Ale

Britain’s Most Successful Pub Owner Gives His Recipe for Full English Brexit

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James interviewed pub owner Tim Martin on this week’s episode of Delingpole, discussing how Martin built his $400 million business, what it feels like to own 900–count ’em–pubs, and why he has succeeded where others have not.Then it’s on to Brexit, of which Martin was the most vocal backer in the business sector – even to the point of printing pro-Brexit arguments on his beer mats.

Martin is optimistic about the post-Brexit future – and knows exactly whom to blame for Britain’s failure to implement it so far. It’s all those Oxbridge educated elitist types. Not James, obviously. Just all the others…

Listen to the podcast at: Britain’s Most Successful Pub Owner Gives His Recipe for Full English Brexit

Camra: more than half of UK adults struggle to afford to drink in pubs

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More than half of adults in the UK are struggling to afford to drink in pubs, according to the Campaign for Real Ale

The average price of a pint of beer in London is now £5.20 and regularly tops £6. Across the country, the average is about £3.50, leading to many drinkers staying at home with cans of beer bought in supermarkets instead, said Camra, which warned that more than a dozen pubs a week were closing as a result.It said its research found that 56% of drinkers believe the price of a pint of beer in a pub in the UK has become unaffordable.Prices have risen steeply in recent years, with various taxes including beer duty, business rates and VAT accounting for a third of the cost, said Camra.

The most expensive places for a pint outside London are Oxford (£4.57), Edinburgh and Bristol (£4.35), and Brighton (£4.24). The cheapest is Carlisle £2.35, which is two-thirds of the UK average.

Craft beer in supermarkets costs about £1.50 per bottle or can (330ml) and while mass-produced lager and bitters averages less than £1.

Camra is concerned that the government is planning to increase the tax paid by pubs in the November budget. Beer duty is to rise by about 2p per pint under Treasury plans, and small pubs are to lose the £1,000 in business rate relief introduced in 2017, but scheduled to end in 2019. [ . . . ]

Continue reading at THE GUARDIAN: Camra: more than half of UK adults struggle to afford to drink in pubs | Money | The Guardian

Trappist ales: why monks have always brewed beer

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What’s the historic connection between abbeys and brewing?

Monks in Leicestershire are brewing up a storm, the first batch of a new Trappist ale. The monks of the Mount Saint Bernard abbey have revived the craft of brewing beer. But, how far back does the tradition go in the UK? Helen Castor spoke to the beer historian Martyn Cornell to discover a tradition that goes back for centuries before the Reformation, when beer was given as hospitality but also drunk by the monks themselves who needed something nutritious to quench their thirst when working hard in the fields or in workshops around their Abbey.

Listen at: BBC Radio 4 – Radio 4 in Four, Trappist ales: why monks have always brewed beer

IPAs Are Not Giving You Man Boobs

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There’s no evidence that IPAs are giving you man boobs. A provocatively titled article claiming the exact opposite made the rounds on social media a few days ago, but there is no evidence to back up this claim. Here are the facts.

As with any plant, hops contain a wide variety of chemical compounds. One of these compounds — 8-prenylnaringenin (8-PN) — is a phytoestrogen. A phytoestrogen is a plant compound (hence the prefix “phyto”) that binds to estrogen receptors. Specifically, 8-PN has been shown to bind tightly to estrogen receptors in rat uterus. Hops also contain isoxanthohumol, which can be converted to 8-PN in the intestines [ . . . ]

Continue Reading at: IPAs Are Not Giving You Man Boobs