Desert Island Pubs – Jonathon Swaine

Beer Insider is pleased to bring you the latest in a new monthly column, supported by Black Sheep Brewery, involving leading figures in pubs and brewing, along with the industry’s wider eco-system, revealing the pubs that have meant the most to them over their careers. These are their Desert Island Pubs. To add to their…

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How much fizz is left in the ‘no and low’ beer market?

When staring out the window of Pret A Manger off Trafalgar Square recently, nursing a coffee between meetings, I was distracted by a taxi passing by with a bright advertising banner running along its side. The glitzy campaign was for a new premium non-alcoholic lager called Bero, which included the image of a shiny gold…

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Desert Island Pubs – Simon Emeny

Beer Insider is pleased to bring you a new monthly column, supported by Black Sheep Brewery, involving leading figures in pubs and brewing, along with the industry’s wider eco-system, revealing the pubs that have meant the most to them over their careers. These are their Desert Island Pubs. To add to their difficulties choosing their…

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It’s all in the timing

Just before Christmas, I enjoyed a very lengthy lunch at Sweetings in the City of London. It’s an institution, and I’m embarrassed to say that it was my first visit, despite working in the City for eight years in the early 1990s. Regardless of when I’d visited, it would no doubt have been exactly the…

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You want to go where everybody knows your name 

In the halcyon days of the craft beer revolution, a trip to the Beavertown Brewery on an industrial estate in Tottenham for its beer festivals was a real treat. They became increasingly popular, and queues down the road to enter became commonplace as growing numbers of drinkers were attracted by the impressive range of beers…

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Trouble brewing for independents

Sitting at the bar in my local pub, the Great Northern Railway Tavern, earlier in the year, I noticed the regular guest lager produced by the brewery I co-owned, Bohem Brewery, had been replaced by a specially-brewed lager for the pub by Gipsy Hill Brewery. The deal had just been struck and the sales guy…

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London Village Inns in five dishes & beers

Beer Insider took a trip down to Brixton to visit the Crown & Anchor and neighbouring sister site Booma, which serves up Indian food, and meet owner Martin Harley. During a meal consisting of some of its top dishes matched with great beers Martin, owner of London Village Inns, ran me through the story of…

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Are youngsters really drinking less alcohol

Some years back I did some work with Dunnhumby – the data gurus behind the Tesco Clubcard – and it was enlightening to see the massive discrepancies between what people believed they had purchased and what the till data showed they had actually bought. When customers were surveyed, the number of supposed buyers of organic…

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The changing face of wet-led pubs

Reports of the death of the traditional drinking pub have been greatly exaggerated, judging by the levels of trading across the category that shows a relatively healthy trend, as drinkers are increasingly choosing the pub rather than late-night venues including nightclubs and bars. Wet-led pubs have enjoyed a 10% increase in like-for-like sales on a…

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Book Review – Brewing in Manchester and Salford

Manchester and Salford are unusual in retaining a batch of long-established family brewers whereas in other major cities and conurbations they have long since been consumed by global operators. So what’s the story?   The recently-published ‘Brewing in Manchester and Salford’ by Deborah Woodman (from Amberley Publishing) seeks to give you the answer to this…

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