Is career advancement all about belonging to organisations, taking examinations, working for a host of different companies with some of them abroad or showing you can get along with people through developing an effective network? The answer is probably somewhere between how your blogger made the ascent and how generation Z are approaching the climb. […]

A piece of Weights and Measures legislation dating back to William III’s time in 1700 says that containers be they made of wood, earthenware, glass, horn, leather, pewter or of some other good and wholesome metal should be stamped with the monarch’s cipher. Only quarts and pints were mentioned at the time but down the […]

A few months ago we looked at how opening a taproom helps to spread brand enthusiasm around your local community. Tap rooms are quite a new thing in the British Isles but the brewery tour has been around for a long time. Remember Gabriel Sedlmayr from the Spaten Brewery in Munich allegedly going around Bass […]

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 […]