Episodes

UK sales of low-alcohol and no-alcohol beers have almost doubled in the last five years. Alternative versions of global brands, while a raft of launches from independent businesses, have helped give drinkers an increasing number of options when it comes to the beer they drink. If we look back at research from earlier this year, research group IWSR revealed that UK drinkers bought some $454m of alcohol-free and low-alcohol brews in 2021, $200m more than they did back in 2016. And during that p...

With the 2022 iteration of The Brewers Congress almost among us, it was only right we revisited the closing remarks from last year’s event, delivered by Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery. At the end of the 2021 Brewers Congress, we learned that in beer, and the wider world, what people love is for you to have the respect to show them what you love. And in doing so, they have an opportunity to walk through a little door and potentially find something they really enjoy. But if yo...

We’re all familiar with the saying time flies when you’re having fun. When we last spoke to Rich White back in April last year, he was in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign and brewery fit out. His long-held ambition to start a brewery of his own was becoming a reality. In that episode we spoke about his exciting plans for Werewolf Beer, their crowdfunding campaign, his love of brewing classic American styles and the brewery’s very own…. ghost train! At that point it was very much a case o...

Diversification in, or this case away, the world of brewing can mean more than producing different styles of beer or packaging said liquid in unusual package types. An increasing number of breweries have, or at least considered, broadened their offering by entering the world of spirits. And for many, that means Gin. And if you suspect big gin has a grip on the UK hospitality trade, you are correct. But this doesn’t mean you can’t get poured as well. Receiving the right data will help you under...

With our 2022 Brewers Congress two months away, we thought it was the perfect time to revisit our 2021 keynote address. Greg Zeschuk knows a thing or two about running a team. During his latest visit to the UK in September just gone, we caught up with him again and discussed that before working in beer, the company he co-founded grew to employ 1500 at seven locations across the globe. Zeschuk was originally trained as a medical doctor, before starting the videogame company BioWare in 1995 in h...

From a background in homebrew, Ross Holland would go on to start Box Social Brewing with his dad Steve in 2015. Fast forward several years and Holland is the proprietor of Alpha Delta Brewing, a Newcastle-based brewery making modern beers from hop-forward IPAs to mixed-ferm sours. Not only that but the business was crowned in the top 10 of the New Brewer Awards for the Year 2020 by RateBeer. In this podcast, Holland talks about his background in beer, the hurdles he’s overcome along the way a...

Earlier this week Beavertown announced it was to be fully acquired by Heineken UK. And earlier this summer, the brewery celebrated its 10th birthday. Much has changed since Logan Plant started the brewery in the De Beauvoir area of Haggerston, London. And two years ago, in September 2020, they threw open the doors of their new brewery in Ponders End, Enfield. The facility, which has created some 150 jobs, has enable the business to produce up to 500,000hl and to brew in 150hl batches, equivalen...

The city of St Albans is one synonymous with great beer. Home to the headquarters of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, St Albans was also once famed for having the most pubs per square mile than anywhere else in the country. But in recent years, the county of Hertfordshire where St Albans is based has become known not just for a place to drink excellent beer, but it’s home to many breweries producing this fine beverage, too. For four friends Jon Howarth, Josh Kitt, Jordan Manfre and George San...

When there’s some 1,300 breweries across the country, and nearly 300 in your province alone, it pays to be different. So what happens then when three beer lovers from various marketing agency backgrounds come together to open a brewery designed to satiate the curious palette and mind? You get Something In The Water Brewing Co. And since opening its doors in May 2022, the brewery and bar concept is already a hit with the great and the good of Toronto’s Liberty Village. They began their curious b...

We all come into beer from different backgrounds, with different perspectives, with different goals. And when Jess and John Magill returned from several years spent living in Australia back in the early 2000s, they collectively knew that the world of brewing was for them. In doing so, they’d eventually go on to start Powderkeg, a team of freedom-loving beer obsessives carving out their own path with curiosity, creativity and defiance; as they say – this is free-thinking beer. So just what is ...

Just how do you keep on top of innovation? Do you follow the trends, or help create them? In the world of beer, over time, much has changed and much has stayed the same. And one company that has played an integral role in the development of the brewing industry, as well the distilling sector is Briggs of Burton, the world’s oldest and number one distilling and brewing design and engineering company. With a history dating back to 1732, they know a thing or two about helping brewers and distill...

What’s in a sales role? Sometimes it might be easier to ask what’s not in a sales role…. You’re dealing with a wealth of departments internally, a raft of businesses externally and that’s before we’ve got onto other responsibilities such as social media, beer festivals, activations and everything in-between. But the value and importance of such figures can sometimes be overlooked. I think it’s pretty fair to say that when it comes to choice, fans of great beer have rarely had it better. Reg...

