The gastropub is no more – its death officially declared this week by the Good Food Guide, which has banned the term from the pages of its 2012 edition and all subsequent editions. According to the Independent on Sunday, quoting Elizabeth Carter, consultant editor for the guide, the term had become a byword for an… Read More The gastropub is dead – official
Not so long ago, almost the only beerily worthwhile angle to holidaying in Greece was the excellent range of beer shampoos available in most Greek corner grocery shops. Now the country, despite its economic problems, seems to be in the midst of a microbrewery naissance: on holiday in Stoupa, a lovely village halfway down the… Read More Greece gets zythophilia
There’s an amazing amount of inaccurate, made-up rubbish that has been written about the history and origins of IPA, or India Pale Ale. So read on, and turn yourself into an IPA mythbuster for #IPA day: Myth 1: “IPA was invented by a brewer called George Hodgson from Bow, in East London.” Fact: Hodgson was… Read More Four IPA myths that need to be stamped out for #IPAday
This is not going to make me popular in Pontypridd, and it will go down very badly in St Albans. But Otley Brewing Company, the widely admired Welsh brewery, and Roger Protz, doyen of British beer writers, have got together to revive a vanished classic and brewed entirely and utterly the wrong sort of beer.… Read More Argh no! Otley and Protz in Burton Ale fail!
I don’t normally get involved in exploring American beer history, not just because there are people far better qualified than me to do the job, but also because I know how easily I could make a fool of myself for lack of local knowledge: like the American who wrote a book about Guinness and said… Read More American Brown Ale: the pre-prohibition years
A new white wine brand has been launched that is being specifically targeted at men. The new wine, which is being sold under the name Beemer™, is meant to get away from what marketers say is the too “feminine” image of white wine, and widen the appeal of the drink so that men become white… Read More New white wine launched for men
The news that Meantime Brewing Company has appointed Nick Miller, former managing director at SAB Miller UK’s operating company, Miller Brands, as its new chief executive is the most significant event in the UK brewing industry this year. (Incidentally, I love the iconography of the photo of Nick and Alastair Hook, Meantime’s founder and brewmaster:… Read More What it means now it’s Miller Time at Meantime
Really, the Burton Mail should be ashamed of itself. This is the local newspaper in what is, historically, at least, the beer capital of Britain, Burton upon Trent, still the home to two major brewing companies, Coors and Marstons, and it’s running factoid alcohol scare stories designed to pander to the latest moral panic, that… Read More Stupid scaremongering at the Burton Mail
I used to think Americans said “tidbit” because of some squeamishness over the word “tit”, but in fact “tidbit” is the older or original version, and it is the British who have been the lexical corrupters. (And in any case, if you believe the Oxford English Dictionary, which I’m not sure I do, “tit =… Read More An Imperial Stout cocktail and other titbits
It was terrific to see a positive story on the BBC about beer, with the coverage of the Great Baltic Adventure, the project to take Imperial Russian Stout back to Russia by boat, just the way it was done 200 and more years ago. But what’s this claim here, at 1:05 by BBC reporter Steve… Read More Imperial Stout – Russian or Irish?
