Back in June I posted, Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch and seeing a man about a hop! and As rare as Rocking Horse shit! , this after I had re-tweeted a couple of stories about Flying Dog Brewery.

The first – dated June 6th concerned Flying Dog Brewery CEO, Jim Caruso, announcing that the company was halting distribution in five states. Caruso in a letter to distributors wrote:

“As local demand for Flying Dog beers continue to soar, we are concentrating our distribution in our home markets and Flying Dog beers will not be available in your territory for some unknown period of time.

This is no doubt disappointing news, but it is a necessary decision and consistent with the new age of craft beer and the focus on local markets.”

Flying Dog wasn’t alone amongst American craft breweries having to re-evaluate its distribution network, as Dogfish Head, Great Divide and others had also reduced the number of states they supplied. And with distribution in 45 states and 20 countries prior to this contraction, the move by Flying Dog was perhaps inevitable. (more…)

Back in June Mark Fletcher at Real Ale Reviews and I started a collaborative feature titled Desert Island Beers. The premise was simple: to get under the skin of beer lovers (Brewers, Bloggers, Journalist’s etc.) and find out a bit more about the beers that really make them tick and hopefully also a bit about the person along the way.

A new castaway features on this blog and Real Ale Reviews most Friday’s. The concept is simple: it’s just like the Radio 4 show we’ve taken our inspiration from, only that we ask guests what beers they would take to a desert island rather than music.

We ask each guest to select five beers they just could not live without; and if our castaway is a brewer then only one of their selected beers may be brewed by their own fair hands. And as we’re generous island chiefs, we allow our castaways a couple of extras: a meal to go with the beers, one luxury item, a CD and some books that they’d like to take along to keep their spirits up, (the luxury item must be inanimate and of no use in escaping the island or allowing communication from outside!). (more…)

Back in late March 2011 Desert Island Discs launched an online archive allowing fans to access the most recent 500 episodes. That figure has now increased to nearly 1,000 and back catalogue episodes are been added weekly.

I am a huge fan of the show and listen to the weekly broadcast whenever I can; which is not that often given work and family commitments; so iPlayer and the online archive has been a godsend.

I have in the past few days been exchanging tweets with Stu McKinlay of Yeastie Boys in New Zealand after he originally posted Been listening to loads of BBC Desert Island Discs recently… Alice Cooper the most interesting and had great tunes. Gary Lineker… Naff!

I responded: Stu. One of my favourite of all time; John Ogdon bbc.in/t0hASH (more…)

With only two sleeps to Christmas Day, this week’s Desert Island Beers is a real coup for us as it features none other than Santa Claus; who has found the time to answer our questions in the run up to his busiest week of the year. Thanks Santa.

A great traveller, writer and adventurer Santa also loves his beer. Born in ancient Lycia, now Turkey, and originally christened St. Nicholas, Santa was originally a Roman Catholic bishop who helped the needy. The knowledge of his gift-giving has grown such that he has now become a legendary character and in his retirement he now brings Christmas presents to children around the world.

Santa was born around AD 280. He lost both his parents as a young man and then used his inheritance to help the poor and sick. He later served as bishop of Myra. (more…)

I posted a blog the other day about the Turnip Prize in advance of the winner been announced.

Well I can now reveal that the winner was “Jamming with Muddy Waters” – a large jar containing muddy water and jam – submitted by Jim Drew, of Cocklake.

Jim said: “I am amazed to win this most coveted art award on my first attempt and I truly feel the lack of effort has really paid off.” (more…)

Welcome to the latest episode of Desert Island Beers which this week features Rob Tod, Founder and Brewer of Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, Maine, USA.

Rob’s interest in brewing began when he worked for Otter Creek Brewery in Vermont after graduating from College. While working at Otter Creek he sampled many styles of beer and was struck by the inventiveness and depth of Belgian beers. Though Belgian styles were scarcely heard of in the U.S.A. at the time, Rob knew that if people could experience them, they would love them.

Rob established Allagash in 1994 as a 15 barrel brewery and sold his first batch of beer in the summer of 1995, beginning his venture with the release of the award winning Allagash White, which he modeled after the traditional Wit beers of Belgium.  (more…)

I have a cold and they are always worse than you remember when you’re well. In Lytham St Annes, Boots the Chemist, homeopaths and self-declared nutritional therapists are celebrating.

For someone who spends at least part of the working week tasting and smelling things, the lessening of my olfactory abilities is a bummer. More importantly, I know that there is almost nothing I can do about it, except sit it out and wait.

Although anything I try will appear, to me, to work: because I will get better anyway. This is the natural order of colds, and it’s true with most things. Say when a migraine is at its worst and you visit your G.P. – it’s bound to get better anyhow, because these things come in cycles, or as statisticians say, they “regress to the mean”. (more…)

My father died a week last Monday, 28th November. It was his funeral on Wednesday at which I gave part of the eulogy with my brother’s  daughter Jessica also speaking for a few minutes lovingly on behalf of all his grandchildren. He was a good man and will be very much missed by all his family

Rather than leave what I said about him as a simple Word document stored for time, unseen and ultimately lost I thought I would post it here so all that knew him and couldn’t attend the small family service in Devon can celebrate his life.

I know a beer blog is probably not quite the right place for this, but my father wouldn’t have minded. After all I remember him in his mid 50’s enjoying nothing better than a pint of Real Ale in The Rigbye Arms at Wrightington, Nr Wigan, but that now seems a lifetime ago. (more…)

Welcome to the latest episode of Desert Island Beers which this week features Dave Hughes of Acorn Brewery, Yorkshire.

Established in May 2003 by former chef Dave and his wife Judi, Acorn Brewery is located to the east of the Pennines in the village of Wombwell.

Having worked for Barnsley Brewery as Head Brewer for two years, Dave decided to go it alone, purchased a ten barrel brewplant from the Forester & Firkin brewpub in Stafford and moved it to Wombwell.

Following a lot of hard work by Dave and his assistant, brewer Steve Bunting, and despite some initial set backs, the brewplant was commissioned and production of Acorn Brewery Barnsley Bitter began on 4th July 2003, using the same yeast strain as the original Barnsley Brewery, founded in the 1850′s. (more…)

I first wrote about The Turnip Prize last December. I said then I don’t recall how I first heard about the prize and the pub, the New Inn, Wedmore, Somerset, where it’s held, but since reading about it five/six years ago I look forward to seeing the results of the prize each year and listening to the exploits, of this, my favourite art competition.

This annual piss-take of the established art world’s Turner Prize is held every year in early December at the New Inn and the winner is the entry that makes the judges laugh the most and into which the least amount of effort has gone. The more crap it is, the better its chances of victory and entries can be disqualified for “not being shit enough”.

The prize is a turnip, which the previous winner has to replace, impaled on a plank of wood with a rusty six-inch nail. (more…)