Opinion
Topical articles and pieces from a personal point of view.
Branch founder and saviour remembered
CAMRA’s Bexley branch was saddened to hear of the death of its longest-serving chairman and only president Martyn Nicholls. For a few months in 1975 B...
Hard cheese for UK brewers
I arrived at Round Corner Brewing in Melton Mowbray on the day another small independent brewery had pulled down the shutters. Northern Alchemy in New...
Beer’s man of letters
Martyn Cornell, beer writer and acclaimed brewing historian, has died suddenly at the age of 72 on the eve of the publication of his major study of th...
Beer can chicken
I read this week we have had more hours of sunshine so far this year than the whole of last summer. I’m not sure how this is calculated but I can guar...
In a gadda da vida
As I write these words, the sky outside my window is the most vivid shade of blue. There is a handful of the laziest, fluffy clouds you can imagine fl...
Standing up for what’s right
Introduced in May 1988 by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, Section 28 is a piece of legislation that is now, thankfully, consigned to the...
Make mine mixed on VE day
It’s good news for our beleaguered pubs that they will be able to stay open until one in the morning on 8 May as the country celebrates VE Day – the 8...
Generation game
A couple of weeks ago my phone pinged as a press release dropped into my inbox. It told me the story of Steve Birch, the head brewer of Mauldons brewe...
Easter beer brownie
This recipe’s inspiration is Easter and if, like me, you have school-aged children and a house full of chocolate. Dark chocolate is a key flavour you...
Jay Rayner’s wrong on pubs
While it might lack the same grandeur shared by some of the buildings along Liverpool’s Dale Street, there’s a faded elegance to the exterior of the S...
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