What Are You Going To Do When Lockdown Ends?

On a non-beer related I am going to try to get to more gigs.

In terms of beer two fests I was planning to go to were cancelled and so was Cotts. But hopefully the latters was just postponed.

Even if cancelled beer festivals are not replaced I am going to try and get out on more beer ticking trips. The first will be trips to try and get closer to ticking off my unticked Hampshire and Berkshire breweries.

So a trip to Portsmouth and Gosport for the two Brewhouse & Kitchens and Newtown. Makemake are now canning so should be able to order some soon. Then swing by Southampton on the way back for Tap It.

A trip to Hungerford to tick off Innformal and then potentially Thatcham for Delphic. However the latter’s beers and Bog Swamp’s seem to be readily available in Reading.

I need to rearrange a work trip to Birmingham and am due trips to Aberdeem and Manchester/Preston.

Finally I was to get back to Hull for the first time since I graduated. And also got to Bournemouth to mop up some breweries.

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I intend to support my local pubs and businesses initially.

The ‘Master Plan’ is then to visit every Shropshire establishment in the ‘Places’ RateBeer listings that I haven’t been to yet (if they have survived of course) and review them. Doubt there will be many new beers to rate in those pubs though.

Had a hotel booked for the Hull Beer Festival, now cancelled, as was our trip to County Mayo and Galway.

The wife wants us to get over to California to see our granddaughter, daughter and son-in-law when possible, so that’s Christmas and the New Year (maybe) taken care of as we tend to go for over a month at a time.

A Greek Island holiday plus a road trip to Schwerin and the coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern via Bremen, staying in brewpubs are also in the planning stages for 2021.

That’s about it.

<*))))))><

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I don’t know. Everything’s been thrown into chaos. I know I’ll be making up a lot of time with my two older kids.

No holidays this year but if finances allo I might do a handful of place rating trips. Not sure what the craft beer landscape is going to look like though.

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Globally, when the borders finally open I’ll probably go back home to the UK to visit my parents and order a couple of boxes of English craft. They were supposed to be visiting me in May, but that plan went to hell along with my plan to make a short beery trip to Ukraine in early May.

Locally, it will be good to simply go to some new bars, and perhaps travel to new regions.

Drink beer in person with RBians that I currently drink via Zoom with! Also have planned out a few brewery/pub hopping in Suffolk and Norfolk counties. Will also try to make a trip to Hull as my original plans for the fest in May have been foiled. Hopefully, a few tastings as seems most fest are going to be cancelled all 2020.

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Visit a brewpub, the last time I did this was on March 14.

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Get a haircut, been almost 7 weeks since I last went!

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I was meant to be in the UK now, we were supposed to be flying out yesterday. Had planned on staying with dad for a few days in Derbyshire, visiting brother in Worcestershire, going to stay with friends in our old village of Merton, Oxfordshire and with a hotel for the night in Oxford and a couple of nights in London. I was really looking forward to it, it will happen again but probably later in the year now *hopefully.

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Today I was supposed to be in Eschweiler at a Bierborse and then tomorrow at a wine festival on the Mosel. Home instead!

<*))))))><

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I was just looking something up for work and spotted a micropub in Sidcup that’s never been added to Ratebeer in the 4 years it’s been open. And then another one in Blackfen. So will make sure that my next meeting in the area (when everything is open again) is on a early opening Friday so I can then do a tour of the 9 micropubs in the area after my morning meeting. Although may not bother with all 9 as a couple are out on a limb.

Edit: make that 10 or so as I spotted one more last night. Also added micropubs in:

3 in Bournemouth inc. suburbs

Christchurch

Weymouth

Bridport

Selsey

Newbury

Andover

South Croydon (at one point this one could have been added a brewpub as they were using Ubrew)

There are some in Frome and Salisbury I haven’t got around to yet. Oh and maybe Wokingham.

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I was supposed to be a week into walking the SW Coast path from Lands End to Poole, lasting in all 5 weeks. I had set up the pubs on here that I was hoping to visit, I would have been getting close to Plymouth by now. Hopefully I can catch up with some of it when the campsites and pubs re open.

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Sorry to hear that Glen, that sounds like a lot of planning had gone into that.

I’ve missed an Easter break in Brussels, a nine day break in the UK visiting family and friends and a few days in Volos, Greece. Along with numerous beer festivals.

On the plus side I am healthy as are all my friends and family and when all of this is over I will have a ludicrous amount of annual leave still to take.

I would have done Zythos too but also cancelled. It certainly is hitting us all hard, the one good side is that the garden has never looked better, it’s a pleasure to sit out and have a beer there. Have the pubs, or more importantly in Germany, the beer gardens, started opening yet over there? We seem to have a date of July 4th but we will have to wait and see how that works. Hopefully the Government will be forced to drop the 14 day quarantine rule for visitors and returnees to Britain soon after it comes into force next week so that movement can get going again and you will be able to visit your family and friends.

That walk sounds great Glen. I’ve got fond memories of walking various sections of that path in Cornwall and Somerset.

Im making the most of time off by heading to France to see relatives next week, returning just before the quarantine comes in to effect. Handy having a French wife else we couldn’t do it. French bars will be opening the day after we arrive, but many beer shops are open. Just a shame we can’t nip accross to Belgium as the border is still closed.

Won’t be planning on visiting pubs after lockdown as the distancing & potential queues are a put off. We’ll see how it looks.

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Likewise. As much as I love the pub, and as much as I want to support local businesses, I can’t imagine a pub in full social-distancing mode to be a fun place to be. I’ve got six main places I go in the Leicester area, and four of them are almost certainly too small to reopen with distancing measures.

Also thinking about how the loo would work after a few. My wife suggested a diaper. I’m not sure whether she was joking.

Most of the places I got to have been practising social distancing for years.

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Will it ever end?

I’m certainly planning to get into the pubs as soon as possible, missed them terribly, might even go into Spoons. Hoping that they don’t make it too complicated with having to book a table etc. Just hoping the weather holds so we can make good use of pub gardens. I can see that social distancing could push back beer festivals opening until next year.

Then there’s the practicalities of dealing with glasses which could potentially have the virus from numerous customers. They would all surely be plastic / disposable to protect staff. Do you have to put your hand up if you want to have a piss? Mostly likely.

It’s shaping up to be a hot summer, so those with large beer gardens should do alright.

What if we took our own lined glasses / plastic beakers into the pub and the beer is poured from a measure or jug into the customers own glass? A little like a beer festival set up. The risk is then down to finger tip transfer at the outside bottom of the glass which can be reduced greatly by washing of both customer and server hands.