London prices

[Aqualung]

Not been to a Spoons for a festival beer yet, probably down to some kind of phobia! but heard today my nearest Spoons was flogging off its usual suspect beers for a £1.00 a go desperately trying to free up pumps for festival ales.

I can only assume that this means the local Spoons to you are not very successful, which would explain your bad experiences.

So much depends on the Manager and their duty managers. If some or all of them don't understand Real Ale then the pub will go down the toilet.

I feel lucky in that all of my local Spoons are reliable as far as the beer is concerned.

[Mobyduck]

I can only assume that this means the local Spoons to you are not very successful, which would explain your bad experiences.

So much depends on the Manager and their duty managers. If some or all of them don't understand Real Ale then the pub will go down the toilet.

I feel lucky in that all of my local Spoons are reliable as far as the beer is concerned.

Part of the problem I believe is that the managers in chain pubs not only Spoons seem to change on a regular basis ,every year or so, whereas in more traditional pubs the landlords are there for longer giving a consistency, The landlord of my local has been there for a remarkable 35 years and the benefits are evident.

[london calling]

a lot of its down to the manager. some of the mcspoons i use have well kept beer and a good choice of them.others the beer quality is never good.one manager in a central London one told me when i enquired how he selects the beers(dire choice as usual) "the warehouse knows what i like and just sends it.".surely it should be what the customers like and shows a lack of interest in real ale.

[Aqualung]

a lot of its down to the manager. some of the mcspoons i use have well kept beer and a good choice of them.others the beer quality is never good.one manager in a central London one told me when i enquired how he selects the beers(dire choice as usual) "the warehouse knows what i like and just sends it.".surely it should be what the customers like and shows a lack of interest in real ale.

The manager and duty managers are absolutely vital. The area manager also has an effect as I believe (I don't know this for sure) that he/she has to approve the beers on offer that are not the usual suspects or from the current guest / festival list.

I was interested to see that the Great Western under Wolverhampton Station (one of my all time favourite pubs) is charging just £2.40 for Batham's Best. This compares favourably with London Spoons (I don't believe the £1.99 is going to last much longer).

I suspect that the East London Spoons are more reliable is partly due to the fact that they have to put in some effort to attract customers. Most Central London pubs have a captive market which means they don't have to try hard at all. Happily there are some people still around that think that running a pub is not just a way to make a quick buck, but that serving well kept beer at a reasonable price in a full pint and not filtering slops back into the barrels is a worthwhile thing to do.