How do you find a pub via Google that is most likely to meet your specific requirements, in a particular moment? We were roaming around South East London over the weekend, an area that neither of us know very well, for somewhat psychogeographical reasons. After a few hours, some of it in surprising September sunshine, […]| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
As a woman, I've become careful in choosing which pubs I go into on my own.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
We've been sent a set of photos of Penzance's Art Deco Yacht Inn dating from 1949-1959 and have permission to share them here.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
The Penzance Brewing Company’s Peter Elvin isn’t a rock star brewer and isn’t likely to have his own cable TV series any time soon.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got Suffolk pubs, Scottish lager and American steel. First, some pub stats to chew on via Glynn Davis at Beer Insider. Digesting stats from various sources, he draws the conclusion that people like to have a pub nearby […] News, nuggets and longreads 30 August 2025: Married to the Mob originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
We recently found ourselves sticking up for BrewDog Punk IPA on social media, much as we might be critical of the brewery as a business. “I never liked the beer anyway” or “It tastes like piss” are standard responses to stories about BrewDog, as if the company’s ethics or culture can be tasted in the […] Is BrewDog Punk IPA still a decent beer? originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got wet tables, water jousting and Czech hops. First, some news: Martin Dickie has left BrewDog, the brewery he co-founded back in 2007. It seems to have happened quite suddenly and “for personal reasons” sounds rather vague as […] News, nuggets and longreads 23 August 2025: Inugami originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got historic pubs, GBBF, and football.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Pubs are anti-minimalist by nature and texture sometimes matters more than function. That's why their surfaces are covered in greebling.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Bristol is famous for its street art with entire blocks decorated, more or less elaborately, in the familiar spray-paint style. And that includes pubs.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Kettlesmith in Bradford-on-Avon, on the Somerset-Wiltshire border, is quite different to the taprooms we’re used to from Bristol or London.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Kettlesmith in Bradford-on-Avon, on the Somerset-Wiltshire border, is quite different to the taprooms we’re used to from Bristol or London. It’s in a ‘business park’, yes, but this particular industrial estate happens to sit on the banks of the Kennet & Avon canal. So, the rag-filled oil drums, skips and piles of pallets are balanced […] The barely urban un-metropolitan duck infested taproom originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Reading this week that once again people felt uncomfortable at the Great British Beer Festival made us wonder what more can be done. Are we past the point of simple fixes?| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
I had an opportunity to sneak a few days in Cornwall and tried to get round as many of the key beery touchpoints as possible.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got Covid flashbacks, village pubs, and Bass fans.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
The Square & Compass at Worth Matravers in Dorset has a reputation as one of the best pubs in the country. And guess what? It is.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
“I’ve been called a cultural terrorist,” said Jamie Ashley, the new landlord of The Swan With Two Necks, seeming offended, amused and confused in equal measure.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
The citizens of Craftonia, from Singapore to Stockholm, stand together in uniform opposition to homogeneity.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Also available at Blackwell’s, Foyle’s and Waterstones. In Lithuania, most bars serve a selection of what they call “užkandžiai prie alaus” — literally, “snacks to beer”. After a very nice tour of the country a few years ago, we got into the habit of referring to a whole range of peculiar foods you only ever […]| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Why is it that so many cultures have the perfect snacks to go with beer but absolutely refuse to sell them in pubs?| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Sometimes you go for a beer and a bite to eat and find yourself in the jaws of a machine – and it’s not always an unpleasant experience.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
It can be hard to get into the headspace of people in the past but here’s a nugget that reveals attitudes to different types of beer, and different measures, in the mid-1960s.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got warm cask ale, cask in decline, and booming cask sales.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got warm cask ale, cask in decline, and booming cask sales.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Simon Gueneau is a Parisian trained in Belgium, based in Bristol, and brewing Continental-style beer on Italian kit – how could we fail to be intrigued?| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Is it time for beer writers to stop acting as if they're part of the same 'movement' as brewers, publicans and marketing people, and begin landing punches?| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got Irish pubs, pub sofas, and barroom fiction.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
There are lots of contenders for oldest pub in England but few of their claims hold up to much scrutiny. It's also an interesting philosophical question.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
We finally made it to what might be the oldest pub in England, The George Inn at Norton St Philip in Somerset, and found it disappointing. Where is its sense of the past?| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Every Saturday we round up the best beer writing from the past week. This time, we’ve got loaded fries, Czech beer culture, and dodgy biographies.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got tasting notes, Fibonacci numbers and cold beer.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
UK beer blog running since 2007, with tasting notes, beer history, pub reports and commentary on British booze culture, by Jessica and Ray.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
In the 1970s and 80s pubs added video game arcade machines to their roster of attractions, in pursuit of younger customers and additional revenue.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
In 1988 the British government faced a now forgotten domestic crisis: previously placid towns, villages and suburbs were suddenly awash with mob violence.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Harp Lager was once a household name in the UK but, never much loved by beer geeks, and outpaced by sexier brands, has all but disappeared.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
“I’ve been called a cultural terrorist,” said Jamie Ashley, landlord of The Swan With Two Necks, seeming offended, amused and confused in equal measure.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Timișoara is Romania's third city and from certain angles looks and feels as if it belongs further west – with flat whites, avocado toast, and very convincing craft beer.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Christina Wade has written an accessibly scholarly book about women in beer that offers a refreshingly different lens on the world.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
We’ve now been in Bristol for two years and have logged every single official Pub Visit since arriving, from The Drapers Arms to The Barley Mow.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
