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Despite being all over the place*running real-life errands, we managed to turn out a respectable number of posts in March, a couple of which were accidental epics.

→ There was a good batch of #BeeryLongReads from across the Blogoshire including insights into the politics of keg lines in bars and a profile of a South London brewery.
→ Ted Bruning’s short book*Merrie England: the medieval roots of the great British pub*got a thumbs-up from us.
→ Also on the subject of pub history, how is it that so many of them are allowed to get away with straight-up lying about their history?
→ For the 97th beer blogging session we pondered what it takes for a town or city to become a ‘beer destination’. (If it hasn’t got history, it needs artists and students.)
→ In a pub in the Devon-Cornwall borderlands we observed something really sweet: middle-aged men making friends.

→ Still on the same turf, we crawled the many pubs of the coastal settlement of Kingsand-Cawsand.
→ In 1978, the Campaign for Real Ale predicted that lager’s share of the UK beer market couldn’t keep growing, but they were very wrong. (The Pub Curmudgeon reference this*in a post on Greene King IPA and the appeal of accessible beers.)
→ We imagined an alliance between the kings of the UK craft beer scene, BrewDog, and Greene King – a conservative family brewery not fondly regarded by beer geeks.
→ Jon Kyme of Stringer’s brewery is a spiky critic of the scene; we exchanged emails with him to find out why.

→ Yorkshire’s Summer Wine is a brewery with a cult following but, on evidence to date, we’re not convinced.
→ R.D. Blackmore’s 1869 novel*Lorna Doone contains a spirited*expression of the virtues of good English beer.
→ Ongoing debates (boy, do they go on!) about the precise meaning of ‘craft beer’ in the UK took a new twist when a government agency accidentally got involved.
→ Having predicted that in 2015 a big brewer would produce a contrived viral video in which ‘hipsters’ are tricked into saying they like a mainstream beer, we couldn’t help but crow when Budweiser did just that.
→ Sometimes, being a good beer geek means using your powers to help people avoid beers you love.
→ In 2000+ words, drawing on our eight years’ of experience, we*had the sheer nerve to tell you how to run a beer blog.
→ In the last week, we became fascinated by some quirks of UK pub licensing history: first, we explored the ‘bona fide traveller‘, and then the fun there was to be had in making your drinking day as long as possible in 1920s and 30s London.
→ The sun came out and we went to enjoy it at our favourite faux-Mediterranean seaside*pub.
→*The Lilliput Beer Book from 1956 isn’t an essential purchase but it contains*some interesting nuggets.
→ There were four weekly links round-ups, too — a whole lot of reading for a rainy Sunday, if you missed them first time round.
→ We also sent out a 1000-word email newsletter (sign-up!), and were all over Facebook and Twitter…
In the window of a local charity shop. Isn't that He-Man from Masters of the Universe on the 1976 Krug? pic.twitter.com/9fhfmBNNZh
— Boak and Bailey (@BoakandBailey) March 27, 2015
This post is a touch premature what with there being three days left to go, but we won’t be able to post next weekend, and we like to do these monthly round-up posts on Sunday.
March 2015: The Month That Was from Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog - Over-thinking beer, pubs and the meaning of craft since 2007


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