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These are the beer- and pub-related blog posts and articles that we’ve found most interesting, entertaining or amusing in the past week.
→ For*Draft Magazine Joe Stange has compiled a list of recipes for ‘hot beer drinks’ from lambswool*to Cornish shenagrum. (The latter being our contribution.)
→ Justin Mason provides notes and observations on a pretty serious-sounding home brew beer festival in Essex:
I don’t think any of us actually brew in our sheds…*I’ve been home brewing for about four years, and I took it up as a way of saving money. I started brewing from kits at first but soon moved on to all-grain brewing with some interesting results in the beginning.
→ Steve ‘Beers I’ve Known’ Lamond reflects on*the increasing number of strong,*hoppy double IPAs being brewed in Ireland, with input from the brewers themselves.
→ The Bag O’Nails in Bristol (which we wrote about here) has gained a cult following because of its fifteen cats,*according to*BBC News:
The cats that are left variously go by names such as Salvador, Absinthe, Pompidou and Caligula, and “apart from the odd, external influence” are all descended from Malcolm, a British short-haired male silver tabby, and solid black female Beresford, named after a former landlord.
→ This account of two men who continued drinking in a Leeds pub garden even as the river flooded and rose around their waists went viral worldwide, seeming to reflect the British reputation for stoicism and eccentricity.
→ San Diego’s Ballast Point Brewing has been bought out by Constellation Brands for a startling $1bn and the usual cycle of commentary has played out:*dismay, boycotts, ‘why this is good news’ opinion pieces, and ennui. Jeff Alworth provides interesting commentary, though, suggesting that*Constellation*‘look at that 200 million barrel U.S. beer market and see a lot more craft in its future—and they’re willing to pay a king’s ransom to make sure they have a brand in the game.’*On the same topic, Stephen Beaumont asks breweries that have been taken over to ‘cut the crap’:
[When]*your company’s entire marketing strategy has for years been based upon the premise of “small is good, big is evil,” do you honestly think it reasonable to suddenly turn on a dime and tell us otherwise? After imploring us to “buy local” for decades, does it really make sense to expect us to abruptly opt for “international” instead?
→ Not reading but listening: Dr Sam Goodman is one of the BBC’s ‘New Generation Thinkers’ and gave a short lecture this week entitled ‘Beer and the British Empire’. (Via @LiamTheBrewer.)
→ And finally…
→ PS. Here’s a piece we wrote for*All About Beer on*the emergence of pale’n’hoppy British session beer*and how it has brought us to the about the*same place as the US trend for ‘session IPA’.
News, Nuggets & Longreads 21/11/2015 from Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog - Over-thinking beer, pubs and the meaning of craft since 2007
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Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog - News, Nuggets & Longreads 21/11/2015
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