Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we\u2019ve got the death of the Irish pub, pub etiquette, and more on gentrification.<\/strong><\/p>\n First, some sad news: brewing scientist Sir Geoff Palmer has died at the age of 85. He was not only a notable figure in the world of beer but also beyond, being described by the BBC as \u2018Scotland\u2019s first black professor<\/a>\u2019. There\u2019s an obituary at the website for Heriot-Watt University<\/a>:<\/p>\n Born in St Elizabeth, Jamaica on 9 April 1940, he moved to London as a 14-year-old in 1955, where his mother had emigrated some years earlier, as part of the Windrush Generation\u2026 From 1968 to 1977, he worked at the Brewing Research Foundation in Surrey where he used the fundamental research from his PhD studies to develop a pioneering barley abrasion process and pioneered the use of the scanning electron microscope to study cereal grains. This process was subsequently adopted by some of the UK\u2019s biggest breweries\u2026 Sir Geoff returned to Heriot-Watt University in 1977 as a lecturer where, among his many achievements, he secured industry funding to establish the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling (ICBD), which continues to this day as a unique teaching and research facility.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n We got to this one a little late: for RT\u00c9 Kate Demolder<\/strong> has written about the state of the pub trade in Ireland with the emotive headline \u2018Irish publicans on the bar trade: \u201cThe show is basically over\u201d\u2019<\/a>. It\u2019s a substantial piece with input from a range of voices, from publicans to academics:<\/p>\n \u201cI have four kids aged between 22 and 30 and they\u2019re all gym bunnies,\u201d John Byrne, owner of The Lark Inn on Meath Street, says\u2026 \u201cYou see the younger generation in the pub maybe once a week for a match or a party, but you also might go a couple of months without seeing them. They don\u2019t see the pub as a way of socialising. And for those trying to save for a mortgage, forget about it.\u201d \u2026 A 2024 benchmarking survey by the [Vintners\u2019 Federation of Ireland] found that 36% of pub turnover is currently consumed by labour costs alone, and that figure will increase to over 40% with the introduction of the Living Wage\u2026 The same survey found that 37% of publicans are considering retirement within the next two years, and 84% report that no family member wishes to inherit the pub.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Sticking with mainstream news outlets, you probably saw this piece by Will Noble<\/strong> of Londonist<\/em> about British pub etiquette<\/a>. It went viral yesterday mostly, we think, because someone suggested on BlueSky<\/a> that it was \u201csidesplittingly hilarious\u2026 as if an alien came to earth, saw some 1950s films and then ran it through ChatGPT\u201d. We stuck up for the piece on the grounds that it\u2019s hosted by CNN and the intended audience is American tourists who might be coming to the UK for the first time. Within those bounds \u2013 and even beyond them \u2013 it\u2019s a good summary of the various types of pub you might encounter, and of some of the unspoken rules that govern how we behave in them:<\/p>\n If you\u2019re ordering drinks, and drinks alone, go up to the bar. Though handheld menus do exist, they\u2019re not used all that much; a board behind the bar will advise you which beers are pouring, and you can also squint at the labels on the hand pumps (more of which later). If it\u2019s a beer you\u2019re unfamiliar with, a good bar person will offer you a free taster\u2026 Though Britain was built on queuing, the pub is one setting where standing in line is not how it\u2019s done. Getting served \u2014 especially at a busy bar \u2014 involves gradually easing yourself towards the front. Once you\u2019re within touching distance of the bar, you must win the attention of whoever\u2019s on the other side of it, being neither too meek (a gentle smile and nod works well) or too bold (wave a credit card in the air, and you\u2019ll be waiting all night).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Last week we linked to a piece about breweries and gentrification by Jen Blair. Her newsletter prompted further thoughts on the subject<\/a> from Kevin Kain<\/strong> at Casket Beer<\/em>:<\/p>\n As industry in the US declined in the last half-century, many industrial areas have been \u201ctargeted\u201d for redevelopment. That\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing. Something does need to happen to these properties. In addition to being eyesores, at best, they often have unchecked contamination seeping into the surrounding communities\u2026 That doesn\u2019t mean the solution is luxury residential towers, yoga studios, and high-end boutiques, but these areas do need reinvestment\u2026 While it\u2019s true that breweries have been part of some redevelopment initiatives that may also include coffee shops and natural wine bars, as Jen points out, unlike the other uses, breweries have always occupied industrial spaces. It\u2019s not fair to lump them together with the other businesses.