A crisis in English brewing? Surely not. Whatever else happened in the world of beer⎯global takeovers; mergers; loss of choice; increasingly dull, bland international lagers; and the inexorable march of Budweiser⎯there was always good old English ale to fall back on. Unique beer, wonderful beer, beer that left the brewery in unfinished form and quietly... View Article
Other countries have bars, cafes and bier kellers. Only the English have the public house⎯pub for short⎯an institution so unique and indefinable that it can never be faithfully uprooted and transferred elsewhere. But while the English pub is alive and well, the industry is in the middle of change, transformed by social, economic and political... View Article
Until the arrival of the “iron way”⎯the railroad network⎯in the 19th century, people traveled by horse-drawn coaches that also carried the mail. Journeys were long and tiring, so a vast network of “coaching inns” offering food, drink and accommodations sprang up all over England. Many survive in all their half-timbered glory, as Ted Bruning discovered... View Article
In a scene that will be repeated by parents across the country this summer, we glanced back at our daughter snoozing in her car seat, at the clock on the dashboard and the roadmap, and began thinking about where and when we would stop for lunch.
Today, with all our superior modern knowledge, we sometimes tend to view the present as pure, crystallized truth and the past as a steady, logical progression towards it. But take a closer look any human cultural tradition—pale ale styles, in this case—and you’ll find a great unruly tangle of a family tree rather than a... View Article
The word “export,” in regard to beer, brings to mind a panoply of exotic brews from faraway lands. These ales, lagers and hybrids come in shades, styles and strengths to suit any palate. But more specifically, export refers to the indigenous pale lagerbiers of Dortmund, Germany, known simply as Dortmunder export. Understated and firm, export... View Article
Ray Daniels is the Chicago visionary responsible for the Chicago Real Ale Festival, held March 24-25 this year at Chicago’s Goose Island Brewery, Wrigleyville, across from the famous Wrigley Stadium.
Ah, summertime! Hot weather. Baseball games. Trips to the beach. Backyard barbecues. And thirst.
Jolly Good Ale and Old is the official history of Coopers Brewery, originally published by Wooster/Aussie beer books in 1987 for the brewery’s 125th anniversary and then reissued with an additional chapter on the 1990s. It’s a better-than-average company history because Painter is a good writer who gives a lot of the history of south... View Article
