Your Vibrant And Now Excitingly Neutral Beery News Notes For The World Cup’s Round Of Eight

I took a break from the World Cup on Sunday evening to watch Billy Bragg play in a converted church in our fair city. See, England and Mexico were playing at the same time over 4,000 km to the south. Bragg made it one of the themes of the show, he not being able to watch the game that I passed on for him. He received wanted (“…tell me…“) and unwanted (“…don’t tell me…“) updates on the score from the crowd. It was fun. Pubs are stocking up for the next game against Norway – which is being played at a more civilized start time for the home audiences. People are focused on this stuff. After a 5 pm trip on London Underground during England’s prior game against DR Congo, Hannah Evans in The Times Food newsletter asked where you might go in the UK to avoid the tournament and among her recommendations was the Highland Laddie of Leeds:

This old Leeds boozer got a revamp last year and was named the best pub in Britain by the Good Food Guide less than six months later. Ever since it’s been rammed with customers visiting not just for pints but the pub’s fantastic food — bar snacks such as sausage rolls with homemade brown sauce and bone marrow fat on toast downstairs (walk-ins only) and pub classics with a twist upstairs including the legendary Keema Shepherd’s Pie. The good news? They don’t show the football which means you have a 90 minute window during each game to pop in and try the menu for yourself. 

You will recall the Highland Laddie being being visited by Katie earlier this year. Looking further back, Boak and Bailey are blogging like it’s 2008 this week:

Not every post has to be a 1,000+ word full researched epic. Not everything we write needs to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end. There doesn’t always need to be a thesis or argument. So, this week – and we’ll see how it goes – we’re just going to see what catches our attention, and what we find ourselves discussing between ourselves, and quickly write it up.

So far they have contemplated a beer line-up upgrade as well as a former BrewDog location. I was inspired and wrote a review of a NA beer. TL:DR? It didn’t totally suck! Do something speedy and short yourself. Go-waaaaan! My note was nothing like the efforts of The Beer Nut, however, who reviewed eleven beers the other day… which booze! He was celebrating:

Another Monday, another blog post, another round-up of recent Irish pale ale. This one is the blog’s 3000th entry. It’s best not to think about what that means, and move right along with the reviews.

He was not pleased with the selection in the end. Turns out he shares the experience of many North Koreans feel when buying commercially made beer. You know… you think you know something about totalitarian regimes and then, whammo, this sort of news slaps you in the back of the head:

A source in South Hamgyong province said beer demand has climbed in Hamhung as the weather warms. But state-made brands such as Taedonggang beer and Ponghak beer are losing ground to Chinese beer and beer brewed at home. Restaurants and jangmadang, the informal markets central to North Korea’s economy, sell all three types side by side in Hamhung. Homemade beer is the best seller, the source said. Chinese beer comes second, and domestically produced factory beer trails both. Demand for factory beer is relatively weak because of its taste, the source said. North Korean people have long complained that it carries a strong barley smell and tastes heavy and unrefined.

I never pegged totalitarian absolutists like those of NK to allow not only a free market on home brewed beer but allow it to compete with the state run factory breweries. And I always thought the phrase “North Korean people have long complained” was an oxymoron.

Note #1: Setting up a beer engine.
Note #2: The Beer Store needs a lot of empties returned…now!
Note #3: “Village of 600 holds beerfest” reports Biggleswade press.
Note #4: Beer stained rubber chicken lets team down.

Pellicle‘s feature this week sees Ewen Friers visit Heaney Brewery in Bellaghy, Northern Ireland where he learned this bit of market reality from head brewer Mal McCay:

“Northern Ireland is the most tied and restrictive market in Europe for selling beer,” Mal says. “The market was designed to keep us out of it, basically.” Away from the relatively cosmopolitan Belfast, the vast majority of rural drinkers haven’t ditched bigger beers like Guinness, Coors, and Carlsberg. Whether a total revolution is realistic or not, it’s sobering to hear Mal talk about the pubs in his locale. “We had 108 kegs go to Italy for Paddy’s Day, but none [ordered] here,” he says. “There’s much more support for our beer out there than there is here. Outside of Belfast, people don’t want to know.”

Again with the economics, Jeff posted a string of thoughts on Costco cancelling their Kirkland Lager contract with Deschutes and shared this tidbit:

The beer was revenue positive, but not much. Believe it or not, most of the grist was Weyermann malt, and Kirkland went for $14 a 12-pack. It buoyed production for Deschutes and gave them a ton of good press. I asked a source inside the brewery just a couple weeks ago if they had a plan to do something with the award-winning lager that was already in the lineup before it became Kirkland. He gave me a Cheshire Cat-smile and said they had certainly blocked out a plan if that happened.

It’s all just wrapper on the can after all.  Speaking of the volume market, Ron shared his thoughts on one of the upside of Wetherspoons tht he was reminded on on a recent trip to London:

…we got stuck in ‘Spoons. As you do. Andrew has a very soft spot for ‘Spoons. Probably because I took him and his brother Alexei into them so often when they were younger.  The UK is still a nightmare if you have kids. You’ve no idea from the outside whether they’re allowed in a pub. That’s why Wetherspoon’s pubs are a godsend. They always let children in. I also knew that I can afford to buy all three of us meals and get a pint for me. And a couple of double whiskies. I needed to calm my nerves when out and about with the kids.

I posted this at BlueSky but, for perpetuity, I will repeat here that I was looking through a few old images that I have save over the years the other day and I came across this image. It’s a legal letter to Molson from 1934 found at Canada’s National Archives in 2013. It confirms that Molson trademarked the term “India Pale Ale” in 1869, seven years before the Bass trademark. My visceral reaction was “….they trademarked frikkin’ “India Pale Ale”!” Turns out Canada’s Trademark Act came into being in 1868 while the UK only introduced one in 1875. Which explains a lot but it is important to note that”….they trademarked frikkin’ “India Pale Ale”!”

Sticking with the Great White North, there was an oddly one-sided coverage of a fairly pointless politicial stunt in the US Congress related to Canadian booze buying policy:

Nearly all of Canada’s liquor boards have prohibited or restricted the importation and distribution of US alcoholic drinks, a move that has impacted US producers and limited access to Canada as an export market. The CANADA Act builds on comments from US trade representative ambassador Jamieson Greer, who stated that resolving the Canadian provinces’ discriminatory treatment of American alcohol producers would likely require an enforcement action. During a recent committee hearing, Greer noted that only two countries had retaliated economically against the US over the past year: the People’s Republic of China and Canada… Doubling down on the unfairness of the situation and her reasons for pursuing the legislation, Tenney said: “Canadian provinces cannot be allowed to hold American wineries, breweries, and distilleries hostage and attempt to ransom them.”

No view from Canada presented. No suggestion that these are matters that are handled in treaty negotiations, not by internal legislation. Plus, not only do Canadians not care but the US President does not usually care what individual members of Congress do or says – even though it’s led by his own party. Here’s the CBC’s story on the situation.

Germany v Budweiser? Apparently AB InBev has a need for some odd product placement where there is a history of disinterest, according to The NYT:

Twice, the Americans tried to crack the German market under different branding. Both attempts fizzled. The first was abandoned after several years of disappointing sales. The second was scuttled amid ongoing legal questions over the Budweiser name. Last fall, AB InBev announced another go, now with a product that, for legal reasons, it had to call “Anheuser-Busch Bud.” A company official said the expansion would bring Bud back to its German “roots” — its founders’ country of origin — in time for its 150th anniversary… the beer is hard to find. It’s rare to see in grocery stores… 

One more World Cup related story before we start thinking about heading to the exit this week.  Apparently, the Ambassador for Canada in Ireland held an event for the game  against Morocco (which lead to our team’s exit) and there was a certain cocktail on offer according to the Irish Times:

I was sorry to see Canada exit the World Cup at the weekend, not least because I watched their game against Morocco at an impromptu garden party hosted by their Irish ambassador, Dennis King. But at least they went out with good grace, unlike certain other North American countries we could mention. Their typical modesty was reflected even on the drinks menu. Hence a special brew concocted for the occasion billed as the “We’re Just Glad to have Made it this Far Cocktail”. According to the recipe, also included, this comprised “2 parts Canadian whiskey, 1 part lemon juice, and ¾ part maple syrup”. Suffice to say that, if the Canadian strikers had had as much of a kick as it did, they’d still be in the tournament.

Does that sound good? Hmm… I wonder if it was official government policy available at other embassies or just the Spud Islander’s idea.

Finally, as part of last week’s low hanging tales related to the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, there was chat about the supposed small beer recipe that George Washington, a militia colonel at the age of just 25, wrote down in 1757. Turns out to likely be the fairly common frontier militia beer similar to Jeffery Amherst’s spruce beer of 1759 that was also based on that ratio of three gallons of molasses to thirty of hot water. I do find one part of the accepted transciption from Washington’s handwriting very odd. At the start it states:

Take a large Sifter full of Bran Hops to your taste – Boil these 3 hours… 

What the heck are “bran hops“? A random blend of bran and hops in a random quantity? At least Amherst measured out the 7 pounds of spruce that had to be boiled until the bark came off. And bran adds nothing. It really adds nothing after three hours of boiling. Plus it’s not like they are separating out the bran from the flour for the bread that frontier militia soldier grunts ate over 100 years before the commercial separation of bran by rollers is invented. Plus bran would just fall though the holes of a “sifter“, a perforated spoon. It all makes no sense. Sensible speculation suggests what was meant was whole dried brown hop cones – older hops. Hops that look like bran maybe. Washington himself was a porter drinker but he’d probably laugh at all the bran brewers of today.*  Hmm… I wonder of he provided something like the crap militia beer for those he enslaved.

That’s it for now. As we winnow out more teams leading to the final game, please take time to check out Boak and Bailey posting on Saturday and adding to their fabulously entertaining footnotes week after week at Patreon. And do look out for more of Stan’s new “One Link, One Paragraph” format.  Then hunt out something in someone’s archives! Leave oblique comments on someone’s post from 2009!! Listen to a few of Lew’s podcasts and get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by David Jesudason on certain Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s wonderful self-governing totes autonomous website featuring The Gulp, too.  Ben’s Beer and Badword remains on pause but there is reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog. Any more? We have Ontario’s own A Quick Beer and All About Beer is still offering a range of podcasts – and there’s also Mike Seay’s The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast! And there’s the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube as well as the archives of the Beer Ladies Podcast.

*One bit of historical correlation doesn’t mean causation context thanks to Lord Wiki, citing the 2005 text General George Washington by Edward Lengel: “Later in the year, Washington again suffered a serious bout of dysentery; he was bedridden for much of the winter of 1757–58, and even suggested to the Virginia Burgesses that he be replaced since he could not properly do his duty as colonel of the regiment.”

Quick Note: Dortmunder Original Lager, DAB, Germany

Light honey, cream and crusty French bread swirl between the cheeks. Plus a slightly minty hop. This is only $2.85 CND a can at the LCBO and grocery stores around our fair province. That’s a great cheap beer for a hot afternoon in the garden. There’s not much else to say about it. Pairs well with watching robins strip your Juneberry bush of all its fruit. I mean, I could complain but it’s not like there’s a regulatory board that administers this sort of thing. That head sure died fast. And it’s a bit sickly when it starts to warm up. The mint morphing into something metallic. The cream starts to lean a bit towards Edam cheese. You have about a ten minute window of opportunity. Still, great value.

