News Archive

NEWS & VIEWS - 22nd April 2024US Craft Beer Production Dipped in 2023 Let's open this week with an article in Just Drinks which summarises the US Craft Beer market, which has more Breweries than ever, but is facing a number of challenges. READ ARTICLEScottish...

NEWS & VIEWS - 15th April 2024Challenging Times This week The Guardian set off a round of debate with a somewhat rambling article describing the challenges being faced by the UK Craft Beer Industry. READ ARTICLEBoom or Bust? The Pub Curmudgeon did an excellent job...

NEWS & VIEWS - 8th April 2024Macro Beer Could Be Worse? The brilliant Beer Nut was visiting the south coast of England this week, and reported to his surprise that Macro keg Pales are actually half-decent these days. Not sure if this is good or bad news(?), but...

NEWS & VIEWS - 1st April 2024Indy Man Beer Con 2024 Cancelled No doubt about the top story of the week, which was the announcement that after a 12-year run, IndyMan is not happening this year. Let's hope that the event returns in full glory for 2025! READ...

NEWS & VIEWS - 25th March 2024Brewery Insolvencies Continue I think we are all aware that it has been a bad year for brewery insolvencies in the UK. It turns out that the numbers are up 82% in a year, according to audit firm Mazars. READ ARTICLENon-Alcoholic Beers...

NEWS & VIEWS - 18th March 2024Beer Inflation Let's start this week with some wise-words from Jeff Alworth on the subject of beer inflation, and why we all need to calm-down a bit on the subject! READ ARTICLEBarth Hass Hops This might be the most useful resource we...

NEWS & VIEWS - 11th March 2024Outdoor Events Licensing Issues Spring is in the air and it is just a few short weeks until the summer Festival season starts to gather pace! In celebration of this, the Morning Advertiser published a handy article explaining what...

NEWS & VIEWS - 4th March 2024Budget Week As it is Budget-week, it is no surprise that the Hospitality Industry has been maintaining the pressure on the Chancellor to announce further support measures for the beleaguered sector. READ ARTICLEBeer Sector Ready For...

NEWS & VIEWS - 26th February 2024Falling Confidence Within The Hospitality Sector Let's start this week with the Morning Advertiser who report on falling confidence within the Hospitality Sector, amid calls for further support in the upcoming Spring Budget. READ...

NEWS & VIEWS - 19th February 2024UK In Recession Headline news this week was that the UK is officially in recession. This news coincided with the Office for National Statistics reporting that draft lager prices have risen by an average of 10.8% in the year to...

NEWS & VIEWS - 12th February 2024Market Report This week SIBA published their market report analysing the total number of current UK Breweries - broken down by region - at the end of 2023. Beer Today has crunched the numbers, which showed that the North of England...

NEWS & VIEWS - 5th February 2024Dry January To Blame For Drop In Sales Not much good news about this week! The Morning Advertiser reports that January saw an 8% drop in alcohol sales compared to January 2022, as the Dry January hype really took hold of the...

NEWS & VIEWS - 29th January 2024North Brewing Out Of Administration Following on from last week, there was good news for UK Craft Beer Fans as North Brewing has been bought out of administration by Kirkstall Brewing. READ ARTICLEThe Final SquawkSad news emerged...

NEWS & VIEWS - 22nd January 2024North Brewing To Appoint Administrators The biggest news of the week was undoubtedly that Leeds' North Brewing is entering administration, citing the overwhelming burden of debt repayments. North Brewing was founded in 2015, as a...

NEWS & VIEWS - 15th January 2024Revised Opening Hours Let's start this week with a thoughtful piece from Tandleman's Beer Blog about the fact that some pubs, based upon demand, are going back to separate lunchtime and evening sessions, rather than opening all day....

NEWS & VIEWS - 8th January 2024Strong Christmas Trading Period It is an understandably slow-news week, but the general consensus across a range of articles is that the Christmas trading period was a strong one for UK Hospitality, with the Morning Advertiser...

NEWS & VIEWS - 18th December 2023Drinks Sales Down 2% Slightly at odds with last week's positive economic news, was a report from the Daily Drinks Tracker showing sales were 2% behind last year in the week to 2nd Dec. This period last year was however boosted by...

