Features

Belgian beer looks to the future

Belgian beer is no longer living in the past. Plans are under way to convert the Bourse -- the Stock Exchange -- in Brussels into the Belgian Beer Palace that will offer visitors interactive displays about the country's vast range of beer. And nearby the Brussels Beer Project says "leave the abbey" and is brewing new styles in collaboration with brewers in other European countries: including Anspach & Hobday (pictured) from London
Added: Thursday, December 1st 2016
Bruce & Geoff: gone for a Burton

Pioneering Burton brewers Bruce Wilkinson and Geoff Mumford are calling it a day and putting their Burton Bridge Brewery up for sale. They both worked for Ind Coope before opening their own brewery and one of their last acts was to bring Draught Burton Ale back to its native town. They are determined Burton Bridge will be sold only to someone who shares their belief in traditional ales
Added: Wednesday, November 2nd 2016
Audit Ale: taking account of history

Audit Ale was once consumed in vast quantities at college feasts in Oxford and Cambridge to mark the annual settlement of rents from college land and farms. The style has been revived by Lacons and Westerham breweries and now Titanic and White Horse breweries have collaborated to brew a version of Audit ale that will be aged until next April
Added: Tuesday, October 18th 2016
Chouffe: where beer is gnome from home

Achouffe brewery in the Belgian Ardennes has come a long way from its launch in 1982 with second-hand vessels on a farm. It has become world-famous as a result of its gnome logo: founder Chris Bauweraerts is seen with one his gnomes. The brewery is now part of the Duvel Moortgat group, which exports the beers to more than 20 countries and where it has created great interest with the first-ever Belgian IPA.
Added: Tuesday, October 4th 2016
Thomas Hardy's Ale: Return of the Native

The legendary barley wine Thomas Hardy's Ale, which disappeared when first Eldridge Pope's brewery closed and then O'Hanlon's brewery dropped the beer, has been restored...in Italy. Sandro and Michele Vecchiato of Interbrau bought the brand and it's now brewed for them by Meantime in London. It was launched in Milan but Interbrau plan to make it available in both the UK and the U.S.
Added: Sunday, September 18th 2016
Tottenham hails Beavertown ales

In just five short years, Logan Plant has moved from his kitchen to a 40,000 barrel-a-year plant in Tottenham, North London -- and he's already planning to expand. Logan comes from the Black Country where his father, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame, introduced him to the delights of Batham's and Holden's ales. Now he's entranced with West Coast pale ales from the U.S. and brews a range of IPAs, including the outstanding Bloody Ell
Added: Sunday, September 4th 2016
US beer brightens Brixton food scene

An evening of fine vegetarian food at Salon in Brixton was highlighted by beers supplied by the Brewers Association from the United States. The organisation takes beer-and-food matching sufficiently seriously to employ a resident chef, Adam Dulye. Five courses were matched with beers ranging from saison to gose, IPA, Alt and Old Ale
Added: Saturday, August 13th 2016
Joe Stange, the accidental beer writer

Joe Stange, an American journalist from Missouri, is based in Berlin and writes with Tim Webb the Good Beer Guide Belgium. It was while he was working as a freelance in Brussels that he came across Belgian beer and started a journey that led to a Brussels beer guide and now co-author of the Belgian book. He calls himself a "beer conservationist" and is a great defender of European styles. He is critical of American "sours" that discredit the true Lambic tradition
Added: Saturday, July 30th 2016
American hoppy IPAs bounce into Berlin

Three young Americans with a love of craft beer have introduced Berliners to the extravaganzas of IPAs bursting with hop character. David Spengler, Tom Crozier and Matthew Walthall (pictured left to right) arrived in the German capital by different routes but were united by their love of craft beers, IPAs in particular. Now drinkers are pounding the pavement to get to their Vagabund brewpub in the Wedding district to sample the joys of IPA and Imperial IPA
Added: Monday, June 27th 2016
Daisy Claeys: 30 beer years in Bruges

Daisy Claeys has run 't Brugs Beertje -- the Little Bruges Bear -- for 30 years and has never sold a drop of Pils in a country dominated by Stella Artois. She sells as many as 300 different beers a year, all from small, independent Belgian breweries. Drinkers from all over the world flock to the small bar that was put on the map in the 1980s by Michael Jackson and Tim Webb
Added: Thursday, May 5th 2016