Blog Tracker
19-03-2016, 08:36
Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/03/news-nuggets-longreads-19-march-2016/)
Here’s the best of what we’ve read about beer and pubs around the internet in the last week, from London to Lisbon.→ Des de Moor has published a free update to his book*The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars accompanied by some state-of-the-nation commentary on London’s beer scene (http://desdemoor.co.uk/london-update-brewing-in-the-shadow-of-the-multinationals/):
London breweries continue to expand whatever their size, with Moncada and Redemption among those in the midst of long-needed upgrades. The startup rate has definitely slowed, though, and the brewery total in my latest update is down to 75 from 78 last July: a handful of closures include the last remnant of the 1970s Big Seven in London at the Stag, Mortlake, and a number of would-be brewpubs that evidently found it easier to sell other people’s beer.
→ For the*Midlands Beer Blog Collective Bob Maxfield and Dave Hopkins interviewed the people behind Birmingham’s craft beer and pinball bar, Tilt (https://midlandsbeerblogcollective.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/brum-beer-profiles-tilt/), eliciting a great case study of what’s been going on in British beer in the last decade or so:
I fell out of love with CAMRA when, some years later, while following a Ramstein tour, we decided to visit the Brewdog Bars we had been reading about. I then found Stirchley Wines who did a half decent selection at the time and had a bit of Great Divide and some Mikeller. They had all the Brewdog stuff and it was at that point that I started to get really excited, and begun to get more involved with Beer Advocate again, and started trading beers with others.
http://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/cigar_city_logo_500.jpg?resize=500%2C337SOURCE: Cigar City Brewing website.→*Takeover news #1:*US brewery Cigar City, long-rumoured to a target for takeover by one of the multi-nationals,*‘has agreed to sell controlling interest to Boston-based private equity firm Fireman Capital Partners’ (http://www.brewbound.com/news/fireman-capital-to-purchase-cigar-city), according to Chris Furnari reporting for beer news website*Brewbound. Or it was taken over by another brewery, Oskar Blues, according to, er, Cigar City (http://www.brewbound.com/news/fireman-capital-to-purchase-cigar-city):*‘Putting months of acquirement rumors to rest, the decision is driven by mutual irreverence, respect and desire to stay true to craft beer roots.’
→*Takeover news #2:*Last month global brewing giant AB-InBev took over The Beer Hawk, a small UK online beer distribution company; now it’s bought a similar firm in France according to French website*Beer Time (http://www.happybeertime.com/blog/2016/03/16/saveur-biere-vendu-a-ab-inbev/). A strategy emerges? (Translation from French here (https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.happybeertime.com/blog/2016/03/16/saveur-biere-vendu-a-ab-inbev/&prev=search); via @BryanDRoth (https://twitter.com/BryanDRoth).)
→ One for fans of historic details: Gary Gillman has found what he thinks is a previously un-mined source of information 18th century malting (http://www.beeretseq.com/new-insight-into-brown-malt-and-1700s-porter/) that illuminates how porter was made.
→ These struck us as twin pieces: Craft Beer & Brewing*has produced a list of slang used by extreme beer geeks in the US (https://beerandbrewing.com/VMwcTysAAKCj572X/article/beerslanging), from beached whale to porch bomb; while, for*Draft, Kate Bernot asks ‘Why Are Beer People so Outraged?’ (http://draftmag.com/beer-outrage-internet/):
Will Gordon…*sees beer as so central to some people’s lifestyles that they’re unable to tolerate opposing views.
“There is a peculiar, loud 1 percent of craft beer fans who are people with an absurd*lifestyle that they want validated,” he says. “If you make fun of driving up a dirt road in Vermont at 7 in the morning to get a bottle of Hill Farmstead, what those people hear is their wife’s voice saying they should have gone to the kid’s soccer game that morning instead.”
http://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/lisbon_bar_by_alex_500.jpg?resize=500%2C416SOURCE: The Beermack. (Cropped.)→ Alex at*The Beermack’s*guide to*‘Good Beer in Lisbon (and where to find it) (https://beermack.wordpress.com/2016/03/17/good-beer-in-lisbon-and-where-to-find-it/)’ is (a) like a virtual city break in its own right and (b) potentially useful if you’re planning on visiting Portugal this summer.
