Features

A good way to spend a Saturday is to visit an ancient alehouse on the Romney Marsh in Kent that has been run by the same family for around 100 years and then visit a new brewery producing an excellent range of draught and bottled beers. Doris Jemison, owner of the Red Lion at Snargate, was presented with a special award for being in 30 continuous editions of the Good Beer Guide while Matt Calais (pictured) has given up a successful career in TV to open his brewery

Added: Thursday, August 20th 2015

Beer and pubs are booming in Newcastle and Gateshead as the area recovers from the loss of heavy industry and carves out a new future. The once derelict Quayside area of Newcastle is now thriving with bars and pubs while new breweries are opening throughout the region, including Northern Alchemy where Carl Kennedy and Andy Aitchinson (pictured) brew in a former shipping container

Added: Wednesday, July 29th 2015

Wylam Brewery, founded just 15 years ago in George Stephenson's birthplace, has ambitious plans to move from its farm buildings near Hadrian's Wall to the splendour of the Palace of Arts in Exhibition Park in Newcastle-on-Tyne. The council should give the go-ahead this autumn but residents in Jesmond may put a spanner in the works. Pictured: Wylam's brewing team of Lee Howourth, Ben Wilkinson, Christopher Lee and Matt Boyle

Added: Thursday, July 16th 2015

Wilderen in Belgian Limburg makes beer, gin and whisky and attracts 100,000 visitors to a complex that includes old farm buildings where gin production in the 18th and 19th centuries was on a grand scale. The company is run by husband-and-wife team Mike Janssens and Roniek Van Bree (pictured) who have brought their brewing and design skills to restoring the old buildings

Added: Thursday, June 25th 2015

Ter Dolen in the Limburg region of Flanders offers the twin delights of a 16th-century castle and a former farmhouse where Abbey beers are brewed. The complex is run by Mieke Desplenter, a member of the famous Belgian brewing dynasty that also has links to Riva, Liefmans and Gruut.

Added: Monday, June 22nd 2015

While traditional pubs are closing at an alarming rate, a new type of outlet for beer drinkers has achieved nationwide success. Pop-up pubs are small, utilitarian and based in premises designed for other purposes. Martyn Hiller (pictured) opened the first pop-up pub, the Butchers Arms, in Herne, Kent, 10 years ago and its success should see some 200 small pubs operating by the end of the year.

Added: Thursday, June 18th 2015

As celebrations get underway to commemorate the signing of Magna Carta 800 years ago, breweries have produced special beers to mark the occasion. Some use medieval recipes to incorporate such ingredients as rosemary, yarrow and other herbs and spices added at a time when hops were not available or were unknown

Added: Sunday, June 14th 2015

Posy Parsons (left) and Claire Russell are bringing full-mash and full-grain brewing to the home with easy to use kits that offer malted barley and hop pellets rather than syrups. They hail from the U.S. and Australia respectively where they fought their way through the fizz to discover good beer and brought their passion to the UK.

Added: Thursday, June 4th 2015

The Antwerp Arms -- "the Annie" -- in Tottenham, North London, has been saved by its locals. When Enterprise Inns wanted to sell the pub to a property developer, an action group was set up and got the local council to declare the Annie an Asset of Community Value. A co-operative was formed and shareholders raised the cash to buy the pub, which re-opened in April

Added: Thursday, May 21st 2015

"Brewing with a conscience" are the watch words at Purity Brewery in Warwickshire. Steam is trapped and recycled while water is fed into a wetland system of ponds and reed beds where algae clean it, return it to the brewery and encourage wild life to develop. The brewery is on a farm and spent grain and hops are used as animal feed and compost. Left, brewer Florent Vialan in the new £1.8m brewhouse

Added: Friday, May 8th 2015