A hard rain falls on UK barley producers
By: JimOldfield
August 7th, 2012
Raindrops keep falling on the heads of the UK’s malting barley producers – and not just in the washed-out fields. HM Revenue and Customs figures showed a year-on-year annual plunge of 16 per cent in total UK malt exports for the period July 2011 to May 2012, while imports were 28.6 per cent higher. Japan Read the full post…
Andrew hops across the brewing divide
By: JimOldfield
August 7th, 2012
Former York Brewery head brewer, Andrew Whalley, has hopped across the brewery floor…. to join hop merchant Charles Faram as the company’s technical sales advisor! With 20 years in the industry, Andrew can point to some great brews in York – such as GBBF gold medal winner Centurions Ghost, Yorkshire Terrier, Stonewall and Guzzler. He Read the full post…
Flower queen brews up a crowning floral ale
By: JimOldfield
August 7th, 2012
A carnival queen has helped brew-up a carniv-ale for revellers in Jersey this weekend to toast the Island’s giant annual flower parade. Jersey’s Liberation Brewery has created fruity rose-flavoured “Floration” to serve to thirsty revellers at the annual floral float contest, Battle of Flowers, in St Helier – which is expected to draw up to Read the full post…
Brewers move into pubs and hotels
By: JimOldfield
August 5th, 2012
Brewery bosses like their vertical integration… which usually takes the form of buying up pubs, in which to sell their ales. But as ambitions grow, London giant Young’s has been going one better for a while – and the company is about to open its SEVENTEENTH hotel! The £3m, 17-room Foley Hotel, in the Surrey Read the full post…
Brewdog’s steroid ale is curs of the Olympics!
By: JimOldfield
August 5th, 2012
Rebellious brewers Brewdog have gotten so pumped up about the Olympics’ controversial fast-food sponsorship deals, that they’ve made an ale which could get athletes banned for doping. In a defiant gesture against the strict Olympics commercial rules, the controversial brewery has launched its limited-edition “Never Mind The Anabolics” – a 6.5 per cent IPA that Read the full post…
Need a break? Let the King of brewing spell you!
By: JimOldfield
August 2nd, 2012
Forget the nano-brewers… Bill King’s a “NANNY” brewer! If you want a break from hops and malt, he’s formed his own brewery “babysitting” company, Locum Brewing, to take care of your beer while you’re away! And King IS royalty when it comes to real ale… not only was he a fifth-generation CEO of a famous Read the full post…
Brit brewers top international beer awards
By: JimOldfield
July 31st, 2012
When it comes to brewing champion ales, Sharp’s showed they are as sharp as ever by taking no fewer than SIX medals, against worldwide competition at the 16th International Beer Challenge – including two top honours from their new Connoisseurs’ Choice range of premium bottled beers, designed to partner food. Connoisseurs Quadrupel Ale 2011 took Read the full post…
CAMRA champ Harvest Pale is the rock to found a castle on!
By: JimOldfield
July 29th, 2012
Castle Rock’s Harvest Pale ale has brought in a bumper crop for the Nottingham brewery – by helping boost its turnover by more than £1m! Winning CAMRA’s Supreme Champion Beer of Britain title at the GBBF in August 2010 was the springboard to Harvest Pale’s success, and over the year to last March its sales Read the full post…
Beer tax costs pubs an extra £66,500 a year to run, new figures show
By: JimOldfield
July 29th, 2012
By Hand-Pumped Staff July 29 2012 The colossal cost of beer duty and VAT is saddling the average British pub with a £66,500 a year bill, CAMRA and the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) have revealed. The two organisations’ joint research showed this massive drag anchor has gone up by a staggering £18,000 Read the full post…
Beer Group sides with BBPA against “catastrophic” beer stamps
By: JimOldfield
July 26th, 2012
The All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group has backed the British Beer and Pub Association’s stance against the introduction of beer tax stamps – which the BBPA warns could cause an industry catastrophe. The beer group has been conducting an independent inquiry into duty fraud – with the tax stamps proposed as one of the measures to Read the full post…
