I found a couple of decent places on the island alongside the predictable couple-of-cask-ales venues. There was an arty little cafe/record shop/theatre that served a small but decent selection of craft cans & bottles. Cowes has an excellent small bottleshop called LifeCraft, which tends to carry (among other things) the IOW breweries alongside some decent stuff from Hampshire.
The traditional IOW breweries - Goddards, Yates, Island - nothing special but always good for a tick.
Planning a trip in Oct and the wife knows it’s also about beer. 
I saw people blaming supermarkets or breweries selling direct but I can think of
various examples of business closing physical shops because mailorder, etc, is where they are making their money. In fact a motor parts shop at the end of my road shut shop a few weeks ago and put a sign up says saying they were now based on line from their warehouse in Northamptonshire.
Also it occured to me, compared to 20 years ago how many other bottleshops are there now in Leeds?
Off the top of my head I can think of two other beer shops in the city, but there might be more and I haven’t checked but I think one of the ones I am thinking of may be no more.
Sad to hear about Beer Ritz, I visited there years and yearago, it was a quirky little place in a seemingly random area but fair play it survived a long while and served the locals well. I have also ordered online from Beer Ritz but they do need to up their game with that website, I guess they’ll have more time to attend to that now.
Breweries selling direct are a definitely big factor… a lot of people I know buy Deya, Polly’s, Cloudwater, Moersleutel direct from the breweries. Partly because they release the beers before bottle shops, partly because they’re cheaper, partly because they often sell beer from other breweries. That’s a lot of beer money gone before thinking about buying from bottle shops.
yes … I’ve been ordering less from bottle shops than in peace time.
Deya and Cloudwater have got the bulk of my business, Verdant in a more distant 3rd place.
I try mixing it up. Often I buy from local outfits - my last big order was from the Blue Boar in town, especially as Leicester businesses are getting royally fucked at the moment. But I’ve put in from Cloudwater and Electric Bar (twice) as well, plus a couple of places I was fond of when I lived in East Anglia (Beautiful Beers, Beers of Europe). I kind of want to order at least once from the EU before 2021 when that might be trickier, and hopefully will also be putting an order your way within the next couple of months.
I went to Pint Shop Brum once and didn’t bother going back. Nearly every beer on was available at Tesco and prices were steep. Loads of better choices in Birmingham.
Just added a newly opened micropub in Bexleyheath, The Long Haul. By my count that’s the 13th micropub in Bexley and environs. Edit: just added 2 more.
Was in Guidlford today. Noticeable that a load of restaurants had shut down put pubs all seemed to be going.
This ‘craft beer’ monstrosity looks to be opening within walking distance of my old house in Bedford. It’s a brainchild of the Charles Wells Pub Co as far as I can tell. Will obviously be a while before I can check it out, and I’ve got mixed feelings as Charles Wells are in the SBDRC so can basically get tae fuck, but it’s an interesting development for a place as pub-lite as Bedford.
Was seeing what would be open in Bermondsey:
All Good Beer’s pop-up bar is finally spent after 4 years, that’s tantric stamina.
Affinity have moved out. At some point Three Hills will take over the unit.
I hadn’t heard about Three Hills in Bermondsey. Do you know if they are they moving and brewing there or just a bar?
After saying that I wasn’t sure it occured to me that Affinity had posted something along the lines of, “We’re lazy so someone else can have the lease and equipment.”
Followed by this:
So Three Hills will apparently be brewing there?
Thats going to be a big dent in my Northamptonshire rates!!
TAPROOM at Bethnal Green in one of the railway arches has closed permanently, shame because I really liked the venue and beer range was quite decent.
Heard that Lab Culture in Redditch has ceased brewing. A real shame as they were looking like the most promising West Midlands brewery, every beer I’ve had from them has been excellent, including the lime and basil saison I had on the weekend.
A few more places have closed, as per Beer Guide London. A couple of them I had already closed.
https://www.beerguideldn.com/news.php
And Crafty Fellas in Leadenhall Market. Despite having been working a 5 minute walk from there a couple of times a month I never got around to having a beer there.
The website also details those places that the remaining closed for the time being, few of which opened but found they just didn’t get the business to justify it. I don’t know what it’s like in general in the City but my company has three floors with over 100 people. Since the office reopened for people who wanted to return to an office environment there has apparently been one person working there.
(I am planning to go back a couple of days a week primarily to get to Siren and Elusive😄)
Sad, but not surprised, to hear about Crafty Fellas. Enjoyed many a visit there when working close by it was by far the best place in that immediate area. But it was never especially busy before the area became a virtual ghost town. Our 20+ floor building in Lime St remains pretty much empty and as with most folk I’ve not been into London since mid March
The one time I went there no new ticks were available. But my office is on the same road as BrewDog so tend to nip there for a few lunchtime thirds and then head to the Waterloo area after work.
Beer Hawk Charterhouse not a surprise … nice bar but I was the only person in there on my two visits (late last year / early this) although admittedly early doors 1600 time.
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