Pubs
Pubs, of which there are about 50 000 in the UK, are good places to visit for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.  They often serve food ranging from good value bar snacks and dinners  up to the more expensive “gastro-food”.  Pubs in London and big towns tend to be more expensive than those in the countryside and in the north of England.  All pubs require the customer to go to the bar to order food and drink.  This is unless the pub has a separate restaurant.  The law permits some pubs to allow children to enter.  The bar staff will let you know if this is the case or not.  You stand at the bar and try to attract the attention of the bar staff after waiting your turn.

There are two main types of pub.  A Freehouse is run by someone called the pub landlord who owns the pub or rents it.  The landlord can choose the beer served in a “freehouse” pub even if it is rented from a brewery.  The other type of pub is a Tied House that you might find serve the beer chosen by a brewery or a pub chain.  About a half of all pubs are restrictively  tied to a particular beer range.  Most pubs serve “real ale”; that is beer made and kept to a set of standards decided by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).  http://www.camra.org.uk/.  CAMRA also run an excellent website that shows where pubs can be found http://whatpub.com/.

One of the best value pub chains is JD Wetherspoons, website: http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/.
They serve a varying range of good beer and food at very reasonable prices.
Other good chains include, Nicholsons Pubs, website: http://www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/;
Taylor Walker, website: http://www.taylor-walker.co.uk/;
Ember Inns, website: http://www.emberinns.co.uk/
and Punch Taverns, website:
http://www.punchtaverns.com/extrafiles/bespokeweb/punch1/punch_home.asp

For those who like a good choice of “real ale” from smaller breweries a new type of pub has recently appeared called a micropub.  Visit this website for more information and addresses of some micropubs: http://micropubassociation.co.uk/#

Beer
There has been a growth in small breweries recently.  These microbreweries are supplying some excellent beer to pubs around the country.  The big breweries are still found supplying most of the beer to British pubs and it appears that they are increasing their range to compete with the microbreweries.

There are two main ways that beer is stored and served and the one sought by beer aficionados is real ale or cask beer.  Cask beer contains living products and has not been filtered or pasteurised to kill living organisms within the beer.  The yeast is still active in the container within which the beer is supplied.  The beer will normally be hand pumped into the glass by the bar staff.  Cask beer only lasts for about three days once used; so if a pub has a small turnover or does not keep the beer well you may find the it is not as good as it could be.

Keg beers are supplied filtered and pasteurised.  They are not recognised as real ale by CAMRA.  They often have extra carbon dioxide added so can be a bit gassy.  Despite not having the “real ale” label there are some very good keg beers and the advantage is that they last a long time so you should not find a bad beer.

There are several types of beer :
Mild Beer is often low strength and dark.
Bitter and Best Bitter are the the most common beer styles. They are usually brown or amber coloured and medium strength.
Porter is black or dark brown. This beer is often above average strength and maybe too strong if you intend to drink a lot.
Stout is black in colour and again often above average in strength.
Pale Ale is an amber coloured fruity often light flavoured ale.
It is best to choose a strength below 4% to start with and work up to the stronger beers.

The bar staff will help you find the strength and type of any beer you choose. They will also help you choose a flavour that you might like from the many available.  If you want to play it safe the following larger breweries tend to serve good beer: Fullers, Timothy Taylor, Harveys, Dark Star, Trumans, Goachers, and Meantime. Although you will find that the microbreweries are producing the finest beer.