The Pub Curmudgeon

I’ve been pondering whether to write something on the death of the Pub Curmudgeon, whose column in the Stockport CAMRA magazine and long running blog was always a must read. Whether you agreed with his view or not, he had something interesting to say and in the age of internet blogging he had the means. With a focus on lifestyle issues as much as beer and pubs he soon developed a blog that was arguably more widely read than most of the bloggers seeking a paid career in beer writing.

In the early 90s I would return from University to stay with my parents and go out for a drink in the pubs of Stockport with friends. An era more of tied pubs than pub company chains and independents, the town was very much dominated by Robinson’s beer. Cask ale appeared universally available and you would encounter the Opening Times magazine racks in most pubs. Free to read it proved a useful resource to discover the pubs of the town and the Pub Curmudgeon column arguably stood out as the more interesting part of it.

The magazine being clearly the output of enthusiasts with a distinct world-view, his sideways slant at the world of pubs, breweries, beer and their customers was not always the status view within his peer group but it provided a ballast that saved the magazine from being uniform propaganda. You knew this group called CAMRA was a mixed bag of blokes, not a uniform set of identikit opinions all echoing the same mantra. It was an era of the football fanzine rather than internet blogs and chat forums. Self published magazines were where people with something to say, said it.


Those magazines are all on line and you can see for yourself and get a flavour of the time. A more heath robinson amateur fanzine than the professionally published magazine of today, but arguably in that less of a fear of falling out with advertisers, perhaps. You find some tasty, spicy and outright interesting opinions in those older magazines. Opinions that likely upset some the publicans and brewers of the area.


The infamous smoking ban was the spur that inspired Mudge to set up a blog and write more often. Though the smoking ban was a key subject, regular readers know it wasn’t a one trick pony. It was a rich set of interesting views and there he built a community of regular commentators that told him what they thought,

Around this time I had hit that point of middle age where respectability demands an intellectualising of the booze and an interest in beer was formed. Like most that form this interest a membership of CAMRA is involved, a perusal of the hobby magazines in WHSmith & beer books in Waterstones or Amazon. A letter asking me to volunteer to the local beer festival got me to turn up and meet some local CAMRAs and many months later, at a CAMRA meeting, I commented to the table the Pub Curmudgeon column was one of the more interesting parts of the magazine they all distributed and the unassuming balding middle aged man opposite smirked. And thus the Pub Curmudgeon revealed himself.


He didn’t, at that point, wish his identity to be common knowledge. I had no idea why. Maybe he didn’t want annoyed pub landlords having a pop at him. He was retired and therefore had no employer or clients that may take a dim view of a booze based hobby.

From reading his blog and the blogroll that linked to other blogs I discovered the world of beer bloggery. If anything can cure you of an interest in beer it was discovering the world of beer bloggery. Beer enthusiasm had at the time a core interest in cask beer as a preservation exercise dominated by the likes of CAMRA, with additional appreciation of “authentic” foreign beers. Into the mix “craft” beer was being born as small American breweries began to influence the European microbrewery scene by breaking many of the established norms. Things have moved on as they say.

One particular blog by a professional beer writer called Melissa Cole attempted one of the most cack handed attacks on supermarkets it was possible to make. The argument went like this. Alcohol was a part of most recorded rape cases, whether victim or perpetrator. Pubs were struggling due to cheap alcohol and drinkers pre loading before going out. Therefore Tesco were directly responsible not just for struggling pubs, but for rape by selling cheap cans of Stella that made people drunk. Thus Cooking Lager was born. A character with all the conceits and snobbery of beer enthusiasts but instead of a chocolate porter IPA, he revered the humble can of Stella. The blog hits took off mainly because Mudgie was entertained by it even if occasionally annoyed by it himself but put it on his own blogroll. Thus people found it. At a later CAMRA meeting my own smirk revealed to Peter my own secret identity and attempt to wind up and annoy and needle the sanctimonious and pretentious. There I joined in the community of mudgies blog commenters telling him he was talking rot.


Unlike my own limited joke, stretched too far and for too long, The Pub Curmudgeon had a wider range of views than the smoking ban. A feature that sustained the blog right up to his death. Banging on about the smoking ban after 10 years would have seen it burn out, as much of beer bloggery did. Bloggers went behind paywalls, packed up and in a few cases published books with commercial success. The Pub Curmudgeon kept on. ABV cuts, his own pub holidays, puritans taxing sugar, all grist to the mill.

The outpouring of love for the Pub Curmudgeon has seen many still blogging express their sadness and admiration for the bloke, often with tales of the occasion they met him for a pint.

Some lovely tributes here.

Martin    Simon    Life After Football

I didn’t see much of Peter over the last few years. As I lost interest in beer enthusiasm and CAMRA, there was no monthly pint. Post Covid his column disappeared from the local CAMRA magazine, replaced with, off all things, a poem. I have no insight into why. Many organisations can narrow their collective world-views, value purity tests over dissent. I long thought Mudgies column was an indication of a broadness of world-view rather than a narrow one. People like Mudge widened the appeal of groups like CAMRA. His bit of spice improved the recipe. Lacking it, the dish is a little blander. Though Peter never hid the fact that he had become sceptical of CAMRA and it’s effectiveness. Thinking it had become a beer enthusiasts club rather than a campaign for the beer and pub traditions he treasured. His life membership and enjoyment of their monthly pub crawl kept him a member rather than a comitment to the craft beer and micropubs that excite the current activists. He never did get his National Trust of Pubs. Something I thought he’d of preferred CAMRA to be.

One of the last beers I had with him was when a chap we both knew from twitter popped to town and we had a couple of pints. I asked him what it was about the smoking ban that most upset him. He wasn’t ever a smoker himself. It was a belief in property rights and the right of the landlord to decide what occurs on his own premises. It should not be the right of the government. It was a principle, as simple as that.

A principle that began in Ancient Rome. Dominium (or dominium ex iure Quiritium) was the highest form of absolute private ownership, granting the owner (dominus) complete rights to use, control, and alienate property, distinct from mere possession and forming the bedrock of western property law, A concept contrasted with the limited rights of ususfructus (right to use).  You learnt stuff sinking a pint with Mudge.

Banning smoking in pubs was simply an egregious over extension of state power over individual liberty. A man has to have principles and those were his.

Years on the smoking ban has irreversibly altered the pub landscape. Most of the proper boozers I remember from the time I first read Mudgies column are gone. Most pubs are now restaurants. Too many pubs that exist are either soulless chain pubs or pokey middle class micro bars. The proper pub was hammered by the smoking ban. Few examples remain, diminishing in number ever year.

On the smoking ban, that inspired Mudge to write his blog, he was proved right. We are all the poorer for that. All that enjoyed his blog and world-view are richer for reading it and those fortunate enough to have a pint with the bloke, richer for having met him.

Godspeed, old chap. A pint of Bass. A pint of Bathams. Always be a pint of Mudgie bitter to me and a pint to enjoy. Traditions to treasure and appreciate, even when he’s not here to tell us we need to.