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n For Pellicle<\/em> Will Hawkes<\/strong> has profiled German Kraft<\/a>, a brewery in Elephant & Castle, London, that\u2019s long fascinated us \u2013 not so much for its beer (which is fine<\/em>) but because of its business model. We think we detect a certain deadpan tone in this article, a bit of a raised eyebrow, at the ruthlessly commercial nature of the operation, and the underlying privilege that fuels it, but perhaps we\u2019re projecting:<\/p>\n January was a busy month for Felix Bollen. The co-owner of German Kraft Brewery spent new year\u2019s eve in Austria before heading to Berlin, where he lives, a week later. Two weeks on, he took a bus to London, the birthplace of German Kraft (his car \u2014\u201ca piece of shit,\u201d he says, with a smile\u2014broke down en route) before flying back to the German capital for a few days. He ended the month back in Vienna\u2026 Such is Felix\u2019s life now. German Kraft, which he founded alongside pals Michele Tieghi, Anton Borkmann, and Andrea Ferrario at Elephant and Castle food hall Mercato Metropolitano in 2017, is expanding rapidly across Europe. Venues in London and Vienna (at Gleis\/\/Garten, the city\u2019s first food hall) have recently been joined by more in Austria, while a Berlin bar called Dufte, based on the ground floor of Kant-Garage, a converted 1930s multi-storey car park on fancy Kantstrasse, will open this summer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n As Louise Krennmair pointed out on BlueSky, by way of additional context, it\u2019s also worth reading about Felix\u2019s father, Florian<\/a>, who also works in the business.<\/p>\n At Beervana<\/em> Jeff Alworth<\/strong> has the news that Redhook, one of the original American craft breweries, no longer has a \u201ccorporeal body\u201d<\/a>. In other words, it has become a ghost brewery:<\/p>\n Yesterday parent-company Tilray announced they would be closing the last brewery owned by Redhook, one of the earliest breweries founded in the craft beer era\u2026 Paul Shipman and Gordon Bowker founded Redhook in 1981 in Ballard, a Seattle neighborhood that would eventually become one of the most densely-breweried in the world (the first beer came out in \u201882). It followed a trajectory only possible in a market with no small breweries. Redhook grew like a weed in its first decade, fueling lofty goals. They quit the transmission shop to move to the suburbs and into an architecturally-interesting new building purpose-built for a growing brewery with national ambitions. They were soon brewing the kind of volumes new breweries only dream of today\u2026 Then Redhook made craft brewing history in 1994 when it sold a chunk of ownership to Anheuser-Busch. No microbrewery had ever \u201csold out\u201d before, and it created quite a stir in the still-tiny craft brewing world. That decision would ultimately lead to the news yesterday, albeit in a slow, wandering fashion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n A personal footnote: we used to see Redhook beers in Michael Jackson books 20 years ago, looking incredibly interesting and appetising, but hardly ever got to taste them. And even then only at great expense, when they were probably past their best. Still, it\u2019s another example of those earlier waves of \u2018craft\u2019 slipping away.<\/p>\n Finally, from Bluesky, this photo by Ed Wray<\/strong> isn\u2019t technically a great photo, but it is a great photo nonetheless\u2026<\/p>\n The Geldart<\/p>\n [image or embed]<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Ed Wray (@thebeerfather.bsky.social<\/a>) June 13, 2025 at 11:24 PM<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n For more good reading <\/em>check out Alan McLeod\u2019s from Thursday<\/em><\/a>. Stan Hieronymus is feeling jaded and <\/em>might or might not post round ups from now on<\/em><\/a>, with no particular schedule. Read his excellent blog anyway.<\/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 the death of the Irish pub, pub etiquette, and more on gentrification. First, some sad news: brewing scientist Sir Geoff Palmer has died at the age of 85. He was not only a notable figure in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":299582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,108202],"tags":[4557,6056,6128,75200,1820,75199,34986],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-299581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-nuggets","tag-amber","tag-fury","tag-june","tag-longreads","tag-news","tag-news-nuggets","tag-nuggets"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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