Protz On Beer, by Roger Protz

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Arctic Ale comes in from the cold

Dougal Sharp (left), founder of Innis & Gunn, has joined forces with Jamie Allsopp to recreate a historic beer from the 19th century. Jamie is a direct descendant of the great Burton brewer Samuel Allsopp who made a special Arctic Ale for a British expedition to the North Pole in 1875. A bottle of the beer was found in Shropshire and was used in the new version

Added: Friday, January 16th 2026

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Brewers recall hey-day of stout

Great interest is being shown by independent brewers in Porter and Stout, beer styles from the 18th century. Both Hook Norton in Oxfordshire and Heritage Brewery in Burton-on-Trent have produced versions of stout based on original recipes. Hook Norton's version is aged in oak casks for 18 months while Heritage P2 is based on Bass's P2 Export Stout sent to Russia and the Baltic States.

Added: Sunday, January 11th 2026

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Guinness brings brewing back to London

The Open Gate Brewery in Covent Garden restores brewing to central London. Guinness has spent £73m on the centre that includes a 20,000-barrel brewery producing a wide range of beer including Porter that was once brewed on the site by Combe in the 18th and 19th centuries

Added: Sunday, December 21st 2025

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Xmas beer: let it flow, let it flow,...

It's that time of year when Santa gets stuck up the chimney after too many Christmas beers. Here is a fine selection of some of the beers available this year

Added: Monday, December 8th 2025

Comment

Budget business rates blow to pubs

Research since the Budget shows that, far from going down, business rates for pubs will rise dramatically over the next few years. Hospitality experts say thousands more pubs will close, hut not only by business rates but high costs for energy, increases in the Minimum Wage and National Insurance plus a rise in the price of beer as duty goes up.

Added: Saturday, December 6th 2025