Beer News

Feature

It's always the season for a saison

The latest beer craze is a style based on Saison, a farmhouse beer brewed in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium. The best-known Saison brewer there is Dupont (pictured) which started life as a farm. Saison was originally brewed by farmers to refresh their families and labourers during the harvest period. Other Saison brewers include Brasserie a Vapeur and Silly in the town of the same name

Added: Thursday, April 5th 2018

News

Scots stout & Irish whiskey pool flavours

Kindred Spirits is a 6.1 per cent stout from Innis & Gunn in Perth that's aged in Irish whiskey barrels that were first used to triple distil Tullamore D.E.W. Innis & Gunn started life when William Grant acquired some ale for barrel-ageing from the Caledonian Brewery. The beer tasted so good that head brewer Dougal Sharp left Caley to launch his own company. Turning full circle, Tullamore is now part of the William Grant group.

Added: Thursday, March 22nd 2018

News

Wolf and North seize SIBA gold

Wolf Brewery in Norfolk and North Brewing of Leeds have stormed to victory in SIBA's national brewing awards at Beerex 18 in Liverpool. They won gold awards in the cask and keg categories with Tring Brewery also scooping gold in the small pack sector

Added: Friday, March 16th 2018

Feature

Saluting a home-brewing pioneer

Graham Wheeler championed the cause of real ale with a series of best-selling home brewing guides. Roger Protz recalls a reclusive writer who ignored deadlines but finally produced books that encouraged a generation of beer lovers to make good beer at home

Added: Thursday, March 15th 2018

Comment

Ale and farewell, London Drinker

The London Drinker beer festival, first staged in 1985, will call "time" this week as its home, the Camden Centre, is closing. The festival has been at the forefront of the revival of brewing in the capital where there are now more than 70 breweries. 150 of their beers will be on show this week. The success of the festival is down to the commitment of the North London branch of CAMRA and the remarkable duo of John and Christine Cryne

Added: Monday, March 12th 2018

News

Ripper! Lowestoft beer wins winter gong

Green Jack Brewery in Lowestoft has walked away with the Champion Winter Beer of Britain top award at CAMRA's winter beer festival in Norwich. Tim Dunford from Green Jack is seen collecting his award from festival organiser Nick Boley

Added: Wednesday, February 21st 2018

News

Historic photos put hops in the picture

A rare collection of black and white photos by David Evans has been unearthed and used in a new film that traces the life and times of hop pickers in Herefordshire in the 1950s and 60s. The photo left shows the Jones family picking hops -- a ritual that disappeared when mechanisation took over. The film Stories from the Hop Yards, will be premiered in Hereford on 3 March

Added: Friday, February 16th 2018

News

Greene King brings back taste of the past

Suffolk brewer Greene King has restored a 19th-century barley, Chevallier, to brew a new Heritage Series of beers. Suffolk Pale Ale and Vintage Fine Ale are on sale exclusively in Tesco. The grain was grown by Crisp Malt in Norfolk who took just five seeds to grow a new batch of the grain

Added: Wednesday, January 31st 2018

Comment

Why CAMRA must embrace good beer

2018 will be a crunch year for CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. After two years of discussions around the Revitalisation Project, the campaign's 195,000 members will have to decide whether to move beyond cask ale and embrace other types of beer. Roger Protz argues that the threat to good beer comes not from craft brewers but from global giants such as AB InBev and CAMRA needs to recruit younger drinkers to take up the fight

Added: Sunday, January 28th 2018

News

CAMRA reaches out to all beer lovers

CAMRA -- the Campaign for Real Ale -- is reaching out all beer lovers, not just cask ale drinkers, with a set of new proposals that will radically change the direction of the 46-year-old consumer organisation. As a result of its Revitalisation Programme, CAMRA's leadership will propose to its annual meeting in April that it should extend its scope to other types of quality beer -- though real ale will remain its focus

Added: Monday, January 22nd 2018