Part 1: Castile and León * FULL DISCLOSURE: After reaching out to Orbigo Valley Hops to speak to them about their business, I was invited to visit. Accommodation was provided, but I paid for almost everything else (but you try telling a Spanish person not to pay for your drinks. I dare you.) * The […]
The price of a pint
Today’s headline news in the Guild of Beer Writers eshot was a story run by CAMRA relating to a YouGov survey on the topic of the price of a pint. (If you’re a member you can see the story here.) Here’s the quote: “56% of people surveyed who expressed an opinion believe the price of […]
The world’s newest world beer awards judge
I’m new to this game. Not to drinking – I’ve been doing that for years – but to writing about drinking, finding new ideas about drinking, learning about our idiosyncrasies towards the beers we drink, the places we drink in and the breweries we favour. It’s still interesting to me. Exciting, even. I’ve been told […]
Describing Beer
I want to start off by saying this: I am not interested in starting another “define craft” debate. At all. In fact, I can think of a million other things I’d rather do, and topping that list is being chased down the Amazon by a hungry caiman, or having dinner with a drunk and handsy […]
Selling out, and other bad words
Today, there was some news that everybody knew was coming. Despite denials and backlash for around a month, we’ve all kindof known that B-town were getting into some sort of investment opp with Heineken. I don’t even know why I knew that. I guess I’m on Beer Twitter too much. It’s lovely to report that […]
What was the first beer you drank?
It’s a simple question, unless you’re being asked it point blank on live radio. There should be a simple answer – some small glint laying there in the past that points towards the moment you decide, “this is mine.” Well, sometimes you don’t want to share that moment. Maybe it’s private. But then maybe you […]
Thoughts on beer accessibility
“Peroni is aspirational. Cloudwater is something beamed down from another planet.” These words by the Pub Curmudgeon stuck in my brain after reading his piece on working class drinkers, not least because I am one. It made me think about the angle at which I approached beer from, and why I’m finding myself more and […]
Moorhouse’s and “embracing the craft beer revolution”
Burnley-based Moorhouse’s Brewery has undergone some grand changes in recent months. Back in April 2017, they appointed new Managing Director Lee Williams, a distinct strike out into fresh new waters. Williams had previous success bringing rival brewery Thwaites into craft beer contention with popular hop-forward 13 Guns and the big success of Wainwright, which I […]
You’re answering the wrong questions about craft beer
If you follow me on Twitter, you might already know that I successfully completed my first bar shift in more than 7 years recently. No mean feat, considering my customer service and mental arithmetic skills have been made slow and lazy by desks. I’d been tentatively excited about it. Working behind a bar is something […]
Earning it
The Lake District is one of my favourite places in the world. I say that about a lot of places, but the Lake District really is at the top. I spent the first ten years of my life in Morecambe, and if you’ve been to Morecambe, you’ll know that its most redeeming feature is the […]