News Archive

NEWS & VIEWS - 18th November 2024Dynamic Pricing Lots of grumbling this week about the concept of dynamic pricing which seems like it is here to stay. Highlighted here is Mitchell & Butler who have introduced a price hike from £7.40 to £9.40 for a pint of Punk IPA...

NEWS & VIEWS - 11th November 2024Post Budget Blues Let's start this week with the latest Business Confidence Survey, which shows that post-budget, just 20% of Hospitality Leaders feel confident about the outlook for the sector over the next 12 months, a figure...

NEWS & VIEWS - 4th November 2024Budget Disappointment So the much-heralded/feared budget is now behind us, and predictably, the Hospitality sector reacted with a chorus of disappointment. It certainly seems likely that the increases in Business Rates added to the...

NEWS & VIEWS - 28th October 2024Proposed Outdoor Smoking Ban to be Axed? A rather surprising development this week, as the Government seems to have listened to pressure from the Hospitality Industry, and abandoned the planned outdoor smoking ban in public places....

NEWS & VIEWS - 21st October 2024Business Rates to Rise in 2026 With the Budget getting ever closer, the Morning Advertiser has taken the time to explain in detail the extent of the likely business rate increases coming for hospitality venues in 2026, and it is...

NEWS & VIEWS - 14th October 2024Pre-Budget Mania With pre-budget mania approaching fever-pitch, the Morning Advertiser takes a look at the strongly anticipated Employment Rights Bill, which will tighten up on a lot of dubious practices, including zero-hour...

NEWS & VIEWS - 7th October 2024Pre-Budget Manoeuvring In more pre-budget manoeuvring, the head of the British Institute of Innkeeping, Steve Alton, reminded the Chancellor that some clarity on the extension of Business Rates relief, which is set to expire next...

NEWS & VIEWS - 30th September 2024Budget Incoming As the budget is fast-approaching, the drinks industry was ramping up the doomsday rhetoric this week to try to dissuade the Chancellor from increasing duties. READ ARTICLE50 Pubs Closing Each Week Property...

NEWS & VIEWS - 23rd September 2024Ban the Pint? Even though April Fool's Day is over six months away, researchers from Cambridge University have the British public up in arms this week, by daring to suggest that the venerable pint is not the best serving size for...

NEWS & VIEWS - 16th September 2024Large Drop in On-Trade Sales The news is generally rather bleak this week. Firstly Beer Today quotes the NIQ Daily Drinks Tracker which showed that on-trade sales for the first week in September dropped 12% year or year. This...

NEWS & VIEWS - 9th September 2024Only Half of Hospitality Vendors Broke Even During Summer Let's start this week with grim news from the Morning Advertiser, who report that a quarter of hospitality operators traded at a loss over the free-to-air-sport laden...

NEWS & VIEWS - 26th August 2024Spirits Duty Revenue Drops Let's start with a report from The Drinks Business which quoted HMRC data showing that duty revenue from spirits dropped by almost £300M in the year to 31st July 2024, compared to the previous year...

NEWS & VIEWS - 19th August 2024Cup of Coffee Costs More Than a Pint of Beer At Beervana this week, Jeff Alworth has been surveying his own beer scene in We couldn't resist this fairly provocative headline, although we are not sure whether the root cause is...

NEWS & VIEWS - 12th August 2024Exaggerated US Brewery Count? At Beervana this week, Jeff Alworth has been surveying his own beer scene in Oregon, and based on extrapolating the results US-wide, he thinks that the Brewers Association's widely claimed figure of...

NEWS & VIEWS - 5th August 2024New Survey On US Drinking Habits We have an interesting set of links this week, which provide a high-level perspective on the state of the beer scene in 2024. Firstly Beer Today reports on a survey by the Brewers Association on...

NEWS & VIEWS - 29th July 2024Cautious Optimism in the Hospitality Sector Cautiously positive news this week from the RSA Hospitality Tracker which showed that the sector grew 2.9% in the year to June 2024, which is slightly above inflation, although down from the...

NEWS & VIEWS - 22nd July 2024New Government Honeymoon Shortlived Seems like the honeymoon period for the new Government could be over as far as the Hospitality sector is concerned, as the industry starts to count the cost of the National Living Wage being...

NEWS & VIEWS - 8th July 2024No Shortage of Advice For New Government Thank goodness the Election is now behind us, so we can get back to the serious business of focusing on the Beer Festival season! In any case, there is plenty of advice being dispensed this week...

NEWS & VIEWS - 1st July 2024Macro Lager Pub Prices Let's start this week with news from the Morning Advertiser that macro pub lager prices are still rising at more than double the rate of inflation. What did P.T. Barnum say about a fool and his money...? READ...

NEWS & VIEWS - 24th June 2024Pub-Friendly Politicians? TWICB is strictly an election-free zone, but we will make a small exception this week, linking to the Pub Curmudgeon who takes all politicians to task for only being pub-friendly when it suits them. READ...

NEWS & VIEWS - 17th June 2024Weak Beer For England Fans As Euro 2024 is now in full-swing, it is reassuring to read that the hosts have realised that serving England fans proper German-strength beers would be asking for trouble! READ ARTICLEFestival Beer Trends...

NEWS & VIEWS - 10th June 2024Euro 2024 Fever The Morning Advertiser is in full Euro 2024 fever mode, predicting that 300 million pints could be sold, assuming that England have a deep run in the tournament. STOP PRESS - Forget about that! England reverted to...

NEWS & VIEWS - 3rd June 2024Gearing Up For Euro 2024 Let's start with more great info about how to prepare a hospitality venue for Euro 2024 fever, which is now less than two weeks away. READ ARTICLEHazy IPAs Rule At All About Beer's, Andy Crouch leaps to the...

NEWS & VIEWS - 27th May 2024A Summer Of Sport Let's start this week with a useful article in the Morning Advertiser describing how hospitality venues can gear-up to make the most of the huge summer of sport heading our way on the TV. READ ARTICLEHazy IPAs Rule...

NEWS & VIEWS - 20th May 2024Drink Sales Down Let's start this week with news from CGA that like-for-like drink sales were down for the fifth week in a row, apparently due to the combination of mediocre weather and the way that the bank holidays fell this year. A...

NEWS & VIEWS - 13th May 2024UEFA Euro 2024 Boost Let's open this week with a reminder that we are only just over a month away from Euro 2024, which will no doubt be a huge and much needed revenue generator for hospitality venues. READ ARTICLEGood, But Not Great...

NEWS & VIEWS - 6th May 2024Buxton Brewery To Call In Administrators We have to start this week with the news that Buxton Brewery is about to call in the Administrators. Sad news indeed from one the pioneers on the UK Craft Beer Scene who were launched back in...

NEWS & VIEWS - 29th April 2024Sector is being priced ‘out of existence’ This week there was a meeting of Hospitality trade bodies in Belfast, who are demanding a complete overhaul of taxation for the industry. However, with Government COVID debts running into...

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...