Brewing up history and modernity

Visiting Barcelona for tours around the enormous modern Damm facility at the El Prat brewery next to the airport and then the original Old Brewery in the centre of the city, the two experiences could not have been more different. In the former the use of cameras and filming devices is strictly off limits for…

Read More

Book Review – ‘The Firkin Saga’ by David Bruce

Back in 2001 I was enjoying breakfast with pub wizard David Bruce at Simpson’s on the Strand when he told me about his latest venture the Capital Pub Company that was fundraising at the time. But he deterred me from investing a few quid in it because as an impoverished journalist I would not benefit…

Read More

Smaller brewers need relief

Visiting Battersea Beer festival in 1987-88 was a revelation for all drinkers present that year because it was the first time a truly golden ale had been produced in the UK. Exmoor Gold from Exmoor Ales in Somerset created a buzz in south west London because it was a lip-smacking departure from the ubiquitous brown…

Read More

Rise of the silver servers

When the shuttered Four Sisters pub reopened as The Pocket in Islington with an expansive beer list, I made the short tube trip south for a visit during its opening week. During this early evening jaunt when the pub was particularly quiet, I enquired how things were going to the couple of 20-something’s serving behind…

Read More

Time to scale back on food in pubs

When the smoking ban came into force in 2007, one of the biggest impacts was the widespread move by pub operators to introduce food into pubs that had previously never ventured further into the realm of selling solids than offering crisps and peanuts. It was a revolutionary period that made the once smoky, boozy environments…

Read More

Desert Island Pubs – Adam Mayers

Adam Mayers, managing director, Hydes 1. Earliest memory of a pub you can recall? My earliest memory of a pub is visiting the Wellington on Tranch road in Pontypool. Known under the nickname the “Sally” and now renamed as that. I remember drinking Coke from a glass bottle and may have even had chicken and chips…

Read More

Rooms for improvement

Settling into the bar of the Royal Forest pub on the edge of Epping Forest on a gloriously sunny Friday evening ahead of a meal in its restaurant would have been a real treat in itself for my family, but we also had the added enjoyment of being only feet away from our comfortable rooms…

Read More

Desert Island Pubs – Richard Ferrier

Richard Ferrier, CEO, Heartwood Collection 1. Earliest memory of a pub you can recall? My earliest memory of a pub is sipping a J2O and eating Scampi Fries on the wall outside the ‘Captain’s Wife’ in Sully near Cardiff where I grew up. We would walk the dog along the seafront looking out over the…

Read More