Pride in The Pride

When I found myself back in the East End there was only one thought in my mind when it was time for refreshment.

They didn't pass that time

One of my friends mentioned a 'Spoons but I was having none of it: "Let's go to The Pride" I said. And so we did.

I used to drink in The Pride often but I don't get up that way much nowadays.  The call of the ESB was strong but a rare outbreak of being sensible struck and I stuck to the pride. Lovely it was too. Not in the sense of making me want to shout "awesome" or even talk about the beer. It was just something good to drink whilst I chatted to my friends.

The Pride is a proper boozer, and though there were heathens at one table knocking back the Stella there were plenty drinking in the ways of righteousness. Pubs, and cask beer, may be in decline but the decline is far from terminal and in some places both look to be in positively good health.

The special feature is still there too

Where has all the cask beer gone?

I've spotted an interesting titbit about what's happened to cask beer sales. Writing in Brewer and Distiller International (August 2009) Paul Buttrick wrote:

Boddingtons was selling 10,000 barrels of cask beer a week in the mid 1990s, will we see Tetley cask bitter falter in the same way with the Leeds brewery shutting next year?

10,000 barrels a week is far more than any cask beer does now, and I can't remember when I last saw Tetley's in cask. Admittedly this is going back a few years but the big brewers have mainly retreated from producing cask beer. Beers produced for mass consumption, not for discerning beer nerds, unsurprisingly sell in large volumes. And big companies are good at getting their beer sold. It's no coincidence that Doom Bar started outselling Greene King IPA after Molson Coors bought Sharps. So I can't help but wonder how much of the decline in cask beer sales is due to fall in "mass market" beer, and how do sales of cask beer with a bit more character compare? Mind you, I don't think sales of industrial larger are looking too peachy so maybe it applies to beer in general.