Copyright (c) 2026 Protz On Beer, by Roger Protz https://protzonbeer.co.uk/categories/the-big-interview en-gb Tue, 13 Aug 2024 15:01:00 BST Jacob Collier has been the MP for Burton-on-Trent for only a few weeks but he's busy on the beer and brewery front. He's held a meeting wit Carlsberg to discuss the future for Marston's Brewery in the town and he's also joined the campaign to find a new home for the brewery museum, and its valuable artefacts following the closure of the National Brewery Centre Tue, 13 Aug 2024 15:01:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2024/08/13/new-burton-mp-champions-cask https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2024/08/13/new-burton-mp-champions-cask Nik Antona (pictured left) and Tom Stainer, the new chairman-elect and chief executive of CAMRA, have a mission to broaden the base of the campaign and win younger drinkers. They stress that many beer festivals now offer a wider choice of beers and the campaign is about more than handpumps and casks. To boost the fortunes of real ale, they will step up efforts to save pubs as vital hubs of communities offering a range of great beer. Sun, 31 Mar 2019 18:17:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2019/03/31/new-look-camra-out-to-broaden-base https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2019/03/31/new-look-camra-out-to-broaden-base Alex Brodie has stepped down as the boss of Hawkshead Brewery in the Lake District but he's being kept on as beer taster in chief to keep his eye -- and his tastebuds -- on his favourite brews. Alex trained as a journalist and travelled widely first in Britain and then around the world as a BBC correspondent. But his love of good beer drove him to open a small brewery in Hawkshead that has grown rapidly into a major Cumbrian business Mon, 18 Feb 2019 17:26:00 GMT https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2019/02/18/alex-brodie-retiring-but-not-his-tastebuds https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2019/02/18/alex-brodie-retiring-but-not-his-tastebuds Jaega Wise has sprung to fame in a few years with Wild Card Brewery in East London. She and her fellow directors William Harris and Andrew Birkby are from Nottingham and moved from home brewing to full scale production in 2012. They have won awards for their beers and Jaega was named Brewer of the Year in December by the British Guild of Beer Writers. She's also a regional director for the Society of Independent Brewers and finds time to sing in a group called Hell and Hope Mon, 21 Jan 2019 09:36:00 GMT https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2019/01/21/jaega-wild-over-beer-in-walthamstow https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2019/01/21/jaega-wild-over-beer-in-walthamstow Shepherd Neame may be Britain's oldest brewery, dating from 1698, but it's not resting on its history. Chief executive Jonathan Neame says the future for beer is about flavour and quality and he responds to modern consumer demands with beers with good hop aroma whether in cask, keg or bottle. The brewery is also expanding its pub estate with new outlets planned for London Tue, 03 Jul 2018 10:14:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2018/07/03/sheps-sees-future-in-cask-keg-and-bottle https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2018/07/03/sheps-sees-future-in-cask-keg-and-bottle Adnams Brewery in Suffolk is famous for its cask ales -- but times are changing. Chairman Jonathan Adnams (pictured),in a frank interview, says only a tiny proportion of his production goes to his own pubs and in the free trade there's a growing demand for keg beer -- and sales of keg will overtake cask by 2019. Wed, 16 May 2018 07:34:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2018/05/16/keg-s-big-challenge-to-cask-at-adnams https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2018/05/16/keg-s-big-challenge-to-cask-at-adnams Steve Wellington, a revered figure in brewing circles, is retiring...allegedly. He has retired four times before but this time he means it -- except that the owners of the Heritage Brewery in Burton-on-Trent want him to stay on as a consultant. He is seen on the left in the brewery with his colleagues Caroline Horrabin and Martin Hodson. Steve worked in various parts of the old Bass empire but his main claim to fame was bringing Worthington's White Shield back to Burton Mon, 05 Feb 2018 13:33:00 GMT https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2018/02/05/steve-wellington-burton-s-beer-hero https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2018/02/05/steve-wellington-burton-s-beer-hero