General
(Constrained) Beer Travels with Adrian Tierney-Jones
I belong to a Facebook group whose members post old photos of my home town — school pics whose young and eager-looking pupils are now in care homes, the beach on whose promenade stroll carefree Edwardians unaware of the express train of war coming their way, and various other nostalgic shots guaranteed to make most…
Read MoreJumping on board the bus
When I was at school I used to get my smartest mate to read through the rules of any board games I bought so he could then show me how to play it. This saved me a lot of time and effort while he got to test his intellect. I was reminded of this great…
Read MoreBeer Travels with Adrian Tierney-Jones
I arrived in Newport mid-afternoon, parked the car outside the hotel. The sound of Newport was the sound of screeching seagulls and barking sea lions, while the smell was of the briny sea and rotting fish (down on a deck below the harbour a seagull pecked at a salmon’s head), alongside the catch of roasting…
Read MoreDrinking in Czech lager and history
On the edge of the Czech capital Prague within one of a cluster of historic buildings is housed the Břevnov Monastery Brewery whose output is a mix of traditional lagers, which the former monks would recognise, alongside some newer styles. Pulling open the doors on the long structure emblazoned with the welcoming words ‘Pivovar’ (which…
Read MoreBeer no longer an afterthought
On a dark, wet, cold and windy evening the warm glow of a railway arch in the new Wood Lane development was extremely welcoming. The Prairie Fire BBQ Tap Room is the first tenant to move into a row of over 30 arches and our welcome felt even warmer by the choice of 16 draught…
Read MoreBeer Travels with Adrian Tierney-Jones
Sorry about this, but I like. No make it love. I love beer. I am unapologetic in my love of beer and the pubs and bars where I drink it with the gusto and bravado of a buffalo running free on the range. Let’s step back a second. Why do I feel the need to…
Read MoreThe party’s over…
Not that long ago, labels on smaller brewers’ bottles looked pretty much the same – dated imagery such as heraldry, dragons and other nonsense. The rationale for investing little effort into making products look more differentiated and professional was it gave the impression the brewer was more interested in superfluous marketing than producing beer. There…
Read MoreSize matters
In the days when large companies operated heavily subsidised staff canteens, I was working for an investment firm whose head office dining room was a ten-minute walk from my satellite building. Such was its exceptional value for money that some workers dined there every lunchtime but, alas, I was all too frequently diverted into the…
Read MorePast Glories
While the country’s new generation of craft brewers sit predominantly in unglamorous railway arches, their more established UK competitors are often housed in Victorian buildings that are things of great beauty – even to non-beer drinkers. Many were built to a distinctive tower model where the production process begins at the top of the…
Read MoreIron Maiden only here for the beer
Nobody would dispute Robinson’s is a very traditional regional brewery so it is all the more remarkable that it finds itself as the brewer of the rock band Iron Maiden’s beers that sells by the millions of units around the world. But maybe it is not that much of a surprise because the band’s…
Read More