the main priority for a folk venue is quite simply finding somewhere willing to have us. Some way after that, the quality of the beer is a consideration - real ale is mandatory.

I much prefer venues where the beer is ordinary industrially produced chemical crap. You get a more interesting class of punter that way, and typically they will be an average of ten to twenty years younger than at places listed in real ale guidebooks.

Real ale drinkers tend to be boring loudmouthed obsessives, and anything that keeps them at bay is fine by me.