NEWS & VIEWS - 11th December 2023Christmas Cheer There are lots of positive economic indicators in the news at the moment, with the Morning Advertiser reporting on a survey this week which estimates that Brits are going to spend 3x what we spent last year on...

NEWS & VIEWS - 4th December 2023Christmas Pub Trading Hours As the Christmas season seems to already be in full-swing, the Morning Advertiser sounds a note of caution to Licensees to check the Sunday Trading terms of their licenses carefully, considering that both...

NEWS & VIEWS - 27th November 2023Mixed Reaction No doubt what the top story for the Industry was this week - the Chancellor's Autumn Statement, which delivered some, but not all of what was asked for. READ ARTICLEGetting Weaker Matthew Curtis wrote an excellent...

NEWS & VIEWS - 20th November 2023Price of Lager Rises 12.5% The Morning Advertiser reports that the Office for National Statistics has been tracking the cost of a pint of lager, which has apparently risen 12.5% in the year to October 2023, reaching an average...

NEWS & VIEWS - 13th November 2023Farewell to Alpha Delta Extremely sad news broke this week, detailing the closure of Alpha Delta. Ross was our first ever Podcast guest, and he has remained a close friend of TWICB ever since. We wish him the very best in whatever...

NEWS & VIEWS - 5th November 2023A Reading Institution It has been a sad week in Rob's home town of Reading, as the wonderful Bottle Shop, The Grumpy Goat has been forced to close. It seems like the perfect time to lead with a brilliant blog about another...

NEWS & VIEWS - 30th October 2023Under-25 Club There is no doubt that the future of Craft Beer (and everything else, for that matter) depends on the younger generations. Therefore it was great to see Brewdog announce this week that 18-25 YOs now get 50% off both...

NEWS & VIEWS - 23rd October 2023Career Change Let's start this week with the Morning Advertiser who reported that 42% of UK hospitality workers are considering a career change. READ ARTICLESocial Isolation Without A Pub The Pub Curmudgeon always has an interesting...

NEWS & VIEWS - 16th October 2023European Hops in Trouble This week there has been some very worrying coverage about the impact of global warming on the World's largest hop producing Country, Germany. As usual Jeff Alworth at Beervana has the best take. READ...

NEWS & VIEWS - 9th October 2023Soapy Beer Here's a great story to get us rolling, suggesting that out of date beer should be made into soap to reduce waste. I think we can probably all recall a few beverages where the taste line between beer and soap was...

NEWS & VIEWS - 2nd October 2023The Lighter Side Of Beer As we are in Oktoberfest season, let's lead this week with a couple of articles celebrating the lighter side of beer. Firstly a great article describing the lager- mecca that is the Augustiner Beer Hall in...

NEWS & VIEWS - 25th September 2023Dynamic Beer Pricing The preposterous British media excelled itself last week, with their howls of outrage at the announcement that one of Britain's beleaguered Pub Chains is considering dynamic pricing, i.e. charging more for...

NEWS & VIEWS - 18th September 2023Making A Bitter Point Bitter is too important of a flavour to leave to the end, so let's start this week with a deep dive into the thing that above-all differentiates beer from mere mortal beverages. READ ARTICLEGreen Hop Brewing...

NEWS & VIEWS - 11th September 2023Hard To Make A Profit Let's start this week with the Morning Advertiser, who report on a pessimistic theme we are hearing widely across UK Craft Beer at the moment, which is that, whilst turnover numbers are generally decent, it...

NEWS & VIEWS - 4th September 2023Lager Now Considered An Unaffordable Luxury Let's start with this week's "price of a pint" article in the Morning Advertiser, which quotes the Office for National Statistics stating that draft lager has risen by 38% in the past...

NEWS & VIEWS - 28th August 2023Rail Strikes Devastating For Hospitality Industry Let's start this week with the sombre news from the Morning Advertiser that the rail strikes this weekend are going to be devastating to pubs, bars and clubs. The article includes...

NEWS & VIEWS - 21st August 2023Rugby World Cup Will Be A Boost For Hospitality By the time you read this, the Lionesses may, or may not be, World Cup Winners. Building on this, the Morning Advertiser has a decent piece stressing what a great opportunity for...

