Author Archive
Campden offers courses in beer hygiene and legal labels
By: JimOldfield
September 2nd, 2012
Word leader in scientific support and technical services to the brewing industry, Campden BRI, is offering two must-have brewery courses in three days this autumn. An introduction to brewery microbiology runs from September 25-26, and promises in-depth training in brewery hygiene. Among the first day topics are detection and identification of beer spoilage micro-organisms, brewery Read the full post…
Time to ditch that fragile hydrometer?
By: JimOldfield
September 2nd, 2012
Bellingham & Stanley has launched a new range of OPTi digital hand held refractometers, designed to replace that costly and slippery glass hydrometer when measuring the specific gravity and ABV of a brew. With temperate-compensated digital readouts, the company says its new digital is quicker, easier – and uses only a fraction of the beer… Read the full post…
Taxman slammed by Parliamentary committee over booze smuggling
By: JimOldfield
September 2nd, 2012
HM Revenue and Customs has averaged just SIX successful prosecutions for booze smuggling per year, over a four-year period, a committee of MPs has claimed. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee said that there were no more than half a dozen court wins in the four years to 2009/10. The revelation adds to the controversy over the Read the full post…
Another year – another festival of great ale!
By: JimOldfield
August 30th, 2012
When Hand-Pumped offered two free tickets for this year’s Great British Beer Festival, in assocation with CAMRA, reader Adrian Pearce was lucky enough to come out of our hat first. And London-based Adrian was kind enough to share his good fortune – by writing a first-person review of his day out… complete with pictures. Here Read the full post…
Race the Doom Bar with Sharp’s at ‘extreme sailing’ event
By: JimOldfield
August 30th, 2012
Cornish brewer Sharp’s is giving 28,000 “extreme sailing” fans the chance to race each other, at the Extreme Sailing Series in Cardiff Harbour which started today (August 30). The brewer’s Race the Doom Bar challenge offers the spectators the opportunity of competing against one another in a “Race the Doom Bar” gig race. But no-one Read the full post…
Britain goes pop… with a fruit-flavoured beer boom!
By: JimOldfield
August 30th, 2012
It may leave a nasty taste in the mouth of seasoned real ale drinkers to learn that Britain’s biggest boom in alcoholic drinks is coming from the FLAVOURED beers sector. Strawberry, raspberry and even cherry beers have become so popular that sales rocketed up by 80 per cent last year. According to market research group Read the full post…
Green brewery launches at Sussex farm
By: JimOldfield
August 30th, 2012
East Sussex’s latest microbrewery is being launched – in the setting of a disused flint barn. The 20BBL Long Man Brewery is being set up at Church Farm, Litlington, by farm owner Duncan Ellis and local ale supplier Steve Lees. The venture has been helped by funding from the Wealden and Rother Rural Partnership. It Read the full post…
Eastbourne beer festival tickets up for grabs now
By: JimOldfield
August 30th, 2012
Tickets have gone on sale for the Eastbourne Beer Festival – with its organisers hoping to top last year’s record sell-out event that saw more than 4,500 real ale lovers in attendance at the town’s Winter Gardens. A staggering 13,707 pints went down at the three-day event – setting a stiff target for this year’s Read the full post…
Thatch the way to top off a brewery!
By: JimOldfield
August 28th, 2012
Locals might have wondered just what was brewing at Palmers Brewery in Dorset recently – when 2,000 bundles of REEDS arrived on the scene… But there was no fear for the beer – the job was to simply put a new lid on the UK’s only thatched brewery! A team of four thatchers turned up, Read the full post…
Dave bottles it… and comes out a winner!
By: JimOldfield
August 26th, 2012
It might sound double-Dutch to non-drinkers, but an exotically-named real-ale bottle shop in a small Yorkshire town is becoming a must-go destination for hoards of ale aficionados. Bier Huis – Dutch for alehouse – only opened last November, but its stock of rare beers, ciders and Yorkshire delicacies, has rooted West Yorkshire town Ossett as Read the full post…
