End of an era.

So go somewhere else, then!

There are plenty of great pubs and great beers! Especially in Yorkshire!

Make the most of them!

They seem to manage OK in the North West, possibly because there are more small regional/large family brewers to cater for them.

-- Pat Ricroft, City of Salford, UK ===============================

What's the Northern Club system?

Most clubs seem to live in a parallel universe where beer = John Smith's Smooth and I note that the CIU club journal usually carries large advertising features for said brand. They then complain that they are in decline as per the documentary a year or two ago about Wibsey Working Mens Club

Are in fact any of the beers you mention at Kirkheaton "real" or are they keg?

I haven't seen any "real " Stones for many years. The keg variety used to be quite popular. The Sam's could be real or keg. Their pure brewed lager is quite nice, at any rate in my opinion.

In article , Paul Rigg writes

I'm afraid they're keg, we tried real ale a few years ago but as the club doesn't open at lunchtime during the week and the general turnover wasn't that high they had to stop, more was going off than was being drunk.

They had an Alpine lager on Saturday which wasn't half bad, I'm not a lager fan but this was more of a continental type, pale coloured and light on hops.

It's a shame their beers are so uninspiring as it's a good friendly club where I enjoy a Saturday afternoon natter, there is a newly refurbished pub next door which I'm told has a good selection of real ale, I will have to pop in and see.

Mike

I am actually on the committee of a club that uses a blanket pressure in the barrel to stop the beer going off due to similar circumstances.

Camra don't like this officially, but we have a lot of members who are Camra members and other real ale enthusiasts who are quite happy (as am I)

And since we started stocking a local micro, and also introduced guest beers the sales have increased quite a bit, particularly at weekends.

So it can be done.

So why did you post here then? This is a real-ale group - as in the title!

And in any case, if you want real ale, get them to get smaller quantities.

My local started off by taking pins (only 4.5 galls) of really interesting local beers, got fizz drinkers to taste small amounts, and now get through two - to four firkins a week, ALSO with no lunchtime opening during the week.

In article , Paul Rigg writes

Interesting, haven't a clue how that works but I assume it's something like my dad did when he brewed his own, he had a gas injector which kept the pressure up, not that it had a chance to go off the way he shifted it.

Mike

...While intoning "Soda-stream, soda-stream, hey hey hey!"

weekends.

more here

In article , Offramp writes

At the risk of getting my wrist slapped for being off topic I had one of those when the lads were young, saved me a fortune, made a passable ginger ale to put in the very cheap whiskey as well.

Mike

In article , Paul Rigg writes

I'm afraid adding an extra day wouldn't really help my club, a couple of weeks maybe, the clientele aren't drinking in a 'conservative' club for nothing :-)

Mike

Well, there's umpteen clubs round my way that do cask ale, and usually rather well. I am occasionally invited into clubs as diverse as the Metropolitan-Vickers Sports and Social Club, the Altrincham Conservative Working Men's Club and the Mobberley Victory Hall Memorial Club. They all offer cask ales ranging from Tetley's and Thwaites (a big club supplier hereabouts) to Holt's, Hyde's, Lees and occasionally micro breweries like Dunham Massey.

The MVHMC runs a cask ale festival every year in August (see .

Further west, the Appleton Thorn Village Hall Club to the south of Warrington also runs a cask beer festival, usually in October. It was CAMRA's National Club of the Year in 2008 (jointly with Leyton Orient Supporters Club).

The current and past winners of CAMRA's Club of the Year Award can be found at .

If a club is doing well generally, it can offer cask ale and keep it well. The exception might be sports clubs which by their nature tend to have large crowds for just one day a week, or fortnight, and penny numbers the rest of the time. But even they can generally get through a kilderkin of cask ale on match days.

-- Pat Ricroft, City of Salford, UK ===============================

I think 1 day is a bit pessimistic.

If you can serve a nine in a week you would be ok.

We do 18s of Landlord and Golden Best and they last at least a week.

But the cellar temperature is quite low.

I didn't say the were none. Round here we have Hebden Bridge Sports and Social, Mytholmroyd WMC and Midgehole WMC ,

But they are in the minority.