The Pub Curmudgeon

The Manchester Evening News has recently published figures showing the shocking extent of pub closures across the region since 2001, as sh...

When it’s a bar, of course. While there’s no specific legal distinction, the two carry very different connotations. However, it’s notoriousl...

This month sees the fourth anniversary of the reduction of the drink-driving limit in Scotland, which I wrote about here . The University of...

If you had said to the people who were in at the birth of CAMRA that, forty-five years later, the organisation would be promoting keg beer, ...

For a number of years, something called “The Session” has been run on a monthly basis amongst beer bloggers. This is basically asking the v...

Regular readers will know that I have often praised the cheap prices, unspoilt character and congenial atmosphere of many Sam Smith’s pubs....

Minimum alcohol pricing has now been in effect in Scotland for six months. I wrote about this at the time . Given that nothing of this kind ...

One of the motivations behind CAMRA’s Revitalisation Project was a widespread feeling that the organisation too often insisted on a nitpicki...

In the wake of the latest Cask Report, Pete Brown (yes, him again) has recently made some interesting observations on The Market for Flavour...

“Are we having another one here, or do you want to move on?” is a familiar question asked in pubs on countless days and nights out. But it’s...

I was recently looking at one or two lists people had compiled of their favourite pubs, or ones that had impressed them recently. One thing ...

I’ve discussed in the past the key role pubs can play in alleviating loneliness and social isolation , especially amongst older men. This is...

I have a local pub, and indeed an architecturally distinguished one. Five years ago, I wrote about how the Sunday lunchtime drinking experie...

There’s been a lot of discussion recently about declining cask beer sales, and the vicious circle of falling turnover and lower quality acro...

Regular readers will be aware that I’ve not always seen eye to eye with beer writer Pete Brown. He can talk a lot of sense when he sticks to...