The Pub Curmudgeon

It’s generally taken as read that beer in the North has a thick creamy head, while Southern beer is flat. There’s a fair bit of truth in thi...

Last week I described how the craft beer movement had, in Europe, to a large extent ended up making its pitch against established, indigeno...

I was rather amused by the latest Foster’s ad which pokes fun at beer snobs and their liking for “fancy pants beers”. Note the sandpapering ...

You often nowadays see “craft” and “cask” being treated as two entirely separate and mutually exclusive categories, both in discussion about...

It was disappointing, to say the least, that, earlier today, a motion supporting minimum alcohol pricing was passed at CAMRA’s National Con...

This week, the Morning Advertiser reported on the state of the cask market . Taking the continued commitment of CAMRA, and the re-entry of ...

In the past, I’ve often praised the way Sam Smith’s preserve a traditional, cosy atmosphere of pub conviviality and conversation in a way ...

Takeovers of up-and-coming craft breweries by international brewers have now become so commonplace that they no longer produce the gasps of ...

The mention in my account of our trip to Huddersfield of the Sportsman pub, which had been built by local brewer Seth Senior in 1930, promp...

I’ve recently been re-reading The Brewing Industry 1950-1990 by Anthony Avis, a fascinating memoir to which I will devote a longer blogpost...

If you asked most people about their reasons for choosing a particular pub, they would list factors such as the company, a relaxing atmosphe...

We pick up our visit to Huddersfield having left the Slubbers Arms and making our way back towards the town centre. Our next call was the S...

Our latest Proper Day Out organised via the Beer & Pubs Forum took us across the Pennines to Huddersfield on Friday 8th March. While ...

While I help run my local one, I can’t say I’m much of a fan of beer festivals as a customer. Standing around in a draughty municipal hall d...

On February 1st, there was another small turn of the anti-drink ratchet when a new higher band of cider duty was introduced for products bet...