tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post6681983265793754829..comments2023-09-20T12:50:40.208+01:00Comments on Pete Brown: Too much confusion on all sides about problem drinkingAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03011702209832734676noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-28317401142899792212013-05-30T00:17:44.133+01:002013-05-30T00:17:44.133+01:00"I don’t think for one minute the tramp drink..."I don’t think for one minute the tramp drinking cider is a tramp because he discovered cheap cider. He discovered cheap cider when he hit rock bottom."<br /><br />Exactly. This is all trying to treat the symptoms rather than the real causes, one might speculate that this is because there's organisations lobbying for this solution anyway and they join forces using the symptoms as their focal point.jrghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07573166413654366036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-92079285680207069852013-05-29T11:34:19.006+01:002013-05-29T11:34:19.006+01:00I've just spent 18 months living in Milan and ...I've just spent 18 months living in Milan and it did amuse me that Tennent's is sold everywhere there as a premium lager. I also remember Special Brew being sold in a fancy safari lodge in Malawi in the smaller 330ml bottles and having a very entertaining night with some friends laughing at ourselves getting mildly inebriated on Tramps' Brew.<br />I think Stringer's point about the 3 litre bottles is very valid, although there is debate about the guidelines of course.Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-70969316816167788352013-05-29T09:36:32.038+01:002013-05-29T09:36:32.038+01:00I love the argument that when you price your alcoh...I love the argument that when you price your alcohol high, it is no longer a product for alcoholics. As if all alcoholics are poor. Maybe eventually they tend to end up poor; I doubt most start off poor.<br /><br />For the great morality discussion of who is selling what to whom, the young woman who enjoys a drink of wine with friends and is going through a stressful time with her job/boyfriend and notices that a little self-medication with the vino appears to be a solution is doing so with a product you would all consider responsible. She may or may not end up with a problem but if she does it will be a while and a long slow decline before she considers bang per buck part of her overriding product choice.<br /><br />Of all the decent people with an interest in beer that drink for the taste, because they are discerning and certainly not alkies, in ten years a proportion will be. It will not be the white lightening what done it.<br /><br />If this were illegal drugs we would be wondering about those that get people hooked in the first place. If it were cigarettes we would be concerned primary with those starting smoking. But for some reason we dismiss all that, with alcohol, preferring to see our chosen tipple as harmless and stick the blame firmly on those products we dislike.<br />Cooking Lagerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02830924433230427226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-25543999119483058882013-05-28T19:52:47.234+01:002013-05-28T19:52:47.234+01:00At Barearts Brewery we have 8 bottle conditioned, ...At Barearts Brewery we have 8 bottle conditioned, old beers over 8%abv. Some of them have been matured for over 2 years and they range in price from £11 to £14 a litre. Our beers are slightly alcoholic herbal drinks. Definitely not for problem drinkers.Trevor Cookhttp://www.barearts.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-47314264519207155702013-05-28T17:37:03.842+01:002013-05-28T17:37:03.842+01:00I don’t want to make too many comments but one asp...I don’t want to make too many comments but one aspect of this bothered me, so I came back to it. The value bang per buck end of the market, for those products aiming for that, don’t appear to care what category they are in. Whether beer, cider, wine or spirit. They are made as cheaply as possible. They are not trying to “do beer down” nor see it any of their business to improve the perception of any individual category.<br /><br />So if these amoral manufacturers were to arbitrarily stop or move category, they would no longer have the bang per buck product and would only remove their own. They cannot shift their product from a cider to a spirit and maintain their price USP. If they stop they only hand the market to someone else.<br /><br />You cannot get rid of these unless some overall action is taken to ban some products. That has the problems I mentioned earlier of arbitrarily removing some products that some Government Minister has seen in the hands of a tramp. Stand outside a German Ubahn station and you see the tramps are drinking reasonably respectable products that regular folk drink. Assuming the tramps still want to drink, do we continue banning stuff seen in the hands of tramps?<br /><br />Next off what happens if we remove all products that can be abused by alcoholics? In one sense, the white lightening is not as damaging as the meths on sale in B&Q. There is a lesser of available evils argument if you want the tramps to at least stand a chance of some form of recovery.<br /><br />Maybe the answer is unrelated to the available products. Maybe the answer lies in asking ourselves, what happens if you decide you have a drink problem. Do you see your GP, AA? Are those facilities up to scratch? Do we do enough as a society to really help those that need it?<br /><br />I don’t think for one minute the tramp drinking cider is a tramp because he discovered cheap cider. He discovered cheap cider when he hit rock bottom. Banning cheap cider seems a lazy way of avoiding what needs to be done, that of giving that guy a step up and a way back.<br />Cooking Lagerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02830924433230427226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-21471035616933346142013-05-28T15:15:57.927+01:002013-05-28T15:15:57.927+01:00-Maybe, Phil, could not tell you.
