--- Let’s begin the description of this episode with a mea culpa. In February 2025 I visited the Trading Route, a new venue from the people behind Manchester Union Brewery, and Manchester restaurants Trof, and Stow. One of the main reasons I was excited to go was because Manchester Union co-founder Will Evans had appeared in an Instagram video advertising slow poured versions of their lager, complete with voluminous creamy heads. Slow poured lager—like that offered at Denver’s Bierstadt...| Pellicle
--- One of the best things about making a yearly trip to Fyne Ales for FyneFest is that I get to check in on the brewery’s Origins side project. It’s the vehicle for its wild beers, typically produced using mixed or spontaneously fermented and then barrel-matured beer, and often showing locally grown fruit, or foraged herbs. These beers are a long way from cherished Fyne Ale classics like Jarl or Highlander, but they arguably show an even greater ‘sense of place’ than the cask beers...| Pellicle
About 10 years ago I was roaming along Red Bank in a part of Manchester city centre I was hopelessly unfamiliar with. On either side of me were tall stone walls topped with railway bridges, boxing me in and hiding the sun from view. Not another soul was to be seen. I sincerely hoped I was in the rig| Pellicle
January was a busy month for Felix Bollen. The co-owner of German Kraft Brewery spent new year’s eve in Austria before heading to Berlin, where he lives, a week later. Two weeks on, he took a bus to London, the birthplace of German Kraft (his car —“a piece of shit,” he says, with a smile—broke down en route) before flying back to the German capital for a few days. He ended the month back in Vienna. Such is Felix’s life now. German Kraft, which he founded alongside pals Michele Tie...| Pellicle