We last looked at who owns what back in spring of 2019. That was pre Covid, pre the world economy bouncing back but the supply chain failing to keep up which led to price rises and pre Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine which pushed the price of grain and oil further upwards. We have had […]

You have all seen the headlines; Global spirit volumes to grow by 2% up to 2026. Tequila volumes forecast to increase by 7% by 2026 and hit $24.2bn by 2031, a CAGR of 8.7%. World gin will grow by 4.4% with the Philippines the largest market three times that of second placed USA. Single grain […]

IS THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY FACING AN EVEN BIGGER THREAT THAN COVID? The situation in Britain’s pubs remains parlous. We got used to drinking cans and bottles at home and we liked it. There are far fewer pubs in a trend which started long before Coronavirus. According to the Altus Group UK the number of pubs […]

There seems to have been a lot in the hospitality press lately about brewers opening tap rooms. Are these temples to show off the gleaming products of brewery fabricators like Brewfab, Oban Ales, Industriel Techniques, Grange, PBC, mackled together by A-B UK or even built by the big guys Krones, Moeschle or Musk? Or are […]

HOW ARE NEW BREWERS PRODUCING FUNKY BEERS? BrewDog in Scotland is one place where the workings of Brett with a light souring from lacto and pedio is trying to be better understood. Brewmaster Richard Kilcullen from the USA has his own £4m Overworks where he says that wood, fruit and bugs work in harmony. It […]

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF FUNK AND ACID Welcome to the world of beer ageing…often in a cask, but not always. There are only a few microorganisms involved; Brettanomyces aka the British fungus is slow to take off but will eventually consume most organic compounds leading to earthy and mushroomy flavours redolent of the farm […]

Beer drinkers are getting more adventurous and seem willing to sample, often at considerable cost, beers with wild, funky and sour flavours, often derived from the inside of a wooden cask. Funky encompasses hay, farmyard and horse blanket flavours, not a good description for townies who do not own a horse but you will know […]

I’ll bet that few of you celebrated International Margarita Day at the end of February. The classic Margarita has but three ingredients; tequila, orange liqueur and lime juice but over the years bartenders seem to have developed it into a glorified slush puppy. Tequila itself gained an unhealthy reputation with many young people swearing ‘never […]

Last month we considered the importance in brewing of the calcium and bicarbonate ion, of course there are other ions of significance in the water. Sulphate promotes crispness and accentuates hop bitterness but it can be overdone leading to sulphidic notes as in the famous ‘Burton snatch’. Chloride on the other hand provides fullness, so […]

Beer is 96% water and breweries use a lot of water. They used to use a lot more in the days of washing wooden hogsheads. As well as the water which goes out in the beer, in the spent grains and evaporated up the copper stack during boiling, there is boiler feed, in place cleaning […]

…is that there is no definition, yet everyone reckons they know what it means! The term ‘craft beer’ is bandied about to denote small batch, local provenance, time served expert, quality, independence and generally better. It is also used as a stick to beat the multinationals whose brewers sit behind computer screens all day while […]

Plant breeding has centred on building in increased resin yield, disease resistance, exotic tropical and citrusy aromas as well as hedgerow varieties that grow to around 2.5m tall rather than the traditional 5-6m. However the hop plant does not breed true from seed, each seedling is unique in its genetic make-up which means a lot […]