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With the spotlight turned on small craft brewers, beer lovers tend to forget that large amount of cask beer are produced by the 47 family brewers that have survived the turmoil of the late 20th century. Arkells of Swindon (pictured) is celebrating 175 years of brewing in 2018 and the likes of Shepherd Neame, Harvey's and McMullen are even older. They deserve greater support and admiration

Added: Monday, March 12th 2018

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

Fuller's claims it has "joined forces" with Dark Star but in truth the big London brewer has bought the Sussex independent outright. But it's a different acquisition to Gales of Hampshire in 2005, a run down brewery its owners were desperate to sell. Fuller's says it will keep Dark Star open and will expand sales at home and abroad and managing director James Cuthbertson (pictured) stays in post

Added: Wednesday, February 21st 2018

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

Carlsberg says it has "taken lagering out of lager". This is a remarkable claim by the brewery that produced the first pure strain of lager yeast in the 19th century thanks to the pioneering work of Emil Hansen (pictured) in the Copenhagen laboratory. But if modern global brands of lager are produced in just 21 days, what should we call this style of beer that is not aged and conditioned?

Added: Monday, September 4th 2017

As Charles Wells sells up to concentrate on its estate of pubs, awesome marketing power is in the hands of Greene King, Marston's and Molson Coors. These three giant companies now control 37% of the cask beer sector. But are the family brewers to blame for their decline due to their failure to innovate and produce beers that fit the modern beer scene?

Added: Monday, May 22nd 2017

Unesco has declared that Belgian beer is a 'treasure of humanity'. Quite right -- but perhaps the organisation would care to take a look at the history and traditions of British beer. Porter and stout in the 18th century and IPA a century later transformed brewing on a world scale. Pictured: a White Shield delivery van at the National Brewery Centre in Burton, a powerful link to Victorian brewing

Added: Wednesday, January 25th 2017

Leading beer writer Pete Brown, writing in the Morning Advertiser, says "it's time to say no to cask". He cites too many pubs serving cask beer in poor condition -- but is this a true picture of the state of beer in pubs with Cask Marque judging beer quality?

Added: Monday, January 16th 2017

National brewer Marston's is spending £1 million on rebranding some of its key brands. It says it needs to reach out to new and younger drinkers but will such curious names as Saddle Tank and Pearl Jet achieve the aim? And why is iconic Pedigree pale ale now called amber ale?

Added: Wednesday, November 2nd 2016

The new "safe drinking"guidelines of 14 units per week for both men and women are not only bad science but have no scientific validity at all, says Paul Chase, who has studied alcohol policies for many years. The Chief Medical Officer only listened to bodies with a long track record of opposition to alcohol, including the temperance movement, and ignored evidence that moderate consumption can be beneficial

Added: Tuesday, May 17th 2016