Pub Bitch: The (future) king of beers

(Future) king of beers

Barely had the nation managed to absorb the Wonderful NewsTM about next year's Royal wedding (zzzzzzzzzz) than drinks producers started cashing in. The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) whacked off a press release extolling the virtues of beers brewed specifically for such celebrity-studded shindigs. BBPA head girl Brigid Simmonds purred that: "Weddings are a fantastic time to celebrate with beer, and we hope that William and Kate, as future King and Queen, will be keen to enjoy their big day with the nation's favourite drink." Me'thinks they'll be turning towards a product made in France beginning with the letter 'C', but the BBPA's blurb went on: "When Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, 147 Royal beers were brewed to celebrate the event." Yeah, and we all know how that ended up, now don't we…

Celebrity service

I visit 'Twitter' occasionally - after all, one likes to keep one's finger on the information technology pulse - and a recent 'tweet' from rotund comedian and Never Mind The Buzzcocks quiz team captain Phill Jupitus read: "Leigh-on-Sea from 2pm this Saturday... come point at the rubbish Saturday boy..." Which reminded me that Pete Doherty, flawed pop star and former beau of supermodel Kate Moss, recently served behind the bar of one of my locals when his band Babyshambles did a gig there. Sooooo, why not let's have a 'Famous People Work Behind The Bar Day'? Or week? It would certainly get the punters in if you managed to persuade a celebrity to pull pints in your pub. Come to think of it, we could get pubco bosses to join in too. How good would that be? Let me know if you think it's a runner. Or a dead duck…

The best possible taste

I popped into that there Draft House place near London's Tower Bridge last week for the grand opening of its swanky 'tasting room'. Very nice it was too, although it has to be said the paint hadn't quite dried and we got chucked out at 8.30pm, so's some sparkies could come in and bung more wires in somewhere. Anyroadup, the Draft House concept could be the pub of the future; its three sites are doing a roaring trade with their 'café bar' feel and a stonking beer offer. Founder and Old Etonian Charlie McVeigh sells top-notch beers in pint and third-of-a-pint glasses, and while the prices of some might be eye-wateringly expensive, at least you're getting some bang for your buck. Beats forking out £4.20 for a pint of cooking lager any day of the week…

Subversive art

Those self-publicity experts down at the New Inn in Wedmore, Somerset, are once more seeking entries to the pub's Turnip Prize, its annual riposte to the Turner Prize (beloved of poncey art lovers everywhere and especially in dat dere London). According to organiser Trevor Prideaux, marks are awarded for 'lack of effort', 'alliteration used in the title' and 'is it sh*t enough?' Entries are immediately rejected if they look like someone's gone to a lot of trouble to produce them. A recent winner was "Tea P": a bunch of used tea-bags arranged in the shape of the letter 'p'. And "Jellied Deal", a wobbly jelly with playing cards embedded in it. An entry for this year's competition, believed to be by the artist Banksy (pictured) is unlikely to win because, well, it's clearly quite good…

A Brit walks into a bar…

We like SABMiller's Whose Round? report, mainly because it shows us Brits are generous old souls when it comes to getting the beers in. It's also refreshing to see research focusing on the fun element of the industry rather than depressing the bejeesus out of us all with stats about pub closures and beer drinking rates tumbling, etc. Instead, it offers gems such as that on first dates British women have sympathy for the chaps, with only 21 per cent expecting the men to get a round in. Once in a relationship, however, this changes, with nearly a third believing men should get the first beers. Still, it could be worse. It might be a land of great beer but it appears sexual equality has not yet reached the Czech Republic, where 82 per cent of women would be rather put out if they were left to go to the bar. Makes you proud to be British….

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