Features

Dougal Sharp (left), founder of Innis & Gunn, has joined forces with Jamie Allsopp to recreate a historic beer from the 19th century. Jamie is a direct descendant of the great Burton brewer Samuel Allsopp who made a special Arctic Ale for a British expedition to the North Pole in 1875. A bottle of the beer was found in Shropshire and was used in the new version

Added: Friday, January 16th 2026

Great interest is being shown by independent brewers in Porter and Stout, beer styles from the 18th century. Both Hook Norton in Oxfordshire and Heritage Brewery in Burton-on-Trent have produced versions of stout based on original recipes. Hook Norton's version is aged in oak casks for 18 months while Heritage P2 is based on Bass's P2 Export Stout sent to Russia and the Baltic States.

Added: Sunday, January 11th 2026

The Open Gate Brewery in Covent Garden restores brewing to central London. Guinness has spent £73m on the centre that includes a 20,000-barrel brewery producing a wide range of beer including Porter that was once brewed on the site by Combe in the 18th and 19th centuries

Added: Sunday, December 21st 2025

It's that time of year when Santa gets stuck up the chimney after too many Christmas beers. Here is a fine selection of some of the beers available this year

Added: Monday, December 8th 2025

The Chiltern Brewery has done Roger Protz the great honour of producing a special edition of its Bodgers Barley Wine called Roger's Bodgers. It's brewed with Maris Otter malting barley grown on the Rothschild's Waddeson Estate using regenerative farming that avoids fertilisers and agri-chemicals. Pictured Tom Jenkinson of Chiltern Brewery with the writer on the right.

Added: Tuesday, April 15th 2025

Jamie Allsopp, a descendant of the great Burton brewer Samuel Allsopp, has found recipes for IPA and Pale Ale from the 19th century and recreated them along with the famous/infamous keg beer Double Diamond. The beers are on sale at Jamie's pub, the Blue Stoops in Notting Hill, London. The pub takes its name from Allsopp's first tavern in Burton.

Added: Sunday, February 2nd 2025

A superb range of beers for the festive season that make great companions for food or as stand-along drinks. The selection is from home and from Belgium

Added: Saturday, December 14th 2024

Thomas Hardy's Ale has had a turbulent history like one of the author's Wessex novels. First brewed by Eldridge Pope in Dorchester, it moved to O'Hanlon's and then Meantime breweries, The classic English barley wine is now owned by an Italian drinks business and a new edition has been brewed by Hepworth in Sussex.

Added: Sunday, November 24th 2024

The launch of Fuller's Vintage Ale 2024 is a cause for celebration, greeted by beer lovers in common with wine buffs' welcome for the latest Bordeaux vintage. It's bottle conditioned, meaning it will age and improve due to live yeast. Vintage has been joined by a new bottle-conditioned beer, The Union, from the Thornbridge Brewery using their restored and revived Burton Union system

Added: Monday, September 30th 2024

Emma Cole and Al Wall have restarted brewing at Burton Bridge in Burton-on-Trent and they continue to make the beers launched by the late Geoff Mumford. They also brew the beers from the Heritage Brewery that was forced to move when Molson Coors closed the National Brewery Centre

Added: Wednesday, September 11th 2024