The BAers rate it a titch lower than the last reviewed Atlética which makes no sense. They musta waited too long.

Quick Note: Atlética, Athletic Brewing, Connecticut

Once upon a time, I wrote quick notes about beers I had tried. Like this one for Shepard Neame Goldings, I beer I haven’t thought about for one minute in the subsequent twenty years. So it was pleased I was to read that Boak and Bailey decided to turn back the clock this week and blog like it was 2008 again. I am nothing if not a follower.

“Made in the USA” says the can but the given corporate address is by Athletic Brewing Canada of Vancouver, BC. Atlética passed the guzzle test. A beer right out of the fridge should go down prickly when chugged and chill your belly.  It did that nicely. Very nicely. It gives off the pleasant aroma of a apricot-lemony sweet iced tea. Taste? Martime Canadian husky brown bready and grassy lemon with a bit of a worty middle with a hint of elementary school glue cut with a black tea and bitter weedy green hopping as well as more of that lingering lemon.

I bought a six-pack of this on sale at a lower budget grocery story for $10 CND. Or $7 USD or $1.17 USD a can. Judged as a craft beer as the label states, this would be a disappointment. A bit of the new microbrewery 2005ish vibe. A bit of the replicant. There is a under cooked pie crust aspect to that mid-point. But it works around that with balancing notes pretty well – as long as you drink it cold.

BAers rank it in the mid-70% range. I’d buy it again… in summer… if I saw the same sale.

Your Frankly A Bit Too Humid Post-Canada Day 2026 Doldrums Edition Of The Beery News Notes

Happy day after Canada Day! I’ve been hiding in the basement near the air conditioner outlet myself. Because Wednesday days off are the worst of the days off in the schedule, aren’t they. But it’s still a day off for so many so we should not begrudge the lack of mail delivery and all that does along with that. We should, in fact, celebrate the fact that our country was built on ale. It’s always worth raising the flag in honour of that. I stole this photo off the internets over twenty one years ago so I have no idea who the heck they are* but the bowties and that Budweiser is too sweet not to repeat.

What else is going on? First up, there was a good response to the latest edition of The Session hosted by Boak and Bailey on the topic of Martyn Cornell’s last book Porter and Stout, all leading to this encouraging summation of the discussion:

Martyn Cornell was not often wrong and enjoyed a scholarly argument. At the same time, our impression is that the truth was more important to him than his ego. With that in mind, we think he might be pleased to see people spotting gaps, arguing points and generally building upon a work that, as Phil Cook points out in his Session post, could never really hope to be a ‘complete history’. Writers like Liam K should take heart: this is not a full stop; there is still research to be done; and Martyn’s book presents many new avenues for investigation. We shouldn’t look at tomes like this and think there’s nothing left to write but, instead, let them inspire us.

I would add to my post that it was nice seeing Martyn identify that once upon a time this very part of the world had its own version of Porter.

And, yes, it is still the time of the World Cup. Canada is through to the round of 16 after a match with the 54th ranked team that was being reported as being very dull and disorganized until a fabulous goal made the team national heroes forever… apparently. Joining the ranks of the performative perhaps. Me, I’d save that label for something past the first came of a five round playoff myself – and I live in hope – but, suffice it to say, the World Cup has fostered some interesting thinking, such as in Boston as Lara Wildenberg for The Times discovered:

Much to the offence of the English, The Dubliner, which had been the epicentre of Scotland’s party in Boston, closed for the day of England v Ghana to recover after nearly a fortnight of the Tartan Army. At least one other bar closed straight after the match “to give staff some rest”. American women, however, have already expressed their grief at having to part with the Tartan Army. Talking to the women in the Boston area, I met one who started a relationship with a Scottish fan, becoming inseparable and sobbing when he left for Miami. They are hoping to continue long distance.

A less attractive sort of experience was described by Jen Blair who published an interesting piece on the approach of males at the table in beer judging this week:

I’ve judged with this specific judge before and enjoyed it. We were both first-year judges at GABF when we met. I was happy to see him at my judging table because I remembered him being warm, funny, knowledgeable, and thoughtful. He still is! Which is why I feel pretty comfortable inferring that, if you asked him, he would loudly and proudly say that he supports women and denounces sexism. You can imagine how shocked he would be to hear that he’s failing at a very basic level. Back at my judging table, while the judge was technically correct in agreeing with me, if I asked him why I thought the beer in question should not advance to the next round, he would not be able to answer truthfully. Why? He never listened to my answer. Actually, I never answered. I was interrupted before I could, and neither of the men with whom I was judging noticed.

Perhaps relatedly, I’ve always liked the formerly regular Sam Smith’s Christmas special box set offered at the LCBO most years years ago so I really can’t personally add anything to the better informed folk who found him a miserable brewery and pub chain owner. But… he has left us as reported in the York Press:

The owner and chairman of the Tadcaster-based Sam Smith’s Brewery was well-known for his ‘traditional’ policies as well as his private nature. Smartphones, children, dogs and swearing were all banned from his pubs across the country, policies which attracted much controversy but also much support. However, this was widely blamed for causing around half of the brewery’s 300-pub estate remaining empty. The role of the 81-year-old at the brewery has also been the subject of much speculation, with reports he has been seriously unwell for some time.

So… something of an anti-capitalist in his own way! The Tand has shared his thoughts on the man’s passing:

New to me yesterday was that he was an old Etonian, which I suppose explains a lot – or doesn’t depending on your point of view. While it has been seen before in smaller measures, there was a fair old outpouring of support from him from some former colleagues and pub managers, mostly along the lines of “If  you obeyed the rules, you got on fine with him”. The consensus, such as I could make out is that those who fell foul of him didn’t think highly of him at all, while those who hadn’t did. 

And Matt L adds an unexpected angle:

….Sam Smith’s owns the Fitzroy Tavern in Soho and for many years from the early 1990s it was the main meeting place of the capital’s Doctor Who fans.  And there in their dozens they would drink cheap lager and plot and plan for the day they would take over the show and make it in their image.  And, yes, the last three showrunners of Doctor Who – Russell T. Davies. Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall – were regulars at the Tav.  And sometimes, there may even have been a woman there, but sources vary as always.

Elsewhere, there are other correlations between brewing and… other sorts of bad stuff as illustrated in Mexico:

The problem, Gomez says, originated about a decade ago when Grupo Modelo, a Belgian-owned brewing company, installed a sprawling $328-million complex of hangar-like buildings on the outskirts of town. The third-largest brewery in Mexico, it uses over four times as much water as the entire population of Hunucmá. Soon after it was completed, residents began struggling to draw water from their pumps, and what water did trickle out contained evidence of salinization and agrochemicals, some of which have been linked to cancer.

So it’s not just A.I. data centres that are sucking the lands dry. Are we on the cusp of a larger eco-movement? And does the continuing slump make Mother Earth happy if, you know, we were to believe the big numbers from BMI this week:

Stack population growth on top of beer’s 5% volume decline in 2025 and average beer consumption per 21+ adult fell by a tuffer 5.6% in just one yr. The avg US legal-age adult consumed just below 22 gals of beer last yr, or about 4.5 cans per wk. Back in 2020, it was more like 5.3 beers per wk (tho a solid chunk of that was hard seltzer that yr). And 5 yrs before that, avg consumer per person per yr was up over 27 gals or 5 oz shy of a six pk per wk. So beer’s dismal 2025 capped a 16% drop in avg consumption over 5 yrs and over 20% decline in the last decade.

It will be interesting to see what BMI’s numbers** will look like deeper into the World Cup period – and see if they bear any resemblance to claims seemingly to the contrary. As an aside, it’s always interesting, too, to see “not beer” being categorized as “beer” to prop up actual beer. Do we expect beer trade consulto-experto-amateur MDs to issue responses claiming again that the numbers are rigged? Of course we do.

Speaking of “less than beer”, the continuing trend to make sure beer is less than beer continues as Jeff reports from the front lines of craft’s battle to emulate 1970s macro beers:

We certainly have abundant evidence that Americans love low(ish)-alcohol beer: most of the beer America drinks is light beer. There’s a fair amount of evidence that calories are a big part of drinkers’ motivation. Getting a beer down below ten calories an ounce really helps move product. Breweries post calories as prominently as they do alcohol content right on the package. So again, on paper, all of this suggests a potential new market in 3% beers. And yet, it just doesn’t quite make sense to me. I’ve been pondering this for some days now, trying to figure out where the disconnect lies. It has to do with price. Are Americans really going to pay $12-14 a six-pack to buy a 3% beer so they can drink three or four beers when they could buy a 5% beer at the same price point, drink two or three and save money.

Sounds like the consequence free marketing futurists (a separate but related class compared to consulto-experto-amateur MDs mentioned above) the have been let out again. But, as Jeff said, why pay more for less? Seems like a downward spiral. Do all these brand extensions and small shift variants bolster or weaken the trade? Is it possible that poor decision making has contributed to a consumer confusion that has turned into disinterest?

Perhaps relatedly, this is your annual reminder that if you ever hear a member of the consulto-class suggest exported beer has a great future in China as they periodically do, it might be wise to see how the wine trade has done. Consumption is at 70% of the 1995 rate of intake.  A weak long term economic forecast could well be the main drivers but nationalism and a shrinking population is at play as well. The good news is that prices have dropped for everyone else. Here’s some notes:

Note #1: Lars explains Satan’s key role in brewing.
Note #2: “…Parisians… restricted from drinking alcohol in public…”
Note #3: Craft beer slump worries craft coffee.
Note #4: Is “drink whatever you like” bad for wine?
Note #5: Gary has expanded upon his cheese spread discussion.

OK, where were we? Cheese spread? Check. Humph dead? Check. Oh, did you know that there are wine danger zones?

Wine’s danger zones include long-haul flights, gallery openings, ethnic restaurants and other miscellaneous cultural events. All situations that could be improved by a glass of the good stuff – and all situations where it will most likely remain a distant dream. The seasoned wine professional knows when they are beat and will swiftly order a beer. But if the pleasures of the grain aren’t for you, is there a way to make things more bearable?

Are there beer danger zones? Around these parts, there’s always rye and ginger when all else fails. And from the law files, we hear of trouble in Thailand for the ownership of Singha:

A multi-billion-dollar beer dynasty is being torn apart by explosive allegations of assault and a century-old law that is designed to protect parents from neglectful children. The Bhirombhakdi family founded the Singha beer company and has an estimated wealth of $US1.75 billion ($2.5 billion).  Forbes lists the family as Thailand’s 15th richest.  But allegations of sexual assault have prompted a mother to sue her own son in a rare case involving Thailand’s “ungrateful child” law.

Glad we don’t have a law under that name! Apparently it came into force in 1908 and reflects long-standing cultural values of Thailand that place strong emphasis on filial duty.

OK, enough. Some happier stories about pubs to round out the week. First, Imran Rahman-Jones has shared his experience getting view of Scotland’s play in a packed pub:

The Finch is buzzing nicely this evening. It’s warm, I can hear Friday after-work chatter from the garden as I enter, and there’s just space for one or two more tables before it’s standing room only. The sun is setting and the candles on each table are already lit, gently flickering and ready to welcome the night. There’s a sense of anticipation – not just for the start of the weekend, but because Scotland are playing in the World Cup. We manage to squeeze into a tiny table inside what must have been a storage cupboard at some point – The Finch is full of reminders of previous pubs in this building – but soon move for a better view of a screen. 

