I held my first license in the 1970s as an Hotel General Manager and licensee at (as then) The Hotel Nelson in Norwich (Now owned by one of the big names and called The Nelson Hotel) We became the first establishment to break the virtual monopolistic grip of Watneys in that City with the introduction of Adnams Bitter to its Canon Bar. In those days (the 1970's), only the Maids Head Hotel and sometimes the Bell Hotel, offered relief from the dreaded keg.
One should remember that the City of Norwich - boasting a pub for every day of the year and a Church for every week - had been served by a number of quite small breweries - namely Some of the main players freshly taken over by the Watney Mann Giant during the 1960's. plenty of choices of pubs and in beer; all of which would have been cask conditioned ale and probably, real sedimented bottled ale too - and one can easily understand the importance of choice to its citizens then faced with the virtual monopoly of Watney Mann, with the Watneys Red Barrel (Keg Beers) and the Red revolution. How momentous the moment was when this virtual strangle-hold was broken! I played my part!
Around this time brewery take-overs were "de rigueur", (just like some Pub Co's are now) spurred on by asset stripping financiers and greedy family owner/directors, inflation was at its peak. I remember my mortgage interest being a terrifying 14.9%. Despite this rampant inflation, brewery owned pubs, both Managed and Tenanted, were still expected to return the same gross profit percentage (normally around 65% for every pound sold) on falling sales, with resultant rocketing prices inflicted upon customers at the pump handle.
The demise of the famous Whitbread brewery and its consequent effect on the Kentish hop fields:-(A word about the English seeded hop and others) the drift towards the continental, bottom fermented high gravity beers and preference for the cheaper (more efficient but less tasty) seedless hops, grown on the continent; then the cheap but stronger imported lager beers from the supermarkets, the drink driving laws, lager louts, huge increases in the taxation on alcohol both to the cost of its brewing and the cost of a pint - and, not forgetting the introduction of VAT. (1973 by Lord Barber to fall in line with the EU) and the three day week and finally, the unscrupulous Pub Co's with unfair ties, the smoking ban (I could go on.) - all leading to where we are now with the dramatic and tragic loss of our pubs - at the rate of 29 per week - and a great surge in drink related social and behavioural problems. Well what a surprise !
Such phenomenal happenings were all damaging to one of our priceless assets, the Britsh Pub, our unique type of beer and to our British brewing industry and all the people in it. Despite valiant efforts by Camra, our politicians had failed us then and still continue so to do.
I believe that the solution to this problem is not as difficult as it has been made out to be. Camra, our greatest ally and only lobbying group, has had great successes in bringing this dreadful situation of pub closures to the attention of our government but I believe that it may have been missing the point of its original brief - if I may call it that for a moment.
This original brief was to save us all from the dreaded introduction of Keg beer. This it has succeeded beyond measure and tiny real ale breweries have sprung up to the demand in droves. Like Camra, I too believe that beer has been grossly overtaxed by successive governments and has become an easy "Cash cow" - with the cost of a pint of beer nearly half made up of taxation. But fiddling about with the 2% beer tax hike is not nearly radical enough to cure the problem - well intentioned though it may be.
The brewing industry - and I refer here specifically to the huge brewing giants - we all know who they are - seem intent on brewing stronger and stronger "beers" of the (bottom fermenting) lager sort - Because that, along with their huge marketing advantage, gives them "credit" for brewing "better" beer to the gullible young who now want to drink beer for the wrong reasons - to get drunk as quickly as possible.
What seems to have been ignored is that this is a particularly British phenomenon because we are, after all, the country which has the public house imbedded in its culture. The champions of real ale, the burgening older generation and the more savvy, discerning young who happily and soberly drink session beer by the gallon - know that this is just another manipulation of the beer drinking population by the brewers into the re-introduction of "Keg" - I would say - by the back door.
All the huge conglomerates, not unnaturally prefer, for the sake of efficiency, to use the cheaper hop and malted barley (by weight per volume of beer) but, more importantly, by producing a carbonated, sterile, product, the volume of what they brew bears no relationship to the fluctuations in demand, because it is indefinitely storable.
In contrast the traditional real ale brewer, who's product deteriorates in a relatively short time frame, has a much greater cost burden to bear. They are subject to all kinds of influences which can reduce or increase the demands from customers without notice. Even the weather can affect volumes and wastage if the utmost skills are not at play.
Of course the wheels of history continue to turn and although so many pubs have closed, great new micro-breweries continue to flourish and bring us choice and variety once more - but in fewer, more remote and larger pubs - long may this continue but our Government must understand that to solve the pub closure problem, pubs must become more profitable and for this to happen we should remember our "Session" beers as the mainstay of our raison d'etre and that all taxes on these beers should be removed forthwith. I repeat that fiddling about with the 2% beer hike is not going to fix the problem.
(see this page for my solution and the reversal of the dreadfull closures)