Beer News

News

New look tankard for Black Sheep ale

Black Sheep Brewery in the Yorkshire Dales is getting ready for Cask Ale Week with a new tankard for its draught beers in selected pubs in Yorkshire and North-east England. The brewery says cask beer is unique to Britain and it wants to boost its popularity with the powerful image of the tankard

Added: Tuesday, September 15th 2020

Wood Aged Beer

Why wood gives a magic touch

Ageing beer in oak casks is coming back into fashion as brewers discover the added aromas and flavours wood can give their beers. Alastair Simms is seen at the White Rose Cooperage in Yorkshire with a fine collection of oak casks. Classic lager brewers lined oaks casks with pitch to avoid woody flavours infecting the beer

Added: Thursday, September 10th 2020

News

River Cottage and Stroud join forces with beers for organic September

Stroud Brewery has joined forces with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and River Cottage to produce two beers to celebrate Organic September. The beers are Organic Stinger Golden Ale and Organic Rye PA. Stinger is brewed with the addition of organic nettles

Added: Friday, August 28th 2020

News

Whisky beer to aid Africa water campaign

Ardbeg's whisky distillery on Islay has joined forces with William Brothers' Brewery in Alloa to produce a smoky porter, using the distillery's own peated malt. The profits from the beer will be donated to build clean water wells in Malawi.

Added: Wednesday, August 12th 2020

Feature

Billy Tidy, fizz, fun and keg buster

Bill Tidy at the age of 86 has hung up his pens and sketch pads after years of tickling the nation's ribs with such strip cartoons as the Cloggies and the Fosdyke Saga. He created Kegbuster in the 1970s for CAMRA's What's Brewing newspaper where he lampooned the activities of the Grotny Hardmen and Twitbread and their lacklustre keg beers.

Added: Wednesday, July 29th 2020

News

Beer inspired by Nightingale backs NHS

Rudi Keyser, founder of Watling Street Brewery in North London, was so inspired by the work of the NHS in combating the coronavirus pandemic that he volunteered to work at the Nightingale Hospital in Docklands and also brewed a special pale Nighting Ale with £1 from every sale going to the Covid-19 appeal.

Added: Saturday, July 18th 2020

News

Hogs Back IPA celebrates return of pubs

Hogs Back Brewery in Surrey has launched an East Coast IPA to celebrate the re-opening of pubs on 4 July. Seven hops are used in the beer, including Cascade grown in the brewery's own garden. The hop garden covers 8.5 acres and supplies the brewery with 50% of its hops needs. A malt kiln will be added to dry hops within 24 hours of being picked.

Added: Monday, June 29th 2020

Comment

Carlsberg & cask: remember Burton Ale?

Carlsberg is the dominant partner in the new brewing group formed with Marston's -- and the Danish giant does not enjoy a good track record where cask ale is concerned. It closed the major Tetley Brewery in Leeds and axed the award-winning Draught Burton Ale and there are now concerns for the future of Draught Bass, which Marton's brews for AB InBev

Added: Tuesday, May 26th 2020

Feature

The highs and lows of Draught Guinness

There's been a lively debate on Twitter about an old system used to serve Irish stouts. It was known as the two cask or high and low system. One cask held freshly-fermented beer, the second older, mature beer. The system was phased out when Guinness developed a new keg method that served the stout with a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen gasses

Added: Wednesday, May 13th 2020

Feature

Taste of history: ale brewed for the Arctic

When some bottles of beer were discovered in the cellars of the former Allsopps' brewery in Burton-on-Trent they turned out be to Arctic Ale, brewed in 1875. They had been produced for the crew of ships sent by Queen Victoria to find the survivors of an earlier attempt to navigate the North West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. When a small group assembled in Burton in 2011 the key question was: "Will the beer be drinkable?"

Added: Monday, May 11th 2020