→ Finally, via*Beer Today, research firm Mintel has published new research into craft beer in Britain (http://beertoday.co.uk/we-love-craft-arent-sure-what-it-means-0316/) with some interesting nuggets to chew on:
What’s more, just one in four (24%) beer buyers are willing to spend more than*£4 on a pint of craft beer in the on-trade and 21% are unprepared to even go above £3 per pint. On the other hand, there are a small number of consumers who clearly have strong beliefs in craft credentials as 5% of beer buyers are prepared to exceed £5 on a pint of craft beer.
→ in his budget on Wednesday the Chancellor, George Osborne, froze beer duty. Brigid Simmonds of the BBPA thinks it’s good news (http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Drinks/Beer/BBPA-s-Simmonds-The-Budget-was-another-positive-result-for-pubs); others (to summarise chatter on Twitter) think it largely inconsequential, at least from the perspective of consumers. This is an interesting thought, though:
That business rates cut is great news for so many pubs, beer shops and breweries more important than a duty cut in my opinion.
— Tom Norton (@MillGreenTom) March 16, 2016 (https://twitter.com/MillGreenTom/status/710128794938507265)
→ And, finally, this from Gavin Hutsby is nice:
@BoakandBailey (https://twitter.com/BoakandBailey) price list from my Grandparents corner shop they sold beer on draught. Common back then apparently. pic.twitter.com/RFiPHWoGjE (https://t.co/RFiPHWoGjE)
— Gavin Hutsby (@SirGawain82) March 16, 2016 (https://twitter.com/SirGawain82/status/710065909986160640)
News, Nuggets & Longreads 19 March 2016 (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/03/news-nuggets-longreads-19-march-2016/) from Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog - Beer blogging since 2007, covering real ale, craft beer, pubs and British beer history. (http://boakandbailey.com)
More... (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/03/news-nuggets-longreads-19-march-2016/)
Here’s the best of what we’ve read about beer and pubs around the internet in the last week, from London to Lisbon.→ Des de Moor has published a free update to his book*The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars accompanied by some state-of-the-nation commentary on London’s beer scene (http://desdemoor.co.uk/london-update-brewing-in-the-shadow-of-the-multinationals/):
London breweries continue to expand whatever their size, with Moncada and Redemption among those in the midst of long-needed upgrades. The startup rate has definitely slowed, though, and the brewery total in my latest update is down to 75 from 78 last July: a handful of closures include the last remnant of the 1970s Big Seven in London at the Stag, Mortlake, and a number of would-be brewpubs that evidently found it easier to sell other people’s beer.
→ For the*Midlands Beer Blog Collective Bob Maxfield and Dave Hopkins interviewed the people behind Birmingham’s craft beer and pinball bar, Tilt (https://midlandsbeerblogcollective.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/brum-beer-profiles-tilt/), eliciting a great case study of what’s been going on in British beer in the last decade or so:
I fell out of love with CAMRA when, some years later, while following a Ramstein tour, we decided to visit the Brewdog Bars we had been reading about. I then found Stirchley Wines who did a half decent selection at the time and had a bit of Great Divide and some Mikeller. They had all the Brewdog stuff and it was at that point that I started to get really excited, and begun to get more involved with Beer Advocate again, and started trading beers with others.
http://i2.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/cigar_city_logo_500.jpg?resize=500%2C337SOURCE: Cigar City Brewing website.→*Takeover news #1:*US brewery Cigar City, long-rumoured to a target for takeover by one of the multi-nationals,*‘has agreed to sell controlling interest to Boston-based private equity firm Fireman Capital Partners’ (http://www.brewbound.com/news/fireman-capital-to-purchase-cigar-city), according to Chris Furnari reporting for beer news website*Brewbound. Or it was taken over by another brewery, Oskar Blues, according to, er, Cigar City (http://www.brewbound.com/news/fireman-capital-to-purchase-cigar-city):*‘Putting months of acquirement rumors to rest, the decision is driven by mutual irreverence, respect and desire to stay true to craft beer roots.’