And for Pellicle, we’ve been given a portrait by Fred Garratt-Stanley of a small English village enjoying a good beer revival:

There’s a train station, a post office, a tea room, and a stately home. The latter hosts Glynde’s primary claim to fame: the annual Glyndebourne opera festival, held since 1934, which sees scores of out-of-towners wearing black tie descend on the village every summer.  Apart from that high-cultural aberration, this is twee English country living personified. On paper, Glynde really shouldn’t have one of the most exciting small rural beer scenes in the country. But it does.

And, finally, Katie on holiday in Spain has found her beer:

In all of our 330ml can adventures so far on this journey, the best by far has been Voll-Damm by Estrella Damm. We’ve been trying to buy local fridge-stockers where we can, but when you’re in Catalunya, that’s actually Estrella. So don’t berate me, this is me being accurate. You may be forgiven for thinking I’m on the payroll over at Damm. It’s true that they sent me to Primavera last year, and showed me around their brewery—just as Guinness did some years ago. I’m not too bothered about any perceived association with them because until I hear otherwise (and I do ask) Damm seem like a big beer company that actually looks after their people. And crucially: I like Estrella. It’s one of my favourite “everyday” beers, and it’s why I’ve chosen to promote them a couple of times. I don’t do that with brands I don’t rate. Whether you believe me or not, Voll-Damm is a delicious beer.

I’m convinced. If you are one of those who rummage in my recycling blue box by the curb in the middle of the night, you will find cans with DAB. A well placed tasty beer on a hot summer afternoon. What’s your version of the guilty pleasure big beer brew?

As you think on that over the week to come, please take time to check out Boak and Bailey posting on Saturday and adding to their fabulously entertaining footnotes week after week at Patreon. And do look out for more of Stan’s new “One Link, One Paragraph” format.  Then hunt out something in someone’s archives! Leave oblique comments on someone’s post from 2009!! Listen to a few of Lew’s podcasts and get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by David Jesudason on certain Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s wonderful self-governing totes autonomous website featuring The Gulp, too.  Ben’s Beer and Badword remains on pause but there is reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog. Any more? We have Ontario’s own A Quick Beer and All About Beer is still offering a range of podcasts – and there’s also Mike Seay’s The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast! And there’s the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube as well as the archives of the Beer Ladies Podcast.

*I do know they are Neil and Larry… but which is which. And the image is from a 2005 post on the old alt blog Gen x at 40 where I had a bunch of other k0o-Kee Canada Day photos. Thank God for the Wayback Machine.
**And other data sources.

Session #150: Martyn Cornell – Porter And Stout

It is difficult to write about Martyn Cornell’s last book, Porter and Stout: A Complete History without being caught up by the sad fact of his passing a little over a year ago now.  As many had written after the news of his passing circulated,  he seemed always able to be available at the other end of an email or a chain of comments at a blog, an encouraging and cranky mentor as well as loyal and frankly honest friend to anyone who took writing about beer seriously. Even when, as certainly was often the case with me, he had no idea what I was going on about. He is missed.

But this is The Session – or rather The Session – and that offers the helpful constraint of the question that has, in this case, been posed by Boak and Bailey:

Your post just needs to be in some way a response to it, or to Martyn’s previous work on the subject of porter and stout. If you can read some of the book, though, even if it’s just a few pages or a chapter on some aspect of the history of porter and stout that particularly interests you, that would be great. If you don’t fancy buying it, you might be able to get a copy via your local library. And if they don’t already have it in stock, your request might trigger them to acquire a copy.

OK, that is not too constraining. Which is fine, of course. Well, we can certainly say that Porter was a topic Martyn returned to regularly. In 2004, he adapted a portion of his book Beer: The Story of the Pint on Porter for Brewery History magazine.* In 2009, Martyn posted his thoughts on the difference between Porter and Stout. His response was this:

None. Not now, anyway, not in any meaningful way.

He clarifed with saying the question was like “what’s the difference between dogs and Rottweilers?” Stout is a sub-class of porter, originally at the stronger end of the scale but now no longer true. So, the study of the two is really the study of the one, Porter.

And so… the book. I have the book. I have not read it from beginning to end. Before I received the book, I read the review by John Duffy over at the Beoir, “Porter & Stout: A Complete History – Review” who wrote:

It’s not an easy read, and is probably best handled in small doses. It will make for a first-rate reference source, and of course every fact and quote is meticulously referenced, for those, like the author, who insist on original sources.

I take such advice seriously and have to admit that I have only dipped. Not unlike how I’ve dipped into one of Martyn’s earlier books, Amber Gold & Black. I need a fact? He got a fact. A practical and guilt-reducing approach, dipping. So today again I dip. And what did I find? Well, being me… I found me.  There I am in the index:

McLeod, Alan, Canadian beer historian, 232

What? Me? No false modesty, I say I say.  I don’t think I have ever written all that much about porter. But apparently once upon a time I did. And it illustrates a point about the obsessive completeness that is found in the book. The reference in the index is to a passage about “Sand Porter” where I am quoted as suggesting a certain etymology for the phrase. I have no idea that I ever said such a thing. But Martyn also quotes Gary Gillman with an alternative view of the same question. Turns out Gary wrote a series of posts on Sand Porter and I made my observation in the comments. I think Gary’s suggestion is the better view given, you know, he has written plenty about Porter.

But that’s the point. Martyn noticed and snuck the idea away. Like he snuck away the thousands of other ideas away, ideas that fill the over 400 well organized pages of the book. I can’t speak to the other regions but the text in chapters 36 and 37 on Porter brewing in Ontario are clear and accurate. A tidy summary of the province’s brewing history, in fact, which is reasonable given how pervasive Porter brewing was herabouts. Chapters 27 to 34 on brewing in the USA before 1800 – or even 1840 – may be the first comprehensive modern history published on the subject.** No one can ever say again that US brewing history starts with lager.

So that’s my dip. I can only presume the bits I don’t know much about are as well grounded as the ones with which I am familiar. Which is what something this encyclopedic should do. Which is why you should own this book. Porter came into being almost 300 years ago and played such a major role in brewing in the English speaking world it serves as an excellent entry point for the topic as a whole. As Mr Protz wrote, it’s a superb legacy that Martyn left us all.

*Which led to Ray Anderson writing “Microbes and the Origins of Porter” in the following issue of BH in a fine example of Martyn’s way of making others think.
**Having whole chapters on the brewing history of just New York and Quebec is wonderful.

Welcome To Summer 2026! Here’s The Thursday Beery News Notes That I Dug Up

Taking a break from the TV and all the fitba, I was out and about this week doing a bit of visiting and looking for ice cream. Fields of grain. Sunny skies. I heard Indigo Buntings on separate country roads. Had me a mango sugar cone, thanks for asking.  And no brain melting heat like the reports from elsewhere. Mr Protz took an keen interest in my dirt digging skills the other day, too. Know your strengths. Still, the World Cup is on and we can’t avoid it. As I type Canada is down 2-1 to the Swiss, previously only know for other things. [Will they be commiserating all night at The Duke?] This in The Athletic is my favourite World Cup headline so far, though my own effort deserves honourable mention. I have to thank Pellicle for the Fantasy Premier League pool that I’ve been playing for three seasons now. It’s certainly helped me recognize so many players in these games.

“But what about the beer news, Al?” I hear you say. Fine. First up, Lars has been at it again, making the scientific studies available to mere English majors like me:

Most people have probably heard that Indians in the Andes are divided between those who malt the maize for chicha, and those who chew it, letting enzymes in their saliva make the sugar. An interesting new paper has some surprising results that are relevant. They’ve looked at the human gene AMY1, which makes the amylase enzyme that breaks down starch. The more copies you have, it’s thought, the more enzymes in your saliva… Andean Indians have more amylase enzymes in their saliva than most human populations. Is that why they chose chewing as their saccharification method, and stuck to it until today? Because it works better for them? It seems to have been rare elsewhere, so that would make sense.

One thing that I note is that chewing and saliva are two separare functions. Could it be that chewing generates more saliva? Or is the crushing function itself beneficial to the enzyme’s effectiveness. I have visions of a spittoon collection system at some point becoming a social circle. [Ed.: …”aaannnnnd… that’s it for saliva based journalism for this week.”]

There was drier but still much well deserved excitement over the news on the next book by Andreas Krennmair on Bavarian White Beer. Me, I am as or more impressed with this announcement they made on Bluesky:

When Alan posted this snippet of a colorised drawing of the old Schneider taproom/beer hall in Munich, I loved the idea so much I turned it into a sticker design and got 500 of them printed.

“Cork Head!” forever! Speaking of new books, Eoghan highlighted recent books on Belgian beer:

I tell you what, Belgian beer (writing) is not doing much to beat the charge that it’s a closed-shop old boys club for retired journalists and people say they drank with Michael Jackson like they’re the guys who “shook Sinatra’s hand”. Anyway, if you’re in the market for a recently-published book about Belgian beer, get Tim Skelton’s Good Beer Guide or Sofie Vanrafelghem’s monumental book about the Belgian cafe (or Breandan’s about hidden beers). Because at least they are good, well-written and do something new…

Skelton’s for sale here, Vanrafelghem’s is here and Breandan’s is here. Notes? Notes!

Note #1: celebrity gets news coverage for situation affecting millions.
Note #2: Katie’s dream beach vacation.
Note #3: “Punctuation counts!” say Alan, Alistair, Alice, Alfred and…
Note #4: Twenty-six pints.

Unlike you, I have been replaced on a municipal alcohol policy working group for having an opinion on alcohol. But even saying that, I find the reaction to this news out of Bristol a bit odd:

The Bristol and district branch of Camra has hosted its annual festival in City Hall for many years. It cancelled the event last year after the council contracted out the management of some of its venues to a corporate events company, which brought in a large rise in the hiring costs. When an update on the catering contract was given to councillors this week, Mack told the strategy and resources policy committee that hosting a beer and cider festival at a discounted price for Camra could fall foul of the council’s rules on promoting alcohol.

It’s not that they are banning the event. It’s not that they are charging a high fee for the event. It’s just the recognition that having a discount for the clinky drinky event might actually conflict with another existing policy on alcohol promotion. Fortunately for us, we have the “no bonusing” rule which means it’s the promotion of commercial business below market cost that would be the basis for objection. Question: why give what is effectively a trade show a discount?

Pellicle‘s feature this week is a portrait by Paddy Gardiner of McMullen AK Mild, an ale with the ability to attract fulsome descrption:

“It is unique. I’ve never come across another beer that tastes like that,” he says. Les emphasises its nutty aromas, which arise from the blend of Halcyon pale, crystal, and chocolate malts.  What really entices me are the slightly less earthy, more ephemeral flavours that develop in the glass as the pint diminishes. Red berry yeast esters mingle with oily citrus and dry grass notes from the Whitbread Golding hops, culminating in a comforting impression of summer pudding, blood orange marmalade, and dry autumn leaves. The initial mousse of carbonation, which first refreshed the parched palate, dwindles over time so that the last few sips leave an oily slick of gently astringent bitterness. 

And Knut has been Düsseldorffing which may or may not lead you to want to dorf the Düssel yourselves based on his handy feet on the ground advice:

The standard beers are quite similar, and don’t expect much in the way of special brews. They are happy to sell Uerige Sticke and Doppelsticke to any bottle wholesaler, but they are only to be found in the brewpub at certain times of the year. I even had to drink the Sticke out of a bottle on the sidewalk some years ago, as it was only sold as take-out. The waiters are impeccably dressed, but service can be bordering on the unfriendly in case you ask for something not on today’s menu. But that’s part of the mythology.

