Eight and a half years ago, I attended an off-flavour beer tasting hosted by beer writer Melissa Cole. Melissa took us through everything from DMS to diacetyl, enhancing our beer knowledge by putting us...
I am writing this at a brand new desk, so fresh out of the flatpack it still smells of freshly sawn wood and musty cardboard. The desk sits in what is...
I love it when breweries kick on, especially when this involves releasing a beer that comes out of nowhere and knocks my little cotton socks off. One brewery to do...
Every so often I encounter a beer that challenges my own logic. In my book, Modern British Beer, I devised a philosophy I call the Broad Spectrum of Joy in which I pose that...
According to Sheffield brewery St Mars of the Desert, Làska means love in Czech. It’s also the name of its latest lager, and trust me when I say this lager...
Bitterness is one of the most enjoyable, and most crucial, elements in beer. In my opinion, anyway. When implemented correctly, bitterness sends a signal to your brain, telling you that...
Serious question: where have all the brett beers been hiding? Time was, about six or seven years ago, that you couldn’t move for small breweries releasing their latest bretted beer...
I got myself in a spot of bother on Twitter recently. It’s something that admittedly happens with a certain regularity, due to my acerbic sense of humour, and the fact...
The term “nature is healing” has perhaps been a tad overused during the past couple of years – although the other week, a new brewery opened in Manchester, which after...
For the last few years, beer folks like myself – assorted writers, bloggers, podcasters and influencers, not to mention retailers like HB&B – have been trying to make lager happen....
One of the greatest things about relocating to the northwest of England has been the shift in perspective it’s given me. As a former Londoner of 15 years, my time...
I’m someone you could describe as being highly Kiwi-adjacent. My partner of the past 13 years is a proud New Zealander, and HB&B supremos Jen and Glenn also hail from there,...
I awoke on New Year’s Day this year with a strange, slightly unfamiliar sensation in the pit of my stomach, one that took me a few moments to put my finger...
Maybe it’s complacency, pandemic-induced anxiety or just plain laziness, but lately I’ve haven’t been putting in enough effort to fully explore the wealth of interesting beer being produced in the...