News, nuggets and longreads 8 March 2025: Juggernaut

Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got cans, cycling, and collaboration brews.

First, a bit of news that isn’t, in itself, massively interesting: Peroni is to be made available in smaller ‘stubby’ cans on the UK market. What caught our attention is (a) the claim that this will appeal to younger drinkers and (b) the stats that are given on the popularity of cans:

Following feedback, the brand will move its 330ml cans from a slimline format to a ‘stubby’ can, reflecting changing shopper perceptions and preferences associated with premium lager… Cans have been growing their share of lager in recent years, reaching a value share of almost 64% in the latest year, up from 59.5% in 2022.

---

It’s fairly obvious (we hope she won’t mind us saying this) that Katie Mather wanted to write an article about the relatively obscure sport of cyclocross, with beer as a sidenote to justify its presence at Pellicle. But that’s fine with us, and definitely with Jess, who grew up with Radio 3 on in the kitchen (Dad) and the TV in the front room tuned to whatever tournament might be showing, from sumo wrestling to skiing (Mum). Katie’s piece picks up on a key feature of real Belgian beer culture – the dominance of pils:

In Belgium, the heartland of the sport, it’s a beloved national institution. Given the country’s deep love of beer, it makes sense that the two are inseparable… However, there are no oud bruins here; not a single lambic nor abbey tripel to be found at the bars around a European cyclocross event. If you want something other than lager, bring your own… Back in Namur I buy a round of Maes. It’s a nondescript 5.2% pils brewed by Alken-Maes (Carlsberg/Heineken) in Mechelen, the Flemish part of Belgium. They are a key sponsor of this particular race, and so despite being in the heart of beer nerd Disneyland, this is the only beer available. It’s fine. In fact, the sponsorship marketing works well—I now have a Maes cup to prove I was part of the crowd.

---

For the SIBA magazine Ruvani de Silva has written about the impact on brewing of the pushback against the concept of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in US politics:

As we ready ourselves for the advent of Trump 2.0 stateside, DEI has moved from the passé of 2024 to actively ugly, readily dismissed and ridiculed… Never forget, money is huge. Supporting breweries who are owned by and/or advocate for the rights of marginalised groups is one of the easiest ways to promote DEI – putting our money where our mouths are matters. Digging into resources on allyship and diverse beer history might sound daunting, but it will enable you to push back against misinformation and know how to support struggling activists, helping to allay burnout. Check out stats from reports by Sightlines and Dea Latis as to the fiscal importance of marginalised groups to the industry.

(Unfortunately, it’s in a flippy-flappy skeumorphic magazine format but is readable.)

---

A blog that is new to us, via Matthew Curtis, is Craft Beer Della. In her first post, Della writes about the value of all-women brewdays to mark International Women’s Day, and what might fuel the complaints against them:

The Ladies of Darkness brew day at Tom’s Tap in Crewe, was not only a coming together of strong, intelligent women. But it highlighted how much we need to move forward. Laura Hadland’s article about the day has been published via the CAMRA facebook page and website. It was met with incredible vitriol from some. The comments ranged from her body to the competence of the brewing. Just look through the CAMRA facebook, it’s painfully clear the comments under on posts surrounding IWD brews are heavily edited, deleted and sometimes just disabled. Leaving us all in no doubt as to why IWD days and education are needed.

(And here’s the piece by Laura Hadland reference in Della’s post.)

---

The latest edition of Lisa Grimm’s Weirdo Guide to Dublin Pubs is about Tapped, which used to be The Porterhouse Central. We’re fascinated by the Porterhouse brewery and chain, because it was one of our early encounters with ‘interesting’ beer, and also because we wrote about it in Brew Britannia. That it’s still going, and still updating its bars, is amazing:

While still a part of the larger Porterhouse group, it’s been styled very much more as a ‘bar’ vs a ‘pub,’ and it’s taken a while to settle. My first few visits were, it must be said, not great. The initial redesign felt rather like they’d ordered a ‘taproom’ kit from the early 2000s – lots of plastic, colours just a bit too bright and faux-industrial, and the service was, frankly, poor. Even on the relatively quiet times I’d stopped in, it seemed nearly impossible to get served…yet that was rather less difficult for the younger men around me, or so it seemed. Comparing notes offline at the time, it seemed quite a few other women had a similar experience, and so I essentially gave up trying for a few years.

(Yes, it was one of the bloopers in Brew Britannia. And, yes, this haunts us still, and keeps us awake at night, more than a decade on.)

---

Jane Stuart has been exploring the pubs of Buxton in Derbyshire, partly as a balm for her troubled soul. As always, her writing puts us write there in the thick of an away-from-home pub crawl, with all the logistical challenges and randomness they tend to create:

I’ve been struggling with my mental health of late. I’m going back to basics and trying to occupy my mind and time with things that I enjoy. This of course involves getting on a train, meeting pals, going on a pub crawl and writing about it for you… As if by magic, I spotted this [map of Buxton pubs] in the living room… I vaguely remembered this being handed to me by a man I met on my travels last year, who foisted it on me and said “here’s an idea for your next trip”. I had indeed been struggling for inspiration for a location; I also like to have an ‘occasion’ or purpose for a visit (the football is a good one, but I haven’t been going). I messaged Wendy and she was up for the trip (sadly Karina was otherwise engaged) so off to Buxton it was.

---

Finally, from Bluesky, news of a new Westmalle beer, with a very appealing photo:

Westmalle Duo is "available for a limited time only and exclusively on draft", so no doubt I'll develop a taste for it and & then it will suddenly be unavailable. But the other day I picked up a bottle of Westmalle Trappist Extra (4.8%) from Albert Heijn, which I shall be sampling very soon.

[image or embed]

— Anne Billson (@annebillson.bsky.social) March 7, 2025 at 8:33 AM

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