I do not know about you but personally I’m still finding this easing of lockdown still a bit hard to take.

I have tried a few times to sit down outside of a pub and have a drink as according to Boris Johnson we are all allowed to do now.
The trouble is its in the middle of May and to be frank the weather is absolutely appalling almost every day that I am not working and sitting in the pouring rain drinking a beer that is slowly being diluted with rainwater is not my idea of fun. On a lovely sunny day, it would be a different kettle of fish.

Also have you tried booking a table with a restricted number of tables outside at the few places that actually have an outside area or beer garden, to have any chance you have to book at least four to five days in advance, and even then, you are restricted to one and a half hours in which to order your beer drink up and leave. When I am in a large crowd of six or more, we could be there for at least three hours.

Tomorrow is May 17th and we should all be allowed back inside the pubs, but even this comes with problems. Still the obligatory table service must be adhered to, whereby you either give your order to a waiter or waitress and they bring your order to the table, or you order and pay with an app.

Either way an extra 12.5% is added to the bill to pay for the table service. Now I do not have a problem with this in the current climate as the pubs are being forced to work this way and so Someone has to pay for the waitering staff. This is a cost that the pubs can not afford to absorb as they have lost so much trade over the last year, that many are struggling to stay afloat at the moment, and I dare say that many will go under in the next month or two.

12.5% may not sound much but when you are already paying the extortionate London prices, the 12.5% can certainly be felt in the pocket on a good night out.

The vaccine rollout according to the government is going at full pace and we should all have our first dose by June and our second dose by August. Does that mean life will be back to normal. I doubt it.
Like many of you I cannot wait to walk into a restaurant or a pub without a reservation and sit around a table with as many family and friends as I choose.

The couch potato know it all.
I would like to meet up with bunch of mates for a few pints and just sit and discuss how to put the world to rights. I want to tell them all how every useless politician, football referee, government expert, and professional expert from any sphere of life got it all wrong and how I would do it and sort everything right.

I would actually be talking complete  cobblers while under the influence of the alcohol, and all my friends would know that, and I in turn would have to listen to their alcohol induced bullshit. Oh happy times.

The pub with no beer.
There are rumours that the restaurants will open first and then the pubs, probably with the number of guests restricted to groups who are in the same household bubble, so still no meet up with friends then.
Another rumour going around and one that I find hard to believe is that they will allow the pubs to open but they will not be allowed to serve alcohol. What the point, seriously, what’s the point.
If this rumour is true then then only explanation that I can deduct from this farce is it was dreamt up by some self-righteous politician, who believes the great unwashed cannot be trusted not to start kissing and hugging everyone in sight when they have had a pint or two.
I was wondering. Over the last few decades, the pub industry has been decimated by corporate brewery greed and extortionate excise tax on alcohol products sold on their premises. It’s about time the corporate bully boys and the tax man gave the pubs financial assistance to get back up on their feet after the lockdown has ended. I won’t be holding my breath on that one.

The way forward.
The make up of the great British pub has been changing over the last decade with the introduction on the high street of the Micro pub phenomena.
Around the Welling and Bexley heath area they are springing up everywhere but sadly I think we need a few more in the Borough of Greenwich. We have the fantastic River Ale House in East Greenwich, and The Long Pond and The Rusty Bucket in Eltham and the Plum Tree Beer Shop in Plumstead.
The difference between a micro pub and a brewery tied pub is the variation and quality of the drinks that they offer. In a brewery tied pub you will get the same corporate brewery beer and lager in every freehold or one of their tied pubs.

The small independent micro pubs on the other hand will have frequently rotating variations of beers most of which you will have never heard of, and the excitement is in the test and tasting of a product that is new and not the same as every other beer.
I do not know how these micro pubs will fair once the pandemic is ended, will they still be around? Many were struggling with the restriction already in place before the third lockdown started.
Most during the last set of restrictions were trying to scrape a living by having a take away service but even that option was closed to them at the start of the current lockdown. Some like the Rusty Bucket and the Plum Tree Beer Shop are still doing a delivery service for bottled or canned drinks, but others like the River ale House are not set up for this option so have had to close operations completely.
I cannot see in all fairness how I can walk into a supermarket and buy a crate of beer and go home and drink it, but it’s now against the law to do the very same thing if I buy it from a pub. I personally would have beer being bought from the pub being the only legal option. According to the statistics the nations beer consumption has increased greatly during the lockdowns and the only businesses able to benefit from this situation are the already fabulously wealthy supermarket chains and not the struggling independent pubs. Seems very unjust and unfair to me.

As a paid-up member of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), I for one will champion the entrepreneurship of the small independent pubs to the hilt. Cheap prices, fantastic beer and ales, with depth and flavour throughout and with an ever-changing variety that means different beers each week. You can’t get better than that.

Delivered to your door.
One benefit, I think that this could have for the small independent breweries is that as some of the small independent and micro pubs are branching out into the delivery business it is opening up a market outlet for the smaller breweries and giving them a profitable way to get into the home beer delivery market in order to distribute their products and helping the independent pubs at the same time.
One European wide home beer delivery website that I use quite a bit is beerishere.org which gives links to local beer delivery outlets and local brewery direct sales within a specified area around your home postcode, therefore helping to support your local pub and drinks industry.

As soon as the pubs are allowed I will one of the first ones banging at the door to be let in.