Not ever one to be left behind, Martin is on the road too and finds himself on the far side of the Black Sea in Armenia where, it would appear, the toes sweat and no one sleeps:

… if I had to describe a country in one word it would be COFFEE. On every corner, a machine taking your 100 dram coin, often with Hi-Vis maintenance staff on hand, and once you work out how to tell the machine YOU DON’T WANT SUGAR you can have a quality (hot and chewy) espresso for twenty pence (20p). OK, a cappucino is 50p, but what fool orders a cappucino from a machine? I’ve never seen so much strong coffee drunk, long into the evening. That 100 dram espresso is as much a human right as the 1 euro equivalent in Naples. Except it’s just gone up to 150 drams in the newer machines in the city centre. The main difference between Yereven and the rest of Armenia is 10p on an espresso.

Also off and away from home, Alister reported being disturbed when he was recently at the Westminster Arms in London by an influx of… Americans:

It was during my second pint that a group of Americans made their way down to the basement, and proceeded to make me almost despair that real ale will ever be anything other than a niche in the US, so embedded is the collective ignorance of cask ale in the popular consciousness. Yeah, sorry folks, we writers can blather on as much as we want about places doing real ale, but it’s not getting outside of our bubble. One of the group approached the bar and ordered a Spitfire, but a lady sat in the booth they had plonked in yelled across the bar to “make sure you get the Spitfire lager, not the cask, the cask is warm”.

To be fair to the group he also heard them say “don’t tell the pastor we are in a pub drinking beer” which means they are hell-bound hypocrites and falsifiers clearly within Satan’s grip.

Here’s an idea: ban booze in the hottest stretches of summer:

Sweltering temperatures have prompted “red alert” warnings for heat in France. Throughout Europe, heat-related fatalities are growing, train services are being disrupted, and events are being canceled. During France’s annual Music Day, the French government actually banned alcohol consumption in “red alert” zones, according to media reports. The rationale was that limiting booze would free up emergency services for the most vulnerable members of the community. 

Is that realistic? As you think on that, here’s a couple of recollections about the hayday of beer blogging. In their weekend footnotes on Patreon, Boak and Bailey noted that a certain bit of reading was:

…a blog post responding to an article. This feels like a wonderful reminder of 2008 when this kind of thing used to happen all the time. Beer blogging was fuelled by responses to other people’s posts, which often felt like conversation starters rather than broadcast media. Ray also observed something similar this week in his area of interest, horror films and fiction.

Some blame Bluesky: “…seems that BlueSky isn’t,  you know, as exciting for beer discourse as Twitter was.” Me, I blame the broader decades-worth of the “irrational exuberence” culture that paralleled the rise and fall of craft myself. But now when all the trade’s wants and needs are reduced to “happy stories!” and statistics as creative writing which get shamelessly leveraged to distract from the near 20% contraction in US craft beer production (and therefore consumption) since 2019, well, it’s become all a bit… what… truthy. Harder to have a chat in that sort of context. Yet we still read this sort of thing:

Whether it’s the elevated interest in flavor, rotation based on different moments and needs, the ability to express oneself through their beverage choice, or limiting drinking occasions to experiences that include friends or family, craft beer’s value proposition actually holds up quite well. Craft just needs to shed some baggage to bridge the gap between the original craft beer fans who remain engaged, and those newer consumers whose priorities may look a lot different.

Now that‘s a bit of a word salad. Experts, eh? Perhaps relatedly, not sure there’s a lot to comment upon in the breaking news in VinePair that TV ads by US beer companies ain’t what they used to be. Jeff‘s thoughts are more to the point. And it’s not all that unexpected seeing as, you know, TV ain’t what it used to be… and advertising ain’t what it used to be. With this World Cup, the key point is well illustrated:

The decision makers for the beleaguered brewing industry may feel like the moment calls for fiscally conservative marketing — and politically conservative, too, in ABI’s case. But just like in soccer itself, there’s risk in playing it too safe on the marketing front. For example, one of the most viral stories of the tournament so far is the sheer decimation of Boston’s beer reserves at the hands of Scotland’s fearsomely thirsty “Tartan Army.” It’s a funny story, at ABI’s expense: “The Scottish fans just drank the place dry, and all they had [left] was Bud Light,” one eyewitness told the local news.  

Let’s be honest. Other than avoiding that crap, the indifferent fitba fan is just going for the alcohol. Like all those Coca-Cola ads at Christmas, the particular brand of beer doesn’t have anything to leverage from the bigger transient story.*  But FIFA needs it’s money so exclusivity alone becomes the commodity, the illusion acting as distraction from the real, the bowels of the beloved being mined for gold.**

There. I need to get out in to the garden and start digging again. As I do please take time to check out Boak and Bailey posting on Saturday and adding to their fabulously entertaining footnotes week after week at Patreon. And do look out for more of Stan’s new “One Link, One Paragraph” format.  Then hunt out something in someone’s archives! Leave oblique comments on someone’s post from 2009!! Listen to a few of Lew’s podcasts and get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by David Jesudason on certain Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s wonderful self-governing totes autonomous website featuring The Gulp, too.  Ben’s Beer and Badword remains on pause but there is reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog. Any more? We have Ontario’s own A Quick Beer and All About Beer is still offering a range of podcasts – and there’s also Mike Seay’s The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast! And there’s the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube as well as the archives of the Beer Ladies Podcast.

*Compare to the “No Lays No Game” ads which are reasonably entertaining while executing a clear and topical appropriation.
**Finally, my favorite Milton passage gets included.

The Thursday Beery News Notes For The Week We Are All Cape Verdean

We need a new anthem:

Let’s root root root for Cape Verde
If they don’t win it’s a shame…

Actually, that tie will do just fine. Just fine. Still, Uruguay has have the best strip. We remember the Graf Spee after all. Isn’t it fun how many old simmering bigotries and grudges come out during international sporting events! Speaking of fabulous cups, Lars shared that image this week: “… carved by a Norwegian farmer… The king bought this mug in 1798 for 60 riksdaler, an absolutely wild amount, equivalent to roughly 10 cows.” The Scandenavian bovine value (SBV) scale to the rescue… again.

How many cows is the World Cup worth? [Ed.: “…crickets...”] Studies have shown that a beer at the stadium might cost you about one-third of a cow. On the other hand, it is pretty clear what inviting the Tartan Army to your town is worth to breweries:

The Tartan Army chartered dozens of school buses from Boston and Providence to get to the game. On the ride with the Scots were many father-son pairs, kilts and even more beer. Organizers brought 10,000 cans of Narragansett Lager for the Foxborough-bound buses from Providence alone. None were left by the end of the night.

Wow. The call has gone out for an extra 100,000 more! My own wee cousin** is out there representing the fam. Seems like the Army is working hard to beat the English in Spain in terms of fluid input, according to one French news source. And Ruvani has also been on the World Cup beat and shared the thoughts of opinions of commentator Roger Bennett what makes for a great fitba focused bars in the US including this good point:

Bennett is keen to emphasize that there are aspects of great American soccer bars that are both unique and essential to the U.S. In other countries, “you commune with fans of your team and everyone else is the enemy, but in the U.S. most fans are young and have come in since the Premier League started being broadcast by NBC in 2013,” he said. “Their discovery and passion have created a unique culture that’s not divided into us-against-you.” This difference means that bars must be ready for and welcoming to multiple fan groups, fostering an inclusive spirit. 

Speaking of welcoming, Ontario’s fading but venerable former retail monopoly The Beer Store is doing something very unusual the days – opening two stores as it closes many more. But its doing so seemingly primarily to receive back more empties as much as to sell beer:

The Beer Store has closed dozens of retail locations across the province over the past two years, citing changing market conditions and the expansion of beer sales to convenience stores, more grocery stores and gas stations. Many of these retailers do not accept empty container returns… As Ontario’s largest beer retailer, The Beer Store recently unveiled a new “Take back what’s yours” campaign aimed to boost awareness of the province’s deposit return system. A recent analysis by the Toronto Star suggested Ontario consumers lost more than $60 million in unredeemed deposit refunds last year by placing empty alcohol containers in their blue box or the trash instead of returning them to The Beer Store.

And Stan has issued his latest Hop Queries and you are all well advised to govern yourselves accordingly. And he’s used a concept that’s been unfamiliar in the brewing world in recent years – stabilized:

After reducing acreage from 60,872 acres in 2021 to 41,654 in 2025 (that’s 19,218 acres), American farmers indicate that total acreage will remain basically the same in 2026 (at 41,642; 12 fewer acres than in 2025, less than three-tenths of one percent lost). The German Hop Growers Association reports that farmers will harvest 5.8% fewer acres in 2026 after slicing 6.5% in 2025 — leaving 44,117 in 2026, compared to 50,136 in 2024…. It should not be a surprise that a press release from the German hop growers about acreage states, “The mood in the hop market is currently poor” and “the oversupply of aroma hops had made production cuts necessary for several years.” 

In amongst some cheeky chat about NA beer, Andreas Krennmair stood up and sensibly explained with semi-cited research why it is that German NA beers are better than elsewhere in the world:

I’m sure the technology will eventually cross the ocean. From what I’ve been told, all the Bavarian breweries launching new and better NA beers basically comes from one guy’s PhD thesis at the Technical University of Munich at Weihenstephan. I’m not sure the thesis has been published yet, but… here’s one paper from the same guy about the impact of different NA production methods on aroma compounds. 

Here’s Dr. Guy’s paper. I like the acronym they use too, NAB. Suits my feels as a consumer some times. Andreas also shared the best beery gross out of the tournament so far, the drink to accompany an early match:

If you’re looking for the perfect drink for today’s Germany-Curaçao match, here’s a 1970’s beer cocktail for you: Isarwasser. In a 1 litre Maßkrug, combine a bottle of Bavarian wheat beer, half a litre of orange juice or orange soda (e.g. Fanta), and a shot of Blue Curaçao liqueur. Enjoy!

I’m all for fighting the hegemony of homigeneity but… I was sure he was joking. Here, however, is independent evidence of this crime against the clinky and the drinky.

Matty C had a good go at the numbers behind the lack of a GBBF this year, the reasons for which have become clearer with time:

… attendance was way down, with 13,000 people attending over five days – far short of the event’s apparent 23,000 target…  both the main GBBF and its winter equivalent have been cancelled. According to one discussion on its members internal forum, the festival made a staggering £320,000 loss. This feels significant, because you don’t plan the largest beer festival of the year and then move on after losing more than a quarter of a million pounds. A loss of this magnitude isn’t made simply by mismanagement – it’s gross negligence.

Wow. Wowsie-wow-wow even. Knut‘s written about another sort of challenge facing those in the trade – finding yourself brwing quality niche brewing in an isolated location. He noted a few interesting strategies to deal with that reality:

Carl brews beers inspired by Belgian classic styles, usually with malt from the Trøndelag region and with Belgian organic hops. I am lucky to have a designated driver, as we sit down to sample a few of his saisons. It’s a tough market these days, there are some beer bars in Oslo and Trondheim who sell his beers, but not many. He has teamed up with a local company that sells high end salmon fishing in the nearby Gaula river, probably a wise choice with guests paying good money for a quality product. The lower alcohol beers are available directly from the brewery, get in touch with him if you are passing by.

