Stools are cool

I had the privilege of being asked my views last year on what elements I’d like to incorporate into my local pub. London brewer Fuller’s had recently acquired a lovely Victorian boozer, The Great Northern Railway Tavern, which it intended to restore to its former glory. Rather than rushing into anything, Fuller’s sensibly canvassed some…

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Retail Insider Awards Evening with Matching Beers

Beer Insider emerged following the success of sister site Retail Insider and the latter has held its first Awards evening, which involved beers matched to the individual awards, which was handled by The Bottle Shop. The first ‘Retail Insider Transforming Retail Awards’ was held at Sourced Market in Marylebone, central London, and the first award…

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New Vintage Ale House pushes beer boundaries in Balham

It seems that hardly a day goes by when I don’t either visit or hear about a bar, pub, bottle shop or even a cafe that has a beer selection that I would have travelled the length of the country to visit five years ago. The reality is that today we are inundated with quality…

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Innis & Gunn expanding the proposition

So the story goes…William Grant & Sons wanted a beer to season its whisky barrels that would then be imparted on the taste of the final spirit. The subsequent ale, produced at the Caledonian Brewery in Glasgow, was originally thrown away but the workers at the distillery found it rather palatable as it took on…

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Is it a pub, a bar, a Chinese restaurant…?

Walking in off Berwick Street in London’s Soho you are hit by four gleaming copper tanks of Pilsner Urquell. This is no ordinary pub. Duck & Rice is restaurateur Alan Yau’s newly opened joint. You initially can’t work out whether it is a pub, a bar, a high class hotel toilet (with its marble effect…

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Non-alcoholic beer you can actually drink

It’s hardly outrageous to damn non-alcoholic beer. Not only is it pointless but it has never tasted any good – despite numerous attempts by a variety of brewers who should have just given up on it years ago. Well, the first truly tasty zero-alcohol ale may have finally appeared. Actually it is probably not really…

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Forget the tea – it’s Beer and Buns

How could they have got it so wrong? The Pale Ale, the IPA, and the German-style Kolsch from Japanese brewers Hitachino Nest and Niigata Beer Co. bear no similarities to the beer styles they are modelled on. But this doesn’t matter one jot because these three beers are enjoyable and unique in their own right.…

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A little bit of Italy in Chiswick

The cafés, galleries, wine bars and fromageries on the leafy lanes of Chiswick in the spring sunshine can sometimes make you feel like you’re on holiday on the continent. At The Italian Job (@TheItalianJobW4), a new, Italian craft beer gastropub, there is no question which country you’ve been transported to. For many people, Italian beer means…

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Lokal – a top Prague concept

    For me Lokal in Prague gets that balance between beer and food perfectly. It’s something that can often be a problem in the UK as we all know gastropubs simply aren’t pubs. They don’t work. Lokal is a mini chain that dispenses beer from the famed tanks – with both the Pilsner and…

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