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News, nuggets and longreads 18 December 2021: the bleak midwinter

Here’s all the writing about beer and pubs that leapt out at us in the past seven days, from lamb’s wool to stout.

The big story, depressingly, is that much like in March 2020, the UK government is discouraging people from socialising without providing any support for pubs. A big December is what keeps many pubs afloat for the year and the sudden arrival of Omicron will have thrown cashflow plans into disarray. We’ve just spent a few days in London drinking in pubs that are calm and cosy – but more like Monday night in February than Friday in December.

Tricky, this, though. It’s not March 2020: we know more about how the virus works, many of us are vaccinated and boosted, and willing to take certain measured risks. But parties do feel like a step too far and nobody should feel obliged to put themselves or their families at risk to support any sector of the economy.

At some point, the Government will crack and dish out one-off grants, we suspect, as they have done before. But they might have had this plan ready, in reserve, rather than making publicans sweat.

We also predict a busy January. Many are holding off from visiting the pub not because they especially fear getting COVID but because they fear missing Christmas with the folks. Once the big day is out of the way, and more of us are boosted, there’ll be plenty of drinking to do.


A pint of stout.

We’ve got a bit of a thing about ‘normal’ stouts – straight-up takes on the style that sit adjacent to Guinness but, ideally, better. So this week’s post from Tandleman resonated with us:

Who doesn’t love a good stout? Well, I certainly do, but what I’m not so keen on is those that have been extensively mucked about with… It isn’t that I’m against such stuff, and I agree and recognize that there are plenty out there that like these additions, but what I do dislike is that a bit too often, there isn’t just a straightforward stout that tastes of, well, stout. There are exceptions of course, and maybe too many brewers feel that a ‘normal’ stout doesn’t get them sales in a crowded market.


1905 illustration: Siberian Red crab apples.

At Braciatrix Dr Christina Wade has written about ‘lambs wool’ – a traditional winter drink built around hot ale:

Regardless of exactly how people celebrated wassailing specifically, one thing does seem to often remain at the centre of these traditions – that is the alcoholic beverages. My favourite… So what exactly do we drink? We drink Lambswool or Lamb’s Wool. No, not the actual fuzzy stuff from the adorable creature better known for making sweaters. Nay. It’s a beverage made from ale, spices, sugar, and roasted apples. Some recipes also call for cream, eggs, or both.


Eoghan Walsh has reached number 23 in his history of Brussels beer in 50 objects. This week, he told us about the British influence on Belgian beer:

Once upon time, a young brewer’s son from Canterbury in England became the godfather of modern Belgian beer. It all started on Sunday, 8 January 1893, with the appearance of edition one of Le Petit Journal du Brasseur. Only 10 pages long, its cover featured an advert for patented corn and rice malts, below which someone called George M. Johnson was identified as being available to visit interested breweries for a product demonstration. George M. (for Maw) Johnson also happened to be the paper’s Founder-Editor, having arrived in Brussels three years previously with a missionary zeal to bring Belgian brewing into the modern, industrial age.


At The Musing Anorak Stephen Jackson has provided an account of a crawl around the pubs and taprooms of Reading which is worth bookmarking:

Reading is definitely a beer destination, and less than an hour from London. It’s worth looking away from the Capital’s beer scene occasionally, I promise you won’t be disappointed.


Finally, from Twitter…

Which reminds us – if you’ve got old photos of relatives in the pub, we’d love to see them.

For more good reading check out Stan Hieronymus’s round-up from Monday and Alan McLeod’s from Thursday.