Just wanted to ...-Maybe, Phil, could not tell you.<br /><br />Just wanted to comment that whilst PB is right to point out some products look like they have been designed to appeal to alkies, other drinks associated with problem drinking were not. <br /><br />I doubt Buckfast tonic wine is a drink specifically designed to appeal to Scottish alkies, more a product of other intent that found its niche and maybe some old dears actually find it to be a tonic.<br /><br /><br /><br />Cooking Lagerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02830924433230427226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-69415547780431187562013-05-28T14:13:30.847+01:002013-05-28T14:13:30.847+01:00Cookie - sounds like it was in the same niche as G...Cookie - sounds like it was in the same niche as Gold Label. (I still think any beer in a 330ml can looks vaguely classy and grown-up.)<br /><br />This post has got me thinking about the high-strength quaffer market, or at least the HSQ market that there used to be. Not to derail the thread, but was Pony* <b>really</b> sweet sherry? How big can the bottle have been?<br /><br />*The little drink with the big kick. But you knew that.Philhttp://ohgoodale.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-58958256908879995612013-05-28T13:24:40.638+01:002013-05-28T13:24:40.638+01:00The makers of "Frosty Jack" "wholeh...The makers of "Frosty Jack" "wholeheartedly support the drinkaware guidelines", which is why, I guess, they thoughtfully package a week's worth of units in a handy 3 litre bottle.StringersBeerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12573068197944669997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-6192880419350468182013-05-28T12:25:31.760+01:002013-05-28T12:25:31.760+01:00Oh dear God, Scotsmac. I won a bottle of that in a...Oh dear God, Scotsmac. I won a bottle of that in a raffle once and tried it out of curiosity; I wondered if a blend of British wine and cheap whisky would be as bad as it sounded. (It was slightly worse.) I'm afraid I then contributed it to a tombola, after arranging the foil cap to make it less obvious it had been opened. I am a bad person.<br /><br />I used to drink Special Brew quite regularly - at gigs I'd start on something decent & then get a can of Spesh when the band I'd come for got going, so I wouldn't have to go back to the bar. And I got (very) drunk once on Tennents Super - quite a nice drop on a hot night. White Lightning is evil, though.Philhttp://ohgoodale.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-59050936764219469532013-05-28T10:16:25.478+01:002013-05-28T10:16:25.478+01:00Today, "the spesh" or Carlserg Special i...Today, "the spesh" or Carlserg Special is known only as tramps brew. I first heard it referred to as such by Rab C Nesbitt on TV. The first time I saw people drink it was in a pub where half pint bottles were popular among older female drinkers. None of whom appeared to have the problems now associated with a skint/shameless type of existence, but were working class older ladies in the company of their pint of bitter drinking husbands. Something I don't see these days. <br /><br />But then the spesh was never designed for alkies, I gather it was yesterdays premium product and todays tramps brew.<br /><br />Cooking Lagerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02830924433230427226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-59654029278778095082013-05-28T10:11:11.872+01:002013-05-28T10:11:11.872+01:00I thoroughly agree. In my younger days in the Wes...I thoroughly agree. In my younger days in the West of Scotland, problem drinkers sought out cheap fortified wines (Lanliq, Four Crown, Eldorado and Scotsmac) and, famously, still abuse Buckfast 'tonic' wine. The volume beer and cider industry could get itself out of the firing line by dropping those products aimed purely at the "drink to get drunk" brigade. <br />Interesting that many of the current problem products are either owned by one particular company, or produced at their Glasgow brewery. Norriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04238618368742975044noreply@blogger.com