Dubious Practice in Wetherspoons

Yes, but then again the beer might actually just be being served via an electrically pumped line. Flick a switch or press a button and beer is served. A bit stupid since this misses one of the promotional items of having the beer *hand pulled*

You would need to either see the cellar or taste the beer to know whether the beer was under gas pressure or not.

Or of course a gas operated positive displacement pump (usually meter'd).

With the above system you wouldn't necessarily be able to tell by looking in the cellar.

Richard (10 years as landlord and owner of a pub and in the GBG for most of them)

It's not dubious it's illegal!

Could it not be something as simple as the cellar being upstairs? (I don't know the pub) JL

Well no it's not illegal, nor is it highly dubious. It may not have the full approval of the Campaign for Real Ale, but unfortunately they don't make laws in this country!

In message , John Law writes

The original post sounds as if only that particular beer was being served that way. I wondered if the cellarman had forgotten to spile it. The OP could have innocently asked if that wasn't unusual, the beer not needing to be pumped? He could probably have found out what instructions the staff had about it.

[It is possible to dispense real ale under pressure. You stood the cask on its end and hammered a special fitting through the bung where the tap normally goes. The beer came out through a rigid pipe that you pushed down into the cask, the gas went in next to it. The invention of blanket pressure made this arrangement pointless, unless you can't afford a pump.]

I've been going there for the last year and the 10-12 handpumps had always been used properly.

Dave

Spear dispense. Saves cellar space. Used in quite a few pubs without the gas pressure to dispense real ale.

You're right - I misunderstood. It is illegal to serve anything other than real ale from a handpump though.

Where did you get that from?

It will debar a pub from entry to the Good Beer Guide, but I'm not aware that any pub has ever been successfully prosecuted for it.

In any case, the practice seems to have largely died out now, perhaps because "real ale" no longer has the cachet it enjoyed fifteen years ago amongst the generality of drinkers.

I didn't think it did!

Lynda

Only cask conditioned beer (real ale or real lager) can be served from a handpump under UK trading standards laws. Anything else could be seen as attempting to con the public.

Can't find any references though (Trading Standards website isn't great).

It's been discussed in this group many times.

I don't think that is the statute law, although it may be case law.

Yes, and as one who has contributed to that discussion I seem to remember the conclusion being, that although the presence of a handpump on a bar may well lead people to expect real ale being sold through that handpump, there is no law against it.

In message , Paul writes

It's not. It's a trade descriptions offence to sell bright beer and claim that it's cask conditioned, but not many pubs make that exact claim.

I've sold cider and perry through handpumps, and occasionally soft drinks.

By displaying hand pumps the customers will assume that there's real ale on tap. If there's not you're up for a visit from trading standards.

That's because there is no legal definition of 'Real Cider' (as apposed to that Strongbrow-type crap!) but there is a definition of 'Real Ale'.

If only that were true. Sadly there is no requirement to only sell "Real Ale" through handpumps nor to ensure that there is RA normally available in an establishment with a handpump on the bar.

CAMRA would like the dubious practice of misleading advertising in the form of non-functional handpumps to be banned. This would probably cause something of a revolution in Wetherspoons and the non-too-sad demise of the well known ales "On Next" and "Coming Soon"

Whilst that would be great if true, it sadly is not.