Jeff Alworth’s piece here makes for grim reading. He is in my opinion absolutely correct. Craft beer has over the last decade experienced massive growth but in doing so has I feel lost its way. Jeff explores the generational aspects of beer drinking which I think is definitely a major factor, one he is much…

I love vintage strong beers. Last Feb I was given the amazing opportunity to drink a bottle of 1977 Bass Jubilee Ale with Stu. In November Tosh gave me a bottle of Ushers Celebration Ale , which was brewed in 1981 to celebrate the wedding of Charles and Diana. Ushers were a family brewer based…

Beer is meant to be fun. Everyone knows that . It’s an intrinsic part of beer. The beer writers tell us that as they attempt to steer the conversation down cheery beery lines. Beer is meant to be fun. The retailers tell us that as brighlty coloured , cartoon canned, fruit flavoured , alcoholic water…

Recently I have been in sombre mood over some of the developments in the beer market. Certainly the trends of hazys , pastry stouts and milkshake beers don’t fill me with joy. Also as someone who comes to all this from the food side of things the way these trends take beer further and further…

Sometime, about a decade ago, it looked like we could save brown ale. The American variant had potential ,a full new world hop aroma with a clean fermentation and a nutty , caramel , lightly  chocolatey malt profile. It wasn’t as food friendly as English Brown Ale but it was a start. The number of…

In this day, when the NEIPA is increasingly being seen as the more traditional and staid option in a market bursting with milkshake , fruit, brut …bollocks (there is that grumpy old man peeping through, and hypocrite I love some fruit beers!) , I want to write a letter of love to bitter. Now the…