ABSTRACT ? OPENING TIMES ? Free monthly magazine produced by The Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) to promote news of what is happening to real ale bars in Greater Manchester and Cheshire area of North West England. There are articles on pub openings, closures and beer festivals. There are competitions, reviews of the best and worst beers, bars and pub grubs available, etc. Each month a pub is chosen as the best that the region have to offer. October 2006 ?s award went to the Lass Of Gowrie, on Charles Street, behind the University, noted for having its own microbrewery to sell its unique ales on site. The magazine offers routes for suggested pub-crawls in given areas. They also condemn the new craze for Cider with Ice. Tis is a gimmick introduced to promote Magners Irish Cider in England. It involves handing the real ale bereft punter a glass half filled with ice and a bottle of rubbish cider. The craze has led other cider manufacturers to hand out glasses of ice (leaving many bars short of pint glasses_. Some fools think this is the way all cider should be consumed. Opening Times fortunately offers advise on the best real Ciders and Perrys to use as alternatives to the new rubbish synthetic brands. Another con exposed is that of the reduced specific gravity for Old Speckled Hen. The once mighty beer has long held a gravity of 5.2% ABV. Though it has now been lowered to a mere4.5% ABV, the brewery, Greene King apparently insist that landlords should maintain the usual price for the brew as before. Some pubs are conforming. Others are not. There are some interesting snippets of useless information from of old too. In the 17th Century, the navy Rum ration for British sailors was a pint per day. Apparently the laws allowing press gangs to operate in coastal towns have never been repealed so you could find that your next night out in Dover sets you adrift in more ways than one. Given that the magazine is freely distributed around real ale bars in the North, it is extremely good value for money. Genuinely informative and entertaining material. You can ask for a modestly priced postal subscription to Opening Times via
[email protected] A full list of my personal abstracts for Shvoong is online at http://www.arthurchappell.clara.net/shvoongabstracts.htm
