Author Archive
Time to hail ‘secret’ winner, the malt industry
By: JimOldfield
May 10th, 2012
Britain is the third largest producer of malt in the world – and yet some people working in our pub and brewing industry don’t even know what it is! That’s what the chairman of the country’s maltsters revealed to the Food and Agriculture Minister this month, at a meeting to discuss raising the profile of Read the full post…
Scrumpy pals take Surrey cider to GBBF
By: JimOldfield
May 9th, 2012
Surrey’s first-ever cider entry to CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival has come from two friends and back-yard brewers from Guildford. Martin Pollock, 37, and Pete O’Connor, 30, have been making cider in their back gardens for three years. They noticed a gap in the market for cider from Surrey, set up as Pete’s Pollocks – Read the full post…
Underneath the arches… I booze my Fridays away!
By: JimOldfield
May 9th, 2012
Camden Town Brewery laughed off superstition by choosing Friday, April 13 to launch the new on-site bar it has added to its super-popular brewery. Not only did the London real ale favourite open the bar on the traditional bad luck day – it even launched a special black Pilsner, called Black Friday, to mark the Read the full post…
To beer or not to beer – that is the CAMRA question!
By: JimOldfield
May 8th, 2012
Trade tickets are now on sale for this year’s CAMRA Great British Beer Festival in London – billed as “Britain’s Biggest Pub”. But is it? Certainly, the 55,000 expected customers are unlikely to be outdone by any other single establishment. But as for the ales, this year’s fest is about to have its pocket picked Read the full post…
Tykes invited to talk out about Yorkshire’s best pub
By: JimOldfield
May 8th, 2012
Ale-loving Yorkshire folk are being invited to nominate their favourite pub in one of the biggest competitions ever… to find the county’s most popular local. The contest has been organised by Welcome to Yorkshire, whose chief executive Gary Verity said: “We want everyone to have their say and tell us about the local they love. Read the full post…
First brewers enter 2013 International Brewing Awards
By: JimOldfield
May 7th, 2012
Two lucky brewers have been allowed into the International Brewing Awards (IBA) 2013… some four months before the competition is open to enter! Leamington Spa’s Warwickshire Beer Company won a prize draw at the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) conference, to allow them into the global contest. They were joined by the Swan Brewery from Read the full post…
BBC shoot down to Spitfire kings Shepherd Neame
By: JimOldfield
May 6th, 2012
Achtung! The Fokkers may not be coming – but the Beeb did descend out of the sun, on iconic Kent brewers Shepherd Neame. The kings of the stunning Spitfire real ale ads (remember No Fokker comes close, and Spitfire – downed all over Kent, just like the Luftwaffe?) have had a visit from columnist and Read the full post…
Storm in a pint pot… as new mini-micro brewery launched
By: JimOldfield
May 3rd, 2012
Hand-Pumped EXCLUSIVE Those who thought “proper” beer-making couldn’t get smaller… think again. For back-shed-brewer Ken Oliver is marketing the “world’s smallest brewery” – a MINI-micro set-up that will easily fit in a corner of your home office, yet turn out 100 litres of commercial-standard ale! Ken’s Beer Making Machine comes in at well under two Read the full post…
High hops for Italian vineyard owner’s son paid to drink English ale!
By: JimOldfield
May 3rd, 2012
A Sardinian vineyard owner’s son has picked the best job in Britain – being PAID to spend time in country pubs! In a move that rivals editing Hand-Pumped (!) Dr Ignazio Cabras has won a £7,700 grant to spend 18 months studying the British pub in a bid to save it from extinction. The 33-year-old Read the full post…
Beer engines meet steam engines at northern ale festival
By: JimOldfield
May 1st, 2012
A weekend of glug-glug and chug-chug is coming to South Yorkshire as Barnsley CAMRA hosts its annual beer festival… at a steam-railway. The Elsecar Heritage Railway will swap steam engines for beer engines this Thursday (May 4) as 30-plus real ales – many of them festival specials – will be in full flow for four Read the full post…
