News

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

A commercial for American Budweiser is a frontal attack on craft beer and geeky drinkers who 'dissect' fruit beers. The suggestion is that real men drink Bud without sniffing aromas. But Anheuser-Busch has bought or has major stakes in several American craft breweries that offer rich aromas of coffee, chocolate and...pumpkin -- such as Redhook's Pumpkin Porter

Added: Tuesday, February 3rd 2015

Unloved and unwanted by Carlsberg, the British subsidiary of the Danish brewer has killed Draught Burton Ale. It was a beer that played a pivotal role in the "real ale revolution" in the 1970s and 80s but lost its way in the game of musical chairs played by giant brewers

Added: Tuesday, January 6th 2015

The Beer Orders, brought in by Business Secretary Lord Young in Margaret Thatcher's government in the early 1990s, sought to break the power of the "Big Six" national brewers whose tied estates dominated beer retailing. But the orders backfired, leading to the creation of giant pub companies -- pubcos -- that now exercise an even greater grip over the supply of beer

Added: Saturday, December 27th 2014

Brigid Simmonds of the British Beer & Pub Association attacks the Market Rent option for pubco tenants by defending the "tied house" system she says has been around for centuries. She's rewriting history in her rush to defend the giant pub companies

Added: Friday, December 19th 2014

A tasting of three lager beers in Stockholm has come up with the conclusion that all lagers taste the same -- and this is good news, the organisers claim, as drinkers are not looking for wide variations in taste. But why choose just three beers and leave out some of the great Czech and German beers that do offer a wide variety of character. As Budweiser Budvar (brewhouse pictured left) proves, long ageing of beer leads to rich taste

Added: Thursday, August 14th 2014

Val Spencer -- aka Life Long Landlady -- runs the Cock in Lavenham, Suffolk and is a leading campaigner via Twitter for reform of the pubco model and the need for a market-rent option for licensees. In typical Twitter style, she expresses her disappointment at Business Secretary Vince Cable's watered-down pubco proposals

Added: Wednesday, June 11th 2014

Simon Clarke, both a chartered surveyor and publican, is a leading light in the Fair Pint campaign seeking a better deal from pubcos. He argues that the response by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) to Vince Cable's proposals for pubco reform is woefully inadequate and ignores the fact that beer is cheaper on the open market

Added: Saturday, June 7th 2014

Proposals in the Queen's Speech for pubco reform from Vince Cable and Nick Clegg stop short of meeting demands for a real shake-up that will give tenants a market-only rent option to widen drinkers' choice. And nothing in the plans will prevent the closure of pubs, running at 28 a week

Added: Tuesday, June 3rd 2014