Too Hot or Not?

How has the weather been suiting you?  Is the so called heat wave a good or bad thing, putting aside, if one can, the fact that when we are all brown bread, it will likely be even hotter?  At my age there is nothing I can do about it anyway - if ever I could have in real terms. Well, for me, I love it. I delight in getting up and seeing sunshine. I feel lifted by it even when hot, though hot and humid probably takes the edge off it for me.  Dry heat is fine, sticky heat less so. But on the whole, I give it a big tick.

Getting back to two of my favourite things, pubs and beer, how has the heat treated pubs and how are pubs treating cask beer?  Starting with pubs,it seems on the whole it is a good thing. A variable of course was the World Cup which has distorted things a tad. it is a variable that only comes once every four years, but it has coincided with the lovely sunshine and has undoubtedly boosted things until the home teams exited. I noted my local brewery, JW Lees, report a mixed and inconclusive picture of World Cup games over normal trade.

Speaking to various landlords and landladies too - even handed me - the picture is again rather mixed with pubs with beer gardens or at least usable outdoor space doing well, though inside has been quieter.  Just as you'd expect I suppose.  My own observation backs this up.  Approaching pubs I've noted the busy exteriors and the not so busy interiors.  It is difficult to tell whether those who would normally sit inside have just decanted to the outside, but chatting to the bosses, trade is slightly up with a noted shift to lager, soft drinks and rosé wine.  

What of cask beer quality I hear you ask?  Well, perhaps surprisingly, pretty damn good overall. Clearly some are better than others, but the only really warm stuff I've had was in a Liverpool pub. I got chatting to the manager there who apologised. A bit of further chat revealed that only the lagers were pythoned to point of dispense, with the cask beer through an old fashioned chiller and like as not half inch uncooled beerline. Not a winning formula. Not spending money on correct dispense and cooling is a poor idea.

Given that cask is still a pretty big thing in my area, it would interesting to know how the cask experience manifests itself in the rest of the country. Do let me know and more generally, how the trade  seems to you to be doing in your area.

On a different tack,  I see little to no evidence in the pubs in my area of zebra striping or whatever, with low alcohol or zero drinks not a thing with the possible exception of Guinness Zero.  Is that availability or lack of demand. Does one trigger the other? is it different elsewhere? You tell me? 

One thing I do miss, given the preponderance of family brewers in my area is a decent imported German or Czech beer.  Not that the house brewed lagers are bad, but they don't quite hit the same spot.