Tuesday, 31 December 2024

Compulsory Post This Year At The Final Opportunity

The Future
 

It's not been the best of years, has it?

Remember ten years ago?  Beer wasn't everywhere then, but it was spreading.  New micropubs opening at those empty units in town, new breweries opening in the nearby industrial estate.  Even hitherto dull locals were expanding their ranges to get a piece of the beer geek pie.


Like all new things, though, it eventually became old.  The peak had passed by the end of 2018 and the scene was slowly declining until we hit March 2020.  And we know what happened then.


After we emerged, blinking, into the streets where we'd barely set foot for a year, it was found that it wasn't what we thought it was.  No, there wasn't an enormous market for microbrewed craft beer of uncertain quality.  No, not everyone wanted to sit on hard stools in draughty, haphazardly constructed bars.  And no, there wasn't any money in it unless you were (a) lucky and (b) flogged yourself to death.

Halfway throught the third decade of the 21st century, a lot of people are now scrabbling.  Licenced premises are closing by the score every month and breweries and distros are retrenching. Beer is supposed to be fun, and fun is nowhere to be found these days.  Taking the piss seems, well, a bit harsh.

Is there any hope? Dunno about you, but I ain't seeing it.  Easy for me, stood at the bar of the Black Horse with 10 cask lines to choose from, but is that really representative of the beer and pub scene in 2025?  I doubt it.  If things will ever get better, they will surely have to get worse first.

2 comments:

  1. Happy New Year, Matthew.

    If you were still frequenting the book of faces, I'd invite you to join my group for Old Comics Folk to whinge about how things were much better when we were kids... but as you're not, I can't. Good to hear you're still out there propping up the occasional bar though...

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