Author: Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey
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Culture - Web Only -
CultureThe History of the Future of Beer
February 21, 2017 - Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey Editor’s Note: This story is part of a special section on the future of beer, which appears in the March 2017 issue of All About Beer Magazine and is now on newsstands. In 1987, Porter Lancastrian, a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of bar equipment founded in 1936, published an advertisement that depicted the pub of the future.... View Article -
Web OnlyThe Mystery of Old Chimneys
October 12, 2016 - Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey There is only one British beer in RateBeer’s top 50 chart—Old Chimneys Good King Henry Special Reserve imperial stout—which, as far as some people are concerned, makes it The Best Beer in Britain. But here’s the wrinkle: hardly any British drinkers have heard of it, let alone tasted it. An informal poll conducted via Twitter... View Article -
Web OnlyTracing the History of Beer Geeks
July 30, 2016 - Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey People these days take beer too seriously, right? Caring about what you drink, talking about it, and especially recording tasting notes seem to be regarded by some as a sign of the end times. But being a beer geek is not something that emerged alongside the books of Michael Jackson and the modern beer... View Article -
Web OnlyStout Decline: Guinness Slides in Popularity, Status
June 20, 2016 - Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey Guinness is a mighty global brand but there are signs that it is struggling to maintain its position as The Stout. In Britain, in particular, its popularity has been sliding for almost a decade: between 2008 and 2014 sales dropped by approximately 50 million liters per year, from more than 250 million to around 200 million.... View Article -
Web OnlyMild in the 21st Century
April 30, 2016 - Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey Mild ale, a quintessentially British beer style, has been in terminal decline since World War II. Now, despite a long-running campaign to save it and numerous false dawns, it may finally be getting the boost it needs, but will it be at the cost of its identity? Mild reached the peak of its popularity in... View Article -
Web OnlyThe Emergence of ‘Pale ‘n Hoppy’ Beers in the UK
November 19, 2015 - Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey Some of the best beers being made in Britain today belong to a style that has no name. They are the colour of pilsner, usually made with only pale malt, but they are not mere ‘golden ales’—‘golden’ is not, after all, a flavour. They have extravagant, upfront New World hopping suggesting tropical fruits and aromatic... View Article -
Web OnlyRecreating a Classic London Pub Crawl
August 18, 2015 - Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey In his 1949 book about the pubs of London, Back to the Local, journalist Maurice Gorham wrote of “that epic pub crawl from Ludgate Circus to Trafalgar Square that we have all talked about and never done.” How can that be read as anything but a challenge? In 2015, the crawl from the boundary of... View Article -
Web OnlyThe Campaign for Unreal Ale: An Oral History
August 1, 2015 - Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey From the 1970s, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) dominated the conversation around beer in Britain, and cask-conditioned “real ale” was all but synonymous with good beer. Then, in the mid-’90s, a band of industry insiders began to question that orthodoxy, suggesting that beer in kegs and bottles, filtered and carbonated before packaging, might be... View Article