First, some news: updated figures from SIBA<\/a> show that there are now 136 fewer breweries operating in the UK than at this time in 2024, leaving a total of 1,641. You might remember the peak of around 2,000 breweries a few years ago.<\/p>\n Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic, economic turmoil, and a general sense of ennui around craft beer, have seen that number slowly slide downward. Each closure is a tragedy for the founders and employees of the breweries that close. From a consumer perspective, however, it still feels as if we have rather a lot of breweries<\/em> \u2013 and certainly a lot more than in 2007 when we started this blog. What would be interesting to attempt to calculate is how many good<\/em> or great<\/em> breweries we have now compared to a couple of decades ago. Has the overall quality improved?<\/p>\n You can read some excellent commentary on the decline in brewery numbers, and the decline in sales of cask ale<\/a>, in Hazel Southwell\u2019s<\/strong> newsletter Behind the Bar<\/em>. She runs a pub and does a great job of explaining the challenges around stocking and selling independently brewed cask ale:<\/p>\n \u201cWait, why can\u2019t they take beer round the corner, stick it in a van and that?\u201d Well I\u2019d imagine they\u2019d love to. Problem is the pubs can\u2019t buy it off them because even most freehouses are actually weirdly tied up with contracts about specific things, only get their cask from Molson Coors or something. And by the time you\u2019ve gone through whatever extra hoops the beer costs so much to get it\u2019s not worth it, even where you can find a way.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n At Pellicle<\/em> Ewen Friers<\/strong> has written an article that is both a portrait of, and guide to, the beer scene in Belfast<\/a>. It includes big brands like Guinness and Harp Lager, and famous pubs like The Crown, as well as up-and-coming craft breweries and newer venues:<\/p>\n Out Of Office Brewery (OOO) [is] situated within the ever-trendy Ulster Sports Club\u2026 on High Street. Once a social club where sports fans would congregate in the somewhat neutral space of the city centre, throughout The Troubles it had a reputation as a non-sectarian safe space visited by Belfast\u2019s sporting giants including Mary Peters, Alex Higgins and George Best\u2026 At the bottom of the hall that leads to the toilets, adjacent from the retro-panelled walls and old trophy cabinets, is an unassuming lift that will transport you up to the brewery taproom on the second floor. It\u2019s a bright, slick, minimal space oozing with style.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In his newsletter Beer & Soul<\/em> Sayre Piotrkowski <\/strong>has been pondering on one of the big questions: \u201cWhy do people care about breweries?\u201d<\/a> Or, to put it another way, why do they have feelings about breweries, and why do they get upset when breweries change or close?<\/p>\n Last week, I picked up a shift at Olfactory Brewing\u2019s Berkeley taproom. One of the first guests I served was a woman preparing to attend her 20th college reunion in San Diego. She beamed when she said one of the events would be held at Ballast Point. She and her wife were married in Ballast Point t-shirts: \u201cRed Velvet,\u201d a beet-colored oatmeal stout for her, and \u201cVictory At Sea,\u201d an imperial porter with vanilla, for her bride\u2026 This is why so many beer die-hards bristle at M&A news. We\u2019ve seen the Ballast Point arc: sold in 2015, stripped of its value and cultural relevance by 2019. Can you imagine anyone from UCSD\u2019s Class of 2025 getting married in Ballast Point t-shirts?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Alex<\/strong> at Pub Vignettes<\/em> has written another set of neat pen portraits of specific pubs<\/a> and the small comedies and dramas that play out within them:<\/p>\n There\u2019s a strong correlation between the calibre of a pub\u2019s carpet and the quality of the real ale it serves. Now, by \u201ccalibre\u201d, we\u2019re talking less Good Housekeeping, more Wetherspoon\u2019s meets your gran\u2019s house. This sweet spot is evidently achieved as soon as the heavy oak door swings open. Pub Carpet Nirvana. Half of Cambridgeshire\u2019s dog population is here to snooze, roll, and loll all over it. Nine handpumps rise from the bar to meet you, dispelling inevitable worries sparked by \u201cGreene King\u201d plastered all over the outside walls on your way in. One line of insipid Abbot Ale on the turn? Or an array of milds, stouts, ESBs, best bitters, and pales kept with care and love? The PubCo tied-house lottery. If you don\u2019t buy a ticket, you\u2019re never going to win.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Eoghan Walsh<\/strong> has a new edition of his Pintjes<\/em> zine coming out (a collaboration with illustrator Selkies) and has shared a preview at Brussels Notes<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s a great snapshot of the city\u2019s drinking culture and political situation:<\/p>\n What\u2019s the best beer I\u2019ve ever had? Easy. Zinnebir. Predictable, sure, but no less true for it, even though my answer is less about the beer than about the circumstances of its drinking. Not a singular drinking experience, but an accretion of them, layered one over the other like a frame of multiple exposed film until they coalesce into one memory. A memory of me, and Zinnebir, on the terrace of Bar Eliza\u2026 I think of all the times I sat next to that dilapidated pavilion, perched awkwardly on uncomfortable reclaimed wooden furniture as above me late-afternoon sunlight filtered through the high canopy of oak and linden boughs\u2026 It\u2019s Friday, and in front of me is a freshly-poured glass of Zinnebir, foamy and sweating just a little in the afternoon heat.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Did you know that you can report a bad pint in a Cask Marque accredited pub to Cask Marque and (possibly) trigger an inspection? Tandleman<\/strong> reports having done just that<\/a> after paying quite a wedge of money for a mediocre pint in London:<\/p>\n Did you know that Cask Marque has an area on their website where you can report beer quality problems directly to them? Well, it has\u2026 To the point, it is called “Bad Beer Reporting Tool”… I paid \u00a37 for an extremely lacklustre pint of Landlord in the Cask Marque listed Hoop and Grapes in Aldgate, which is a Nicolson’s pub\u2026 In a reply to me, Cask Marque advised me that they failed their recent Cask Marque inspection visit\u2026 They sign up to all this, so you aren’t grassing them off, rather, you are holding them to their side of the bargain.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Finally, from Bluesky, yet more zine action\u2026<\/p>\n Publishing a print beer zine in 2025 is, as you might guess, not lucrative. We do, however, believe it can be sustainable, but we need your help for Final Gravity to reach that point. So we're having a little informal subscription drive, because that's what the cool kids do. \ud83e\uddf5<\/p>\n [image or embed]<\/a><\/p>\n — David Nilsen (@davidnilsenbeer.bsky.social<\/a>) May 22, 2025 at 5:18 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 News, nuggets and longreads 24 May 2025: The Listeners<\/a> originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog<\/a><\/p>\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 Belfast, brewery stats, and beer in the park. stats, and beers in the park. First, some news: updated figures from SIBA show that there are now 136 fewer breweries operating in the UK than at this time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":255305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[44120,75200,1820,75199,34986],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-255304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer","tag-listeners","tag-longreads","tag-news","tag-news-nuggets","tag-nuggets"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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