For Session #145 Matthew Curtis has asked everyone to write a critique of beer, or pubs, or some aspect of beer and pub culture. His point, picking up on something he raised last year, is that beer writing still tends to be cosy and uncritical. He wants people to get out of their comfort zone […]| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Where exactly is the Staropramen we get in 330ml bottles in UK supermarkets brewed? Probably not Prague, but good luck pinning it down any more precisely than that from the packaging.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
It’s becoming a tradition that our first and last beer garden sessions of the year should happen at The Rising Sun in Pensford.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
We hosted Session #144 last week and asked people to tell us about the best beer they could drink at home right now. Here’s what they came up with.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
This month’s Session is about the best beers we can drink at home right now. Our answer is: whatever looks interesting at Pat’s News & Booze.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
We’re hosting the next edition of The Session, where beer bloggers and posters around the world respond to the same prompt, on the same day. (Or thereabouts.) For Session #144 that day is Friday 28 February 2025 and the prompt is: What’s the best beer you can drink at home right now? Not necessarily right […]| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Courage built a lot of new pubs in the period after World War II, as documented in a volume held at Bristol’s central library.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
At a Fuller's pub in West London on Friday night we drank perfect ESB – one of life's greatest pleasures.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
The Crown Tavern is a Bristol landmark but its future seemed uncertain when the former publicans retired. But it has been saved and revived.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
This is an extract from our book 20th Century Pub which came out last autumn. We're sharing it because it was announced today that we've made the shortlist for best drinks book at the 2018 Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
We've been researching 1990s gastropubs this week which prompted a side question: when did the phrase ‘pub grub’ come into common use?| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
What’s the best thing to happen in beer since 2018? For us, it’s the genuine, meaningful resurrection of traditional beer styles.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
“Can you recommend a pub near Bristol Temple Meads with good food?” Err, actually, we’re not sure we can – which is quite strange, really.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
On our recent visit to Cologne we mostly ignored the Altstadt beer halls in favour of neighbourhood places, and found quite a different vibe.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Desi Pubs by David Jesudason provides a new angle on pubs (and British culture) and acts as a practical guide for finding good grub.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
We've been asked several times this year: “What would you say is the best beer in the world?” Well, here’s our answer.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
On Thursday night we quietly ticked over another milestone: we’ve now visited 300 different pubs in Bristol.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
We spent Saturday night exploring the pubs of Easton in Bristol, revisiting some we’ve not been to for a while, and one completely new to us.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
We’ve continued to log our Bristol pub visits and as we tick over into a new year it’s a good time to share some stats and further thoughts.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Bristol has a huge number of pubs and a decent number of breweries. If you're in town for a few days or hours, where should you go to drink?| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Every year we share a list of our favourite beers and pubs as part of a lingering beer blogging tradition called ‘The Golden Pints’.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Believe it or not, there’s been a lot of good writing about beer and pubs in 2024, with a few key themes emerging.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
I’ll always think of 2024 as the year Dad died. Four months on, it hurts less – but it’s often in the pub I find myself dwelling on the loss.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Here’s all the writing about beer and pubs that grabbed us in the past week, from Manchester to Acid House.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
It’s been 10 years since our book Brew Britannia was published, and 7 since the follow-up 20th Century Pub. Where is British beer today?| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
In the 1990s a new type of beer arrived on the UK scene and caused serious disruption to the market. It came to be known as nitrokeg.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
It’s a standing joke amongst horror fans that you can make the case for almost anything to be ‘folk horror’. But what about real ale?| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
I’m a bit of a hippy and I like hippy pubs. There – I've said it. It’s just a shame Ray doesn’t.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Buxton calling in administrators got us thinking about breweries that are merely quite good – and how that's a tricky space to occupy.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Drinking ale with my dad in a down-to-earth backstreet pub in a small town in Somerset was just what I needed, it turns out.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
It’s only a pub but the tourists don’t understand that so one of the staff is having to play maître d’. But it’s beginning to get to him.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
A fun question to ask of any apparently irrational human behaviour is “What’s the evolutionary advantage?” Consider drunkenness, for example. Ray recently read William Golding’s 1955 novel The Inheritors. It’s about a band of Neanderthals struggling for survival in the forests of prehistoric Europe as a new threat emerges – Homo sapiens, AKA modern man, […]| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
When did you last see underage drinkers even try to get served in a pub? It’s what you might call a dying tradition.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
It’s a sign of a good drinking town that you can find multiple decent pubs without doing much research, as in Brighton.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
After almost seven years in this city, we finally made it to the Bristol Archives in January 2024, to see what they had on pubs and beer.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
What is it about pubs that makes them particularly suitable for socialising and ‘hanging out’, compared to cafes and restaurants?| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Chance & Counters isn’t a pub, or even a bar. It’s a board game cafe. And on Friday night, it was remarkably busy.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
These end-of-year roundups are more fun to write than to read, aren’t they? We feel the need to do it, though, to put a neat bow on the year.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
You can’t have cops without robbers, or Batman without the Joker, and so British beer needs its bad guys too. Enter Watney’s.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Are the pubs dead because there’s a Wetherspoon nearby? Or is the Wetherspoon busy because the pubs nearby are dead?| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Bristol brewery Wiper & True opened a new taproom on an industrial estate last summer. One year on, it’s become something of a green marvel.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the preceding 7 days. This time we’ve got Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, and double Poland.| Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
