Bingeing parents?

Newspapers and TV have jumped on a report from the Children's Commissioner for England and Wales that claims a third of children, about three and a half million, live with a parent who is a binge drinker.

A lot of the coverage blurs the line between alcoholism and binge drinking. There's also the question of what constitutes binge drinking. According to the Government, a binge drinker is anyone who ever drinks more than 8 units (4 pints) in a day if they're a man or 6 units (3 pints) in a day if they're a woman. On that basis, I'm surprised the number of children who supposedly live with a binge drinker isn't closer to a hundred per cent.

Paying to go in the pub

In a couple of weeks Port Street Beer House in Manchester is hosting an evening with the brewer of Schlenkerla Rauchbier, the famous smoke beer from Bamberg, and serving it by gravity from an oak barrel on the bar. I'd be there like a shot if it wasn't for one thing: they're charging £10 to get in.

Before anyone accuses me of being tight, I've always been against paying to go in a pub on principle. If the pub is putting on comedy or a band fair enough, but paying to go in a pub to drink beer? I don't think so (a beer festival where the organiser has paid to put it on is different).

I know pubs claim that they have to charge entry for things like Christmas and New Year's Eve. It's to control the numbers and pay for extra staff they say. I don't buy either argument.

If you want to control numbers, issue free tickets or charge a small fee and refund it against the first round of drinks. And if a lot more people are going to turn up, surely that covers any extra staffing costs.

At the end of April, I watched the Manchester derby that ultimately decided the League title in my local. It was jammed full with far more money going over the bar than on a normal Monday night, or in fact than I've seen in twenty or so years of drinking there. And unlike the pub down the road, they weren't cashing in by charging a fiver on the door "to control numbers".

Black Country Breweries

On a wet Wednesday in Wolverhampton last week, I went in Waterstone's to escape the woeful weather.

In a small section of beer books, I spotted one called Black Country Breweries by Joseph McKenna. It's not only a comprehensive history of Black Country brewing but is also illustrated with pub and brewery adverts, photographs and logos throughout. It's well worth a read if you're interested in the pubs and breweries of the Black Country. You can buy it on Amazon here.

Leaving Wolverhampton

On my last night in Wolverhampton I went to a couple of pubs near Banks's Brewery.

The Clarendon Hotel is Banks's brewery tap. The Victorian exterior is a bit misleading as inside it's been heavily modernised and seems more food-orientated. As you'd expect, they've got all Banks's beers on draught although the pint of mild I had was served at just above freezing point so it was hard to pick up more than a fraction of the taste.

The nearby Combermere Arms is a terraced house with a unchanged multiroom layout. It serves Banks's Bitter and must be the only pub where the outside gents has a tree growing through the roof.

Heading for the Beacon

Of all the pubs I went to in the Black Country last week, my favourite would have to be the Beacon Hotel in Sedgley.

The Beacon is a brewpub which is best known for Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild, a beer I've long wanted to try. Dark, strong and sweet, it didn't disappoint.

The thing I liked most about the pub is how it's split up into different rooms. The snug where I sat didn't look like it had changed much since the 1920's. And as a result of going there, I've added a pint of mild and a cheese and onion bap (or cob as they call them in the Black Country) to my list of perfect beer and food pairings alongside a pint of bitter and a pork pie.

The Bull and Bladder

The first pub I went to on my tour of the Black Country last week was the Bull and Bladder in Brierley Hill, the brewery tap of Bathams.

Turning right into the vault, the regulars sitting silently over their beer made it clear that this was a locals' bar. I ordered a  pint of mild and took a seat in the beer garden with its view of the tower brewery .

Black Country milds aren't just less hoppy than bitter, they're positively sweet. Bathams Mild with its clean sweet malt taste is very different to milds in Manchester like Holt's and Robinson's and the first one I drank, the superb and long-gone Wilsons with its hefty smack of caramel. Bathams Bitter also has a clean sweet malt taste and is very drinkable. I can see why the food critic Charles Campion and music producer Pete Waterman rate it among their favourite beers.

Back from the Black Country

I was in the Black Country last week going round pubs and breweries.

My favourite beer of the trip was also the hoppiest: Holden's Black Country Bitter in the Great Western pub in Wolverhampton. From what I'd read online I was expecting a bit of trouble finding the Great Western but in the end it was easy enough.

I can see why the Great Western is a former CAMRA National Pub of the Year. For some reason it reminded me a bit of the pub Winston Smith goes to in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, round the back of the station under a railway bridge. As the name suggests, it's got more train memorabilia than any rail enthusiast could possibly want. More importantly, it also has the full range of Holden's beers on draught, all well-kept.  One to look out for if you're ever changing trains in Wolverhampton.