UK brewers – points to note from US craft beer market

These are seismic times for the beer industry as smaller craft brewers find themselves on the shopping lists of the big players – notably AB InBev (ABI), which has been buying up small rivals on an almost weekly basis. This is a well known trend and is most prevalent in the US but what is…

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Around Town with Amateur Drinker

Apologies for the delayed arrival of this latest monthly review of beer proceedings in the capital but I got waylaid with a rather heavy workload. Anyway, here we go: It is fair to say that The Kernel is in the vanguard of the London scene: they were among the first of the new wave of…

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Beavertown growing up while still mixing it up

There’s an underlying theme at Beavertown brewery in North London – a keen appetite to mix things up. This includes lots of cross fertilisation of ideas through collaboration with other brewers, hosting massively successful events that bring the beer community together, and more recently a mixing of cultures in its fledgling barrel-ageing programme. This thinking…

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Thoughts from Amateur Drinker

  In a month of festivals, tap-takeovers and most importantly great beers, the best news is that Fridays will never be the same again as The Bottle Shop began opening in the evening. Not only will be this be a brilliant venue to start the weekend, but hopefully it will also reduce some of the…

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Redemption Brewery has brewhouse it deserves

Redemption Brewery was one of the early London craft brewers that helped kick-start the renaissance in the capital’s brewing scene, which had lain largely dormant for far too many years. In a sign that it has really grown up the brewery has just moved from it’s old site to a new unit in Tottenham (on…

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Northern Tap to replace Cider Tap at Euston Station

The Cider Tap at London’s Euston Station is to be replaced by the Northern Tap that will celebrate British beers from outside the capital, predominantly from the north of the city. This will coincide with a complete overhaul of the site, which will also involve a major investment in its sister pub the Euston Tap…

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Innovation is not just black and white

General consensus seems to be that innovation belongs to the young and agile while the old timers are all past it. Brewers are deemed no different in this polarised view. While the young craft brewers are pushing the envelope, the larger brewers are viewed as pushing up the daisies. Charles Wells is a brewer of…

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Thoughts from Amateur Drinker

My last piece ended with “Finally here’s hoping that the next column in not lamenting the failure of a very promising N17 event to issue tickets”. Unfortunately, although the beer was superb, this was indeed the case. I had suggested to Beavertown that the event should be all ticket. However, they dismissed the idea, as…

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Micro-pub 2.0 – The Other Room

Micro-pubs are a terrific phenomenon and we are seeing them spring up all over the country. With their re-using of former empty high street premises, compact size, cask-only beer range, no music, and no food they are a welcome addition to the pub scene. But they are not for everybody – for the very reasons…

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Around town with Amateur Drinker

Fortunately January has been far from dry here, as there has been some really superb beer and events I would have missed out on.   However, I have to start with the main news as another takeover saw Camden Town Brewery give up its independence. It may have been the timing, in the slow news…

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