cheap real ale!

I'm curious - which beers? what strength? who 'funds' the price promotion? (I know, you may not know the answer to this last one, nor do I) cheers MikeMcG

Twas all the seasonals - being remaindered whilst still drinkable - and they were!!!

A few years ago, Wetherspoons did a promotion with 99p vouchers (the only stipulation being one voucher per visit). So, armed with a West Yorkshire Day Rover and a wad of these vouchers, we planned an itinerary taking in most of the Wetherspoons in the former West Riding of Yorkshire. The only place we didnt use our vouchers was Dewsbury's JDW where the beer was on offer at £1.09 - it seemed a bit of a waste of a voucher for the sake of 10p!

My local sppons has a January sale - but not on the guest ales; same old beer same old price: £1.89 a pint

It was probably undrinkable anyway. Of the three Spoons in our area, that's by far the worst. Occasionally, they put in a manager who knows what he's/she's doing, but it's usually "don't know about real ale, don't care".

I know what you mean, Mike. The place has an aura of despair, gloom, and seems to attract people who have almost lost the will to live.

I take it the other two JDW's in your patch are Batley and Cleckheaton? Not been to either yet (can't get past the Cellar Bar in Batley, and Cleckheckmondsedge is beyond my map reading skills)

But your point is well made. Spoons outlets vary so much and it's almost totally down to the individual manager.

But for 99p, you occasionally have to swallow your pride, and swallow the beer!

We are lucky - we must have one of thevery best spoons!!!

Tis a joy!!

Yes - the Union Rooms in Batley, a very nice bank conversion ("we don't sell any real ale at weekends"), and the Obediah Brooke in Cleckheaton, where you at least have a chance of a decent pint, even if the pub itself is dire.

Understandable. Have we met?

If it's not drinkable, I don't drink it - even at 99p a pint!

On Tue, 8 Jan 2008 21:35:39 +0000, Chris de Cordova wrote (in message ):

Which is a bit like saying "we must have one of the very best branches of Wimpy". Great.

Could this not be said of any other pub chain?

So all the Wetherspoons in the GBG serve crap beer then?

while I wouldn't agree with that statment, to me there's elements of truth in both viewpoints - I have had some great & some dreadful beers in various 'Spoons up & down the country, but I've very rarely had a sublimely entertaining night in one.

They may often have OK to decent beer, but are, in my experience, often fairly unwelcoming, barn-like, soulless places. cheers, MikeMcG.

The owners of the chain have little to do with the quality of the products sold. In fact the manager of the day in a 'spoons has probably very little association with the beer sold - that comes down to the cellarman (or woman) and like normal pub setups those vary.

In message , Steven Pampling wrote

Er, they have everything to do with the quality of the product.

Then perhaps the word manager is inappropriate.

If the management were any good they would be monitoring product quality and if found to be lacking do something about it.

Fine but there is no reason why such places cannot serve superb beer.

agreed on that point, but it depends what you want from a night out - I usually want more than (only) the finest beers known to humanity - I want a nice place, friendly, welcoming, warm, maybe with a bit of character, occasionally I'll also look for some good fresh well- prepared local-sourced food, maybe good live music, etc, etc. Good beer I've had in some 'Spoons, it's rare I've had much more off my wish-list. cheers MikeMcG

Like I said above, we must have one of the very best.

Two plus points, other than beer, are:

Another thing to consider is that in our town, we don't have any pubs which match your wishlist. And I can't think of any nearby with public transport after 6pm either, if at all!! So our Spoons is very important to us!

I've come across places like that where the beer is total **** which rather ruins the effect of all the rest.

On Mon, 14 Jan 2008 7:57:36 +0000, Chris de Cordova wrote (in message ):

Don't mistake this "policy" as anything other than one of many cost cutting techniques employed by Spoons to keep the prices rock-bottom.