NEWS & VIEWS - 14th August 2023AB InBev Continue To Dump Craft Brands Following on from the closure of Anchor, AB InBev continued their rapid flight from US Craft Beer by dumping most of the rest of their "Craft" portfolio this week at a huge loss. READ...

NEWS & VIEWS - 7th August 2023A Pint Of Beer No Longer Affordable For Most It must be a slow-news week, as the Morning Advertiser have trotted out another price-of-a-pint article, this time based around a CAMRA commissioned research showing that only one in ten...

NEWS & VIEWS - 31st July 2023Bad Weather Blamed For Falling Drink Sales As a British publication, TWICB is naturally obliged to blame the weather for everything. In this spirit, we are proud of the Morning Advertiser, who noted that the awful summer weather has...

NEWS & VIEWS - 24th July 2023Higher Mortgage Rates Means Less to Spend on Beer Just as this very mediocre summer turns properly wet, we have a triple whammy of fairly bad news to share. Firstly the Morning Advertiser reports on the fairly obvious impact of...

NEWS & VIEWS - 17th July 2023UK Brewery Numbers Increasing It seems barely a week goes by without SIBA predicting that the end of UK brewing is nigh, however, this week they reported that the net number of brewers in the UK actually rose in the second quarter....

NEWS & VIEWS - 10th July 2023Off-Sales Up 25% Since 2020 Let's start this week with the Office for National Statistics reporting that off-sales are up 25%, compared to 2020. We are not sure whether this is good news or bad news for the industry. READ ARTICLEThe...

NEWS & VIEWS - 3rd July 2023Bitter Rises 50p Year On Year No great surprise as the Office for National Statistics reported this week that the average price of a pint has gone up 50p in the past year, with lager rising a bit faster than bitter. READ ARTICLEHow Fast...

NEWS & VIEWS - 26th June 2023Average Cost of Draft Lager Up 11% With the cost of living crisis rumbling on, the price of a pint was very much in focus this week, starting with an article that quoted the ONS citing a year on year increase of 11%. READ ARTICLEHow...

NEWS & VIEWS - 19th June 2023Macros Pessimistic About Craft Beer? Jeff Alworth at Beervana reflects on the news that Sapporo's Anchor Brewery are retrenching from their current US-National distribution, to just focus on California, and how this move typifies the...

NEWS & VIEWS - 12th June 2023Evaluating Beer Cities Jeff Alworth knows a thing or two about US Beer Cities, and he has some intelligent commentary about how they should be stack-ranked. READ ARTICLEMaking The Most Of The Summer Season We don't often post articles...

NEWS & VIEWS - 29TH May 2023Where Have All The Rock Star Brewers Gone? Let's start this week with Stan Hieronymus, who asks where have all the rock star brewers gone...? READ ARTICLELager Prices Have Risen 11% in 2023 The Morning Advertiser reports that lager...

NEWS & VIEWS - 22nd May 2023Strangling Hospitality Demand Not The Solution To Inflation Let's start this week with a thought-provoking opinion piece in the Morning Advertiser, which suggests that it isn't consumer spending which is fueling inflation, but rather...

NEWS & VIEWS - 15th May 2023Brew By Numbers Restructuring First this week we have great news that Brew By Numbers are close to finalising a new round of investment which will see them able to continue brewing at the fabulous Morden Wharf site, although they will...

NEWS & VIEWS - 8th May 2023Turbulent Times In the midst of the very sad news that Brew By Numbers and Brick are both likely heading into Administration this week, it has emerged that Unity are going to continue under new ownership, but with most of the same staff...

NEWS & VIEWS - 1st May 2023Pubs Gearing Up For Coronation WeekendIt's now less than a week until Coronation Weekend, when there will an estimated 17 million more pints sunk than is usual for the second weekend in May. The Morning Advertiser looks to whet your...

NEWS & VIEWS - 24th April 2023Delay in Deposit Return Scheme in Scotland Let's start this week with a piece by the Pub Curmudgeon about the fact that the melt-down of the SNP Party in Scotland has triggered a delay in the launch of the much criticised Deposit...