Greg Koch launched Stone Brewing when he discovered there was more to American beer than Budweiser and Miller Lite. Starting with a 30-barrel kit in 1996 he now has breweries in California, Virginia and Berlin and is producing some 400,000 barrels a year, with 30 IPAs in his portfolio Fri, 28 Jul 2017 08:52:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2017/07/28/stone-s-greg-koch-i-m-an-ipa-diehard https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2017/07/28/stone-s-greg-koch-i-m-an-ipa-diehard Ralph Findlay, chief executive of Marston's, is bullish about the future of beer and pubs. He has more than 1,560 pubs and plans to bring back more "wet led" outlets to cater for the demand for craft beer. He says the recently acquired Charles Wells's beers won't change and will continue to be brewed at Bedford. He hopes to give greater presence to Courage and Young's beers in London and to boost McEwans in Scotland. Tue, 27 Jun 2017 09:27:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2017/06/27/marston-s-chief-on-the-future-for-pubs https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2017/06/27/marston-s-chief-on-the-future-for-pubs Colin Dexter, who died on 21 March, had a life-long love affair with good beer, starting in his home town of Stamford. He took that love with him to Oxford and it helped inspire his great creation, Inspector Morse, In this interview with Roger Protz in May 1990, Dexter spoke of his favourite beers and the crime writers he admires. Wed, 22 Mar 2017 15:48:00 GMT https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2017/03/22/colin-dexter-on-morse-murder-and-beer https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2017/03/22/colin-dexter-on-morse-murder-and-beer 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 Sat, 30 Jul 2016 14:51:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2016/07/30/joe-stange-the-accidental-beer-writer https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2016/07/30/joe-stange-the-accidental-beer-writer Breandan Kearney, annointed Beer Writer of the Year by the British Guild of Beer Writers, is an Irishman who has settled in Ghent to write about Belgian beer and has quickly acquired a big following for his forthright views and tastings on his blog Belgian Smaak. He is seen picking up his award at the guild's annual dinner. Fri, 29 Jan 2016 15:31:00 GMT https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2016/01/29/breandan-likes-the-smaak-of-belgian-beer https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2016/01/29/breandan-likes-the-smaak-of-belgian-beer David Grant, managing director of Moorhouse's of Burnley -- famous for Pendle Witches Brew -- says the town has fought back from the nightmare of riots in 2001 and now a real community spirit is aiding the brewery to build its sales. But the beer market is changing and the brewery has had to sell three of its six pubs. Grant is critical of Progressive Beer Duty that doesn't help a company of his size Mon, 18 Jan 2016 19:48:00 GMT https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2016/01/18/moorhouse-s-in-for-long-haul-in-north-west https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2016/01/18/moorhouse-s-in-for-long-haul-in-north-west Nick Miller, chief executive of Meantime, says there was no behind-the-scenes deal when SABMiller bought the South London brewery in May. Miller had been preparing to put Meantime on the market for a year and a half before the SAB takeover in order to pay back the original shareholders who had never received a dividend. But now Meantime is in limbo, put up for sale by new owner AB InBev Fri, 11 Dec 2015 17:09:00 GMT https://protzonbeer.co.uk/news/2015/12/11/meantime-s-miller-answers-his-critics https://protzonbeer.co.uk/news/2015/12/11/meantime-s-miller-answers-his-critics Greg Mulholland, the LibDem MP who chairs the Parliamentary Save the Pub Group, says the draft Pub Code put forwared by the government breaches the legislation agreed by parliament before the general election. The code's interpretation of the Market Rent Only option means, he says, that tenants will find it impossible to trigger MRO and go free of the pubco beer tie Mon, 30 Nov 2015 09:09:00 GMT https://protzonbeer.co.uk/comments/2015/11/30/mulholland-anger-at-watered-down-mro-that-s-in-defiance-of-will-of-parliament https://protzonbeer.co.uk/comments/2015/11/30/mulholland-anger-at-watered-down-mro-that-s-in-defiance-of-will-of-parliament Alan Hinkes has scaled Mount Everest five times and is the only Brit to have climbed