Author: Boak & Bailey

Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got interviews, reviews, and pub guides.

First, some news about Jennings via Roger Protz on Bluesky:

More good news re #JenningsBrewery: not only escaped the clutches of Carlsberg-Britvic, the new independent owners have recruited Buster Grant as Head Brewer, highly respected from Batemans, planning to restore Cumberland Ale, Jennings Bitter & Snecklifter. #CockermouthBrewingHeritage

— Roger Protz (@rogerprotz.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 6:05 PM

There’s more on the story by Bridget Dempsey at the Times & Star:

Jennings Brewery was closed in 2022, but was acquired by Kurt Canfield, CEO of specialist engineering business Delkia, and Rebecca Canfield, proprietor of wine and spirits company Wine and the Wood in February… Since the announcement, Chris France has been appointed managing director, and Head Brewer, Buster Grant has been appointed – he is currently sourcing new brew kit to a more suited size for the relaunch of the brewery… The company hope to be brewing again by the end of May and beers available by early June.

There have been a couple of interesting interviews with UK brewing industry figures in the past week, which we’re going to bunch together. First, for The Grocer, James Beeson has spoken to Russell Bisset of that quiet powerhouse Northern Monk:

Bisset credits Northern Monk’s success partly to its ability to resonate across the north of the UK. Its strapline ‘fresh from the north’ – plus work with Leeds charities including Pyramid Arts and Holbeck Together – evokes a sense of community and pride that connects with beer drinkers, he believes… But Bisset insists the brand also has nationwide appeal… That’s why a chunk of the crowdfunding money will be used to open Northern Monk pubs up and down the country, starting in York and Edinburgh this year, and London in 2026.

Then, for The Morning Advertiser, Rebecca Weller has interviewed Georgina Young, Brewing Director at St Austell:

“You want to give the sales teams what they want, and it is harder for them to sell beer in the current climate with the cost of living, so there’s a lot of cost pressures… We’ve had the energy crisis, there was Covid, the prices of raw material last year and then this year it’s national insurance and the people crisis… But we all live in the state of ‘perma crisis’ and we all feel the pressure.”

In both pieces, it’s worth attempting to read between the lines. Being interviewed when you have a corporate line to toe, and a message to get across is tricky. For example, how do you get across that you’ve made improvements in the process without it sounding as if you’re saying the beers were bad before you arrived?

There’s a lot of talk about community pubs, and pubs and community… but how, in practice, can a pub help people integrate in a new town, and become part of a community? At Pellicle Rebecca Crowe has profiled The Little Taproom in Aigburth, Liverpool, and its owners Aggy Perreau and Si Perreau:

“We’ve always welcomed small local groups to use our space as best as possible,” Si says. “The book club in particular was born from a conversation with one of my best friends Alyssa, something of a book club impresario, that I’d like to host a book club and she happened to be thinking of starting one.” … Especially in cities, there is a loneliness epidemic. Moving to a new city as an adult with no support system makes it extremely difficult to meet people and make new friends outside of work. With this being the case, people are increasingly drawn to community hubs and extracurricular clubs where they can meet people and bond over shared interests, whether that’s crochet, literature, or bonding over unusual cask [ale].

The Beer Nut has been in Brussels on beer consumer union business and has used the time productively, turning out tasting notes for a wide selection of beers you might encounter in the Belgian capital this summer. Excuse the rather chunky quote from this one, which defied our attempts to edit:

I had lunch in Billie, the bar which has taken the space of beloved Brussels institution Monk. Mercifully, it has been left almost exactly as it was before, down to the menu and beer selection. After my spaghetti, I had the house beer, Billie. This is brewed by Belgoo, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s simply a rebadge of something else. It’s a straight up blonde ale of 5.8% ABV with lots of very typical Belgian flavours: both pithy and earthy; grapefruits and farmyards, with a sprinkling of white pepper spice for a savoury, saison-like, finish. It’s not an especially distinctive beer, but is classically constructed and made well… I had another from Belgoo at the Wolf food market, where they run the brewery. Belgoo Hoppy Pils is beautifully clear and golden. There’s a slightly worrying hint of perfume about the aroma but the flavour goes full-on citrus, with zesty lemon up front, followed by a gentler satsuma or kumquat effect. That’s set on a very simple malt base, properly lager-clean and nicely full-bodied, as one would expect at 5% ABV. To me, it comes across as something in the Italian pilsner style, but regardless of nomenclature it’s very tasty and easy-drinking. Before this trip I didn’t think I liked Belgoo’s beers. These two gave me pause, and indicated why breweries’ beers are often worth revisiting.

