As for the £22 quid a Pint, its all this Craft Beer nonsense, dont get me wrong Im all in for more Beer and flavor choice in Real Ale form, but instead they call it Craft Beer from a Craft Brewery, throw it in a Can, Bottle or serve it from a Gassed up Keg Pump and then charge Yuppie prices for the stuff. Its a very popular thing in London at the moment for some reason, which is helping to drive the prices up.
It's nothing new really. Anyone remember the
'Firkin' chain of pubs where they brewed their own beer on the premises?
There was the
Fleece and Firkin in Bristol and I used to drink in the
Goose and Firkin which I think was in Lewisham. A few pints of Dog Bolter and I clearly didn't know where I was!
I never did it, but they had the
Firkin Challenge where you had to have a pint in every one of their pubs including the
Fleece in Bristol. The
Fleece and Firkin was the only Firkin pub outside of London as far as I'm aware.
IIRC the chain was bought out by one of the big breweries in the late 1990's who promptly got rid of the onsite micro breweries and tried to run it with their mass produced pish, but it didn't work and they all disappeared or were rebranded.