News

Pubs are closing not just as a result of changing lifestyle, the smoking ban and cheap supermarket alcohol. Giant pubcos, saddled with crippling debts, are selling pubs to property developers who turn many of them into retail outlets and even knock them to the ground without planning permission. Carol Ross (pictured) runs the Roscoe Head in Liverpool, one of 158 Punch outlets sold to a company that specialises in turning them into convenience stores

Added: Wednesday, September 9th 2015

As the British Guild of Beer Writers prepares to hold its annual reception on the eve of the Great British Beer Festival, guild founder Roger Protz recalls its early days, its associations with the late Michael Jackson and the long struggle to get greater media support for Britain's historic drink

Added: Saturday, August 8th 2015

Molson Coors has admitted that the bottled version of its best-selling Doom Bar has been brewed for the past two years in Burton-on-Trent. Yet bottle labels announce in bold type ROCK CORNWALL. And an advertisement in Waitrose Weekend, illustrated with a bottle of Doom Bar, says Sharp's creates beer "alive with Cornish energy" at Rock. Other big brands, including Foster's, Kronenbourg and Stella Artois, also stress their places of origin but brew in Britain

Added: Monday, June 29th 2015

Meantime Brewery in Greenwich, South London, has been bought by the world's second biggest brewing group SABMiller. Meantime was founded by Alastair Hook and was joined by Nick Miller as chief executive: Miller had previously run Miller Brands, SABMiller's UK subsidiary

Added: Friday, May 15th 2015

An article in Guardian Online by Tony Naylor suggested that Mild ale was in such steep decline that CAMRA's Mild Month promotion was a waste of time. But there's life in the style yet, with many more brewers producing it. Simon Yates of Banks's Brewery (pictured) thinks Mild will be rediscovered -- and his brewery is the biggest producer of Mild in the world

Added: Wednesday, May 13th 2015

The £25 million Marston's has been for the brewing side of Thwaites of Blackburn will reap the Burton giant a rich reward as it can flood Thwaites' tied and free accounts with its own beers. Thwaites says it still plans to build anew brewery -- but what would it produce there as it has signed a 10-year production deal with Marstons? It's more likely that Thwaites is destined to become just a pub company but will keep control of the Crafty Dan micro plant

Added: Friday, April 3rd 2015

Julie O'Grady and a group of like-minded women beer lovers on Merseyside have got together to promote their favourite tipple and encourage more women to sample the vast array of different aromas and flavours offered by modern beer and prove that it's not just a drink for men with beards

Added: Saturday, March 28th 2015

Jane Peyton is leading a crusade to make 15 June 2015 Beer Day Britain. It coincides with celebrations to mark the signing of Magna Carta and, Jane argues, is the ideal day to raise a glass of beer to salute the national drink

Added: Saturday, March 21st 2015

The Duck and Drake pub in Leeds offers a range of beers from local breweries served from wooden casks or "woodies". One event was held in association with the Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood. In nearby Castleford, the Junction pub is the pacesetter, offering a rolling range of beers served from oak casks.

Added: Friday, February 20th 2015

Beer price increases could put as much as 12p on the price of a pint as Carlsberg. Heineken and Molson Coors jack up their wholesale prices. Their justification -- that "manufacturing costs" force them to raise prices -- doesn't hold water as the price of both malt and fuel are in free-fall.

Added: Tuesday, February 10th 2015