Some significant anniversaries and happenings

I mentioned in a comment, on Retired Martin’s excellent blog, that I am amongst a group of fellow drinkers, who have booked a table in the garden of a Tonbridge pub. This will be for the afternoon of April 14^th, two days after the PM’s official date for hospitality to reopen in an outdoor environment. It will also be the day after a milestone birthday for me – one which will entitle me to free travel on bus services, across the country.

Although understandable for those wishing to enjoy a meal, it seems incongruous to have to book a table in order to enjoy a few drinks, but such is the dystopian world we live in, at present. However, having been denied the pleasure of a few drinks, in the company of friends, for such a long time, it was well worth making the booking in order to be able to do this.

Fingers crossed that, as the vaccine rollout continues apace, and the pandemic gradually lessens its grip on society, we will eventually be able to turn up at any pub that takes our fancy, and even enjoy a few drinks inside – all without making a booking. I suspect that this utopia, that was the norm just over year ago, is still some time off, so being grateful for small mercies and any port in a storm, and all that, I am looking forward to a day that is exactly a month away.

More important (marginally), than the beer itself, will be the opportunity of catching up with friends whom I haven’t seen for five and a half months; although I did enjoy a coffee and a natter with one friend who I met, quite by chance in the town, one cold day in early January – but don’t tell Priti Patel, or Chris Whitty!

Sticking with the subject of beers and pubs, a story surfaced yesterday that the number of breweries in the UK, increased last year, rising by 216, to a total of 3,018. It is rather surprising that this should have occurred during what must be the worst year ever for the brewing and pubs sectors, and does raise the question, where is all this extra demand coming from?

With around 12,000 pubs, bars and restaurants estimated to have permanently closed since December 2019, where is all this extra beer being drunk? Sources within the industry, point to the growth of online sales and the continues long term viability of brewing.

They claim that with the closure of pubs and bars, smaller breweries have had to switch to selling direct to consumers, and with what at times, seems an insatiable appetite for trying new beers, investors in the sector feel confident about a bounce back, once pubs and bars can reopen again.

It isn’t all roses though, as the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), which represents around 830 UK independent brewers, claimed that 2020 had seen a 34% cut in production, setting the industry back a decade. So, yet again, with beer production dropping by a third, and a worryingly large number of on-sale outlets shutting up shop for good, where is the market, and the punters, for this unprecedented number of breweries?

Finally, yesterday marked the 50^th anniversary of the founding of CAMRA – the Campaign for Real Ale, or the Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale, as it was, back in 1971. I was planning to write my own tribute, having notched up 45 years of membership, before resigning at the end of  2019, but ran out of time.

I will put up a piece in the fullness of time, but for now – well done CAMRA, you didn’t just preserve traditional beer in the UK, you changed beer the world over, and in a way the founders of the campaign could never have imagined.