Locale good or bad?

[Mobyduck]

Is the Locale scheme a good thing or bad thing?To my way of thinking on the good side it can promote new/small breweries in local pubs, which I guess is the main idea,but in London for example Fullers is "Locale",a brewery hardly needing extra promotion. On the bad side,in my area anyway some pubs embrace the idea believing ,if its "locale" it must be good,which isn't
always the case, therefore ,I quite often can find pubs in my locality with a couple of usual suspects along with guests" of exclusively Locale" choice to the exclusion of something more interesting from further afield.So in summary I could do without it. What do you think?

[ETA]

The principle is a good idea - reduce the carbon footprint of beer by not transporting it more than 30 miles or so. The reality, howeevr, makes that idea a farce - even local brewers use ingredients which are transported many miles, often by air, so teh carbon offset of not driving your beer to the nearest big city is pitifully dwarfed by the carbon used in flying your hops from, say, California.

The most deceptive form of this kind of eco-bullfaeces comes from Black Isle Brewery and their somewhat cynical slogan "Save the planet, drink organic". They claim that using organic ingredients is ecologically sound, but in reality they [at leat sthey used to] buy hops from Eastern Europe, where as far as I'm aware the Soil Society has no influence, and they source[d] their malt from Wiltshire and had it delivered by road. [My hedging is because it is 4 years since I last visited that brewery - if they have changed their practice sthen I wholeheartedly apologise.]

So, in summary: Locale - good idea, needs more work.

[gillhalfpint]

Locale doesn't work in counties like Cornwall where the surrounding sea makes the sourcing of locale breweries very difficult. The big 3 down there dominate, and we often find that the smaller Cornish breweries are transporting their ale up country to beer festivals, and we read that folk going to festivals many miles away are getting beer from small Cornish breweries that we cannot find in Cornwall when on holiday down there. Even Bays and Otter breweries from Devon struggles to get locale status in many Cornwall areas.

It works in counties like Nottingham where there are many small breweries and you can get beer from the surrounding counties that fall within the locale mileage.

[Al 10000]

I think Locale is a good thing,having seen the demise of three local brewerys by the hands of GK,S&N and Greenalls,the drinking scene in Nottingham was not that good.
When the Locale scheme started lots of pubs started stocking locally brewed beers and with no large brewers being within the 30 mile limit we are now blessed with many locally brewed beers.

I can and have seen how this scheme can have its pitfalls,when drinking around Burton many pubs will have a Locale clip on a Pedigree pump which is local but is not really in the spirit of the scheme.
So as gill says the Locale scheme works very well in the Nottingham area but is not so good in other areas,i am very happy with it and hope it continues.

[london calling]

as a ticker it doesnt help me and like Mobyduck i often see it taking up a guest pump which cuts down the choice.its obviously a good idea in Nottingham but i dont think it has helped large parts of the country where the regionals dominate.it seems to be a marketing gimmick like locally sourced food in these gastropubs.the Botanist brewpub near me has got it.i wonder what local beer they sell.

[Rex_Rattus]

It looks likes it's a good thing in some areas, but not so good elsewhere. I have to say that I've been pleased to see the locale sign in the London area. Maybe it's because I quite like the local ales that seem to appear in the pubs in the scheme - like the stuff from the likes of Sambrook, Surrey Hills, Pilgrim, Hogsback. Horses for courses then.

[Spinko]

I like craft beer which has travelled 10000 miles plus.. :D

Like most things, local stuff becomes a fad, and then charlatans take advantage of it (witness the idiots payings £30/kg of cheese on "farmers markets" in our city centres).

I like the local pint when I know it is of good providence. Marble is just round the corner. But so is Boddington's, I think. And Americans would class every single one of our brewers on this isle as local to us. But to many of us a journey across the Pennines is a trip too far.

Edit: sorry to be a cynical git!

[Mobyduck]

At the end of the day I like the beer I like, it doesn't matter where it comes from, I like beers from all over the country and don't want to be restricted to beers brewed in a 30 mile radius wether good or bad.

[london calling]

It looks likes it's a good thing in some areas, but not so good elsewhere. I have to say that I've been pleased to see the locale sign in the London area. Maybe it's because I quite like the local ales that seem to appear in the pubs in the scheme - like the stuff from the likes of Sambrook, Surrey Hills, Pilgrim, Hogsback. Horses for courses then.

i like Pilgrim and Surrey hills but have never seen them in Central London or even in west London even though they must be Locale.Wimbledon and Kingston seem to be as far north as they get.Brodies dont deliver to west London either apparently its too far.

