I wanted to talk about superstition this Halloween – about the small rituals we impulsively prick into our existence, sustaining a sense of meaning, momentarily suspending us from reality. They’re personal and they’re private, and unsurprisingly in the world of brewing, a chiefly technical profession in this day and age, I couldn’t find anyone willing […]
Part 2: Madrid
This post follows on from Part 1: Local hops in Castille and León. Our trip to Madrid taught us what “Craft” means in Spanish. Eight years ago, the nebulous idea of craft beer gained structural integrity in Madrid, when the capital’s first independent bottle shop opened on Calle Ruda close to the cathedral and El […]
British Cuisine
A conversation in Spain about British food. “Why don’t British people have a cuisine?” asks our guide Oscar as we sit, misted by automatic air coolers, in the kerbside gazebo of a taxi rank café just outside Madrid Atocha station. It’s 3pm and 35 degrees. He leans back to take a drag on his half-finished […]