Quote of the Day: Back to the Pub

The Fleece, Cullingworth - a Proper Pub

From the Old Curmudgeon:

Many so-called beer enthusiasts who may in the past have given lip service to supporting pubs seem to have gleefully joined in with both of these tendencies. They may well have found they quite enjoyed staying at home during lockdown enjoying supplies of draft craft beer takeouts from their local micro bar, absolved of any need to actually go out and visit any pubs and mix with the dreaded hoi polloi.

So true, so true. There is an overlap between the beer enthusiast and the pub fan but it's an overlap that exists because pubs sell beer not because the sort of person who buys sample trays or overhopped IPAs in thirds, and take all night drinking them actually likes the pub. The Proper Pub (as Old Mudgie calls them) doesn't sell beer like this and doesn't think that it its business. No, the Proper Pub sells beer in straight pint glasses - as beer writer Pete Brown put it:

"I realise the importance of the pint glass itself. It's the perfect vessel, the ideal amount. You know that there is enough for you to take a long, indulgent pull to clear the dust and cobwebs from the back of your throat and cool you down, and still have a satisfying amount left to savour more slowly after this initial greedy rush."

This comes at the end of Brown's book where, having talked about all sorts of beer, he sits down with a pint of lager. Not special, not expensive, just a pint of lager.

And this, as Old Mudgie describes, is the problem: a certain sort of person sees a middle-aged, working class bloke sitting at a fake wood table in a brightly lit boozer and instantly turn into a raging snob.

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