James May tried brewing low-alcohol beer so his pub drinkers could ‘have a few and still drive home’
James May tried brewing low-alcohol beer so his pub drinkers could ‘have a few and still drive home’
James May tried brewing low-strength beer for his pub so drinkers could “have a few and still drive home”.
The 61-year-old TV star – who presented ‘Top Gear’ with Jeremy Clarkson, 64, and Richard Hammond 54, from 2003 to 2015 – was inspired to mix mild ales and bitters together to keep visitors to his pub The Royal Oak in Swallowcliffe legal while behind the wheel.
He told the Morning Advertiser: “So if they were a bit undecided, they’d go half-and-half.
“But there has been this recent enthusiasm for co-called ‘table beer’. We were trying to develop one for The Royal Oak, which would be about 2.8 per cent to 3 per cent, with the unofficial idea being, you can have a few and still drive home, which most people have to in the countryside.
“But it’s supposed to be a beer that you drink with food, so it’s a but like a ‘light ale’, as they used to call it.”
Despite loving his 18th Century pub – which James bought half of the ownership in 2020 – the ‘Oh Cook!’ presenter conceded becoming a landlord was not “a good business proposition” because of the high overheads.
He explained: “It’s not insulated, the paint flakes off the wall, it’s partly thatched, sinkholes appear in the car park and it’s a high maintenance building so reserve of cash is pretty tiny really given the size of the turnover.
“It’s not a good business proposition and nobody should buy a pub thinking they’re going to make a fortune out of it because you absolutely won’t.”
Even so, ‘The Grand Tour’ star said the answer could lie in turning these establishments into “charitable institutions” the local population frequently flocked to.
He added: “Pubs could be turned into charitable institutions – that might be the answer.
“People like to say the pub is an important hub of the community and it’s a meeting place, which is all true, but it’s only true if people are using it.
“If people aren’t using it, it’s not an important hub and then it should be a surprise when it disappears.
“It’s pretty simple – use the pub if you like it and it will survive, if you don’t use it, it will go.”