Next weekend marks the inaugural These Hills, an intimate, carefully curated two day beer festival taking place in the town of Lewes in the South Downs National Park on the 24 and 25 June. Organised by Beak Brewery, the event features beers from breweries such as Deya, Cloudwater, Queuzerie Tilquin, Kløster, Forest and Main, The Kernel, Wildflower and many more besides. And it has been a whirlwind few years for the team at Beak Brewery. They’ve expanded, produced a wealth of excellent beers an...

When you’ve spent some 25 years in beer industry, working with a raft of innovative companies, you’ve probably picked up a thing or two along the way. And for today’s guest, that time in beer and hospitality is and was always about the people. In today’s episode we hear from Christian Barden, an experienced and enthusiastic global beer industry leader whose mantra is “doing well by doing good”. He’s held executive positions at AB InBev, where he spent 15 years, and a range of drinks and hospi...

“Brewing beer is easy, but producing good beer takes real skill,” John Taylor, co-founder of London’s Drop Project Brewing Co once told us. With a series of successful and ambitious expansion projects under his belt, John more commonly known as JT, is now the co-founder of Mitcham-based Drop Project. Along with co-founders Joe Simo (right) and Will Skipsey (middle), the brewery is making waves with excellent lagers and IPAs as well as brilliant sours and stouts. JT has a wealth of experience ...

Earlier this week, figures from across the brewing industry descended upon Minneapolis for the latest iteration of the Craft Brewers Conference and the 2022 World Beer Cup Awards. And closer to home, breweries in the UK and across Europe are making absolutely incredible beer. That comes as no surprise. The consumer has simply never had it better when it comes to the sheer variety of styles available to them. And access to excellent US beer, both in trade and direct to consumer, is improving al...

Founded in 2020 but a long time in the making, Sureshot was born out of lockdown. The Manchester-based business, headed up by a brewer that can make leading hop-forward beers in his sleep, is determined to make its mark with an excellent, high-quality product. And a mere four months on since their first brew, they’re doing just that.

During one their first dates, enjoying pints of mild, a couple while away the evening in one of the UK’s most fashionable cities. But no, we’re not talking about 2022. Instead this is Liverpool in the late 1980s…. And although they were both working in hospitality back then, little did Julie and Les O’ Grady know that some 30 years on, they’d be running a different hospitality business of their own. For Julie and they’d meet at Dunny’s Sports & Social Club. They’d get married, and have two ch...

With the sunshine we head to California and learn that brewing, like any other profession, can take us on a journey we might not have planned for. When Dylan Mobley (pictured far right) left his role at Stone Brewing in Escondido, California, to improve his work/life balance, he already had his next role mapped out. Instead, he’d spend the best part of the next five years helping create and refine some of the most revered and sought after beers in the modern US scene at Bottle Logic Brewing. ...

Life has a funny way of working out, even if you weren’t sure what you were looking for in the first place. For Miranda Hudson and her co-founder and husband Bates, a chance encounter at a wedding a decade ago would eventually lead them to up sticks, start a new life in the country and open Duration Brewing – a farmhouse brewery making beers that belong. Duration Brewing secured planning consent to put their brewery on a scheduled monument site in a grade II* building back in September 2017. ...

Most breweries will, hopefully, experience a growth curve during their business lives. But when you’re on that particular journey, it’s key to recognise that there’s more to it than just increasing capacity and your ability to produce more volume. And as someone heading up a brew team, Aaron McClure knows that all too well. Aaron is the head brewer at Sharp’s, based in Rock, Cornwall. After studying biology at the University of Exeter, Aaron would join Sharp’s in 2011, rising up the ranks fro...

What happens when you combine a couple that have a love for travel, a passion for brewing excellent beers and the desire to create an inclusive brewery that boasts a taproom loved by locals and visitors alike? Reading’s own Double-Barrelled, of course! Having just celebrated that important third birthday, nominated for new brewery of the...

“You have to be a manager, a coach and a referee all in one. And there’s probably a little bit of hope involved, too.” Greg Zeschuk knows a thing or two about running a team. Because before working in beer, the company he co-founded grew to employ 1500 at seven locations across the globe. Zeschuk...

In beer, and the wider world, what people love is for you to have the respect to show them what you love. And in doing so, they have an opportunity to walk through a little door and potentially find something they really enjoy. But if you don’t give people the chance, then they can’t respect...