What’s On 4 Me? Pubs in South Yorkshire

Interesting Pub Facts

Drink Revival’s – Wine, Cider and Real Ale

You’ll remember that dusty bottle of German Hock behind the bar and the local heads that turned in amazement if anybody ever asked for a glass!!  Well, Wine has made quite a revival.  Pub wine lists with a dozen wines or more from vineyards around the world are now commonplace. It used to be “red or white”, it’s now “do you want French, Australian, New Zealand, Californian or Spanish?”

In addition, a new world of cider has been invented. Bottled ciders lead the way with new flavours such as elderflower, lime, blueberry and peach. Now Perry, or pear cider, is the new kid on the block and that too is getting the flavour treatment. The draught sector has come up with ice cider, a sort of Slush Puppy, with ice crystals dispensed from the font. What will they think of next?

Real Ale has taken the UK by storm recently.  More than 8.6 million people now drink cask beer and the number of younger drinkers aged 18-24 grew is a massively growing market.  Real ale's image as a northern drink is long out of date as 42% of all cask volume is sold in London and the South East!  See the Real Ale Section for more news on Real Ale and see here for a range of beers

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Good Pub Food

Pub menus boast dishes from all over the globe; pastas, chillies, curries, as well as British classics like steak and kidney pies, filled baked potatoes, fish and chips and ploughman’s lunches, still there, but now reborn.

Many pubs, particularly in towns and cities, serve food all day, some even serve breakfast!  JD Wetherspoons open at 7am in some of their pubs, just to serve breakfast!! 

Everyone loves a Carvery – especially the heartiest of eaters! Carveries used to be reserved solely for Sunday lunch, but now they are common place almost every night in some places, especially where the Carveries have a great reputation.

A weekly curry night has been a great way to increase trade for many pubs, especially to increase trade on a slow mid-week evening. JD Wetherspoon sells four million Indian meals a year – three million of these relate to the Thursday night Curry Club!  Some pubs offer a different type of curry every week as part of their Curry Club to keep the nights fresh and interesting.  There is even a National Curry Week!  

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Family & Child-friendly Pubs

To create a fantastic environment for kids and families pubs have learned a lot from restaurants.  Many now provide a colouring book and crayons for children waiting to eat, which keeps them distracted until the food’s ready.

Many have two kids’ menus, not just one. Toddlers and seven-year-olds don’t eat the same thing, and two separate offerings says that they really ‘get’ families.

The better ones provide baby wipes and bibs and almost all supply high chairs and changing facilities - preferably not just in the female toilets.  IKEA plastic plates and cutlery can be seen in a number of pubs and some keep spare sippy cups on hand as well.

Some go further to attract families by holding Family Days with face painters, balloonists and some offer special promotions on food too, where kids can eat free!

Some of the national chains have made a fantastic effort for families and many Brewster’s pubs now have indoor soft-play areas, as well as outdoor plays areas.

Pub Entertainment

Traditionally, pubs held darts, pool and dominos; however, with greater expectations and ideas for spending our “Me Time”, pubs have now had to broaden their offerings.

Many pubs now have a full programme of weekly and monthly events, ranging from Karaoke, to Seasonal Fancy Dress theme nights; from Charity Nights to Quiz nights; from Band Nights and impromptu Jamming sessions to Open Mic Nights! 

Interestingly, Landlords now see a massive appeal for more modern Pub Entertainment and hold Race Nights, Poker Nights and even Crime Scene Nights!

Additionally Pubs are now welcoming groups to their pubs, to hold their events there.  So now clubs, societies & private “direct sales” parties – Photography, Weight Watchers and Virgin Vie groups regularly use pubs as venues! 

Some pubs even offer to put on free food on for some private events! Just ask them if you’re organising an event – shy bairns get nowt!

And if your pub provides an interesting range of entertainment, maybe we should mention it here?

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Pub Promotions!!

See your Promotions Here!!

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Real Ale Revival

Real ale is enjoying a revival, as younger drinkers and women embrace a drink which may be shedding its traditional "flat cap" image.

Despite declining total beer sales and pub closures, research shows that cask ale has outperformed the rest of the beer market for the third year running, increasing its share of beer sold in pubs and clubs and recruiting 100,000 new drinkers.

Food appears key to this renaissance, with sales of real or cask ales booming in pubs where sophisticated consumers are choosing ale in preference to wine with their meal.

Real ale now accounts for 15.2% of total beer volumes in pubs – about one in every six pints sold.

More than 8.6 million people now drink cask beer and the number of younger drinkers aged 18-24 grew by 17%.

Ale's image as a northern drink is long out of date, the report found, as 42% of all cask volume is sold in London and the South East!

Rachel Evans, drinks quality manager of pub operator M&B, which runs Vintage Inns and Toby Carvery, said: "Cask ale is a fantastic match to food, with natural ingredients and strong flavours which complement many of the dishes on the menu."

The Campaign for Real Ale said earlier this month that microbreweries are booming in the recession, with 78 opening in the last year bringing the total in the UK to 767 – four times higher than when the pressure group was established in 1971.

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Real Ale is Natural & Good For you!

Real ale is good for you since it is a live substance! Each mouthful is a soup of medically helpful micro organisms. Real ale is also heaving with B vitamins, iron and anti-oxidants. You will want to live longer in order to drink more beer, and are likely to be able to.

Real ale is a natural product. The first stage of fermentation occurs in the brewery and is followed by a secondary fermentation when the beer is transferred to the cask or barrel.

The gas in real ale is natural – from the carbon-dioxide (CO2) from the fermentation process. The other bi-product from the reaction between the yeast and the sugar is of course alcohol.

Real ale leaves the brewery in barrels, then they mounted sideways onto a stillion (normally in a cellar) or behind the bar counter to settle (clear).

The cellarman bashes in a brass tap to the plugged hole at the lower front edge of the sideways tilted barrel, and a wooden 'spile' (like a stubby peg) into the plugged vent hole at the top centre-side of the barrel, to allow the beer to breathe.

The beer is left to 'clear', which normally takes three or four days. When the beer is clear the real ale is ready to be served.

Real ale is served from a cellar by a hand-pump (or beer-engine) at the bar via a pipe to the barrel tap. Alternatively and better still, the real ale is served by gravity alone, direct from the barrel behind the bar counter, straight into the glass.

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Real Ale Pubs & Breweries in South Yorkshire

In a Real Ale pub what you can be sure of is that if a landlord can be bothered to nurture his real beer as he needs to do in order to keep it right, he can be bothered to nurture the other things in his pub, and is likely to nurture you too.

Normally pubs have 1 or 2, and some even up to 4, guest ales.  Pubs buy the barrel and prepare it as above, then run the ale till the barrel is empty!  Be sure to check out the Real Ale pubs listed below and keep a watch out for their guest ales!

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CAMRA

CAMRA was conceived in a pub. Not a British pub though, but an Irish one. Four young men were on holiday there and whilst lamenting the awful state of British beer decided to form the Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale, which was only slightly less catchy than the CAMRA we all know and love. That was in 1971.

Not all brewers had abandoned real (or cask conditioned) ale and they are now reaping the benefit, as real ale is the only growth area of the beer market. CAMRA’s success is legendary and it saved a piece of Britain’s heritage from extinction.

Since those early days, CAMRA has widened its campaign to help cider producers, lobby for a Full Pint and fight relentless tax rises on beer. Now it is campaigning to save the pub from extinction. CAMRA now has over 100,000 members and is the most successful consumer group in Europe.

Join CAMRA here

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Interesting Pub Facts!

Interesting Pub Facts and Figures  

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