This weeks Desert Island Beers features the founder and owner of Compass Brewery, Oxford, Mattias Sjoberg.

Born and raised in a small town just south of Stockholm, Sweden, Mattias started brewing at home when he was 16 years old. He quickly became fascinated with the chemistry and biology of beer and this led him to apply to a degree course in Brewing and Distilling at the International Center for Brewing and Distilling at Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. Read the rest of this entry »

“If a book doesn’t have a good cover it will stay on the shelf.” So any good librarian will tell you. The same applies to beer packaging. Because whether you like it or not, labels and labelling in general play a big role in our decision to buy, well, pretty much everything.

If you put a great beer in terrible packaging it’s not going to sell (as much). And similarly if you put a mediocre beer in great packaging, it will fly off the shelves (at least at first). And I don’t think this is necessarily a good or bad thing as I said last August when I posted an article on this subject under the title – Pump Clips, Beer labels and Branding. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the latest episode of Desert Island Beers which this week features Doug Donelan, an Australian but now Chief Executive Officer at New Zealand Hops who as such is responsible for getting those wonderful kick ass hops, such as Nelson Sauvin, Riwaka and Rakau, to name just a few to these shores.

Doug says he has always had beer around him, growing up, beer was what his family drank, although usually only with meals and apart from the occasional bottle of fortified wine or a Christmas treat of whiskey or brandy, it was only ever beer in their house.

He can’t remember how old he was when he first tasted beer but as with many others, it was a sip of froth offered from his fathers’ glass at a fairly young age. What he does remember is that he was spontaneously intrigued and has remained so to this day. His work life started in kitchens and around food and after leaving a cooking apprenticeship he moved out of food and into beverage, starting as a cellar-man for Millers Hotels in Sydney after acquiring some basic cellar training at Resch’s brewery in Sydney. Read the rest of this entry »

March 2012

Rudgwick Brewery Limited, Rudgwick, Horsham. This short lived brewery first brewed November 2011 and closed in March 2012.

Closed. Thorne Brewery (Yorkshire) Ltd, Thorne, Doncaster.

April 2012

The Rough Draft Brewery a 6 BBL in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshireannounced its closure online in early April, after owner and spare-time brewer Jon Scandrett lost his full-time job when his employers’ business went into liquidation.

The Brewery won the Bitter category at The Doncaster Beer Festival in mid April with its last ever brew – Junction 51 – a 3.8 per cent brown bitter made with Cascade and Willamette hops – been a winner with the judges.

This weeks Desert Island Beers is a real coup for us as it features none other than Sir (well he would be if he was a UK citizen) Tomme Arthur, the co-founder and director of brewery operations for Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey.

A professional brewer for more than 15 years, he is widely regarded as one of the leaders of the American Craft brewing renaissance. Tomme lives in San Diego County with his wife and two daughters. A native San Diegan, Tomme returned home to San Diego in 1995 after earning his Bachelor of Arts in English from Northern Arizona University where he cultivated his passion for brewing. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the latest episode of Desert Island Beers which this week features Will Hawkes who works on The Independent’s sports desk and writes about beer in his spare time.

Born in London and brought up in sunny Kent, he has had an interest in Ale since he could convince a barman he was 18 – but his real conversion to good beer came after a year spent living in Southern California in 1999-2000, when the craft beer revolution was just beginning to take effect. He also loves cricket and writes about the county game. He lives in South London with his wife and eight-month-old son. Read the rest of this entry »

This week we have a friend coming to stay on our desert island. Welcome Simon Jenkins!

Simon started his career in Goole, but not even that hampered him. Cutting his teeth as a journalist in East Yorkshire and the Vale of Calder, Simon landed at the Yorkshire Evening Post in 1991 and never looked back, working for fifteen years at Leeds’ flagship evening newspaper.

Though now working at Leeds University, Simon still writes the Taverner column for the paper and in 2010 he won Best Writing in the UK Regional Press for his contribution to beer. It was an award which ultimately led to the deserved crown of 2010 Beer Writer of the Year, and the ominous duties of representing the beer industry (not to mention writing a speech for the following years awards do!). Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the latest episode of Desert Island Beers which this week features James Kemp (JK), Head Brewer at Buxton Brewery, who is also known as the ‘ping pong pom’ and for very good reason…for James was born in England and moved to New Zealand when he was 12, then came back to the UK a few years  later, then went back to NZ and finally back to the UK again. (I’m glad he did because Buxton are definitely one of my favourite breweries at the moment; their Axe Edge is just superb).  Read the rest of this entry »

This weeks Desert Island Beers features the co-founder and owner of Great Heck Brewing Company, Great Heck, North Yorkshire, Denzil Vallance. Heart-throb Denzil was born in Bradford in the golden summer of 1970. He says his journey into brewing began with a sip of Double Diamond at the breakfast table in Pateley Bridge 3 short years later, but unfortunately that put him off English Ale for approximately 30 years until his interest was rekindled towards the end of his “spectacularly successful motorcycle racing career”. (His words.) Read the rest of this entry »

I have just returned from accompanying the Fylde Express on his Fylde U13’s Rugby Tour to Birmingham & Worcester, staying in the Village Hotel, Dudley.

We had a fabulous weekend; with two great host clubs, at Droitwich & Stafford, some great rugby including a win, watched a cracking Premiership Rugby Match at Kingsholm; Gloucester v Exeter Chiefs, with six tries to include a last minute winner, plus great company. In the process we made it onto ITV’s Premiership Rugby Highlight’s Programme and had a bloody good laugh. Other than that all I can say is “the coach drivers name was Richard.” What goes on tour stays on tour! Read the rest of this entry »