Brewers Journal Podcast

The brewing industry has become a testing ground for the energy transition. Many drinkers want to drink responsibly: not just to protect their own health, but the health of the planet. Brewers large and small are taking innovative approaches to their energy use. In Samlesbury,  AB InBev  has started working with  Protium , who will fund, build, and operate a green hydrogen facility...

Welcome to Moonwake. Moonwake, or “the moon’s reflection on a body of water” speaks to the Scottish brewery’s Leith Shore location, the importance of water as an ingredient, and their beers’ reflection of the team’s combined experience. Established in 2021 and the winners of ‘Best New Brewery’ at our 2022 Brewers Choice Awards, the outfit brew with the belief that there is a beer out there for eve...

The brewing industry has changed a great deal in the last decade. Breweries have come and gone, as have numerous beer styles. But take a step back even further and you’ll see an even bigger picture. This sector is blessed with certain brewers that have truly made their mark on the field of brewing. They’ve worked in different breweries, producing different beers, catering for different audiences....

Breweries are centres of creative expression. Places where talented teams can come together to produce fantastic creations full of flavour. But the beers brewed are often only part of the story. For Thom Stone, beer and music are his two biggest passions in life. So it seemed appropriate that the brewery he founded in 2017 would in some way reference an art form that has historically paired the tw...

This week we are bringing you a bonus episode from our sister podcast The Distillers Journal following. The bourbon industry has faced challenges over the centuries. However today the industry is booming, and Briggs of Burton are supporting Kentucky distilleries steeped in history and tradition, as well as new businesses emerging along the Bourbon trail, to meet customer demand and prepare for the...

10 years is a pretty significant chunk of time, in any walk of life. So you can’t blame Brian Dickson, who helped start one of the UK’s most popular modern breweries, of being proud of how far Northern Monk has come in that first decade. And if you work in and around the craft beer industry, you probably know Brian. There’s a strong chance you’ve probably brewed with him, too. Such is his appetite...

Miranda Hudson is the co-founder of Duration Brewing, a progressive farmhouse brewery that makes beers that belong in Norfolk. Starting out as a nomadic brewery in 2017, the business she founded with husband Bates, has become one of the most respected breweries in the UK. Based in a beautifully renovated Norfolk barn, they continue to expand and a successful Crowdfunder was one of their biggest su...

The winner of our 2022 Brewers Choice – Brewer of the Year has been a pillar of the UK beer scene, has invented beer styles, lighting the way for new breweries, dishing out advice, support and encouragement to new and existing brewers as well as being an excellent all-around brewer. Colin has long since written his name into the story of modern UK brewing. To mark his keynote address at our...

At some point, we’ve all had to turn a spare room into a custom and excise warehouse at some point, haven’t we? And in doing so, ending up on a path to starting a brewery that would go on to release some 70 unique beers in 2022. Today’s guest has done just that, and in co-founding Vault City of Portobello in Edinburgh, he’s helped create one of Scotland’s most popular breweries. Co-founded by Stev...

Opening your own brewery, at any point is time, comes with its own challenges and hurdles to overcome.  Just ask the countless outfits that had COVID to contend with, weeks and months after, slinging open their doors. And in the current economic climate, things probably aren’t much easier, to say the least. But people are thirsty, and there remains an insatiable appetite for excellent, locall...

Gone are the days where choosing a beer without the alcohol meant forgoing genuine choice in the process. Countless macro businesses now offer 0.5% or 0.0% iterations of well-known brands. And with January already halfway behind us, numerous independents have thrown their hats into the ring with a fascinating array of low and no pales, lager, sours and stouts. Beers that complement the burgeo...

Earlier this month, the team at Neptune Brewery moved into their new home. It’s a step that will allow them to cater for increased demand and further cement themselves as one of the UK’s finest breweries. But this evolution didn’t happen overnight. And while the brewery started out in 2015, the story of Neptune Brewery goes back some years further. During one their first dates, enjoying pints of m...

