Beer News

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Beer highlight of St Pancras celebrations

St Pancras Station in London is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2018 -- and beer will be the centrepiece of events. The station was built to bring beer from Burton-on-Trent to London and St Pancras helped revolutionise brewing, acquainting Londoners with pale ale for the first time. Events at the station will include a beer festival in October and a special IPA has been brewed by Lost Rivers, with the first batch delivered by a Young's dray

Added: Sunday, January 14th 2018

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Beer: flavour is top of the agenda

The beer world has moved on from the likes of Mild and Bitter. Craft brewers are endlessly seeking out new and sometimes extreme flavours in beer. Some writers question whether adding fruit to beer is a step too far but there's no doubt that wood ageing has brought new dimensions to the pleasures of drinking. And Adnams' Ghost Ship, with its rich hop character, is now the brewery's top-selling beer

Added: Friday, January 5th 2018

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Fuller's & Marble revive classic old ale

Gale's Prize Old Ale, aged in wood, looked to have died when the brewery was bought and closed by Fuller's in 2006. But now the major London brewery has worked with Marble in Manchester to restore the classic ale, ageing it in four oak barrels for a year. Marble head brewer James Kemp has released the beers in four different signatures from bourbon, Barbera, Madeira and Pinot Noir barrels

Added: Wednesday, December 27th 2017

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Scots beer is star of the Christmas tree

With Christmas and New Year fast approaching, a small group of beer lovers sat down to sample a few of the offerings available this year. They ranged from jet-black porters to the palest of pale ales and the beer that found most favour was one brewed with Biblical additions of frankincense and myrrh.

Added: Wednesday, December 13th 2017