all 14 8,000 metre peaks in the Himalayas and Karakoram ranges. When he's not climbing, he enjoys good beer, real ale in particular. He recalls his early drinking, the beer deserts of Newcastle and Scotland in the 1980s, and some of his favourite brews at home and abroad. He's seen here (left) with ranger David Tyson on Great Gable, toasting the Cumbrian peak with a special beer Wed, 07 Oct 2015 17:44:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2015/10/07/alan-hinkes-up-hill-down-ale https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2015/10/07/alan-hinkes-up-hill-down-ale Tim Page, CAMRA's new chief executive, is impressed by the enthusiasm and commitment of the campaign's 165,000 members -- but his ambition is to double that figure. He comes from a military background and since leaving the army has run the charity Emmaus followed by a stint as boss of the East Anglian Air Ambulance service Fri, 31 Oct 2014 10:46:00 GMT https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2014/10/31/camra-s-new-chief-has-sky-high-plans-1 https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2014/10/31/camra-s-new-chief-has-sky-high-plans-1 Petra Wetzel has taken Glasgow by storm. In the course of a few years she has built the success and reputation of WEST, a Bavarian-style beer hall with a brewery producing lagers and wheat beers to the ancient Pure Beer Law. Now she has funding to build a new brewery on the outskirts of the city Fri, 29 Nov 2013 20:10:00 GMT https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2013/11/29/how-petra-wetzel-went-west-to-give-glaswegians-a-taste-of-real-german-beer https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2013/11/29/how-petra-wetzel-went-west-to-give-glaswegians-a-taste-of-real-german-beer Greene King boss Rooney Anand has transformed the fortunes of the Suffolk-based brewing and pubs groups. Now he's installing a new brewhouse where a wide range of short-run beers will add to the appeal of his pubs Mon, 23 Sep 2013 04:36:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2013/09/23/new-brewery-new-beers-as-greene-king-looks-to-the-future-with-big-choice-of-pubs https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2013/09/23/new-brewery-new-beers-as-greene-king-looks-to-the-future-with-big-choice-of-pubs Sophie Atherton is the first ever woman beer sommelier and in July she was given the prestigious award of Beer Sommelier of the Year by the Parliamentary Beer Club. Now she plans to raise the appreciation of beer and stop it being seen as wine's poor relation. She's pictured at the Great British Beer Festival Tue, 20 Aug 2013 11:39:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2013/08/20/early-love-of-pubs-and-ale-set-sophie-on-course-to-become-a-top-beer-writer-and-taster https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2013/08/20/early-love-of-pubs-and-ale-set-sophie-on-course-to-become-a-top-beer-writer-and-taster Top brewmaster Garrett Oliver, editor of the Oxford Companion to Beer, searches the world for good beer. Inspired by Carnegie Porter, his next venture is to build a brewery in Stockholm to provide Swedes with good beer to match their fine food Tue, 16 Jul 2013 15:30:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2013/07/16/globe-trotting-garrett-takes-brooklyn-to-stockholm-to-give-swedes-some-fine-beer https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2013/07/16/globe-trotting-garrett-takes-brooklyn-to-stockholm-to-give-swedes-some-fine-beer Meantime's brewmaster has to pinch himself to believe the awesome success of his South London brewery. His lagers and pale ales are in great demand in the capital and beer sales are growing so fast he may need new premises in three years' time Sat, 25 May 2013 18:55:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2013/05/25/alastair-hook-leads-the-great-beer-revival-in-london-and-is-fast-running-out-of-space https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2013/05/25/alastair-hook-leads-the-great-beer-revival-in-london-and-is-fast-running-out-of-space The chairman of the Campaign for Real Ale says pub closures must be tackled, the beer duty escalator has to be scrapped and if some brewers want to make keg beer -- 'be my guest' Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:16:00 BST https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2012/08/17/camra-s-colin-valentine-on-the-major-challenges-facing-the-booming-campaign https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2012/08/17/camra-s-colin-valentine-on-the-major-challenges-facing-the-booming-campaign