There’s also a second post focusing on sour beers, to complete the overview.

How’s the beer selection at your local supermarket? ‘Velky’ Al Reece isn’t very impressed by what he finds at his on his ritual, habitual ‘bimbles’ around the beer section:

I noted a single brown ale, the excellent Tavern Brown from Alewerks Brewing in Williamsburg, just the one amber ale, Satan’s Pony from Charlottesville’s South Street Brewery, and precisely zero milds, hefeweizens, Scottish ales, Czech style dark lagers, and even an utter dearth of Extra Special Bitter… At last year’s Great American Beer Festival there were 102 categories, and yet an alien visiting a supermarket in central Virginia would be forgiven for believing beer was called IPA, and that was pretty much all that was available.

Lisa Grimm’s exploration of Dublin pubs continues with notes on the beer garden at the Urban Brewing brewpub:

Although the branding is different, Urban Brewing is an outpost of Carlow Brewing, of O’Hara’s fame, which means that the core O’Hara’s beers are always available, the gorgeous Leann Folláin included… But there is a rotating lineup of exclusive and one-off beers brewed here on site as well – there’s often a mild that’s a delight in warmer weather, and a variety of interesting things to try… And the site is one of the main reasons to visit Urban Brewing: built into a Grade 1-listed former warehouse at Custom House Quay that has been here since at least 1820, it’s an excellent example of thoughtful and creative reuse of a heritage building – something we could really use more of in Dublin…

As we head into summer, it’s worth adding that Lisa has categorised her posts so you can easily find Dublin pubs with gardens or pubs that are good for ‘pavement pints’. She’s also pulled some of this together into a post about the best Dublin pubs for sunny days.

Finally, from Bluesky, evidence that CAMRA’s ‘month of mild’ is well underway, despite some rather warm weather in the UK…

The pub has 3 dark milds on out of 9 cask. Both impressive and ill advised.

— Mark Johnson  (@marknjohnson.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 8:04 PM

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

Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week – even when we’re on holiday. This time, we’ve got low-alcohol beer, fancy taps, and cheese.

First, some news we’d missed: Ilkley Brewery went into administration at the end of April. And some more recent news we did catch: a local investor has stepped into prevent the brewery’s closure. “The past 12 months have been extremely challenging,” Ilkley’s Luke Raven says in the official statement, which is a phrase we seem to be hearing a lot lately. We haven’t seen Ilkley beers around lately which is a shame as we generally liked them a lot. Let’s hope this new investment will lead to a revival in their availability.

Sticking with the BBC, Jude Winter from BBC Derby has written a piece explaining in some detail why non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beers might cost as much as ‘proper’ ones – which is a question we see pop up fairly frequently on social media. The piece includes quotes from various brewers, publicans, and drinkers:

[Dominic Driscoll of Thornbridge] said they use less malted barley to get a lower alcohol percentage but use more hops to make the alcohol-free beer taste better… “We use the same equipment but we use it in a different way,” explained Mr Driscoll… “Over the last few years we have developed our own method to create our low alcohol beer, everybody does it in a different way.” … Steve Kirk, owner of the Neptune pub in Derby, said buying alcohol-free products costs the “exact same price” as higher percentage products… “The fact we have to sell it at the same price as regular alcohol is not a great incentive for people to choose an alcohol-free alternative,” he added… Amit Gill, 24, from Derby, said: “The price would put me off if I’m being honest. If it was cheaper I think it would be more attractive to people.”

And while we’re sticking with things, let’s stick with the subject of alcohol-free beer. At Pellicle Emmie Harrison-West has written about a Scottish brewery that’s new to us, Jump Ship, which specialises in booze free beer, under the leadership of Sonja Mitchell. There’s lots of interesting stuff in the article, from legal battles with BrewDog to the process of recipe development, but this was the line that really stood out for us:

“Consumer confidence in this space is still fragile,” Sonja tells me. “And I want their first alcohol-free pint to be perfect.”

In other words, people assume alcohol free beer will be crap, or nasty, and you might only get one chance to change their minds. You could probably extend that philosophy to craft beer more generally.