UK sales of low-alcohol and no-alcohol beers have almost doubled in the last five years. Alternative versions of global brands, while a raft of launches from independent businesses, have helped give drinkers an increasing number of options when it comes to the beer they drink. If we look back at research from earlier this year, research group IWSR revealed that UK drinkers bought some $454m of alc...

With the 2022 iteration of The Brewers Congress almost among us, it was only right we revisited the closing remarks from last year’s event, delivered by Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery. At the end of the 2021 Brewers Congress, we learned that in beer, and the wider world, what people love is for you to have the respect to show them what you love. And in doing so, they have an op...

We’re all familiar with the saying time flies when you’re having fun. When we last spoke to Rich White back in April last year, he was in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign and brewery fit out. His long-held ambition to start a brewery of his own was becoming a reality. In that episode we spoke about his exciting plans for Werewolf Beer, their crowdfunding campaign, his love of brewing classic...

Diversification in, or this case away, the world of brewing can mean more than producing different styles of beer or packaging said liquid in unusual package types. An increasing number of breweries have, or at least considered, broadened their offering by entering the world of spirits. And for many, that means Gin. And if you suspect big gin has a grip on the UK hospitality trade, you are correct...

With our 2022 Brewers Congress two months away, we thought it was the perfect time to revisit our 2021 keynote address. Greg Zeschuk knows a thing or two about running a team. During his latest visit to the UK in September just gone, we caught up with him again and discussed that before working in beer, the company he co-founded grew to employ 1500 at seven locations across the globe. Zeschuk was...

From a background in homebrew, Ross Holland would go on to start Box Social Brewing with his dad Steve in 2015. Fast forward several years and Holland is the proprietor of Alpha Delta Brewing, a Newcastle-based brewery making modern beers from hop-forward IPAs to mixed-ferm sours. Not only that but the business was crowned in the top 10 of the New Brewer Awards for the Year 2020 by RateBeer. In th...

Earlier this week Beavertown announced it was to be fully acquired by Heineken UK. And earlier this summer, the brewery celebrated its 10th birthday. Much has changed since Logan Plant started the brewery in the De Beauvoir area of Haggerston, London. And two years ago, in September 2020, they threw open the doors of their new brewery in Ponders End, Enfield. The facility, which has created some 1...

The city of St Albans is one synonymous with great beer.  Home to the headquarters of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, St Albans was also once famed for having the most pubs per square mile than anywhere else in the country. But in recent years, the county of Hertfordshire where St Albans is based has become known not just for a place to drink excellent beer, but it’s home to many breweries...

When there’s some 1,300 breweries across the country, and nearly 300 in your province alone, it pays to be different. So what happens then when three beer lovers from various marketing agency backgrounds come together to open a brewery designed to satiate the curious palette and mind? You get Something In The Water Brewing Co. And since opening its doors in May 2022, the brewery and bar concept is...

We all come into beer from different backgrounds, with different perspectives, with different goals. And when Jess and John Magill returned from several years spent living in Australia back in the early 2000s, they collectively knew that the world of brewing was for them. In doing so, they’d eventually go on to start Powderkeg, a team of freedom-loving beer obsessives carving out their own path wi...

Just how do you keep on top of innovation? Do you follow the trends, or help create them? In the world of beer, over time, much has changed and much has stayed the same.  And one company that has played an integral role in the development of the brewing industry, as well the distilling sector is Briggs of Burton, the world’s oldest and number one distilling and brewing design and engineering...

What’s in a sales role? Sometimes it might be easier to ask what’s not in a sales role…. You’re dealing with a wealth of departments internally, a raft of businesses externally and that’s before we’ve got onto other responsibilities such as social media, beer festivals, activations and everything in-between. But the value and importance of such figures can sometimes be overlooked. I think it’s pre...

Next weekend marks the inaugural These Hills, an intimate, carefully curated two day beer festival taking place in the town of Lewes in the South Downs National Park on the 24 and 25 June. Organised by Beak Brewery, the event features beers from breweries such as Deya, Cloudwater, Queuzerie Tilquin, Kløster, Forest and Main, The Kernel, Wildflower and many more besides. And it has been a whirlwind...