As you consider your route to the Gaula River, here some notes:

Note #1: this vid on UK pub habits also is about Canadianness.**
Note #2: “…BUD stock up 29% yr-to-date…”
Note #3: Ron on Scottish Sweet Stout.
Note #4: “…stuck in 2016 for a moment… Just like DogHouse Edinburgh.“

Question. Horse brasses – history or heritage?*** Boak and Bailey were on the case this week:

Newly built pubs on housing estates and new towns across Britain, desperately in need of instant personality, also often came with horse brasses fitted as standard. For example, when Scottish & Newcastle built The Moorcock at Peterlee, County Durham, in 1973, to provide a “tinge of country atmosphere… in a tasteful blend of ancient and modern” they fitted it out with “beams and timbers and rustic brickwork and horse brasses, sporting prints, and game birds”. (Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 15 November 1973.)

So a bit of each. And Alistair has been back home in the UK and has started sharing his thoughts on what he’s missed, starting with a day in Windsor waiting for his flight on to Inverness:

I had been to Windsor all of once previously, but I may have been about 12 years shy of being able to drink legally, and as such I don’t remember much about that visit. There is though a family legend/inside joke that at some point whilst wandering near the castle, I asked my parents why it wasn’t finished yet given the scaffolding that surrounded many of the buildings. I was then somewhat keen to walk by the castle to check up on progress in the intervening 40 odd years – there was still scaffolding to be seen, still not finished then I guess. It was getting pretty bloody warm by this point of the day, even though it was only 9.30 by now, so I took myself off along the river to get to my first planned stop of my tour of the town’s hostelries.

Alistair, being the good saintly lad he is, was well advised to leave out the visit to the city if the latest edition of London Beer City where Will Hawkes explains something I, also being a good saintly lad****, was not aware of… the class of establishment known as the strip pub:

Now – a bit like the Ploughman’s Lunch – strip pubs have almost entirely disappeared. This week the owners of The Nag’s Head in Aldgate submitted plans to Tower Hamlets council which would see this long-established strip pub turned into a “traditional pub” and 24-room hotel…. For younger Londoners – who make up the bulk of my readers, naturally – it must seem incredible that so many pubs once featured women taking off their clothes, but the past was a different country. What was most remarkable, actually, wasn’t the stripping – that still exists, albeit largely in glitzier surroundings – but the low-key, unglamorous, seedy-in-a-specifically-British-way nature of it. No stage, no pole, pounds-in-a-pint-pot for payment… Crucially, these strippers moved whilst naked…

Heavens. Naked people just wandering around the pub among the drinkers? Yik. These places probably reeked of Isarwasser. Speaking of another form of the unfortunately unsavoury, Lesley Chesterman wrote about criticism this week:

When reviewing dishes like that, you can’t lie and say everything was great just to keep things positive. I saw this in my time as a critic as well, this idea of being “mean” when criticizing professionals cooking. People obviously focus on the negative side of criticism, but the truth is, it can be beneficial too. How will any chef improve if you don’t give it to them straight? And how will we uphold a high level of gastronomy here in Quebec if we’re all afraid to call out mediocrity? It is constructive criticism after all, and the goal in cooking should always be excellence. Undercooked frog’s legs and rice are not excellence. 

Agreed. In one of the sillier examples of forecasting yet, the International Wine and Spirits Record (now IWSR) has predicted what the world will be like in 2035… without any reference to the coming global resource wars:

According to the findings, the stabilisation in global volume from 2031 will be driven by two main factors: a “substantial rebalancing” of the global market, and continued growth in the worldwide drinking age population. Over the next decade, the global beverage alcohol market is, according to the analysis, anticipated to be “shifting away from China, North America and Europe to India, South America and Africa”. From a global perspective, this is said to be “most clearly illustrated by looking at consumption by servings” with the research highlighting that “the different serving size volumes of different categories” is a factor to consider.

Serving size? I might have thought fire spewing drones sweeping the landscape into a hell zone might have been a more important factor in the future to come… but I’m like that.

On a similar sort of standard, some attention was drawn to a PR infographic calling itself a summary but being held out as a research study about the NAB drinking habits of the British. Example: “New research from non-alcoholic brewery Athletic Brewing Company and KAM Insight shows that 94% of alcohol-free beer drinkers also consume alcohol.” There seems to be no statement of the research’s definitions, the methodology or the manner in which data was collected. Noce. I’d move to know the criteria for establishing whether one is or is not a “highly active, performance led consumer“! The 94% to 6% split on “alcohol-free drinker” habits is a head scratcher. Is anyone who ever had a NAB included in the 94%? One wag commented that it was akin to this sort of statement:

The Benson & Hedges Wellness Institute reports filtered cigarettes offer a smoother more pleasurable smoking experience.

Oh. That was me! Still, this sort of effort seems to discredit itself from the start. By the way, I’ve been “Zebra Striping” regularly for about four decades. It’s called water.

There you go. That’s enough for now. Another jam packed week in beer and brewing… and the World Cup. As we wade through more and more matches, please take time to check out Boak and Bailey posting on Saturday and adding to their fabulously entertaining footnotes week after week at Patreon. And do look out for more of Stan’s new “One Link, One Paragraph” format including this week’s wisdom: “People need to get out from behind their phones, go to a bar and talk to each other.” Then hunt out something in someone’s archives! Leave oblique comments on someone’s post from 2009!! Listen to a few of Lew’s podcasts and get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by David Jesudason on certain Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter (but always never with this week’s NSFW warning) and do sign up for Katie’s wonderful self-governing totes autonomous website featuring The Gulp, too.  Ben’s Beer and Badword remains on pause but there is reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog. Any more? We have Ontario’s own A Quick Beer and All About Beer is still offering a range of podcasts – and there’s also Mike Seay’s The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast! And there’s the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube as well as the archives of the Beer Ladies Podcast.

*The young lad possibly as illustrated on a FB page name of The Boston Calendar. I tihnk that the the City Hall plaza if I remember correctly.
**H/T Gladman. Note the dropping of the terminal consonant at the ends of syllabels.
***Heritage being that approved part of history promoted for present purposes.
****Apparently, according to a key word search, I’ve never told you how at the dinner table one evening when I was about 15 my mother out of the blue advised me “oh, and if you ever think of going to one of those stropper places think of me up there!” She may have pointed her fork at me as she said that. I never have cross the doorstep.

The Charming Disarming And Slightly Alarming Beery News Notes For A Thursday In June

The nice thing about the youngest kid having a job with shifts that end at 11 pm is a fella like me can stay up late for the NBA Finals, listening to 660 AM every second evening when I am waiting out in the parking lot for the kid’s shift to end.*  I am not saying I am some sort of “Mr. Knicks” but this run has been fun. But that’s ending soon and it’s all going to be World Cup naptime late afternoons for the next few weeks. It’s exciting be this idle. And when I am not fixated on bandwagoning basketball or ignoring what FIFA actually stands for, I fill the empty hours with social media where this week I saw that shard up there, a bit of a jug pulled from the mud of the Thames by the ever excellent Nicola White on FB. Obvs I noticed what you notice. Mr Lovibond? Turns out John L. was (maybe*) the father of Joseph L. who was the inventor of the Lovibond scale used to describe the colour of beer. Neato. That jug is no more 150 years old given the trademark registration of 1876. I am but a pup.

What’s else up? Well, for starters, we are coming up is the 150th edition of The Session as Boak and Bailey explained:

On Sunday 28 June 2026 we’re going to post something inspired by the late Martyn Cornell’s final epic work of beer history Porter and Stout. We’d love you to join us. The first problem is that the book is quite expensive. The second is that it is large and intimidating. To make this easy for ourselves – and for everyone else – we’re suggesting that you can join in the Session even if you haven’t read the book. Your post just needs to be in some way a response to it, or to Martyn’s previous work on the subject of porter and stout. If you can read some of the book, though, even if it’s just a few pages or a chapter on some aspect of the history of porter and stout that particularly interests you, that would be great.

Excellent. Perhaps as an aid in your considerations, reflect on what Dr Christina Wade posted an excellent post this week on the need to be aware that choices are made when topics are chosen:

I love beer, in particular, and most especially, I love craft beer. And to add an additional layer to that, I love history. Adore it… So, to be able to combine those interests together into a research topic is a personal favourite of mine. I love both of these elements so much. History and beer. And I have decided, because I love them, that everyone else should as well and I am going to write about them in a way designed to convince you of that. This doesn’t sound particularly sinister, but it can be. Think of all the ways people write to try to convince you of a certain standpoint, or view, or historical ‘fact’. So when you are reading, and indeed, when you are writing yourself, keep this in mind. But even choosing the topic can be this way.

And, perhaps reflecting that, Jeff did just that when he applied a little mathematics to do a fact finding exploration of the obvious this week with his description of the state of big craft breweries since 2021:

Behold this table… The list excludes companies like Tilray, with many brands and breweries. The “Change” column on the right-hand side measures the breweries’ five-year performance. An asterisk indicates a brewery the BA does not designate as “craft.” As you can see, one-third of these larger breweries grew, while two thirds shrank. If you remove Athletic, which actually produces a different product, the overall performance of these big breweries worsens considerably. It’s a collective loss of around 2.2 million barrels, an overall decline of 16%.

You can follow that link to Beervana to check out that table but while Jeff says he didn’t provide any analysis in his post the fact is he didn’t need to. The math is the math. You know, it’s not fun to keep pointing it out but it is necessary given how many trade officials and some trade writers aren’t addressing, aren’t really admitting.  But “chef’s kiss” to that comment about the Athletic… that’s funny… and correct.

And over at the Cleveland Prost, Will Cleveland has provided us an extended explanation of the origin of Genessee Cream Ale, the best old school beer brewed on the south side of my very own lake:

In the late 1950s, Geminn was working with two offerings that each had a ceiling: Dickens Dry Ale, available between 1956 and 1958, which consumers found too spare, and 12 Horse Ale, popular but heavy in a way that limited how much you wanted to drink of it. He needed a middle ground. The influences pulling at him were multiple. Genesee had deep German roots, but brewery owner Louis Wehle had long been drawn to English ales and Burton-style brewing systems. “Clarence was looking for a lighter-drinking traditional ale,” says Tyler Muhs, Genesee’s brewing manager. “We had that German heritage, but Wehle was infatuated with those English ales, Burton systems. So I think that’s what they were looking for when they came up with it.”

And remembrances have been shared for Rob Jones of Dark Star Brewing, that started out at the Pitfield location that I visited back in 1986, hauling back polypins and two of Dave Line’s books on brewing across the ocean in my backpack. Phil Mellows shared his thoughts in the Morning Advertiser:

Rob Jones, the founder of Dark Star Brewery and landlord of the Duke of Wellington pub in Shoreham by Sea, Sussex, has died following illness. A quiet genius of modern brewing, Jones shot to fame when he became the first independent microbrewer to win the Supreme Champion title at Camra’s Champion Beer of Britain contest in 1987 with a hard-to-classify strong ale called Dark Star, created at his Pitfield Brewery in Hoxton, east London.\nHe had started that brewery in 1981 with his schoolfriend and fellow home brew enthusiast Martin Kemp.

Speaking of a classic brewery, Ed visited Sarah Hughes and shared his findings this week:

Having been a fan of Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild since I was a teenager I was determined to visit the brewery when I heard that the Brewery History Society AGM was being hosted by Bathams. Sarah Hughes and Bathams are only six miles apart so it seemed like an ideal opportunity. It took a bit of organising, and I was so looking forward to it I was nervous something would go wrong. But the people at the brewery were very helpful and it all went fine on the day.  Is it’s a small brewery we were taken down in several groups and I wasn’t in the first group. This did make me a bit twitchy as I waited for my turn. But it wasn’t for long. 