→*Takeover news #2:*Last month global brewing giant AB-InBev took over The Beer Hawk, a small UK online beer distribution company; now it’s bought a similar firm in France according to French website*Beer Time (http://www.happybeertime.com/blog/2016/03/16/saveur-biere-vendu-a-ab-inbev/). A strategy emerges? (Translation from French here (https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.happybeertime.com/blog/2016/03/16/saveur-biere-vendu-a-ab-inbev/&prev=search); via @BryanDRoth (https://twitter.com/BryanDRoth).)
→ One for fans of historic details: Gary Gillman has found what he thinks is a previously un-mined source of information 18th century malting (http://www.beeretseq.com/new-insight-into-brown-malt-and-1700s-porter/) that illuminates how porter was made.
→ These struck us as twin pieces: Craft Beer & Brewing*has produced a list of slang used by extreme beer geeks in the US (https://beerandbrewing.com/VMwcTysAAKCj572X/article/beerslanging), from beached whale to porch bomb; while, for*Draft, Kate Bernot asks ‘Why Are Beer People so Outraged?’ (http://draftmag.com/beer-outrage-internet/):
Will Gordon…*sees beer as so central to some people’s lifestyles that they’re unable to tolerate opposing views.
“There is a peculiar, loud 1 percent of craft beer fans who are people with an absurd*lifestyle that they want validated,” he says. “If you make fun of driving up a dirt road in Vermont at 7 in the morning to get a bottle of Hill Farmstead, what those people hear is their wife’s voice saying they should have gone to the kid’s soccer game that morning instead.”
http://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/lisbon_bar_by_alex_500.jpg?resize=500%2C416SOURCE: The Beermack. (Cropped.)→ Alex at*The Beermack’s*guide to*‘Good Beer in Lisbon (and where to find it) (https://beermack.wordpress.com/2016/03/17/good-beer-in-lisbon-and-where-to-find-it/)’ is (a) like a virtual city break in its own right and (b) potentially useful if you’re planning on visiting Portugal this summer.
→ Finally, via*Beer Today, research firm Mintel has published new research into craft beer in Britain (http://beertoday.co.uk/we-love-craft-arent-sure-what-it-means-0316/) with some interesting nuggets to chew on:
What’s more, just one in four (24%) beer buyers are willing to spend more than*£4 on a pint of craft beer in the on-trade and 21% are unprepared to even go above £3 per pint. On the other hand, there are a small number of consumers who clearly have strong beliefs in craft credentials as 5% of beer buyers are prepared to exceed £5 on a pint of craft beer.
→ in his budget on Wednesday the Chancellor, George Osborne, froze beer duty. Brigid Simmonds of the BBPA thinks it’s good news (http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Drinks/Beer/BBPA-s-Simmonds-The-Budget-was-another-positive-result-for-pubs); others (to summarise chatter on Twitter) think it largely inconsequential, at least from the perspective of consumers. This is an interesting thought, though:
That business rates cut is great news for so many pubs, beer shops and breweries more important than a duty cut in my opinion.
— Tom Norton (@MillGreenTom) March 16, 2016 (https://twitter.com/MillGreenTom/status/710128794938507265)
→ And, finally, this from Gavin Hutsby is nice:
@BoakandBailey (https://twitter.com/BoakandBailey) price list from my Grandparents corner shop they sold beer on draught. Common back then apparently. pic.twitter.com/RFiPHWoGjE (https://t.co/RFiPHWoGjE)
— Gavin Hutsby (@SirGawain82) March 16, 2016 (https://twitter.com/SirGawain82/status/710065909986160640)
News, Nuggets & Longreads 19 March 2016 (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/03/news-nuggets-longreads-19-march-2016/) from Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog - Beer blogging since 2007, covering real ale, craft beer, pubs and British beer history. (http://boakandbailey.com)
More... (http://boakandbailey.com/2016/03/news-nuggets-longreads-19-march-2016/)