The Bad from the Good old days

I fondly recall my halcyon childhood memories of warm summer evening visits to the local pub beer garden with my dad. Of course in those days children weren’t allowed inside the pub so there was always a sense of mystery and intrigue as to happenings behind the firmly closed lobby doors.

My dad would disappear inside through a waft of tobacco smoke and laughter as a clue to the delights inside. I firmly believe this was the seed of curiosity that has driven my subsequent career path.

Inevitably dad would return with a seemingly huge foaming pint of ale and iconic bottle of coke with paper straw for me, which by this point would have begun to dissolve into the bottle rendering it useless by the third mouthful.

So here’s the magic: the pint of ale was laced with creamy foam, clinging to both the inner and outer faces of the glass. This to me, as a lad, it looked sublime, akin to a huge alien ice cream.

I couldn’t wait for him to venture back into the pub allowing me the chance to scoop out the lovely creamy foam from the bottom of the glass promptly stuffing it into my mouth hopefully unnoticed. “Wow, how bitter is that!” I can tell you there are self proclaimed beer aficionados today who haven’t come close to experiencing such aggressive levels of bitterness from a modern day beer!

Years later, I am now heavily entrenched in the pub and beer trade and whilst the years have slipped by, I have been cursed by pursuit of knowledge. This has led me to uncover the many terrible practices of my industry forefathers.

I now know and understand the filthy techniques employed by publicans operating under the huge “ball and chain” demands of oppressive Old School British Breweries. The word “waste” or otherwise “ullage” was never mentioned, since it did not exist.

Pouring back partly drunk beer glasses into the barrel was commonplace along with the accompanying drip trays for those pubs that were unlucky enough to be blessed with AutoVacs. This is a hand-pull that extracts beer directly from the drip-tray in preference of the respective cask.

Sadly I discovered that the delicious lacing and foam on my dad’s beer was as a consequence of the AutoVac. What he didn’t know was that the beer in his glass had gone round and around the drip tray, over the fist of the barmaid whose hand had previously wiped the table, smoked the cigarette, shook the hand of the loyal customer, etcetera.

If there was ever the opportunity to introduce Hepatitis, sweat and blood into the pint then here’s your chance. Fortunately Environmental Health Officers banned the use of the AutoVac in the late 80’s.

During the financial year of 2014/15 I lost £43,000 in drip-tray wastage across my portfolio of pubs. That equates to well over 500 firkins of beer. I accept this as a loss derived from the retail of high quality, well conditioned cask beer.

However, there are many retailers and breweries that don’t accept any kind of wastage so are once again utilising the legendary AutoVac in the belief that customers are ignorant.

Obviously now, the risk to health no longer exists since the EHO are happy to accept a single page risk assessment stating that all serving staff hands will be clean. I know this to be an aspiration, far from reality, requiring serving staff to sterilize hands between every pint pulled, not to mention every time cash and coins are handled.

It is now up to the customer to decide with their feet as to which practice they endorse. A novice AutoVac enthusiast can identify the unit by its large tarnished Stainless Steel drip-tray. If you are ever in doubt then take a look over the bar of a practicing AutoVac establishment towards the end of a busy day of trade and you will certainly see something special in the dregs of the tray which none of us would want in our pint!

My knowledge and experience leads me to believe the employment of AutoVacs as a filthy practice which should remain banned. I personally continue to suffer financially for my beliefs but won’t be moving back to those dark days.

For the record, I believe CAMRA has no published opinion on this matter. Of course, if you are from Yorkshire then there is gathering of minds believing this is acceptable practice since it reflects tradition. I’m also certain that they will advocate the use of the nostalgic paper straw!

Jamie Hawksworth, co-founder of Pivovar Group, and a Yorkshireman who proudly tells it like it is