Twitchy. Ed has been on a roll recently. I have often wonder what causes a revival of bloggy scribbly but brewing equipment that’s made of wood and copper is one good reason. That and the twitch.

Care of Laura H, we read that the fine municipal curatorial authorities in Wolverhampton have made an excellent decision:

The history of one of the West Midlands most important businesses is being preserved for future generations by Wolverhampton City Archives…  Beer was first brewed in Newbridge in 1874, before the Park Brewery was established in Wolverhampton the following year….  When Park Brewery closed last year, the importance of preserving its history was recognised, and a large and varied archive relating to the brewery and its associated companies has now been donated to Wolverhampton City Archives. The collection spans from the late 19th century through to the early 21st century and… includes a wide range of records, such as brewing and stock books, ledgers, minute books, maps and deeds, annual reports, photographs, packaging and publicity material. There are also employee records including wage books, pension scheme information, and a First World War roll of honour.

Good job. Back to the scene today, Coors Light has rarely been on my radar as a particularly clever culturally sensitive brand but this new use of Québecoise slang in their regional ads is just that:

The campaign, ‘T’en veux une frette?’ (Want a frette one?) leverages a local slang term for ‘colder than cold’ – frette – to remind Québeccers that they don’t just want a cold beer, they want a frette beer, through a series of humorous vignettes showcasing Québeccers’ strong preference of frette. The situations pay off with a twist to the brand’s current tagline, ‘Want a cold one?’ with ‘T’en veux une frette?’

See, me? I would order une frette but never a Coors Light. Sticking with me, once upon a time, I got to negotiate part of a verticle interior leafy greens farming deal. Faces challenges bit it can make a lot of sense in northern Canada where something like a railway container can pump out the stuff of salads when it’s below freezing outside. Interesting, then, to see the idea adapted to hops:

Ekonoke started life as a leafy greens operation, but shifted gears long before that part of indoor agriculture started its brutal and ongoing correction… As with outdoor production, hops inside Ekonoke’s farm grow vertically, wrapping around trellis-like structures that climb eight to 10 meters high. The process is significantly more complex than growing leafy greens indoors, says Sagrario. In addition to longer crop cycles, the process requires constant updates to the nutrient formula pumped to the plants, based on the stage of the crop. Humidification control is also a constant challenge…

All of which is to say that there will be fresh hop beer on Mars in 2063. Again with the me, Knut has written about a Norwegian brewery using Norwegian ingredients and somehow I show up:

There is a side story here. Back in 2007, we were a handful of beer bloggers scattered across the globe. I had the pleasure of having frequent contact with Alan McLeod, who continues his beer writing to this day. I’m thought his blog posts from that golden age were long gone – but look what I found.. He had a bit of advertising on his blog, and decided to spend some of the money to buy a few bottles of Westvleteren 12 from a Dutch web shop to send to a few of his contributors. I was one of them. 

Aaaahh for the days of paying ads on a beer blog. And for customs documents with Belgian ale, shipped from the Netherlands to Norway to pay for the price of an ad on a Canadian beer blog. As you wrap your mind about the way we were, here’s some notes:

Note #1: “Thanks. I hate it.”
Note #2: Australian wine prices have collapsed in China.
Note #3: Is beer losing out to wine and spirits?
Note #4: Pellicle’s portrait of Purple Moose Brewery in Porthmadog.

Sausage meat!?!? Mr. Gladman says it is a you thing, not a gin thing:

Sweet summer child, do you know how many shit whiskies there are? Nor is it necessarily any less industrial than buying in and redistilling neutral spirit may sound. I mean good God, some Scotch giants pump the stuff out like so much sausage meat. So no, gin isn’t “just” flavoured vodka. Gin is gin. Like it or don’t like it, that’s up to you, but please don’t kid yourself it’s an inferior category just because it’s not for you. Maybe you just don’t have the palate for juniper.

What’s that? Where’s the World Cup beer news? I can’t find the link to the story that some educator posted “Ten Pastry Stouts to Pair With Haiti v Scotland!” but, yes, Voodoo Rangers is likely the proper order to make on Saturday. “No Scotland No Party” is the song that I have just learned my traveling first cousin (once removed) will be (drunkenly) singing:

 … they live by the motto: No Scotland, No Party. “In Munich (during those Euros two years ago), you saw the impact the fans had. People just seem to love Scotland,” says Duke… People seem to feel at home with us because we don’t take ourselves too seriously”… They thought the estimate of 100,000 travelling Scots was a joke until Munich, the beer capital of the world, was drunk dry before a ball had even been kicked. It was a similar story in Czech capital Prague for a European Championship qualifier in 1999. The Scotland fans had congregated in the old town square, so when the area’s bars ran out of alcohol, the riot police arrived expecting trouble. Instead, when the lorries arrived with more beer, the Scots hopped aboard and helped unload the kegs themselves.

For some of the Home Guard who can’t travel, Imran has shared the best pubs to watch in Edinburgh. Elsewhere, England’s Gus bought beer from every nation. Here in Ontario beer stores’ opening hours have been extended just as have restaurant hours in Boston. Expectations are high for mass consumption:

To reach its 1bn pint estimate, analysts from Jefferies extrapolated beer consumption data from previous World Cups. The extra sales equated to a 3 per cent uplift during the 39-day tournament, which Jefferies annualised to 0.3 per cent, equating to 5.9mn hectolitres, or an extra 1bn pints. Analysts expect the World Cup — which is being hosted across three major beer markets: the US, Canada and Mexico — to boost sales volumes by between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent for 2026. Jefferies analyst Ed Mundy said “match timing is the unsung hero of World Cup beer consumption”, pointing out that games featuring countries in Europe and the Americas had largely been scheduled to coincide with peak local drinking hours of between 5pm and 11pm.

Sadly, as CNN reports, Michelob Ultra will adorn an MVP trophy given to a player after every match. Hopefully that side of the trophy can be turned to the wall. Now, where is my tartan scarf and my copy of that 1978 Scotland World Cup LP?

That is it. A jam packed week of news and cogitations. As you soak it all in, don’t forget to check out Boak and Bailey posting on Saturday and adding to their fabulously entertaining footnotes week after week at Patreon. And do look out for more of Stan’s new “One Link, One Paragraph” format. Then hunt out something in someone’s archives! Leave oblique comments on someone’s post from 2009!! Listen to a few of Lew’s podcasts and get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by David Jesudason on certain Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s wonderful self-governing totes autonomous website featuring The Gulp, too.  Ben’s Beer and Badword remains on pause but there is reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog. Any more? We have Ontario’s own A Quick Beer and All About Beer is still offering a range of podcasts – and there’s also Mike Seay’s The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast! And there’s the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube as well as the archives of the Beer Ladies Podcast.

*Now, I hear what you are saying: “WTF? New York isn’t part of Canada, Al?!?” But for 23 years I could see the northern edge of the state out my office window. And I’ve listen to WFAN sports radio for decades and, yes, the game is on 880 AM but the freaking fan DJs are on 660 AM. Plus OG Anunoby was my favourite Raptor who went to the Knicks so…
**what about Henry?

The Most Moon In June-y June June-ster Set Of Beer New Notes Of The Year So Far

It’s been a fabulous week hereabouts. Hard to suggest otherwise. A whole twelve days since the last close call with frost means I have about 45 tomato plants now out in bigger pots and into plots, one seen above. Last year’s dried garlic stems are one trick to keep the bugs away. You… are welcome. These are the sorts of things that occupy the newly retired mind. Mulch options. It’s a lot like that last summer before I had a job, the one after grade eight. Not quite mindfulness. More like mindlessness. But I suppose that’s the point after 46 years at the coal face. Or I suppose the keyboard. I am betting 50-50 that I will be driven nuts by this idle stuff come September. Maybe.

10 am EST: HOLD THE PRESSES!!!

There’s been a couple of updates arrived in the inbox after the deadline for this here Thursday beery news notes to be released to the unsuspecting.

First, Ron P. has posted a video that debunks a number of Scottish brewing myths. This is an excellent public service which I expect you will fully embrace… but… I have to note… he has chosen the oddest intro theme. Now, to be very clear Ron is a man who has not only excellent taste in music but has been to more concerts of every band I loved as a kid than anyone I have ever met. So… I am not sure why he chose a short tune that sounds like teenage whales practicing new ways of vocalizing while one fin has been clamped into a medium sized vice.

[UPDATE UPDATE: see the comments… Ron is the artist. I am reevaluating my appreciation…]

Then, more seriously, David J. has published a newsletter with his thoughts on the relationship between gambling addiction and drinking:

“Gambling was causing me pain and drink became the thing to numb the pain,” Harj tells me. Harj isn’t a one-off. There’s thousands like him who have been exploited by betting companies and have lost everything. Some have committed suicide because of their addictions, while many have hurt their loved ones by their actions; Harj tried to kill himself in August, 2020 by driving his car into a road’s central reserve. I say thousands of addicts but it’s probably much more than we realise because—guess what—betting companies won’t provide data that could lead to us being shocked into calling for radical reform. They won’t even release information on how much revenue they gain from the highest volume gamblers.

There are two things I am eternally grateful that I have not taken up: gambling and smoking. David’s subject Haji is now a spokesperson against gambling addictions and notes that there are few controls around betting machines in pubs where the connection between booze and betting is most direct. Have a read.

[Ed.: Update over. As you were…]

What is going on? First up and in anticipation of the World Cup that starts next week, Eoghan is visiting and establishment of some sort representing each team in the competition – all of which are located in his home of Brussels. The first stop on the tour was an ersatz US diner or milk bar which reminded him that “American cultural hegemony is ebbing” which is fair. But next up was a trip to the “Canadian” site, the qualifications for which is always interesting to a Canadian:

It’s important from the outset to say that La Luck is not a Canadian restaurant, nor does it have I think any pretensions to being Canadian. If it is known for anything, it’s as a board game bar, with the upper floor reserved for game players. There are no Canadian nods in the place’s décor – no maple leafs, no elongated hockey sticks, and certainly no well-loved photos of Wayne Gretzky or Alanis Morrissette. Instead, La Luck’s owners have gone for the vintage market bric-a-brac look, with it stuffed with old mirrors and picture frames and sundry recycled wall decorations. In the hour and half I was there, I failed to hear any Chad Kroeger or Avril Lavigne on the bar’s soundsystem. And the service, of which I will speak of more later, does not appear to reach the level of North American efficiency, or overt Canadian friendliness.

I like it. That is an entirely Canadian approach to Canadian-ness. Wouldn’t want to make a show of oneself. Not to mention they lost his order of poutine for over an hour. Does that speak to my nation? I dunno. Still, my own country is in fact hosting World Cup games and the Old Country has finally made it for the first time in decades… and, even with that, I think the argument made in The New York Times this week is all booze industry wishery:

…for beer manufacturers, the World Cup is a giant, multiweek, Olympics-meets-Super-Bowl sporting event that FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, projects will draw a global audience of six billion. There are early signs that beer orders will rise during the World Cup. In April, a forward-looking indicator of beer purchases expanded for the first time in 21 months, said Lester Jones, the chief economist for the National Beer Wholesalers Association, in an email. “Host cities for World Cup events will certainly experience an increase in both on- and off-premises beer sales as consumers enjoy the games,” he said. Beer industry analysts say Americans’ attention to the tournament will depend, in large part, on how far the U.S. team advances.

