We've just had a big family party on Saturday night, I tried the 00 Guiness, quite a convincing flavour but you really don't want more than two whereas two pints of ordinary Guiness would lead to two more and beyond. Even at low levels alcohol is seriously addictive and ruins your judgement. Didn't have a hangover though.
I now drink Zero Guinness down the pub. When I get home I am useful, lucid and don’t smell quite as boozy. Apart from it being a better experience for my wife, my license and other road users are also better off. It really should be a lot cheaper and have better margins for the publican to encourage more use. Funny how no one in government sees that opportunity.
A lot of zero % beers are hit by the sugar tax as many of them are very high in sugar. I used to drinks Becks Blue zero % in pubs when I was out on my bike. In my local where I'd often call in on the way home from a ride it was reasonably priced at about the same as a half of regular beer. Then one day it shot up to nearly double. I said what the hell and the landlord said sugar tax mate (it had just come in). Guiness zero, I'm told, is relatively low in sugar and actually one of the healthier alcohol-free beers, but the price is still absurd.
Half price zero alcohol in pubs could be such a winner for pubs, health and road safety, but I have no idea how much it costs to make the stuff, nor how it gets taxed.
I think its complicated to juggle prices, especially with the sugar tax. Maybe the government could make zero alcohol drinks VAT exempt if sold in pubs or any licensed premises?
If they could only understand the benefits of a meeting place with conversation without the risk of health or road safety issues or unaffordable expense and a thriving pub trade.
Enough of this madness! Buy normal Guinness- it costs the same with the added bonus of getting you wankered if you drink enough. Christ almighty, the country’s going mad!!
The pub trade survives on its own abilities. If some cafe culture displaces the public houses, I don't see that as wrong, just a personal choice made by the public. I go to pubs less than when I was younger mainly because I don't drink alcohol. I also am put off by the unfortunate reality that many -if not most- are now family restaurants, full of young children. Zero appeal.
The good people in our village always have a post Christmas dog walk/pub crawl, traditionally an all day affair, used to be six pubs, now down to four, that's a terrible statistic. Two pubs have disappeared in the last year, one of them is turning into a resturant and the other is up for sale. I think we have lost at least ten pubs locally in my lifetime, with one new addition of Wetherspoons in Marlow. A sorry state of affairs.
Pubs have changed a lot over the last 60 years. They were primarily a working mens club, you could talk freely with friends and strangers and relax away from the women and children. Food was usually a very poor afterthought. Now they are family restaurants where it feels awkward conversing with the strangers on the table next door but that doesn't stop me. I wonder hoe long it will be before they are asked to stop serving alcohol because it deters our muslim friends.
Sounds like you've got the pick of the bunch! Most I go into these days are packed with Moms (some accompanied by Dads too) with packs of feral kids running riot. I used to get dumped outside when I was a kid with a bottle of Pepsi. Now I'm an old git, it's funny to find myself back outside again by choice, to escape the restaurant/zoo inside!
Pleased to report my local three doors down is still full of flag waving British patriots and fat arse who tuts at dogs can sit on a stool boring the whole pub with his moon howling theories of why “Britain is fucked mate”.
Over 15,800 pubs have closed in the UK in the past 25 years, and the trend of closures has been ongoing for decades, with significant losses reported since 2000.
