Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we\u2019ve got trains, indie beer, and wallpaper.<\/strong><\/p>\n First, some news, via John \u2018The Beer Nut\u2019 Duffy and the European Beer Consumers\u2019 Union (EBCU). We\u2019ve just spent several weeks travelling across Europe by train and bus, finally reaching Istanbul, only to learn that the best railway station pint anywhere on the continent<\/a> can be found in Sheffield:<\/p>\n The European Beer Consumers Union (EBCU) has revealed the results of its European Travel Beer Survey, listing the best places to enjoy a quality beer while on the move\u2026 And the steel city has come out on top, with the beloved Sheffield Tap securing the best rail station title\u2026 EBCU chairman Andr\u00e9 Brunnsberg said: \u201cWe launched this survey to shine a light on how beer culture can thrive even in places of transit\u2026 Copenhagen and Sheffield show what\u2019s possible when quality and locality are put first\u2026 These aren\u2019t just places to wait for your flight or train \u2013 they\u2019re places worth arriving early for.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And here\u2019s another bit of news, via Darren Norbury<\/strong> at Beer Today<\/em>: the Exmoor Ales brewery has closed with production of the brands moving to Hog\u2019s Back<\/a>. Exmoor is a particularly significant first-wave UK microbrewery, founded in 1979, and with a claim to having produced the first \u2018golden ale\u2019<\/a>, as early as 1986. Darren\u2019s personal commentary is worth a read:<\/p>\n Hogs Back is an excellent business partner for Exmoor Ales and will be a good custodian of the brewery\u2019s recipes. The alternative was never to see the Exmoor brands again, so we can be thankful. But other brewers struggling with costs may not be so lucky\u2026 Rupert Thompson, owner and chairman of Hogs Back Brewery, added: \u201cIn a very challenging market, one of the ways to survive and eventually prosper is to enter into close commercial collaborations with like-minded businesses. This allows for the sharing of resources, expertise and staff, and at the same time, saves a very popular local beer brand.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n One of the great strengths of Jeff Alworth\u2019s<\/strong> writing is his ability to come up with a snappy phrase to summarise a trend or phenomenon. This week he suggested that craft beer has entered it\u2019s \u201cwallpaper phase\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n For the first couple decades, small breweries commanded a very committed, niche audience. These were the early-adopters who were excited to discover a new craft they could help birth. Beginning in the late aughts, craft beer started to break through and had enough of a profile to reach a broader audience. It wasn\u2019t completely niche anymore; it was a new arena for the cool kids to enter\u2026 Today, most people have heard of craft beer; IPAs are about as exotic as as lattes. You can get it anywhere, and anywhere you go where beer is served, \u201ccraft\u201d will be available, from dive bars to stadiums to the best restaurants. Nothing stays cool long, and so trends in alcohol have moved along. This is the way of things: once a product category reaches a certain threshold, it is too common to be cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n We spotted a run of blog posts that struck us as related this week. First, in the wake of the Campaign for Real Ale\u2019s collective decision to prioritise support for independent breweries, Ed Wray<\/strong> asked: \u201cWhy should I care if a brewery is independent?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019ve drunk good and bad cask beer from both independent and multinational breweries. I\u2019ve also worked at small and large breweries. The multinationals are undoubtedly evil but then again some of the\u2026 most awful people I\u2019ve ever met have been running small breweries.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And Martin Taylor<\/strong> has been observing some signs of a buzz around Bass which got him thinking about its awkward status in relation to the new CAMRA policy<\/a>:<\/p>\n I watched as a succession of unapologetic young folk arrived at the bar, went \u201cooh\u201d and pointed at the red triangle\u2026 Should I have told them that CAMRA doesn\u2019t consider it a \u201cgood\u201d beer?