I am aware that forecasting and futurism sits somewhere between fantasy and fraud so we will have to see how this all plays out… but… BMI does have some stats that put the anticipation of a bump in context:

Beer industry volume down 6.1% for 4 weeks thru May 16 in NIQ data. That’s far worse than 3.3% drop yr-to-date. So this is yet another data point strongly suggesting industry got much softer in Q2, as consumers undoubtedly feeling the pinch from higher gas prices, among other factors.

Focusing on the smaller scale, Franz D. Hofer welcomed the new month with a post on the smaller beer gardens of Munich including one with bees:

A few beers later I headed west into the woods toward Aubing in search of a fabled beer garden surrounded by beehives. Passing a pond here and a few ducks there, I eventually found this little gem in the forest — Waldwirtschaft Bienenheim, the place where the bees live… About a hundred and fifty years ago, King Ludwig granted this plot of land once used for brickmaking to the Obst und Imker Verein (Fruit Growers’ and Beekeepers’ Association) of Aubing. And the Wirtshaus with its beer garden? It’s the former clubhouse of the beekeepers’ association. To this day the beekeepers of Aubing still hold their club meetings at the Wirtshaus.

And, somewhat similarly but with less charming results, Lisa shared thoughts on Token, a re-opened Dublin bar that left her searching to put a finger on a categorization that fitted the place. Previously at the old spot…

…it felt like a neighbourhood bar that offered something of an alternative to simply ‘sitting at the bar,’ though you could do that as well, if you preferred. This Token, however, feels very much more transactional, and much more, well, bro-y. And it may be that this vibe is a direct result of this new space: surrounded by bland offices and corporate apartments, it now feels like an after work ‘enforced fun’ spot for company meetings. The prices certainly fall into the ‘someone else is paying’ category with an ambitiously-priced pint of Scraggy Bay on offer for €8.20 (and a service charge added to food orders, despite it being relatively difficult to find someone to take your payment when you want to leave, even at the bar).

A “someone else is paying” bar is an excellent label. Hotel bars near industrial parks perhaps? Staying in Dublin, Cian Duffy has described another class of drinking hole, the neo-thatch:

Dublin has a reasonable number of thatched pubs, for a fairly urban environment. There aren’t any in the city centre, but there are plenty in suburbia. However, they are almost all pastiche in style. The thatch is real – very real, very expensive and requiring very skilled trades to install and maintain it; but the pubs were not thatched originally, and some are or were new buildings. As far as I can tell, the trend for this was started by the only thatched Dublin pub to have since been demolished (yet!), the S0440 Stillorgan Orchard, which was thatched in late 1988. A number of other pubs were thatched over the next few years, as this trend proliferated. S0232 Glenside was thatched during a renovation in the 90s, with N0300 Lord Mayors in Swords being thatched during its extension renovation in 1992…

How many times have any of us exclaimed “the thatch is real!”?  It’s not done around these parts, though I have an image that might show a thatched roof or two hereabout in 1833. As you consider that, here some notes:

Note #1: who “placed trust” in the self-reported data the BA uses?
Note #2: Knut on the cost breweries pay to attend beer fests.
Note #3: I’d be checking the corks for tampering before sipping Stalin’s wine.

As you know and as I know you know and as you know I know you know, “A Glass of Handmade” by William Least Heat Moon was published in The Atlantic in 1987. It’s a consideration of the state of microbrewing at the time and contains one of my favourite lines, a statement by Bill Owens of pioneer brewpub Buffalo Bill’s: “…I don’t make ale. I can’t waste time educating Americans about ale…” Owens brewed a light lager that cost him seven cents a glass to make and sold for $1.50. The brewpub is still there.  Jeff told the tale this week of similar project almost forty years later in Portland, Oregon:

“If we were going to do a light lager, we wanted to do it right.” Sam said. “Let’s not copy another beer, let’s just make the best light lager available”… The brewery can still make a profit on a $3 pint, but it then becomes a volume proposition. But because it’s so cheap, the volumes have really gone up—a virtuous cycle. And just having the beer on the menu has created a halo effect. The typical customer doesn’t come in solely for cheap Clubhauses. Instead, they vary their session with a Clubhaus and other beers, saving them money they then use to spend on more beer or food. That’s why people end up spending more.

Here’s to that beer lasting until about 2064. That would be excellent. Speaing of which last Friday ATJ experienced the excellent if not even the sublime* and shared the moment:

I have finished my beer but such is the mood of completeness, that serenity I mentioned earlier, the tranquility that bathes my soul, I decide on another pint of the same beer. Once again there is a dance to the music of time on my tongue as I take deep sips that are almost transformed into swigs from my glass. There is a sense of mindfulness as I sit on this wooden bench that acts as a living memory of someone called Dave, moments of calmness and reflection as I look out over the river and the landscape stretching away, aware of the high canopy of blue stretched with fluffy white above me. Everything is in order, the beer, the views, the slow susurration of voices behind me, and even though this outdoor space at the Bridge is bordered behind me by a road I don’t even notice the passing traffic.

Two tales of the Isle of Man this week. First up, check out Katie‘s excellent piece in Pellicle on the good beer scene there. Then, add the notes shared by Ed from his time at the biggest and apparently little loved brewery in the dependency, Okells, his former Manx employer:

I briefly worked at Okell’s a few years back. The job was one of the worst I’ve had, a cesspit of office politics. But the beers were the best on the island… I got first hand experience of the distain some Manxie beer geeks hold Okell’s in when I attended an event at the Hooded Ram brewery. It was a microbrewery run by a lovely guy called Rob Storey. He’d invited Okell’s staff over to the event so I  went with one of the lads from work. I had an inkling of the view some held about Okell’s, but I thought it better to be up front about where I was working so wore a branded work t-shirt. I was still a bit put out that someone booed when I arrived though! 

(Neither of them mentioned Kelly.) On the topic of an entirely different sort of search, I don’t know if I am wanting to find the cheapest beer in the world but, yes, it is likely that it might be found in an unrecognized state where Russian troops are both posted and somewhat cut off… perhaps much to their relief these days:

Official Foreign Office guidance advises British tourists against traveling to Transnistria but, in the interest of scientific research, Robbie decided to take the risk. It proved to be worthwhile. Exchanging his remaining Euros for some of the curious Transnistrian currency – which uses plastic coins more like something from a board game than from a bank – Robbie finally managed to find a beer that could compete with Yorkshire prices. He explained: “I’m delighted I managed to beat the 99p pint with this 77p one. It’s a surprising we had to go to such lengths to get a hold of it though.”

More than likely a notch or two higher up the old snack bracket, Ruvani de Silva shared the history and current scene for bitters for The Alchol Professor with a focus on the finer kind which may assist me with my Crown Royal studies:

Contemporary mixologists have an almost unlimited palette of bitters flavors at their disposal, from yuzu, bergamot, and cardamom to Japanese chili and saffron. By incorporating more international ingredients into their bitters, craft bitters brands are helping mixologists introduce more global flavors, which in turn can bring craft cocktails to a wider audience. “When an industry is shaped by a wider range of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences, it naturally leads to new flavor profiles, new use cases, and new ways of thinking about cocktails and hospitality….”

Bitters and soda on a stinking hot day? Anytime. Time may have run out elsewhere. In Will Hawkes‘ London Beer City this month, he shared the history of the Grove Tavern, a shuttered 1920s pub awaiting the demo ball which sits on the site of earlier establishments before the city moved in:

In the 18th century, the Green Man’s appeal derived from its rural qualities. Dulwich Wells sat beside the pub, noted for its mineral-rich water, the Matcha Latte of its day. The landlord in the 1740s, Francis Cox, also created Cox’s Walk, a tree-lined pathway that runs southwards and still exists today, to connect his pub with Sydenham Wells.  Rural delights remained the pub’s calling card for decades: as late as 1864 – by which time the Grove had been rebuilt by Courage – the pub was advertised on its rural qualities. “If you want to enjoy the country air, go to the Grove Tavern, Dulwich!” readers of the London Daily Chronicle were told. “If you want to ramble amidst rural scenery, go to the Grove Tavern, Dulwich! If you like swings, quoits, bowls or cricket, go to the Grove Tavern Dulwich!”

And from the police blotter this week we have a story of crime out of Hollister California – a crime weaponized with beer:

During the first incident, police said surveillance footage showed a man riding a bicycle who stopped and approached the robot, before knocking the robot to its side before leaving the area. A second incident involved another suspect approaching a robot near 4th and Line streets. The suspect appeared to strike the robot before approaching a second robot that recorded the interaction. Police said the suspect struck the second robot and poured a liquid, believed to be beer, before leaving the area… police chief Carlos Reynoso confirmed two people were arrested following unrelated incidents.

Is pouring a beer on a robot a crime? We will find out. And with that, we are done for another week. While you wait around, drumming your fingers at the dining room table as loved ones ask “what’s wrong?” dont forget to check out Boak and Bailey posting on Saturday and adding to their fabulously entertaining footnotes week after week at Patreon. And do look out for more of Stan’s new “One Link, One Paragraph” format. Then hunt out something in someone’s archives! Leave oblique comments on someone’s post from 2009!! Listen to a few of Lew’s podcasts and get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by David Jesudason on certain Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s wonderful self-governing totes autonomous website featuring The Gulp, too.  Ben’s Beer and Badword remains on pause but there is reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog. Any more? We have Ontario’s own A Quick Beer and All About Beer is still offering a range of podcasts – and there’s also Mike Seay’s The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast! And there’s the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube as well as the archives of the Beer Ladies Podcast.

*Finally, that 1983-84 honours undergrad English course in Romanticism pays off.

The Dreamy But Sadly Last Beery News Notes For May 2026

I have liked May so much this year that I am already missing it. Forty-eight weeks to May 2027.  I’ve already circled it in my calendar. Just in the last few days it finally feels like spring. I’ve got more twenty tomatoes outside into the spot where they’ll be sitting until November. Isn’t that twine tying action photo there to the right interesting? I really outstripped myself with that one. That is one snugly tucked in beefsteak, if you know what I mean. And there’s been more. I’ve mowed and then mowed again. Got a few semi-sunburns and even listened to a Blackcapped Warbler as it stayed just out of view. Not that it’s been Euro-hot but I will take 23C and sunny any time. Err… give me a sec. That knot. Wow. OK, let’s go.

First up, the residue in 4,500 year old clay pots from the Masovian Lowland in northeastern Poland have been analyzed and certain conclusions have been drawn:

These findings represent the earliest chemical traces of fermented alcohol beverages in this region, dating to the second half of the third millennium BCE,” the researchers wrote in the publication. The study also identified biomarkers linked to grain processing, including azelaic acid and plant sterols, suggesting the use of cereals such as wheat or barley, fruits and possibly resins used to preserve or flavour beverages. Researchers said the apparent use of wheat and barley is significant because the oldest known evidence of cereal cultivation in the region dates to the Late Bronze Age. “This suggests the possibility of importing raw materials for alcohol production from other regions where cereal cultivation was already well-developed…”

See also the 2,300 year old beer bottle from China. Do ancient jam jar findings get such rapt attention from archaeologists? Not a chance. And speaking of the sciences, The Beer Nut made a quality observation this week about one of the adjectives that gets tossed around rather freely – “tropical”:

I’ve voiced my concerns before about the t-word being rarely indicative of actual tropical fruit flavours. So it goes with this one, but that’s not a problem. In lieu of mangoes and pineapples, this 5.7% ABV hazy IPA has a bright pithy bitterness, pushing mandarin zest and lime rind. There’s an almost earthy tang on the finish, where the bittering compounds concentrate together on the palate. Despite the haze and the claim of tropicality, this tastes like an IPA from the classic era of Eight Degrees: big flavoured and technically proficient. I’ve missed that.

