There’s a pub near me with an eye-catching sign outside. I’ve driven past it many times, and it always gives me pause for a little idle thought. On the sign there is a loud and proud notice that in this pub they clean their lines every week.
There’s a lot going on with this simple sign. First and foremost, in a long life of pub observance, I don’t recall ever reading such a boast adorning any other establishment. What’s going on here? Surely it’s not the case that this pub, and only this pub, is so scrupulous about the cleanliness of its lines. (By lines, I assume they refer to the pipes that convey the beer from the kegs or casks to the pump and into the glass.)
Surely all pubs have a weekly flush-through? In which case, this sign is clever, but daft, making a virtue of a norm. Like a restaurant stating its chefs don’t sneeze on the food, or an airline assuring us that the planes’ wings are checked before every flight.
Always on the lookout for a fresh source of worry, I’ve been down a rabbit hole on the subject of beer line issues, and I’ve come up smelling not very nice. There’s a lot going on in those pipes – an awful lot if you’re not careful. Potentially, it’s hell in there. Living wild yeast and bacteria attaching itself to the interior of the tubes; mould around the taps and connectors; sticky protein residue left behind by the grain; and something called beerstone, a stubborn mineral scale that bonds to the plastic lining. Ye gods, it’s enough to put you off your beer.
I’m going to pop into this pub and suggest they clean daily instead of weekly. And as for every other pub I frequent, before I shout up a pint I’ll henceforth be asking for details of their line-cleaning regime. I may carry a hazmat suit to have a poke around in the cellar myself. You can’t be too careful.
Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist
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