in the '90s and they seemed much more interested in the Beer Fests than in pubs. As Mudge said, good real in South Herts hard to find in pubs.retiredmartinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15429804437739227082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-87615598532926314152016-04-10T12:28:55.089+01:002016-04-10T12:28:55.089+01:00Yes but a guy that has recently developed a bit of...Yes but a guy that has recently developed a bit of an interest in beer and thinks CAMRA looks like a local social club for such things and decides to come along one evening and suss it out. Do you think the normals stand out in his memory or the one rude odd ball with a near religious view on a simple pint who seems to equate a personal morality with a choice of drink?Cooking Lagerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02830924433230427226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-51093154601189798242016-04-10T08:52:46.674+01:002016-04-10T08:52:46.674+01:00I'm sure that in reality most members are far ...I'm sure that in reality most members are far from the dinosaurs that they're often portrayed as. Campaign for real ale, but be happy to recohgnise that many other non-real beers are "good" too, seems to be the sensible way forward to me.Curmudgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02558747878308766840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-24862039235234822592016-04-10T08:49:36.744+01:002016-04-10T08:49:36.744+01:00Agreed - some people seem to take beer *far* too s...Agreed - some people seem to take beer *far* too seriously nowadays. If you go out to the pub and end up doing nothing but talk about beer you're rather missing the point.Curmudgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02558747878308766840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-25149611912071407052016-04-10T00:11:01.711+01:002016-04-10T00:11:01.711+01:00I went to a Revitalization Thingy meeting today - ...I went to a Revitalization Thingy meeting today - mostly Cambridge folk with a few from neighboring counties - and was generally impressed with how non-dogmatic people were. I stuck my hand up to say roughly the thing that I keep saying in blog comments - namely, that recognizing "good keg beer" as a Good Thing doesn't require that we formally define and actively campaign for it - and didn't get run out of town on a rail. Some other people made similarly "actually some of it's pretty nice" type points. It was generally fairly sensible.<br /><br />Could easily believe that Cambridge bucks the trend, though.DaveShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14030589043526494438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-33302897772742630322016-04-09T18:27:32.415+01:002016-04-09T18:27:32.415+01:00I have never been a camra member but have gone out...I have never been a camra member but have gone out drinking with them back in the late 80s and 90s and had a good laugh,in my opinion camra members seem to be far to serious these days.<br />I visited the Grove in Huddersfield in February this year and found it full of Camra types who just seem to talk about beer and hop rates and the like that i know nothing about,all far too serious for me,so i did not really like this pub that much.<br />Regarding keg beers i do avoid them in my local area but i have found some really nice ones on my pub crawls apart from London,i had a rally nice drink of keg Bath Ales Dark Side in a bar in a Bristol suburb.<br />Alan Winfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13143831341388857795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-22123716778508217492016-04-09T14:29:46.374+01:002016-04-09T14:29:46.374+01:00I would have been on the nut brown ale if I'd ...I would have been on the nut brown ale if I'd been in a Sam Smith's, as I always am, so presumably would have harvested some banter too if I'd introduced myself as a member. I've never ever had any inkling of its realness until recently, but over the last couple of months I'm perpetually being told that Sam Smith's do one real ale, so it can't be. This side of Pub Bore-itude is contagious, because I've started using it in beer related conversation too, despite my actual apathy, mainly to get a rise out of other beer sellers. I'm frequently the sort of person I deride.deadmanjoneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17920080723618205512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-38470850061840353642016-04-09T13:06:15.675+01:002016-04-09T13:06:15.675+01:00I gather the point of the tankard among those that...I gather the point of the tankard among those that use them is to secretly drink lovely ice cold fizzy lout right under the noses of the the strident ecumenical types.Cooking Lagerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02830924433230427226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-85090346827868065462016-04-09T12:48:43.332+01:002016-04-09T12:48:43.332+01:00I think I might of been there at the example in th...I think I might of been there at the example in the blog but not the one in the reply. There is a difference between banter among friends and rudeness and I would guess you can tell the difference. A new face will be less attuned to this and CAMRA has shed loads of old codgers that appear rude on first meeting them, but later you find out they were joking and you wonder how anyone would ever tell the difference.Cooking Lagerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02830924433230427226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-43417877526938661392016-04-09T12:41:49.096+01:002016-04-09T12:41:49.096+01:00Rudeness is rudeness, no matter how it is wrapped ...Rudeness is rudeness, no matter how it is wrapped up. Familiar joshing among good mates is one thing, even though that gets boring after a while, but if I'd been that first-time pub crawler, I probably wouldn't have come back either, thinking: "It's my money; I'll spend it how I like." Did they really think he needed telling that Guinness isn't real ale?