News, nuggets and longreads 22 February 2025: Soft Rains Will Fall

Every Saturday we highlight the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got brewery news, beer mugs, and Bohemians.

First, some brewery takeover news: Crafty Brewing (founded in Surrey in 2014) has taken over Ridgeway (Oxfordshire, 2002). This is an example of the kind of consolidation among indies that we’re surprised doesn’t happen more often, as breweries a generation apart enter new phases of their stories (growth, succession) at about the same time. We’ll be honest, though, and say that (a) we’d assumed Ridgeway was founded much earlier than 2002 and (b) had disappeared years ago.

Meanwhile, SIBA has published its latest set of stats on UK brewery numbers, and says that a hundred have closed in the past year. According to their numbers, there are now 1,715 breweries in operation.

Of course, breweries come and go. Beerblefish of Walthamstow announced its imminent closure this week; while a short distance away, in Leyton, Queer Brewing has opened its own production facility, having brewed elsewhere for several years.

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We’re pleased to see another article emerge from behind the (totally justified) paywall at Ferment, the very decent magazine that accompanies a beer subscription service. Katie Mather has shared on Substack an article that appeared in the December 2024 edition, not merely defending the presence of children in pubs but actually arguing that “babies belong in pubs”:

In he comes, round feet and chunky legs first, bursting through the front door of our local pub. Conversations halt mid-sentence, dogs look up from their sleepy carpet naps — the baby of the pub has arrived. There are many children that frequent this pub, but only one baby who commands the attention and respect of his people so totally. His ginger hair like lit birthday candles, his hands grasping and waving, he is the pub’s favourite patron, and this evening, everyone is blessed with his presence… As his mum carries him to the bar, men of all ages gather around to tell him how well his toothypegs are getting on. He smiles beatifically at his audience, grinning gummily, the pearly-white objects of approval getting a real airing. Clever boy! Stunning boy!

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At Irish Beer History Liam K has focused on the distinctive handled mug that was a key part of the Harp Lager brand in the 1960s and 70s:

It is probably fair to say that there are two well-known glass beer tankards engrained in the memories of Irish beer drinkers. One is – of course – the Guinness Waterford Barware tankard that is familiar to anyone with even a vague awareness of the company’s branded glassware beyond the tulip pint glass, or who has seen its image on retro signs and advertisements, or perhaps on those old-style dispensers that have become quite popular again on certain bar counters. But those fragile, thin-walled mugs had a tougher and heftier cousin in the same sixties and seventies period, which was of course the Harp tankard. Like the Guinness tankard, it was used in Harp’s marketing campaign, especially on beermats where its outline in yellow and blue stood out from others. It was seen to be drank by Vikings, and it and its contents were dreamed about by sweaty men in foreign lands longing for a piece of home, and a look from Sally O’Brien. It is certainly an iconic piece of glassware by any standard terms.

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Between them Andreas Krennmair and ‘Velky’ Al Reece have this week shared a couple of in-the-weeds nuggets on the history of lager brewing. At Daft Eejit Andreas has written about Anton Dreher’s patent on pasteurisation which he was able to read and translate using an AI tool trained on old handwriting:

Reading the patent itself was actually quite interesting: it specifically acknowledges “the famous French chemist” Pasteur’s work on pasteurisation of beer and wine to improve their shelf life and transport stability for export into tropical countries. One limitation they still had was it required sturdy packaging, which at the time were either well-sealed stoneware or extra thick glass bottles, in which the beer had to be pasteurised. Otherwise, all the carbon dioxide would escape, or even worse, the packaging would not withstand the internal pressure… The specific novelty of [Dreher’s] approach, according to the Imperial Privilege, is that it allowed pasteurisation of beer for export in any vessel instead of just sturdy bottles.

Meanwhile, Al has been digging in old issues of the official organ of the Bohemian brewing industry in search of mentions of Josef Groll, the brewmaster often credited with creating golden lager at Pilsner Urquell:

While the use of English malting technology was essential to the creation of Pilsner Urquell, the second reference to Josef Groll in Der Böhmische Bierbrauer would suggest that they were not the first Bohemian brewery to adopt this method of malting barley. If I understand the text above correctly, Pilsner Urquell purchased their malting equipment, which we know to have used the English air drying method, from a brewery called Sauer in Haida, modern day Nový Bor. That claim by itself begs the question, what was being brewed by Sauer in Nový Bor?

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At Real Ale, Real Music Chris Dyson has put together a roundup of heritage pubs in Yorkshire, starting with The Big Six in Halifax:

One of the best-known pubs in Halifax, it is unusual in that it is situated in the middle of a narrow terraced street, Thomas Street, and whilst it is not a listed pub, behind its unassuming outer walls lies an attractive interior of historic importance. It was built in 1857 as a beer house in the middle of a row of back-to-back cottages and was known back in those days as the Bowling Green Inn. However, from the early 1900s it was often called the ‘Big Six’ by locals due to the brand name of the mineral water and hop ale company which operated on the premises around the turn of the century. The pub was bought by local brewers Ramsdens in the 1920s, and much of the layout and look of the pub dates back to their stewardship…

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Who can resist a lede like this: “This week’s pub is one that we’ve both been asked to profile repeatedly, and, in nearly equal measure, begged not to reveal it as a secret hidden gem.” That’s the opening of Lisa Grimm’s latest post at Weirdo Guide to Dublin Pubs, reviewing Briody’s:

Solo pints in some Old Man Pubs seem to turn into social occasions – looking at you, The Boh – which is all well and good when you’re in the mood for that, but it felt much more optional at Briody’s – it would have been easy to slip into conversation about the racing, but it felt equally acceptable to relax on one’s own… A pint of Scraggy Bay at Briody’sAlso unlike many other Old Man Pubs, there was an independent beer option: Kinnegar’s Scraggy Bay. In some pubs that don’t have that kind of turnover for non-Guinness options, they aren’t always as fresh, but there were no such issues here. Guinness was, of course, plentiful…

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Finally, from YouTube, the BBC Archive has outdone itself with this 50-minute 1977 documentary about the state of British beer:

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