Secret plans to reopen pubs by the end of this month
Breweries are planning to deliver millions of pints to Britain’s pubs in the next two weeks with hopes they may be able to reopen by the end of the month.
Previous Government guidelines said pubs won’t open back up until July 4 ‘at the earliest’ but a new secret plan drawn up by ministers will allow bars to start serving again within weeks, The Sun reports.
Under the ‘blueprint’ drawn up by the Department for Business involves a plan for drinkers to place orders remotely via an app to ensure people don’t have to walk up to the bar or have direct contact with staff.
Wetherspoons already runs an app which allows smartphone users to order food and drinks to their table, with hopes other pubs can follow suit.
Breweries including Heineken stopped making kegs of lager during lockdown when pubc were shuttered and focused on producing bottles and cans instead.
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But The Sun reports breweries are planning to deliver 250 million pints by the middle of June.
Heineken has breweries in Edinburgh, Manchester and Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, said to produce four million pints of beer a day.
Pubs are also awaiting deliveries around the same date from Asahi, the firm behind Peroni and Grolsch. Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Stella Artois and Budweiser, has told pub bosses that their kegs will be delivered in the next few weeks too.
According to senior Government sources, pubs are expected to reopen in two stages, with those with outdoor beer gardens where coronavirus transmission is far lower likely to get the green light first.
Indoor areas are expected to reopen only when new health and safety measures are in place and shown to work.
Some pubs were allowed to partially reopen last week using outdoor market-style stalls, with customers ordering ‘takeaway pints’.
But many pub managers and landlords say they have been unable to do so because the beer in their barrels has now gone off, with no new stock delivered.
Andy Kempa, who runs the Beach Green pub in Lancing, West Sussex, told The Sun he is ‘screaming out for supply, especially in the hot weather’.
Greg Grundy, landlord of The Egremont in nearby Worthing, said customers could not wait to get a pint of draught.
‘There’s an unquenchable thirst for pub beer out there,’ he added.
A 75-page document was submitted to ministers in May outlining what pubs could look like when lockdown eases – with a ban on drinking at the bar, contactless payments only and tables spaced two metres apart.
Other restrictions could include patrols of smoking areas, children’s play areas axed, no salt and pepper shakers and individually wrapped sauces and condiments only available on request.
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