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07-03-2017, 14:37
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https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/sittin_sofa2.jpg?resize=650%2C499We’re always rather pleased when a Topic of the Week arises among the beer chatterers. This time*it seems to be drinking at home vs. drinking in the pub.The subject has inspired at least three*Twitter polls (Beer O’Clock Show (https://twitter.com/BeerOClockShow/status/838431678053896192), Peter McKerry (https://twitter.com/PJMcKerry/status/837686684917587968), The Pub Curmudgeon (https://twitter.com/oldmudgie/status/839053206202220545)) and so far*one substantial blog post (http://www.brewgeekery.com/why-do-we-drink-beer-where-we-do/)*with the threat of more to come. We responded to the Beer O’Clock Show poll with a comment on Twitter (https://twitter.com/BoakandBailey/status/838440451107598336)*which we wanted to expand on a bit.
We split our drinking about evenly between the pub and home, we reckon, though of course some weeks, or seasons even, it might wobble one way or the other. But why drink at home at all?
A few years ago when we were trying to learn as much about beer as possible and were a bit snootier (sorry about that) we’d have said that beer choice was the main deciding factor. If we wanted to drink much other than bitter or golden ale near where lived c.2008 home was really the only option. Our local shops and supermarkets had more interesting beer, cheaper, and at home we could use fancy glassware and all that stuff that seemed very important.
https://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/saloon_bar_window_islington.jpg?resize=650%2C413En graved windows, Islington, North London.But we still went to the pub*a lot. If we’d had a tough day at work, if the Tube was broken, if the trains were delayed, if we passed a pub with especially twinkly lights, if we’d heard an interesting beer was on somewhere, if we were sick of the sight of the four front room walls, if we wanted to see our friends, or hang out with colleagues — any excuse, really.
A few things have changed. First, we’re not in our twenties any more and our capacity for booze has diminished. We don’t drink every day and, when we do, we drink less per session.
Secondly, most of our friends are (a) several hundred miles away and/or (b) married with kids and/or (c) working every hour of the waking day. Even when they are at hand, the days of popping to the pub for a casual pint or six on a Tuesday night have passed.
And, finally, we don’t commute these days. In other words, the peripheral parts of our lives are less stressful and chaotic, and we have settled into a small town routine: work, home, tea,*then go out, if at all.
And that’s the point at which we sometimes come unstuck.*Let’s go to the pub after dinner, we say, excitedly. But then dinner takes a bit longer to prepare than expected; a relative phones, or needs phoning; dinner makes us drowsy, the sofa is comfy, and the thought of putting on boots to go out seems suddenly… unappealing. Especially when there’s a gale shaking the window frames.
After all, particularly*in winter, the chances are that even the pubs we like will be uncomfortably quiet, and the already limited beer range will be further diminished. At home, on the other hand, we’ve got a cupboard full of genuinely exciting things to drink and, of course, media to consume, mindless drones that we are.
Beer is important to us but when we’re not indulging that obsession, we also like music and films, and have various creative hobbies that don’t work anywhere but home.
We don’t feel guilty about this.*Well, maybe a little. But this is*normal. When we do go to the pub, it’s because we really want to, and we invariably have a good time. As we’ve said so many times now, it shouldn’t be a grim duty.
Would we go to the pub more often if it was cheaper? Probably not, though we do wince at the price of a round sometimes. Would we go if there was variety on offer in town? Maybe, a bit, especially if we knew what was on before heading out of the door.
No, on balance, the deciding factor is convenience, which leads us back to a thought we’ve expressed before: pubs need to work on finding new customers rather than on turning the ones they’ve already got into seven-nights-a-week alcoholics (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/08/pubs-need-casuals-not-stakhanovite-drinkers/).
A Contribution: Why We Drink at Home When We Drink at Home (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/03/a-contribution-why-we-drink-at-home-when-we-drink-at-home/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (http://boakandbailey.com)


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