Okay, firstly I should probably confess that this week I didn't actually have a pint. I did however have several rather good halfs at Camden Brewery.
I set out from Chiswick at around 12pm. Making the most of the nice weather I decided to walk up to Camden Brewery.My plans were to try the Ska Brewing's Modus Hoperandi and the Sierra Nevada Relentless Rye before moving onto Unfiltered Hells until I'd had enough.
As it was, Mark Dredge told me that the Odell IPA and regular Hells Lager were tasting particularly good. He wasn't wrong either. If you happen to be reading this tonight and can still get down to the brewery (it's right next to Kentish Town West station) I'd do so if I were you.
As lovely and flavoursome as the Odell was I couldn't distinguish any specific flavours, unlike the Hells which had developed a slight bananary taste.
Rather than make a seperate post about the subject, I'm going to put my thoughts on minimum pricing here. There is now an official news article on the Number 10 site here.
Whilst I welcome anything that might get more people drinking in pubs rather than their homes, I can't help but feel that this plan is somewhat flawed. The main question I have is who will benefit from this financially.
Steve Lamond of the Beers I've Known blog pointed out this morning that Supermarkets raise the price of other groceries so they can sell multipacks of beer at below cost price. While it would be nice to think that if they were forced to sell alcohol at a certain price they'd use these profits to lower prices elsewhere, I doubt that will be what happens.
I could accept a minimum unit price if it somehow benefited the makers of the products, as well as the sellers. The news stories and the Number 10 report aren't exactly clear as to how the policy will be implemented. I'm assuming that this has still to go through parliament and the House of Lords before being passed. If it's already been through, what the hell were we doing to let it go through so easily?
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