Evan Rail has noticed something interesting: global beer culture seems to be going through a phase where how a beer is poured is as important, if not more important, than the beer itself. As he writes in an article at VinePair:

Across North America, the appeal of draft beer is increasingly becoming not just that it is on tap, but how it is being tapped. Want a tube of 100 percent foam? You can get that. Want a Czech-style šnyt, with about half foam and half liquid? No problem. Want a beer poured in the style of a small taproom in Tokyo during the late 1930s? We got you… So what does it mean that the discussion around beer is shifting from aspects of its production — formerly important marketing elements like celebrity brewers, innovative recipes, heritage malts, unusual yeasts, or new kinds of hops — and focusing instead on simply how that beer is being served to the customer?

At a slight tangent to beer Andreas Krennmair has shared notes on, and recipes for, three cheese-based snacks that go perfectly with beer:

I do love my Obazda, but even though it seems like a very straightforward dish to make, there can be a massive difference in how intense it tastes. I’ve had fairly bland ones, but a beer garden known for its good beer (at least in my experience) usually also serves a very good Obazda… If you want to make it yourself, there are some pretty good recipes available out there. According to legend, Obazda was invented in the 1920s by Katharina Eisenreich at the Weihenstephaner brewpub in Freising. Weihenstephaner brewery has a recipe for Obazda on their website which they claim is the original recipe.

Even non-cooks ought to find these simple recipes quite inspiring – especially as we enter the season of back garden beer gardens.

Adrian Tierney-Jones has stared long and hard at Duvel and reflected on it in four dimensions:

‘Horror, horror, horror.’ … The first words in a diary entry, Tuesday, October 20, 1987… ‘Had a disgusting hangover. Never again that poison Duvel.’ … What did the beer taste like then? I can write on what it tastes like now, but then it was — if my memory serves me right — a taste of difference, not easy perhaps, but difference. This was a totally different beer to what I was used to drinking. This was a new flavour experience, on a par with my first dish in what we used to call a Chinese restaurant at the age of 12 with my father on Saturdays when we used to see him. Or the time in Bologna when an interview with a chef and the subsequent meal I was served made me realise how good a beef ragù could be.

Finally, from Bluesky, a call for submissions for the next round of The Session…

New post up on Beer Diary — a call for submissions to the next round of The Session. During May, have a think about your favourite (for whatever reasons) depictions of beer and pubs in art and fiction (broadly defined). Post them wherever you post things, and I'll round them up.

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— Phil Cook (@beerdiary.bsky.social) May 5, 2025 at 8:05 PM

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

Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got trains, indie beer, and wallpaper.

First, some news, via John ‘The Beer Nut’ Duffy and the European Beer Consumers’ Union (EBCU). We’ve just spent several weeks travelling across Europe by train and bus, finally reaching Istanbul, only to learn that the best railway station pint anywhere on the continent can be found in Sheffield:

The European Beer Consumers Union (EBCU) has revealed the results of its European Travel Beer Survey, listing the best places to enjoy a quality beer while on the move… And the steel city has come out on top, with the beloved Sheffield Tap securing the best rail station title… EBCU chairman André Brunnsberg said: “We launched this survey to shine a light on how beer culture can thrive even in places of transit… Copenhagen and Sheffield show what’s possible when quality and locality are put first… These aren’t just places to wait for your flight or train – they’re places worth arriving early for.”

And here’s another bit of news, via Darren Norbury at Beer Today: the Exmoor Ales brewery has closed with production of the brands moving to Hog’s Back. Exmoor is a particularly significant first-wave UK microbrewery, founded in 1979, and with a claim to having produced the first ‘golden ale’, as early as 1986. Darren’s personal commentary is worth a read:

Hogs Back is an excellent business partner for Exmoor Ales and will be a good custodian of the brewery’s recipes. The alternative was never to see the Exmoor brands again, so we can be thankful. But other brewers struggling with costs may not be so lucky… Rupert Thompson, owner and chairman of Hogs Back Brewery, added: “In a very challenging market, one of the ways to survive and eventually prosper is to enter into close commercial collaborations with like-minded businesses. This allows for the sharing of resources, expertise and staff, and at the same time, saves a very popular local beer brand.”