<br /><br />I have drunk Guinness in pubs that sell only Tetley Bitter, which I really dislike to the extent of slagging it off in a speech to the CAMRA AGM (my point was relevant to the motion in question). This is despite the fact that real ale is <i>for me</i> the best form of beer by far. I've had modern keg beers that have been quite pleasant, but I find that I still prefer cask. In my beer choices, I probably look more 'fundamentalist' about real ale than you or Tandleman, but I'm not fundamentalist in my attitude: people can drink what the hell they like as far as I'm concerned. There is also the point that, whatever people are buying, they are helping keep the pub open; we all know that few pubs can survive on real ale sales alone.<br /><br />For every self-righteous CAMRA member, there are dozens who are perfectly polite about the choices of others. You don't know them as they don't tend to wear beer festival T-shirts or CAMRA badges and don't carry any of the paraphernalia of the real ale zealot. Astonishingly, they just look like ordinary people. I'd guess that there are more than 160,000 in the Campaign.Neville Grundyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10923209266005338452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-30678727941319387182016-04-09T12:08:20.367+01:002016-04-09T12:08:20.367+01:00I would agree that it is mainly institutional rude...I would agree that it is mainly institutional rudeness, although sometimes (not with any mutual acquaintances) it can be that some people are just obnoxious oafs.<br /><br />We had a bit of this at the recent award presentation in the Sam's pub. Quite a few people took the opportunity to sample their excellent Extra Stout. I managed to get away with it, but one person was harangued, in a good-natured end-of-evening kind of way, for drinking it. And I did contemplate trying a pint of Pure Brewed Organic Lager, but decided it would be more trouble than it's worth :-(Curmudgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02558747878308766840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-72701310854517096582016-04-09T11:26:42.611+01:002016-04-09T11:26:42.611+01:00It is interesting you mention a story of regular m...It is interesting you mention a story of regular members being rude to a casual member. On the one hand you can put it down to individual rude people. I can think of a few people that echo "the Dickster" and see personal virtue in never letting a drop of booze pass their lips unless it be cask conditioned. Probably the same ones as you, Mudge. To see drinking a beer as campaigning and supporting something and thus drinking something else becomes supporting something else and letting the cause down. Like wearing the strip of a different football team. For some reason some of them think their own world view and choice should be universal and that they can police others if they are in the group. I can recall ruder incidents than you mention above, across a range of branches. Many areas have their own Dickies . These people are by and large bores and to avoid.<br /><br />Unless you want to wind them up. Try saying you find a nice bottle of Shiraz preferable to most of the real cider muck. ;) Or even that you find mild to be pointless tasteless piss, so no you are not collecting stickers and anyway you have a cupboard full of T shirts. Know the buttons to press. The “I quite like a cold lager on a hot day” is one to save. It has more power when used rarely.<br /><br />What I find interesting is the degree you can put it down to rude individuals or see it as an institutional rudeness. I think it more the latter. Whilst TAND and Nev are right to note most beardy types do not berate others for their choices, those that do are tolerated and their behaviour is never questioned. The more active or longer standing become a more authoritative member and thus less likely to be challenged when they are rude to the new face who when trying a keg wheat beer is pointed at with the horror “that’s not real ale!” This is because these people become characters and you as a regular know they are not bad people. So you appreciate their behaviour as eccentric rather than rude.<br /><br />Cooking Lagerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02830924433230427226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-17289166285654450542016-04-09T09:37:19.069+01:002016-04-09T09:37:19.069+01:00Ah yes, "Steve Bury of Souf Arts Branch"...Ah yes, "Steve Bury of Souf Arts Branch".<br /><br />Possibly because they had real ale wiped out far more comprehensively than we in the North ever did, but that's going back a bit.Curmudgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02558747878308766840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-67194579691429384842016-04-09T09:34:08.538+01:002016-04-09T09:34:08.538+01:00Much to agree with here. I may be being a bit prov...Much to agree with here. I may be being a bit provocative here but I find more real ale fundamentalism in our Southern members. That comes across at the Annual Conference I feel. It isn't a hard and fast rule though. Maybe just a tendency. Anyone else spotted it?Tandlemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06804499573827044693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-66956171021989477362016-04-09T07:23:24.739+01:002016-04-09T07:23:24.739+01:00Amen. I, too, have been saying pretty much the sam...Amen. I, too, have been saying pretty much the same thing for quite a while now. I love the <i>taste </i>of beer and don't really give a monkey's chuff what moniker it goes under. And, yes, I want CAMRA to support pub culture: the heritage of the places where I drink my pint (or half, or third) of real ale, craft beer, fast cask, Guinness is, for me, every bit as important as the product I'm drinking.John Meddhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10547777949324509522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-35299651758400981822016-04-09T01:04:33.896+01:002016-04-09T01:04:33.896+01:00Once again, all of the above.Once again, all of the above.deadmanjoneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17920080723618205512noreply@blogger.com