NEWS & VIEWS - 17th April 2023UK Inflation Remains High Let's start with news that inflation seems to want to stay stubbornly high, driven mainly by the price of food it seems. READ ARTICLEBeer For Breakfast? If this news is enough to make you want to have beer...

NEWS & VIEWS - 10th April 2023UK Brewery Numbers Stable Let's start with some surprising good news! SIBA reported this week that brewery numbers in the UK between Jan and March 2023 declined by just four in total, despite a number of high-profile closures. Good...

NEWS & VIEWS - 3rd April 2023Pubs Need to Increase Turnover by 11% Big tax changes for UK Hospitality were enacted on 1st April, which the British Beer and Pub Association calculates will mean that pubs need to increase turnover by 11% to break even, compared to...

NEWS & VIEWS - 27th March 2023Utility Support For Businesses Ends This Week Let's start with the Morning Advertiser reminding us all that, whilst we did get a stay of execution in the latest Budget domestically on the true-market pricing of utilities, for...

NEWS & VIEWS - 20th March 2023Further Reduction In VAT Called For Following the publication of the Budget this week, there are calls across the industry for a further reduction in VAT for hospitality. The Morning Advertiser summarises the argument nicely here:...

NEWS & VIEWS - 13th March 2023Most Pubs Not Passing On Increased Costs To Customers Let's start this week with a report in the Morning Advertiser which states that two thirds of pubs claim to not be passing on the full extent of their cost increases to their...

NEWS & VIEWS - 6th March 2023Staff Retention The Key Let's start today with the Morning Advertiser reporting from a panel at the UKHospitality Workforce and Skills Event, which stated that it is not so much recruitment, but retention, which is the primary staffing...

NEWS & VIEWS - 27th February 2023Beer Rises 8p A Pint The Morning Advertiser reported this week on the Office For National Statistics survey which showed that beer went up on average 8p per pint over the last three months. READ ARTICLEPub Kitchens Close To Cut...

NEWS & VIEWS - 20th February 2023SIBA Calls For Targeted Government Support In the week where it was announced that we are losing the much-loved Unity Brewing, SIBA have called for targeted Government support for small brewers, if we are to avoid further...

NEWS & VIEWS - 13th February 2023Hospitality Sector In Recession This week the Government announced that the country narrowly missed being in recession last quarter. However, the Hospitality Sector was not so lucky, according to the Night Time Industries...

NEWS & VIEWS - 6th February 2023Barrel & Flow Festival We feel like opening with a feel-good story this week. As this is Black History Month, Pellicle have a great article about the Barrel & Flow Festival in Pittsburgh, where each exhibiting Brewery collaborates...

NEWS & VIEWS - 30th January 2023Keeping The Lights On While the Economists might argue about whether or not the country as a whole is in recession, there is no doubt that the Hospitality Sector is mired in an incredibly tough period. The Morning Advertiser has...

NEWS & VIEWS - 23rd January 2023£27.50 For A Pint Of Punk IPA? James Watt is rarely out of the news, and this week he claimed that a pint of Punk should now cost £27.50 if prices had risen in line with Brewdog's energy costs! Watt went on to reel off a shopping...

NEWS & VIEWS - 16th January 2023Scaling Back Of Energy Support No doubt what the big story of the week is. The Govt. announced a scaling back of the Energy Support programme for businesses, stating that the current support was costing £18Bn per year. To put £18Bn...

NEWS & VIEWS - 9th January 2023Beer Predictions For 2023 At Appellation Beer, Stan has a nice round-up of beer writing to start the year, including an interesting look at Chat GPT, which seems likely to eliminate the need for a big chunk of the lower-end of the...

NEWS & VIEWS - 2nd January 2023A Tough Year For Pubs It was certainly a tough year for pubs in 2022! The Morning Advertiser reports on Government data showing an average of 32 pubs per month were forced to close in England and Wales. READ ARTICLEUS Craft Breweries...

NEWS & VIEWS - 19th December 2022CAMRA Makes Plea to the Chancellor Following up from last week, the CAMRA Campaign to force the Government to make an early announcement on energy support has now reached Parliament, and progress is anticipated this week. READ...