One of the great strengths of Jeff Alworth’s writing is his ability to come up with a snappy phrase to summarise a trend or phenomenon. This week he suggested that craft beer has entered it’s “wallpaper phase”:

For the first couple decades, small breweries commanded a very committed, niche audience. These were the early-adopters who were excited to discover a new craft they could help birth. Beginning in the late aughts, craft beer started to break through and had enough of a profile to reach a broader audience. It wasn’t completely niche anymore; it was a new arena for the cool kids to enter… Today, most people have heard of craft beer; IPAs are about as exotic as as lattes. You can get it anywhere, and anywhere you go where beer is served, “craft” will be available, from dive bars to stadiums to the best restaurants. Nothing stays cool long, and so trends in alcohol have moved along. This is the way of things: once a product category reaches a certain threshold, it is too common to be cool. 

We spotted a run of blog posts that struck us as related this week. First, in the wake of the Campaign for Real Ale’s collective decision to prioritise support for independent breweries, Ed Wray asked: “Why should I care if a brewery is independent?”

I’ve drunk good and bad cask beer from both independent and multinational breweries. I’ve also worked at small and large breweries. The multinationals are undoubtedly evil but then again some of the… most awful people I’ve ever met have been running small breweries.

And Martin Taylor has been observing some signs of a buzz around Bass which got him thinking about its awkward status in relation to the new CAMRA policy:

I watched as a succession of unapologetic young folk arrived at the bar, went “ooh” and pointed at the red triangle… Should I have told them that CAMRA doesn’t consider it a “good” beer?

Finally, Phil Cook at Beer Diary has put down in writing thoughts we know have been bubbling away for a while around the constant pleading for governments to do more to support beer and brewing:

Your favourite thing might not be quite so beloved by others, and almost certainly isn’t objectively more important than theirs. I think this is important to keep in mind when advocating for something, so you don’t veer into expecting special treatment for your business or your hobby — if someone didn’t care as much as I do about this, would they still agree to what I’m proposing?

Actually, you can probably rope in Darren’s post about Exmoor and Jeff’s piece about “wallpaper”, too.

It’s one big conversation about where beer finds support, which beers get supported, and who should do the supporting.

If you want more links, and commentary on the links in this round up, check out our Patreon, where paid subscribers get a bit extra every week.

In his latest post Kevin Kain at Casket Beer gets to the root of something that’s often bugged us in articles about American ‘dive bars’: aren’t they often just describing… bars? The word ‘dive’ suggests, to us, that these are low-down places, or at very least notably down to earth. Perhaps Kevin’s criteria for dive bar status will irritate some people, sounding, as they do, rather close to the controversial conversation around ‘rough pubs’ in the UK. Still, we found it refreshing, and illuminating:

On the outside, a dive bar shouldn’t seem too inviting. In fact, its appearance should make you question whether the place is even open. Windows should be small or obstructed in some way to shield potentially nefarious behavior from the outside. Graffiti, stickers, and other items likely adorn the facade with little concern from the owners about how the place appears… There may be a neon sign in the window for a brewery. It may even be a smaller, local-ish brewery, leading you to think there might be some fancy beer inside. Don’t be fooled by this.

Neil Reid, AKA The Beer Professor, has written a proper broadsheet review of Bottle Conditioned, a new documentary about Lambic producers, which not only endorses the film but also serves as a summary of the history of Lambic, and of the film’s key themes and ideas:

On the one hand, there are producers like Cantillon’s Jean-Pierre Van Roy for whom tradition and protecting the heritage of lambic are important. Van Roy bemoans the emphasis that the younger generation of brewers’ place on “production, turnover, and profits”. According to him, “the beauty and aesthetics” of producing authentic lambic “doesn’t interest them”… Van Roy is also dismissive of the modern beer drinker – “When I see people drink beer nowadays, I’m horrified”, he says. He dislikes the way many of them analyze beer as they drink it, taking notes, lining up bottles and taking photographs. This, Van Roy says, is “atrocious”. At one point in the film, Van Roy laments that “I am simply from a different time”… 

Finally, on BlueSky, a statement from a hard-to-impress critic that Thornbridge ought to be putting on billboards…

Is Thornbridge Jaipur the best beer in the UK? Quite possibly. Definitely a contender. I wish I could find the  Burton Union version.

— Tandleman (@tandleman.bsky.social) May 2, 2025 at 10:42 PM

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