[Aqualung]

At the end of the day I like the beer I like, it doesn't matter where it comes from, I like beers from all over the country and don't want to be restricted to beers brewed in a 30 mile radius wether good or bad.

Generally speaking I agree with this point of view. I think it's a good thing that Spoons pubs (most of which sell well kept beer round my way) should sell beers from local micros. The trouble is that some of them seem to have trading agreements with the likes of Welton's in Horsham. I have drunk some superb beers from this brewery and have no axe to grind with it, but I have seen their beers at The New Fairlop Oak and the Eva Hart in Chadwell Heath neither of which are 30 miles from Horsham.

I have not seen the newer London micros here whereas I have in some of the Spoons a few miles away. I wonder if the policy is down to the area manager.

[Wittenden]

On the whole I prefer to drink beers local to where ever I happen to be, but I don't get dogmatic about it. The concept of LocAle helps connect the brewer, especially in rural areas with the consumer : people tend to be fairly parochial and are interested in "their" local brewery, butcher or cheesemonger.

[aleandhearty]

At the end of the day I like the beer I like, it doesn't matter where it comes from, I like beers from all over the country and don't want to be restricted to beers brewed in a 30 mile radius wether good or bad.

This pretty much sums up my view. Fortunately, living in Yorkshire the LocAle scheme doesn't impact on choice. In some parts of the country, I would no doubt find it very frustrating.

[sheffield hatter]

On the whole I prefer to drink beers local to where ever I happen to be, but I don't get dogmatic about it. The concept of LocAle helps connect the brewer, especially in rural areas with the consumer : people tend to be fairly parochial and are interested in "their" local brewery, butcher or cheesemonger.

I tend to agree, but it's also nice to have some diversity. There's a tendency for all the pubs in country areas to have the same beers: all Theakstons in one village, all Thwaites in another a few miles away. Nothing wrong with that as long as it's a well-kept pint, but when the only guest available in the Theakstons house is from Thwaites, and the Thwaites house stocks Theakstons because it's "LocAle", I'm not sure that the consumer is necessarily the winner.

When I'm in Luton, there'll often be a Sheffield beer in one of the pubs before the game. My Luton mates lap it up, but I make some grumpy remark about not travelling 140 miles to drink a beer I can have just down the road seven days a week. Then I'm back in Sheffield and drinking a Bedfordshire beer at my local and it's my beer of the week. Perhaps I should start to feel guilty about my carbon footprint.

[Mobyduck]

i like Pilgrim and Surrey hills but have never seen them in Central London or even in west London even though they must be Locale.Wimbledon and Kingston seem to be as far north as they get.Brodies dont deliver to west London either apparently its too far.
Just looking over some old stuff and this caught my eye, having had Surrey Hills beers several times before mostly at beer festivals ,and liking what they offer very much,I had a word with the landlord of my local to get some in, he made the call and was told the pub was out of their delivery range,they did a one off delivery when they supplied a local music/beer festival but that was that. I checked the mileage from Dorking and give or take a couple of miles depending on which site you look at its approx 37 miles ,not that far I would have thought. I dont know what their output is but is this not a little shortsighted on their part? Maybe they sell enough closer to home.

[Aqualung]

Just looking over some old stuff and this caught my eye, having had Surrey Hills beers several times before mostly at beer festivals ,and liking what they offer very much,I had a word with the landlord of my local to get some in, he made the call and was told the pub was out of their delivery range,they did a one off delivery when they supplied a local music/beer festival but that was that. I checked the mileage from Dorking and give or take a couple of miles depending on which site you look at its approx 37 miles ,not that far I would have thought. I dont know what their output is but is this not a little shortsighted on their part? Maybe they sell enough closer to home.

The problem with long distance (or more accurately time consuming) journeys for a small brewer comes at this time of year when the weather is hot and thundery. Brodie's use what I would call a Transit Van for deliveries that don't involve an agency.

A journey of several hours for a cask in the back of a Transit Van at a hot temperature is going to completely knock the stuffing out of it. I can remember years ago when we last had some hot weather the Drum having problems with Robinson's casks. I seem to recall one of their casks actually exploded in the patio area where it had been dropped off!!