Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time we’ve got Berliner Weisse, suburban pubs and jugs of Bass.
We usually start these round-ups with a single piece of beer-related news but this state of the industry read-out from Jessica Mason at The Drinks Business is all the news, effectively, synthesised and summarised:
If brewers had a crystal ball, they’d have thrown it in the mill by now: 2024 was meant to be the year when beer regained ground, not a time of closure and brand resale… But the issues have been complicated, and not only because rising costs are clearly in direct opposition to developing prosperous businesses, but also because survival has now become a bit of a game of predicting how the beer world is changing. And then doing what is necessary by leaning into it…
The phrase we heard earlier in the year was “Survive ‘til 25” summarising the attitude of many brewers. Fingers crossed.
When we see that Dermot Kennedy has published another of his heavily-illustrated pub history posts, we clap our hands in delight. The third part of his series on Art Deco pubs arrived this week with a focus on suburban pubs:
Nottingham has no fewer than 7 art deco pubs and in the Crown Hotel includes one that was possibly the first to be built in the moderne style anywhere in the UK. W.B. Starr & E.B.H. Hall had established themselves as the city’s main pub architects and had built or rebuilt twenty or so in the 1920s and early 1930s. None had been art deco, but in 1933 they designed the Crown Hotel for Home Brewery in a striking moderne style. The style was already common in cinemas, and was starting to make an impact on factories, housing and hotels but until now had not been applied to pubs.
Let the rejoicing continue! All About Beer has published an actual article, with actual text, instead of expecting us to listen to podcast episodes. Adrian Tierney-Jones went to Berlin in search of Berliner Weisse and… didn’t find much, actually:
It was reminiscent of a travel assignment to Leipzig when I excitedly told a hotel receptionist that I wanted to try Gose. His reaction was a quizzical smile and the word ‘Why?’… “Why” is a good word to describe the predicament of Berliner Weisse. Why is it such a minority style in its home city, especially as independent brewers around the world, including the United Kingdom, United States, Italy and even Taiwan, have made one?… For Oli Lemke, who started the eponymous brewery in 1999, it is almost obligatory for a Berlin brewer to produce a Berliner Weisse. There are more than 100 breweries in the city but it seems like Lemke is only one of three producing the style. The other two are Schneeeule and Berliner Berg, who according to their website have brought in a ‘newly brewed’ version of the style.
Blimey, Wigan looks like a good day out! Chris Dyson has written about his crawl around the pubs of the Greater Manchester (formerly Lancashire) town which was nearly scuppered by the first pub being too good:
Just around the corner, occupying a couple of arches in the railway bridge on which sits part of Wigan’s other railway station, North Western, is the suitably railway-themed Wigan Central. I had called in here last time before getting the train home and remembered a good bar with a good atmosphere, then run by the former Prospect Brewery who were based in the town and a number of their beers had been available alongside a few guest ales. This time, with the house beer now brewed by Bank Top, several guests on hand pump on tap were augmented by several more as this current Wigan CAMRA Pub of the Year was hosting an Autumn Beer Festival! A second bar featuring hand pumps with a wall of keg beers was set up in the far room, I ordered a pint of the 3.4% It Belongs In A Museum on hand pump, a predictably very good pale ale from Sureshot (NBSS 3.5). I surveyed the festival beer list; there were some very good beers included on both cask and keg. This was not what I needed…
Our 2017 book 20th Century Pub has a chapter about community-owned pubs. We were, and are, fascinated by what motivates people to invest in, or play a part in running, their local pub. So the latest post on Paul Bailey’s blog (no relation) grabbed our attention with the title ‘We bought a pub’:
Even without the house-brewed beers the Swan [at West Peckham] is a destination pub in its own right, given its attractive location on the village green, at the crossroads of the Weald and Greensand ways… Despite this illustrious trading record, and in spite of the Swan remaining a successful pub and popular restaurant, the decision taken, just over a year ago by the current owner and licensee Gordon Milligan, to sell up and leave the trade after 24 years at the helm, sent shock waves through the tight-knit local community. Fortunately, rather than seek to convert it into housing, Mr Milligan approached the villagers and asked if they wanted to take the pub on. Their answer was a resounding “yes”, so a steering group was set up with the aim of purchasing the building collectively for the village… I’m now the proud owner of 250 shares in the Swan Community Project Ltd.
Martin Taylor has been in Bath and makes a passionate case for The Star Inn as one of the wonders of the world:
Now, let it be said I always speak the truth. On first sip, this flat Bass wasn’t as softly stunning as 2 years ago, when I rated it in my Top 5 pints of all time (only 26 in that)… But the Star itself just felt otherworldly… The symphony in brown and red played out around us… Folks, there are people who profess to like pubs and beer who have never been here!
It’s interesting that one of the commenters refers to it as a “tourist trap”. It isn’t. For one thing, it’s not especially friendly towards tourists, and is quite a way from the bits of town where tourists hang out. We also insist on the distinction between tourist attraction (a thing you should see, that has a purpose and existence outside tourism, like the Hofbräuhaus) versus a tourist trap – something that only exists for the purpose of fleecing rubes, like Madame Tussaud’s.
Finally, from BlueSky, a very pretty glass of beer indeed…
Draft Stille Nacht 2019 at 't Brugs Beertje. Absolutely sensational, and far better than when fresh five years ago. Cheers! 🍻 🇧🇪
— Jezza (@bonsvoeux1.bsky.social) November 8, 2024 at 5:10 PM
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For more good reading check out Stan Hieronymus’s round-up from Monday and Alan McLeod’s from Thursday.