NEWS & VIEWS - 12th December 20223 More Craft Breweries Set To Close Only one story on our minds this week, as, sadly, three much loved UK Craft Breweries, producing diverse range of styles announced that they are closing. To Wild Beer, Twisted Wheel and Solvay...

NEWS & VIEWS - 5th December 2022Drinking For England World Cup fever is fully upon us, and the Morning Advertiser reports an astonishing 15M pints are expected to be sold during Sunday evening's England v Senegal clash! READ ARTICLETrying To Survive On the flip...

NEWS & VIEWS - 28th November 2022Not Much Help For Pubs No doubt the biggest story of the week was the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, which contained big tax increases and a decent hike in the minimum wage. It regretfully but did very little in the way of much...

NEWS & VIEWS - 21st November 2022Not Much Help For Pubs No doubt the biggest story of the week was the Chancellor's Autumn Statement, which contained big tax increases and a decent hike in the minimum wage. It regretfully but did very little in the way of much...

NEWS & VIEWS - 14th November 2022Support Needed For UK BreweriesLet's start with both CAMRA and SIBA calling for sector-specific support for UK Breweries to help them through the looming recession. READ ARTICLENo Tolerance For A Bad PintBoak and Bailey give us...

NEWS & VIEWS - 7th November 2022Brits Could Soon Spend £6.9m an Hour on Pints There is no getting away from the cost of living crisis, so we have two perspectives to report today. Firstly, Real Business Rescue has calculated that Brits will be spending £6.9M an...

NEWS & VIEWS - 31st October 2022Social Media's Impact On Craft Beer In the week when Elon Musk has finally taken over Twitter, Jeff Alworth thinks about the impact on Craft Beer, as Social Media becomes ever more fragmented. READ ARTICLEGateway Sours The...

NEWS & VIEWS - 24th October 2022Energy Crisis Worse Than the Pandemic? This week, leaders from the Hospitality Industry gathered in London to discuss the fact that the energy crisis looks likely to be more impactful than the pandemic across the UK sector. READ...

NEWS & VIEWS - 17th October 202250 Pubs a Month Closing in England & Wales Pretty grim news all round this week. Let's start with the news that UK pubs are currently closing at the rate of 50-per-month. However this is a slight improvement on the 20-per-week rate...

NEWS & VIEWS - 10th October 2022Food & Drink Inflation Hits 15% Lots of fairly grim financial forecasts about this week, but we decided to lead with the CGA survey showing annual food and drink inflation in hospitality has hit 15% for the first time. READ...

NEWS & VIEWS - 3rd October 2022Christmas Party or World Cup Football? Let's start with an interesting piece in the Morning Advertiser this week, noting that this year pubs may have to choose between Christmas Party bookings and TV's World Cup coverage READ...

NEWS & VIEWS - 26th September 2022Energy Support Package Lots of Government news that impacts the hospitality sector this week, starting with the Energy support package for pubs that was announced on Wednesday. This should be a big help to viable businesses, but...

NEWS & VIEWS - 19th September 2022Drink Sales Up 10% Let's start with some promising news from the Morning Advertiser, which reported that hospitality drink sales were up 10% in the week to 3rd Sept, compared to last year. Let's hope people continue to drink out...

NEWS & VIEWS - 12th September 2022Energy Price Cap Not Enough? Before the sad news from Balmoral, the big story of the week was the new PM's statement on the energy price cap. Predictably, the hospitality industry doesn't think it is enough. READ ARTICLEPub...

NEWS & VIEWS - 5th September 2022A Bad Year For European Hops This week we had confirmation of what we already suspected - it is officially a bad year for the European hop harvest. Worst hit seems to be the Czech Republic, where the Saaz harvest is down 43% from...

NEWS & VIEWS - 29th August 202275% of Pubs Could Close More accelerated hysteria this week from the Morning Advertiser Survey, which now predicts that as many as 75% of UK pubs could be lost due to the energy crisis. The new PM will have their work cut-out, that...

