The John O’Gaunt is a pub I measure all others against. Modestly squatted between high-street shops and the Sally Army on Market Street, Lancaster, its pot-bellied, stained glass window gives only a glimpse at what lies within. On most Friday, Saturday and Sundays, you’ll find a band tuning up in the bay window at the […]
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 […]
Fear Beers
For avid travellers, both Tom and I are massive scaredy cats. You’d think an aeroplane engineer would be fine in the sky, but he’s not a fan of aviation once it leaves the ground. I’m much worse – arriving at Manchester Airport train station fills me with dread and things don’t get much better until […]
Purity, Truth and Love – Mr. Fitzpatrick’s lasting reminder of Lancashire’s dry heritage
As far as I know, there’s no person more virtuous than the designated driver. A selfless individual who puts others’ pleasures ahead of their own, they and they alone ensure the safe homeward journey of their inebriated friends and colleagues. They take drunken conversations in their stride and never roll their eyes at the suggestion […]
Kirkby Lonsdale’s got a tap room!
Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery has a tap room. Did you know that? I didn’t. I go to Kirkby Lonsdale pretty often – maybe twice or three times a year, maybe more if it’s a good summer and we want to look at the bikes – and I had no idea. Kirkby Lonsdale is a place I […]
Behind Closed Doors: A glimpse at the history of Thwaites
Although the sight of Thwaites’ brewery tower bluntly prodding the grey clouds above Blackburn is a familiar one, it’s not a view that will endure. As Thwaites completes its half-decade long relocation project to the Ribble Valley, some four miles north west of its iconic Penny Street factory, the people who’ve grown used to the […]
My 2017 hopes and dreams for beer in North and East Lancashire
I think we’ve all read enough internet news by now to know that in the first waking days of 2017, craft beer is booming/slumping and cask beer is doing well/shite and that people are really starting to love/hate beer in all it’s interesting/unnecessarily complex forms. Where I am however, it’s a little different. Speaking to Boak […]