Three pound pint

In message , Ian Dalziel writes

To see what it was like, of course.

And of course trade will go through the roof once smoking is banned, won't it?

In message , PeterE wrote

Publicans have spent years driving people out of their pubs so why should the public flock back when smoking is banned?

The writing has been on the wall for 10 years or more and the trade have had this time to provide clean air in their establishments to keep customers - most publicans have not bothered. If a pub's only attraction is smoking then probably it is best that it dies.

I bet it's the landlords who have had the attitude "f**k off if you don't like smoke" that will bleating most about the smoking ban. They may even find that when drinking in a smoke free atmosphere customers may be able to taste their beers better and be further put off by poor quality control in the cellar.

I managed to find two Burco stainless steel boilers, one a nominal 4 gallons and the other 6 gallons for £10 each at car boot sales.The mash tun used an old cold box with about £2 worth of 3/4 inch copper tubing and a tap.The cooling coil was a length of 8mm copper tubing costing about another £2 although I've been offered a proper paraflow job for £10. I used a standard fermenting bin fitted with a tap and basically that was by brewery.Total cost under £30. Later on I bought, again at car boot sales,a lot of winemakers' demijohns with airlocks.Transferring the wort to these after 3 days of fermenting meant that fermenting could take place anaerobically and once finished the beer dropped bright overnight.I reckon they took off one or two weeks of waiting time for the finished brew.

As pub operators are running commercial businesses, why on earth should they damage their own trade?

If there was a market for totally non-smoking pubs, they would have provided it. The fact they didn't suggests the demand wasn't there.

You really do seem to be suffering from paranoia here.

Who knows, but they do. There are plenty of landlords who think that because they are a pub landlord that they must be someone and consequently behave like they can do what they like with no repercussions forgetting that the consequence of their actions is less money coming in.

Like all businesses, some pubs are well run and some are run by people with no clue.

There are also plenty of pub owning companies that will not let the licensee run their pub how they see fit to suite their local/desired clientele. For example restricting or even removing effective choice of entertainment and wet sales (such as guest ales!) and setting requirements for food sales etc.

Cheers

Blackfire band website :

Bristol & District Campaign for Real Ale :

In message , PeterE wrote

How many pubs per week are closing?

I drink more regularly in pubs during the summer months where I can escape to the outside and pubs are better ventilated with doors and windows opened. This time of year I find most pubs to be unpleasant even when there are just a few smokers polluting the atmosphere. I cannot be alone in thinking that a pub with smoke doesn't need me as a customer. If a publican is now complaining that he will have no trade when the smoking ban is imposed he must have driven off all regular non-smokers from his pub and hence he has already damaged his future trade.

The gap in the market has already been filled with more people now drinking at home.

All I'm suffering from is stinking clothes every time I visit any of the pubs local to me.

I've been drinking in pubs all my life (as a non-smoker) and I cannot wait until the new law is operative.

I have been too much of a 'gentleman' to complain, but I will to the landlord from July 1st.

I might sound controversial, but I think most will realise how sensible the new law is once in place.

Also, try

Are you an ex-smoker ?

I am - 7+ years. Just gets worse and worse. Can't go anywhere near people smoking, and as for the stinking clothes .... yuuuuuuuuuuuk !!!! Seems that ex-smokers suffer more than people who have never smoked from this problem.

Helping a heavy smoking neighbour ATM (very ill no choice). Go into his house for a few minutes and I feel like I need a bath when I return home.

OK - I'm not having a go at smokers - I've been there :-( Just saying I've packed it in and will never smoke again - best thing I've ever done :-) Try it smokers. (I speak as someone with absolutely no will power - if I can do it anyone can).

Well the Vale in Bollington does nice beer and food, but I won't cross the threshold again until the smoking ban is in place. The air was so thick with smoke last time that it made me feel sick, and I beat a hasty retreat. I guess it depends on how many other people think the same way. We'll never know until the law comes into effect.

There have been non smoking pubs doing very well thank you for years. We visited one in Salisbury about 10 years ago, and it was such a pleasant change to actually be able to taste the food we were eating, and fully appreciate the beer (which may even have been Gibbs Mew :-( ).

BTW I see what you mean about the Griffin in Heald Green!

Not really. I think it is rather more that ex-smokers make more noise. They got used to telling non-smokers what to do when they were smoking and just shifted to a different target when they stopped smoking.

(Tried smoking once, discovered it ruined the taste of the beer and ditched the whole idea)

You could be right ... I don't know.

You're quite wrong there. When I smoked I knew I was a bloody nuisance to non smokers and kept away from them when smoking. The day I gave up I'd been invited for dinner by a (non smoking) friend. Friend supplied an ash tray and told me to smoke - I said thanks but no thanks :-) Just went on not doing it from that day on :-)

OK perhaps I do go on :-) *But* I'm getting on a bit and can walk for miles and miles up into the hills without a single cough :-) I'd *love* to share my giving up smoking experience with others ....

There has been a market in some large towns and cities, and in fact you could say the lack of choice has been a failure of the so called free market. But this is not the point - the ban is a health measure for all workplaces. To oppose it you have to argue why some employees should be left to inhale poisons and others not.

E.

You really do seem to be living in the past - shame....

Free markets don't provide what people don't want.

Which of course many employees still will be.

Better than cloud cuckoo land.

Me neither. I am so happy that this change is going to happen in my lifetime.

I am so fed up of getting home and having to take off and wash every single item of clothing, down to my underpants, and have a shower myself, simply because a few people can't be bothered to step outside for a couple of minutes in order to have a cig.

Smokers always talk about freedom, but where is my freedom in this?