NEWS & VIEWS - 22nd August 2022On-Trade Drinks Sales Up Mostly good news this week! Let's start with a NielsenIQ survey which showed that on-trade drinks sales were up 4% in the week to August 6th, compared to pre-pandemic 2019, mainly thanks to the Womens Euros...

NEWS & VIEWS - 15th August 2022280 Year Old Pub On The BrinkLet's start with a story from The Guardian which reports about a pub that is closing in Bath, where the energy bills have outstripped staff costs! READ ARTICLECash or Card Also on the subject of UK pubs,...

NEWS & VIEWS - 8th August 2022Inconsistent Terminology Let's start with a nice article from Jeff, pointing out the challenges of inconsistent terminology within the Craft Beer world. READ ARTICLEConfidence Plummets The Morning Advertiser reports that confidence...

NEWS & VIEWS - 1st August 2022Thousands of Pubs Could Close This week the consensus of opinion is that many pubs maybe doomed! The Morning Advertiser places the blame at the door of sky-high utility costs, with a typical boozer now forking out around £7,000 per...

NEWS & VIEWS - 25th July 2022Help for Households Campaign The Government Cost of Living Tsar is urging Hospitality Businesses to join the Help for Households Campaign by offering cheaper meals over the summer, but this time around there is no Government money to...

NEWS & VIEWS - 18th July 2022The Difficulties Facing Hospitality A couple of stories about the difficulties facing hospitality, firstly the Office for National Statistics reports that even whilst the GDP as a whole grew 0.5% in May, hospitality declined 0.2%. READ...

NEWS & VIEWS - 11th July 2022Staff 'nowhere to go' as Gov hangs pubs 'out to dry' The Government has hung pubs “out to dry” by allowing soaring increases to energy costs according to one Somerset-based licensee. READ ARTICLEFourth Brew York venue to open There's...

NEWS & VIEWS - 4th July 2022Taming Inflation? Let's start with the absurdity of the Cost-of-Living Tsar suggesting that we can tame inflation by having businesses give discounts, in exchange for some undefined Government "marketing promotion". READ ARTICLEWho...

NEWS & VIEWS - 27th June 2022Rail Strike Impact As if the Industry didn't have enough to contend with already, UK Hospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls estimates that each week of rail strikes will cost the Hospitality sector £540M, based on an estimated 20%...

NEWS & VIEWS - 20th June 2022Pub Sales Fall It's a good job the sun is shining, as there is very little good news to report apart from the weather. The latest CGA Tracker noted that sales at Britain's largest pub groups fell 1% in May compared to 2019. When...

NEWS & VIEWS - 13th June 2022Less But Better Let's start with some good news for Craft Beer. The Drinks Business published a deep-dive this week into the IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, which showed "encouraging signs for the continued recovery and premium-isation of...

NEWS & VIEWS - 6th June 2022Jubillee Weekend DrinkingLet's hope we all did our bit over the Jubilee Weekend to support the Craft Beer Industry. It was certainly needed as it was reported this week that more than half of hospitality operators are unsure if their...

NEWS & VIEWS 30th May 2022The Chancellor's Energy StatementThis week the Hospitality Industry reacted with horror at the Chancellor's Energy statement which focused on a generous handout to public, rather than to business. Whilst it is not the governments job to...

NEWS & VIEWS 23rd May 2022This might be the best article we have linked-to this year on Brewer's Corner! Lose yourself for ten minutes with Jeff in the idyllic World of Norwegian Farmhouse Brewing. READ ARTICLEThe BBPA reports that the 4-day Jubilee Weekend is set...

NEWS & VIEWS 16th May 2022Good news stories are few and far between this week, but here's one. The plan to make outdoor and pavement drinking and dining a permanent right for pubs was included in the Queen's Speech this week. Each outdoor seat is estimated to be...

NEWS & VIEWS 9th May 2022Let’s lead with the sad news over the past week of three English breweries (Kelham Island, Beatnikz Republic and Exe Valley) that are closing. It seems certain that there will be more to come this year, as breweries that have been fatally...

NEWS & VIEWS 2nd May 2022Let's start with good news this week. The Drinks Business reports that industrial action at Budweiser's brewery near Preston is likely to lead to a summer shortage in the UK of various Macro crap including Stella, Becks, Bud and...