I don’t have an issue with degrees of abstration in the game adjectival. As a result “hoppy” is perfectly fine as a high level quantiative descriptor. But “tropical” has that next level general category aspect that TBN unpacks neatly up there through a winnowing to find out what is really going on. Mango? There ain’t no stinkin’ mango!

Speaking of getting to the specifics, Boak and Bailey examined a trade publication from 1960 called 200 Years of Brewing in the West Country, a 40-page booklet produced by West Country Breweries on the subject to West Country Breweries and found a firm in transition – whether they knew it or not:

From the first page, though, it’s clear that something unusual was going on. The obligatory foreword from the chairman is signed by… Colonel W.H. Whitbread. He was also chairman of Whitbread itself and his presence here signals that West Country Breweries was under the larger brewery’s protection as part of the so-called ‘Whitbread Umbrella’. The Whitbread Umbrella was “a novel structural arrangement that incorporated a dual-voting shareholding structure aligned to a controlling interest in the publicly listed Whitbread Investment Company (WIC), an investment trust that housed minority shareholdings in some twenty regional brewers” (Julie Bower, 2016.) Protection is an interesting word, isn’t it? In organised crime it’s a euphemism for extortion and predatory behaviour by criminals. 

This excellently illustrates and avoids the presistent problem of drinkers, trade association and beer writers confusing ownership with control that we have seen play out in the last decade or come of US craft brewery shell game. Show me the shareholders’ agreement!!

For Craft Beer & Brewing, Kate Bernot has a detailed update on Fonio, an small-scale farmed African cereal malted for brewing purposes that has gained acceptance since the 2018 introduction to Garrett Oliver described in this article in The Guardian as noted hereabouts back in 2023. Bernot shares some obervations that give a sense of what Fonio adds to a beer:

Vinnie Cilurzo, owner and brewer at Russian River in Windsor, California, agrees that fonio’s vinous, lychee-like contributions defy what most people—brewers and drinkers alike—expect from malt. A Belgian-style blonde ale brewed with 30 percent fonio has become a semiregular beer at Russian River’s taprooms—particularly during the warmer months, when its lean body and bright fruitiness feel especially appropriate. Cilurzo says it doesn’t take much fonio in the grist for it to have an impact. “My advice: You don’t have to go all the way to 30 percent,” he says. “Fifteen to 20 percent will also leave a thumbprint on the beer.”

What really struck me is how pale the beer in the accompanying image is. Pale as Zima. When my crime novels set in the early 1990s come out you’ll see me using that image: “I could tell he was guilty – he’d turned as pale as Zima.”

Never that way at all, we saw Stan’s latest Hop Queries hit the inbox last Friday including this note on production levels in Australia after the harvest there:

Reacting to diminishing worldwide demand for hops, Hop Products Australia continued to reduce acreage for 2026. Farmers strung 8.3% fewer acres and produced 11.7% fewer hops. They harvested almost 2.9 million pounds. For perspective, that’s equal to 3.4% of the US crop or to the amount of Mosaic farmers in the Yakima Valley harvested. 

As you consider the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” antipodean, here’s the notes:

Note #1: “…craft beer off 8% for latest 4 wks thru May 9…”
Note #2: a beer blog becomes, what, a booze blog?
Note #3: a return to beer writing?
Note #4: another return I’m pretty sure I don’t care about.

What is it with otherwise sane folk trying to scratch a living from a niche topic that leads them to speak of praise the niche’s given opp – the necessary “evil empire” to the purity of the niche – with all the eloquence of a six year old with stomach flu talking to Beulah on the big white telephone? I thought of that when I read this grab bag of sneering cliché:

“The Bad Beer That’s an Incredible Beverage” by Tyler Austin Harper is a bad piece that’s an incredible prism for understanding how beer can continue to thrive as a symbol of populist Americana even as it continues to lose market share to flavored malt beverages, canned cocktails, and whatever we’re calling Cayman Jack these days. Much like the New York Times Opinion section’s hackneyed forays into thinking critically about the trade, Harper’s take advances the argument that the craft brewing “movement” (such as it is) has gone too far. It’s a mixture of personal preference and surface-level cultural observation of a piece with the dreck David Chang was pushing in the pages of Esquire literally a dozen years ago.

If you’re going to shit on someone else’s writing it might be good to be interesting yourself as you do. Why is it so hard to understand that very few care about your chosen drinking hobby? With far greater clarity, ATJ has been trying to put his finger on what makes Belgian beer culture unique and, after years of looking beneath the surface, is not quite sure he’s been successful:

… thinking about Belgian beer culture I thought about beer and its associated obsessions — metal, gaming, men’s solitary hobbies, loneliness, the need to be someone else which ends in self-immolation (Brunhild trying to burn down the hall with Hagen and associates still inside perhaps?). Belgian beer culture, like beer culture, whether out in the cities and towns or in traditional bars or specialist beer joints, could be confusing, and I am not sure I found what I was looking for. Or did I?

And sticking with beer joint culture, a great barman has passed away in Chicago, Sam Sianis of the Billy Goat Tavern:

Millions of Americans knew of Mr. Sianis and his bar without ever crossing Chicago city limits, thanks to one of its most famous regulars, the syndicated columnist Mike Royko… Mr. Sianis made it an equal-opportunity establishment: Prolific drinkers, wayward pols, off-duty cabbies and the occasional celebrity all received the same friendly beer and a shot, often from Mr. Sianis himself. “Sam was the perfect host,” Don Rose, a journalist, said in an interview. In Mr. Royko’s columns, the Billy Goat became a font of tales, true and tall. Mr. Sianis once kicked out the same customer six times in one night for fighting while drunk. And Mr. Sianis swore he witnessed another man down 150 drinks in a sitting.

Another sort of fluid based establishment was the topic of Every Pub in Dublin‘s focus last Friday – pubs on islands you can only reach by boat and not via a bridge:

Arranmore’s 6 pubs is quite a lot for one island, and it has made me wonder about what other offshore (before someone comes and lists most of the pubs in Cork City…) island pubs there are. And also if I can actually tick all of those off too. This is not a promise to do that. I might, but I’m not guaranteeing I’ll do it it like I have with Dublin and also The Rosses. I’m going off the 2024-5 full licence file here, so there is a very high chance I’m missing somewhere, but I made a reference back to the 2010-11 file to try find any lost pubs too. I’m going to start North and work my way counter-clockwise here, so places I’ve been mostly work their way to the top…  I am also only counting islands you still need a boat to get to – I may have an Achill great-grandfather, but you’re basically mainlanders now!

It is even an island if there’s a bridge? Which leads to this interesting piece from BBC Worchestershire on the state of small breweries and what may be keeping some open:

Sarah Saleh, owner of The Hop Shed Brewery, in Suckley, Worcester, said: “Without the tap room we wouldn’t still be here. I think the breweries that are closing are the ones without a direct outlet for their beers.” Saleh continued: “I know when we set up here, 10 years ago, I can think of two breweries locally that were set up but didn’t have tap rooms, and they’re now no longer here. “It always amazes me that on a Friday night when the tap room is open, and we stand here in a barn in the middle of nowhere, and before you know it there’s 200 people here. “They’re enjoying food from local providers and enjoying the beer that’s been brewed here on site.

It is even a community brewery if there isn’t a taproom? Maybe. What else can make a brewery part of the community? Reporting from Norway, Knut attended a gathering of five Danish breweries invited by local Haandbryggeriet to show off their stuff… and one of the attendees had a particularly interesting back story:

Together with the Danish employment authorities, Stepping Stone has developed a program aimed at improving the conditions for refugees entering the Danish workforce. It is deliberately flexible — designed around the individual rather than the system. Each participant’s working hours, responsibilities, and workplace are shaped by their skills, needs, and current life situation, creating a more realistic and supportive path into employment. But the program doesn’t stop at work placements. Alongside hands-on experience at the brewery, participants are offered opportunities to build skills that extend beyond the job itself.

And also out and about has been Ed, who continues his reports from his trade mission to Austria, this time with his stop at Trumer of Saltzberg where he witnessed a method:

They have a six roller mill from 1965 and use the Kubessa method when brewing. Named after the brewer from Cologne that patented it in 1903, in the Kubessa method the husk is separated from the endosperm during milling. It is not added to the Mash Conversion Vessel during the early stages of mashing, only being added prior to lautering so it can help with wort separation. It means less husk polyphenols get in the beer. It’s said to make a beer taste more elegant, and certainly the Trumer Pils in Vienna was very smooth. We had John Brauer, EBC grand fromage, explain to us on the coach that in fact little difference can be detected in fresh beer, but the Kubessa method give greater flavour stability so its advantages become more apparent over time. 

That’s a lot of specific technical information. Mr. Gladman has shared some very specific emotional information, facts which he believes form the foundation for his love of Pastis:

On Saturdays I would walk the half-hour round trip there and back to spend my pocket money. I still remember filling the small white paper bag each week. It started off smooth and stiff then slowly softened and rumpled over the rest of the morning as I dipped into it for treats.I remember the aniseed balls best of all. I never bought too many — I didn’t want to spoil my enjoyment. The immediate pleasure of fizzy cola bottles was showy but no match for the deep joy of a well-sucked aniseed ball with its slow reveal, layer after intense layer, leading to that tiny black kernel of anise almost too challenging but all the better for it. I saved them for last because they would perfume the bag itself — you could smell them even after they were gone.

And, speaking of lingering aromas, Jeff gave us a history of the Cascade hops with his thoughts on what have made them so successful:

I’d add that Cascades have, ironically, come to achieve that quality of “nobility.” It’s true they’re more intense and robust than the old landrace varieties from Europe, but they’re also incredibly balanced and elegant. They offer a lovely bitterness, and are versatile as aroma hops (we’re going to get a taste of that in this year’s Oregon Homegrown collab.) When people taste Cascade, they’re tasting the same thing, too, which isn’t always the case with modern hops.

There. We will leave it there for this week and for this month. Soon it will be June with all that entails. Live it up. And again with this one last thing thing. Your weekly reminder that there will be an edition of The Session next month celebrating Martyn Cornell’s final book Porter and Stout: A Complete History. Boak and Bailey will share an update soon on when you need to get your thoughts organized in preparation.

Which means you, please, need to keep an eye on Boak and Bailey postings every Saturday and adding to their fabulously entertaining footnotes week after week at Patreon. And do look out for more of Stan’s new “One Link, One Paragraph” format. Then hunt out something in someone’s archives! Leave oblique comments on someone’s post from 2009!! Listen to a few of Lew’s podcasts and get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by David Jesudason on certain Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s wonderful self-governing totes autonomous website featuring The Gulp, too.  Ben’s Beer and Badword remains on pause but there is reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog. Any more? We have Ontario’s own A Quick Beer and All About Beer is still offering a range of podcasts – and there’s also Mike Seay’s The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast! And there’s the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube as well as the archives of the Beer Ladies Podcast.*

*No footnotes this week.