New brewery and visitor centre for Belvoir - Nottingham CAMRA

DRIVEN TO DRINK BY
GLOBAL WARMING
By Erik Peterson
Here at the Petersen Institute of Science,
we love nothing more than frying up the
bacon of hypothesis, slopping it together
with the baked beans of empirical
research and the mushrooms of scientific
method, and serving it all up with the
lukewarm tea of extrapolation.
But science isn't all fun, games and
breakfast. It also requires us to look at
the larger world, at economic trends and
social problems and then, confronted
with what we see, go drink a beer. Or
several. We here at the institute are
pretty sure it's your round.
This leads us to Today's Important
Science Question: why is my beer getting
so freakin' expensive?
A) Because the planet hates you and is
meting out its furious punishment.
Q) Ah. This'd be the global warming,
then?
A) Oh yes. As worldwide weather patterns
continue to have something of the Book of
Revelation about them, crops suffer. Crops
that provide the basics many people
depend upon to make that which they need
to survive.
Q) Like hops and barley?
A) Bingo. The hops and barley farmers can
hardly harvest anything in weather
conditions featuring flood/drought/raining
toads. So what they can harvest goes to
market at a skyrocketing price, where it is
then bought by the breweries, who pass
the costs onto the punters, who give their
money to the pub landlord, who passes it
onto the doctor in the frostbite ward he's
now had installed at the end of the bar for
all the patrons who smoke and now have to
stand outside whenever they want a
cigarette. This is how Britain's healthcare
system is slowly becoming privatised.
Q) But hang on a minute. I went into my
local 24-hour super-mega-uberstore the
other evening and they were selling that
Euro-lager from the TV adverts for like
12p a four-pack.
A) That's because they're not actually trying
to make money off the beer. They're like
that one kid in school who was a real loser
but came from a rich family, and he'd offer
to buy beer for the parties so you'd be his
mate. The beer was kind of a loss-leader for
him; it meant your
friends on the rugby
team might not hold
him upside down over
the toilet anymore.
Q) So the big chains
just want to be
popular?
A) Totally! They're
willing to give you all
the beer you want as long as you hang out
with them, maybe check out their produce
aisles, see what you two have in common.
Like, you like breakfast cereals? Omigod, so
do they! Aisle three!
Q) So if people can still get the big-brand
bottled beers cheap in supermarkets and
then drink them at home, what happens
to the smaller breweries and local pubs?
A) They assume that a discerning public's
eventual thirst for quality will win the day.
Q) Heh, yeah. But seriously, what do they
do?
A) Well, they get behind campaigns like
Nottingham CAMRA’s LocAle, which
encourages Notts punters to seek out
different locally produced real ales, thereby
supporting local brewers and doing their bit
to cut down the carbon footprint made by
all these big international beers so that beer
drinkers can help improve the situation
that's ruining the hops and barley crops in
the first place.
Q) Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute.
You're telling me that I can go out to a
pub, look for a pint from Castle Rock or
Nottingham Brewery ...
A) Or Magpie or Mallards or ... well, there's
a decent-sized list.
Q) Right. I can look for these, sample
some of them and in doing so be helping
to save the environment?
A) Yep.
Q) I love environmentalism.
A) Good. It's still your round.
(This article first appeared in the
Nottingham Evening Post)
LocAle
Young members’ LocAle
pub crawl
On Saturday March 1st young members will
be embarking on a pub crawl of LocAle pubs,
and whatsmore, each and every one taking
part will receive a Locale T-Shirt. They will be
meeting at the Vat and Fiddle, opposite the
train station on Queensbridge road at 11a.m.
Participants will have the opportunity to visit
some of the pubs on the scheme to assess its
success, and, of course, to drink the beers.
Whilst most pubs on the crawl will be in the
city centre, there will be a quick trip over the
Trent to West Bridgford, and a visit to Basford
by tram. Participants should bring their
membership cards in order to participate in
the various discount schemes in some of the
pubs.
Here are some of the outlets they hope to
visit: Bunkers Hill Inn, Hockley;
Fellows Morton & Clayton, Canal Street;
Gatehouse, Derby Road; Globe, London Road;
Kean’s Head, St Mary's Gate; The Moot,
Carlton Road, Sneinton; Newshouse, Canal
Street; Old Angel, Stoney Street; Salutation,
Maid Marion Way; Monkey Tree, Bridgford
Road; Southbank, Trent Bridge; Stratford
Haven, Stratford Road; Fox and Crown,
Church Street; Horse and Groom, Radford
Road; Horse and Jockey, Mill Street; Lion,
Mosley Street.
For more information about the LocAle pub
crawl, please contact, Kieran Atherton, the
Nottingham Branch Young Members Contact,
at kieranatherton@hotmail.co.uk or by phone
on 07738 706518.
www.nottinghamcamra.org February/ March 08 25