Beer Compurgation

Whilst my work for the Irish and German authorities* on the reopening of drinking establishments has kept me busy during lockdown, our own government has announced that pubs are allowed to reopen on the 4th July . Many opinions and stances have emerged from this and will continue to do so for the next week and a half. Due to my lengthy post about how pubs may look back in April , including some ideas that a few establishments may be implementing, I was going to opt out of offering more conjecture to matters. But I then clicked on a set of polls on Twitter formed by the Hopinions podcast and, as usual, reading through the replies left me itchy to respond. As I am too verbose to form these thoughts on that platform, I have decided to answer each question here, considering some of the thoughts of others. (The Hopinions polls are still open at time of writing – add your own answers there if you wish.)   https://twitter.com/BeerOClockShow/status/127539594223837593

Back in 2016 for the inaugural Manchester Beer Week , I helped then curator Connor Murphy conceive a couple of events. Mine focused on trying to extend the ideas outside the centre and into the eastern boroughs, mainly Tameside . This included an attempted “Tameside Tap Takeover” at Stalybridge Buffet Bar. It says much of the advancement of the current beer scene that my requests and invitations to breweries in that period were met with confusion and scepticism. The realisation of the idea was less than I desired due to the tentativeness from both venue and breweries. Still, eventually the event took place, even if not to the enthused grandeur I had hoped. The event had an original list of seven potential breweries within the Tameside boundaries to work with. Since summer 2016, there has been differing luck for the seven. One of the breweries never got officially going, existing as a gypsy brewery at the time. One operated as a brewpub that has ceased operation. And