newsnuggets Archives - Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog

Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer and pubs we’ve spotted in the past 7 days. This week: Woolworths, Lille, polling, and more.

First, a check-in on BrewDog. The Scottish craft brewery was once so beloved by its fans that they would go to war for it on social media. These days, not so much, thanks to a bunch of cultural and ethical screw-ups. But what does that matter as long as business is good, right? Well…

In the past couple of weeks there’s been a trickle of stories about poor quality control (“basic hygiene issues”) and poor financial performance: “While revenues grew, from £321m to £355m, costs increased more rapidly and the company also had to write-down the value of underperforming bars… The result was that pre-tax losses jumped from £30m to £59.2m in the year to the end of 2023…”

The downside to creating a ‘fanbase’ which is emotionally invested in your brand is that you draw scrutiny from civilians that other businesses tend to escape.

SOURCE: Bruno Kelzer on Unsplash.

For the Pursuit of Hoppiness newsletter on Substack Michael Donaldson has written what, to British readers, might feel like a dispatch from an alternate universe:

Craft breweries across New Zealand are worried one of their major sales channels is under threat after Woolworths… announced a massive overhaul of their beer offering… I’ve spoken to several people over the past week who are concerned about the ruthless nature of the proposed changes, with Woolworths set to delete a wide range of products while demanding higher margins than many smaller breweries can achieve while remaining competitively priced… [Many] breweries were thrown into a panic as they had beer in tanks, ready to be packaged and delivered to Woolworths, and suddenly were told it had been “deleted”, effective immediately.

Brique, Lille. SOURCE: Tim Thomas/Beers Europe.

We visited Lille a few times, years ago, because (a) it was on Eurostar and (b) it was relatively beery, as bits of France go. But a detailed report from Tim Thomas for Beer Europe highlights that, as in many cities across Europe, things have changed considerably in the past decade. Specifically, there are now the almost obligatory suburban taprooms:

Without a car or a bicycle, all travel to visit Brasserie Cambier in Croix and nearby Heavy Brique, a Brique House taproom, just across the southern boundary of Croix in Villeneuve-d’Asque, was by public transport and on foot… Tim visited [Brique] on a wet Tuesday evening after a ride on the R2 tram (green line) from its northern terminus, Roubaix Euroteleport to Bol d’Air, near the southern end of Parc Barbieux, followed by a 1 kilometer walk westwards… Arriving soon before the end of the daily 5pm-7pm ‘Happy Hour’, a 50cl glass of Superdelic Wanderlust NEIPA, reduced from 7.50 to 6 euros, a collaboration between Brique House and Berlin’s Unverhopft, was the first beer of the trip, enjoyed at a small table by a side end of the bar.

Glynn Davis at Beer Insider has quite rightly held up a hand to say, whoah, wait one second – are we really sure young people are drinking less?

Some years back I did some work with Dunnhumby – the data gurus behind the Tesco Clubcard… When customers were surveyed, the number of supposed buyers of organic bananas was impressive. But when they were questioned on why they had not bought the organic variety on their last half dozen shopping trips, there was always a reason – they were short of money that week, they were too ripe another week, and they picked up the wrong ones on another occasion… This strikes me as having some correlation with the purchase and consumption of alcohol right now, especially among young people. An ongoing deluge of surveys would have us believe they are all on the path to ultimately drinking zero alcohol. As many as 39% of 18 to 24-year-olds claim not to drink alcohol at all, according to YouGov, and while there is now undoubtedly a greater awareness of alcohol in the context of mental health and wellness, I’d question the validity of the responses from this young cohort to such surveys.

Now, for our part, we don’t really doubt these surveys, because what we hear from them is very much backed up by our own observations of younger friends, relatives and colleagues. Data is backed up by anecdotes.

Oktoberfest. SOURCE: Kimia at Unsplash
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Last year we wrote about how Oktoberfest beer didn’t really do it for us. Now, Jeff Alworth says, actually, it’s great – at least, the American take – and explains why he thinks so in some detail:

To the average American, Oktoberfest refers to an orangey-amber German beer that comes along in the fall. Examples are legion. But to the more educated drinker, Oktoberfest is really “festbier”—the stuff the chosen Six are allowed to serve in Munich at the hallowed grounds of Theresienwiese. That beer is helles-pale, with a bit of an elevated ABV for the celebratory spirit. Examples of this beer, at least stateside, are rare, and usually couched in obscure language… Which is the real Oktoberfest? It’s the wrong question. Beer styles evolve. Munich doesn’t get a veto over Muncie.

(Ooh, we bet he was pleased with that line. We would be.)

SOURCE: Quare Swally.

As we approach the wrap up, let’s visit a couple of pubs. First, Roy at Quare Swally has written about a particular favourite pub of his in Ireland – one which, as he puts it, makes him think “I love this place, I wish I lived closer to here”:

Walking in through the front door you’re enveloped in traditional Irish pub surroundings – wooden ceiling, brown floor tiles, early-mid 20th century beer marketing memorabilia adorning the walls with local beer taps at the bar. When I say local, it’s exactly that. The Roadside Tavern and adjoining Burren Storehouse are the only places where you’ll be able to drink draught beer from Burren Brewery, which is located above the pub…

And, secondly, Martin Taylor has been to a pub in the City of London that he says is in his top 100:

New Guide entry No. 2 (of 2) in the City of London… Blimey, a CAMRA 3 star pub interior; how has this gin palace marvel evaded my (and GBG) attention for so long?

Finally, from BlueSky, one of those pubs that makes you think about ideas of ‘place’…

I'm in Corralejo in Fuerteventura, in a pub that serves Tennent's, Peroni, Guinness (from cans) and various bottled beers, shows football, Rugby league and horse racing, and feels like I stepped through a portal back to England, except it's still as hot as Fuerteventura. Only slightly bizarre.

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— Andreas Krennmair (@akrennmair.bsky.social) October 12, 2024 at 7:58 PM

And if you’re thinking about giving BlueSky a go, here’s a good place to start.

For more good reading check out Stan Hieronymus’s round-up from Monday (welcome back, Stan!) and Alan McLeod’s from Thursday.

Here’s all the beer and pub news, opinion and pondering from the last week that’s made us sit up and take notice, from eccentric Belgians to Berliner Weisse.

For Draft magazine Kate Bernot has taken an in-depth look (1,700 wds) into the use of roots, bark and other bits of tree in the outer limits of brewing experimentation:

Wood is not uncommon in a brewhouse; beers aged on fresh oak or made with spruce tips are familiar. But brewers, especially those in arborous domains, have recently begun to eye entire trees—bark, leaves, sap, needles and all—as ingredients. Juniper, cedar, birch, Ponderosa pine, white fir and other timbers all confer their own distinct flavors, from vanilla to citrus to herbs. More than that, brewers say the final beers express the rusticity of their surroundings, that desirable sense of place that has led to a revival in foraging and local sourcing.

By Breandán Kearney from Belgian Smaak.

At Belgian Smaak British Guild of Beer Writers’ Beer Writer of the Year Breandán Kearney has profiled the enigmatic Dany Prignon of Brasserie Fantôme. It’s an interesting long read (2,000 wds) altogether but it was this bit that really made us spit out our cocoa:

And it’s odd that as the owner and production manager of a brewery, he doesn’t even drink beer. “I don’t like it,” he says, as if this assertion were completely normal. “I taste it, but I prefer soft drinks.”

Here’s all the writing about beer, pubs, beer glasses and gasholders that’s caught our eye in the last week.

Here’s all the beer and pub news, opinion and pondering from the last week that’s made us sit up and take notice, from eccentric Belgians to Berliner Weisse.