General
Why I forgave gastro-pubs
In early 2007 I visited young businessman Philip Mossop at Bacchus, the restaurant he had recently set up in Hoxton, London, which provided the platform for little-known Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes to make his name and go on to great success. My interest was in Mossops’ objective of delivering “fine dining in trainers” as he…
Read MoreUniting the brewing generations
Fuller’s move to purchase Dark Star brewery highlights the radically changing state of brewing. Traditional brewers have found it particularly tough in recent years to hold their ground against a massive number of small new craft breweries setting up shop. It feels like there is a new one opening up almost every day. This…
Read MoreSiren pays homage to Paddington for Draft House
Siren Craft Brew is creating a beer to celebrate the recent opening of Draft House’s Paddington pub – in homage to the bear – amid significant expansion at the Berkshire-based brewery. An experimental pilot brew Card’Oranges produced for a London-based festival is being used as the base for the ‘Paddington Beer’ that will be available…
Read MoreLack of equity at Brewdog?
” Equity For Punks : Whether they are punks or not, this certainly isn’t equity.” Beer Insider has previously raised concerns about crowd-funding and the activities of Brewdog. In particular, it related to some of the brewers’ actions that could potentially reduce the value of the equity (shares) held by thousands of small shareholders who…
Read MoreAround Town with Amateur Drinker
London Beer City week obviously dominates this month’s correspondence. The opening and closing events provided a perfect illustration of this year’s main theme: the exponential rise in demand for quality beer, and the response to the capacity constraints this produces. It is slightly churlish to criticise the Opening party held at Five Points as they…
Read MoreSometimes only pints will do
With so many different beers to drink these days (of serious strength) my consumption of pints has dwindled. But sometimes specific occasions demand beer being drunk in this quintessentially British measure – namely a UK cask ale served in a traditional Victorian pub. Step forward Fuller’s Bengal Lancer and the brewery’s Red Lion pub in…
Read MoreDemise of brewing’s grey accountants
The strangle hold of the bland and the tasteless is starting to weaken, replaced by an increasing number of flavour-packed beers that deliver real taste. The well-known pioneers of this revolution, alongside Innis & Gunn, are brewers such as Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Lagunitas, Brooklyn, BrewDog, Thornbridge and Camden Town. All brilliant brewers who place…
Read MoreCraft confusion on the beer shelves
Confusion reigns in the beer market with drinkers unsure what a craft beer looks like on retailers’ shelves, which is leading to some of the more clear-cut craft beers being perceived as more mainstream and therefore not potentially warranting a premium tag or possibly losing sales. A survey by Instantly of 3,000 consumers, who were…
Read MoreCommercial versus Craft
Head over to any fan-boy beer/brewing forum and you’ll easily find a discussion about how evil the big, commercial breweries are and how craft beer is awesome. But somehow the world can’t agree what actually defines craft – or mainstream in any meaningful way. For what it’s worth – here are some of my thoughts…
Read MoreThe art of exposing yourself
The explosion in the number of breweries and beers has been a welcome miracle for drinkers. Never in my lifetime has there been anything like so much choice. The challenge for brewers is battling it out for distribution. Even when you are close to your market it has become increasingly tough to achieve any sort…
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