Opinion
Topical articles and pieces from a personal point of view.
Carlsberg tour of destruction hits new low
News that Carlsberg Britvic has announced the impending closure of the former Marston’s brewery and its primary logistics operation in Burton upon Tre...
Bright young things
People are drinking less. But don’t just take my word for it, there’s plenty of data to back it up. According to a report published by the BBC in Janu...
A sip is just fine
After a long days’ harvest this week I somehow found myself spending the evening at the pub. Sat outside in the blazing 5pm sun, European style on the...
Gen Z gets a taste for cask
I have a word of advice for the doomsters anxious to write the obituary of cask beer: you should have dropped in to the St Albans beer festival at the...
What about the workers?
“You haven’t heard of this pub? Why would you?” A few years ago, a neighbour was telling me about her new job in a local bar a bus ride away. Despite...
Seeing in the dark
I don’t have webbed toes. Or square eyes. Or hair on my chest. I admit to being shocked when it was revealed that carrots won’t really make you see in...
Timothy Taylor ate my hamster
Batten down the hatches! The people with nothing better to do have been falling over themselves to get on the radio, telly and internet to call Timoth...
Cask is a beer only available in pubs
CAMRA’s chief executive Tom Stainer put it well: “It’s frustrating that media, which usually ignores everything positive we do and generally ignores b...
Hidden barriers to beer
I’m painfully aware that my own experience and needs very much informs the consumer issues I notice in the pub. Happily, people who read my writing ar...
Something’s brewing in Bedford
To the rear of the packaging hall at the Eagle brewery in Bedford is one of the largest cask racking systems I’ve ever seen. As it happens, it’s also...
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