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Finally, Phil Cook<\/strong> at Beer Diary<\/em> has put down in writing thoughts we know have been bubbling away for a while around the constant pleading for governments to do more to support beer and brewing<\/a>:<\/p>\n Your favourite thing might not be quite so beloved by others, and almost certainly isn\u2019t objectively more important than theirs. I think this is important to keep in mind when advocating for something, so you don\u2019t veer into expecting special treatment for your business or your hobby \u2014 if someone didn\u2019t care as much as I do about this, would they still agree to what I\u2019m proposing?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Actually, you can probably rope in Darren\u2019s post about Exmoor and Jeff\u2019s piece about \u201cwallpaper\u201d, too.<\/p>\n It\u2019s one big conversation about where beer finds support, which beers get supported, and who should do the supporting.<\/p>\n If you want more links, and commentary on the links in this round up, check out our Patreon<\/a>, where paid subscribers get a bit extra every week.<\/em><\/p>\n In his latest post Kevin Kain<\/strong> at Casket Beer<\/em> gets to the root of something that\u2019s often bugged us in articles about American \u2018dive bars\u2019: aren\u2019t they often just describing\u2026 bars? The word \u2018dive\u2019 suggests, to us, that these are low-down places, or at very least notably down to earth. Perhaps Kevin\u2019s criteria for dive bar status<\/a> will irritate some people, sounding, as they do, rather close to the controversial conversation around \u2018rough pubs\u2019 in the UK. Still, we found it refreshing, and illuminating:<\/p>\n On the outside, a dive bar shouldn\u2019t seem too inviting. In fact, its appearance should make you question whether the place is even open. Windows should be small or obstructed in some way to shield potentially nefarious behavior from the outside. Graffiti, stickers, and other items likely adorn the facade with little concern from the owners about how the place appears\u2026 There may be a neon sign in the window for a brewery. It may even be a smaller, local-ish brewery, leading you to think there might be some fancy beer inside. Don\u2019t be fooled by this.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Neil Reid<\/strong>, AKA The Beer Professor, has written a proper broadsheet review of Bottle Conditioned<\/em><\/a>, a new documentary about Lambic producers, which not only endorses the film but also serves as a summary of the history of Lambic, and of the film\u2019s key themes and ideas:<\/p>\n On the one hand, there are producers like Cantillon\u2019s Jean-Pierre Van Roy for whom tradition and protecting the heritage of lambic are important. Van Roy bemoans the emphasis that the younger generation of brewers\u2019 place on \u201cproduction, turnover, and profits\u201d. According to him, \u201cthe beauty and aesthetics\u201d of producing authentic lambic \u201cdoesn\u2019t interest them\u201d\u2026 Van Roy is also dismissive of the modern beer drinker \u2013 \u201cWhen I see people drink beer nowadays, I\u2019m horrified\u201d, he says. He dislikes the way many of them analyze beer as they drink it, taking notes, lining up bottles and taking photographs. This, Van Roy says, is \u201catrocious\u201d. At one point in the film, Van Roy laments that \u201cI am simply from a different time\u201d\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Finally, on BlueSky, a statement from a hard-to-impress critic that Thornbridge ought to be putting on billboards\u2026<\/p>\n Is Thornbridge Jaipur the best beer in the UK? Quite possibly. Definitely a contender. I wish I could find the\u00a0 Burton Union version.<\/p>\n \u2014 Tandleman (@tandleman.bsky.social<\/a>) May 2, 2025 at 10:42 PM<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n For more good reading check out <\/em>Stan Hieronymus\u2019s round-up from Monday<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Alan McLeod\u2019s from Thursday<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we\u2019ve got trains, indie beer, and wallpaper. First, some news, via John \u2018The Beer Nut\u2019 Duffy and the European Beer Consumers\u2019 Union (EBCU). We\u2019ve just spent several weeks travelling across Europe by train and bus, finally reaching Istanbul, only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[83733,19013,75200,1820,75199,34986],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-224217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer","tag-constantinople","tag-istanbul","tag-longreads","tag-news","tag-news-nuggets","tag-nuggets"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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