News Archive

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...

NEWS & VIEWS 25th April 2022There are lots of economic data and analysis flying around these days, containing both good and bad news. The Morning Advertiser reports data from Barclaycard showing consumer spending was up 74% over Easter Weekend, compared to 2019....

NEWS & VIEWS 18th April 2022Let’s start this week with the latest data from Lumina Intelligence’s Eating & Drinking Out Panel, which revealed average spend has reduced 9% in the 12 weeks to 20th March 2022. Sadly, this is likely to be a continuing trend...

NEWS & VIEWS 4th April 2022Sacha Lord, the Night Time Economy Advisor for Manchester, is predicting a rise of as much as 20p per pint within the next three months, once the VAT rise is added to inflationary pressures, and after supply chain issues and energy price...

NEWS & VIEWS 28th March 2022The Hospitality Sector reacted with howls of process this week, when the Chancellor declined to extend the reduced VAT rate. This is likely to be the final-straw, for many businesses that were .already teetering on the brink. READ...