Why do we defend beer that is economically unjustifiable and the product of unsustainable late-cycle excess?
craft beer
A Tale of Two Breweries
A mere three years and three kilometres separates Cornwall’s Rebel and Verdant Brewing Companies, but their fortunes have been continents apart.
La Lune Sous L’Eau
Why Au Poêle de la Bête in Toulouse might just be one of the best beer bars in the world.
World Famous in Denmark
Despite its name, most businesses in the craft beer industry are differentiated less by their products or manufacturing processes and more by their brand identities.
Strength in Numbers: at the Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen 2018
Showcasing almost 800 beers from 100 breweries, the MBCC invites us to mash, sparge, boil and ferment its wealth of statistics to see what flavour comes out the other side.
CAMRA Obscura
CAMRA's important AGM re-asserted its mission as a campaign for "real ale", but did it also damagingly entrench itself as a campaign against quality keg-dispensed beer?
On Bond Yields and Brewery Deals
Fuller's acquisition of Dark Star last week led to another round of speculation about beer-industry acquisitions to come. But do current trends in bond yields suggest that consolidation may already have peaked?
Culture, Craft and Touring for Tradition
Wondering why Munich isn’t awash with Mango-Juice Double IPA, Espresso Coffee and Vanilla Stout, or Arugula Brett-Spiked Saison, is like complaining that the Italian Alps don’t look like the Cotswolds, or that the Vietnamese don’t eat roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
The Fruits of Our Labour
The focus on a single ingredient - American hops - is the top of a slippery slope. It encourages an ever-narrowing focus on certain elements of that ingredient, which sends us sliding towards a place where fizzy, alcoholic fruit juice can be mistaken for beer.
Time: the Secret Ingredient
With Vintage Beer, Patrick Dawson has given us a handy, easy-to-use book on a topic that is attracting more and more attention from beer drinkers.