In my family the love of great beer, and great pubs has been passed down from generation to generation. Although I slightly let the side down by drinking real cider instead of real ale, and can often been seen with a half instead of a pint, they still let me tag along to various beer festivals and join in the hunt for great pubs.
Although not great on the drinking side at least I can support CAMRA (Campaigning for Real Ale, Pubs and Drinkers rights since 1971) in the design side. They have just announced the winners of the Pub Design Awards, Zero Degrees in Reading (winner of the new build category) is a great pub, with really nice food, lovely staff and really nicely design. You would have liked this one Mick.
It goes to show that Real Ale doesn't have to be all beardy old beer bellies and horse brasses. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) Zero degrees is getting younger people into drinking real beer, and probably stopping a good few chemically lager fueled fights on the streets of Reading!
Hailing the innovative build of Zero Degrees, the judges said:
'Zero Degrees is a strikingly modern, glass-fronted design which, like its three sisters elsewhere in the UK (Blackheath, Bristol and Cardiff), makes an architectural virtue of its in-house brewing equipment. Throughout the building, the industrial aesthetic, as prominently defined by the brightly-polished brewing plant, predominates but does not overwhelm.'
