In John Keeling’s eyes hospitality is not just part of the economy, it’s essential to it. So it pains him to see many breweries and pubs suffer during a challenging year. But when normality resumes, he’s determined to ensure that each and every one of these businesses know just how valuable they are. 

I write this having just had my first pub lunch for four weeks. Vaccines are on the way; shops are opening again. It should be a time for optimism but for pubs, breweries and the supply teams that connect them, that optimism is hard to find.

I don’t know about you but I feel this latest lockdown was more depressing than the first. Even coming out of it and moving to Tier 2 has done little to lift the gloom. Goodness knows what those in Tier 3 feel.

I do think hospitality is bearing the brunt of the Government’s determination to be seen to be doing something.

It appears from the data published that there are several areas of British life where transmission of this disease appears to be more problematic.

To make matters worse there is no adequate financial support either. So, hospitality is the sacrificial goat the Government has chosen and if so where does that leave pubs, breweries and the supply chain.

Well the answer to that question is a very rude one so I will concentrate on looking at any positive points my imagination can find. 

The first thing to say is for some of us, pubs are indeed open. However, you have to have a substantial meal which is subject to interpretation but my pie and a pint is ok.

I cannot go on a pub crawl because just going in a pub for a pint is not obeying the rules. Now a pub crawl for me is at best three pubs only but it is a great joy to me. Well I am in my sixties.

Why do I enjoy it?

Drinking a different beer in different pubs, meeting people by accident or design, talking to strangers and passing the time of day with the publican.

In other words, it’s called being alive.

So those pubs with food in Tier 2 can keep their head above water. For other pubs though without adequate Government intervention, the future is a huge problem.

The second point I would make is that some breweries, to be precise those with small pack facilities, are doing ok. Certainly, supermarket sales of beer have skyrocketed.

In some circumstances that has compensated for a lack of draught beer sales but far from all. Those breweries without small pack have struggled and without financial support and life at the moment must seem very bleak.

“Drinking a different beer in different pubs, meeting people and passing the time of day. In other words, it’s called being alive.”

The third point to make is that there are vaccines on the way. At the moment, it is a bit of a guess when they will have immunised enough people before we can return to normal.

Indeed, it is difficult even to say what the new normal will be. I am hoping that in the spring things will be back to normal and I can start to experience my pub crawls again.

So far all I have done is really state the obvious but I am hoping the more the obvious is stated the more chance that the Government will listen. Fat chance perhaps but we have to have hope.

One of the best things I did in the break between lockdowns was to have a four-week trip around Britain visiting old friends. Some by accident rather than design. (Yes, I’m talking about you lovely people in The Bridewell Liverpool and making new ones too, like the good folks at the Bailey Head).

It was great to go to see some old friends at Palmers & St Austell and see some new breweries to me, like Utopian, Monty’s and Simple Things Fermentations.

Each of those gave me some beer to take away which when I drank when I had returned to London, it brought back some great memories.

I am so lucky to have been associated with this wonderful and friendly industry. Oh, and if anyone influential in Government is reading this, I would add the word essential. Yes, hospitality is essential to the British economy.

So, I am going to make a vow. When things do get back to normal, I am going to plan another one of these trips where I can visit pubs up and down the country just for a pint without booking a time slot.

Indeed, I’m going to go out of my way to visit pubs, wet led ones in particular and enjoy a pint of draught beer, preferably cask of course.

In fact, I think a trip around Britain will be planned every year from now on. Just to give every pub and brewery that survives this awful time my grateful thanks.