The Pellicle Podcast

Should we scrap the pint measure? Or is the very notion of doing so rooted in prejudices like classism?

These were the questions I asked following the September 2024 publication of a study led by researchers at the University of Cambridge. Back then my focus was singular: why indeed did such a study focus specifically not just on beer, but on pubs? Its focus was to look at alcohol consumption rates, and investigate if reducing the size of the available measures would in turn reduce the rate of alcohol consumed. 

Following the study’s publication, I con...

It’s fair to say I’ve developed something of an obsession with Theakston’s Old Peculier. Ever since deputy ed. Katie Mather and I sat down and had a couple of pints in Manchester’s The Salisbury a year or so ago, it’s become a cornerstone of my drinking habits. Katie went on to write a very fine profile of this majestic beer, and following that the brewery reached out and invited me to the brewery for a tour. 

Politely, I asked if, while there, I’d be able to record an interview with its former managi...

Those of you with good enough memories will remember I have some thoughts on terroir in beer. Basically, I think the concept is a scam, and that a product which is so influenced by not just a confluence of ingredients, but so much human intervention can’t possibly express the t-word.

However, I remain open-minded, and I try to let those opinions remain somewhat malleable. While beer as a finished product might not be the best device to showcase the influence of climatic conditions on ingredients and flavour, when it comes to those ingredients individually I admit th...

If you’re a regular user of pubs I’m probably someone you’d refer to as a ‘transient’ pubgoer. I enjoy variety—the spice of life, as it were. Stimulation, for me, comes from visiting lots of different pubs, and here in Manchester I am spoiled for choice.

It’s easy enough for me to hop from Café Beermoth, to The City Arms, to Bundobust, to head over to The Salisbury for yet another Old Peculier. And if I jump back on a train or bus to where I live in Stockport, I can visit The Magnet, Ye Olde...

Coffee and beer are, when you think about it, strange bedfellows. One gets you out of bed in the morning, provides stimulation and impetus, while the other (hopefully) tells you that it’s time to slow down and kick back. Perhaps it's the inherent balance this creates which is why I can’t do without either.

I first got into coffee about 10 years ago, and for all wants and purposes in this podcast we’ll call it ‘third wave coffee’ (it’s a bit like craft beer, in that it is a term that was invented to definite a s...

Although it’s still a few months away I’m already getting excited about this year's FyneFest. It’s one of the most important dates in my calendar, not just because we head up there to host our Meet the Brewer panel discussions, but because it’s simply one of the best beer-focussed events that the UK has to offer.

While I tend to get misty-eyed over glorious pints of Jarl from the source, I also recognise it as a chance to try some truly special beers that I don’t normally get to enjoy. The Origins Bar, where...

Until the start of 2024 I had never heard of French & Jupps, the UK’s oldest continuously operating maltster, established in 1689. When I was offered to visit by my friend Jonathan Mitchell, who distributes their malt via his Northern Ireland-based company Get ‘Er Brewed, I just had to tag along. 

Malt has always been central to both my enjoyment and fascination with beer, and is my favourite ingredient. You can probably say that water is more important, and hops are more exciting (sorry, yeast) but it's malt that fuels my curiosity the most. Malt forms not only an impor...

For the past few months I have been considering a very specific subgenre of British beer, its place in the wider culture of British beer, and my own enjoyment of it. You might call the beverages within this category by the name saison, sour, barrel-aged, or even mixed-fermentation. None of these terms, however, feel like they do this category, how exciting it is, or what it actually means to people justice. 

The reasons why they don’t are multifaceted—not to mention complicated—but the reason why it’s important that we do find the terminology to describe...

Will brewing ever truly manage to become ‘sustainable’? Acknowledged by the UK government as a highly energy intensive sector of the economy, the industrial act of making beer has a far larger drain on our natural resources than those simply caused by heating liquid up and cooling it down again.

Brewing uses a massive amount of water for a start, whether that’s for cleaning, packaging, or making the beer itself. More pertinently, there’s the fact that brewing is almost wholly reliant on industrial agriculture perennially lurking in its sizable shadow. The production of grain and hops for...

It’s that time of the year once again, and you can bet we’re making our lists and checking them twice. 

In what feels like a breakout year for Pellicle, join our editor-in-chief Matthew Curtis and deputy editor Katie Mather as they chew through the year that was. There’s plenty of reflection on the magazine itself, as well as space for discussing some of the bigger topics in beer and cider for 2024. This includes some healthy conversation about the rise of Guinness and the trad pub ‘revival’, plus a nod to Thornbridge and Epochal Brewery taking on B...

IPAs. We love to hate them. We love to love them. It’s fair to say that the darling of modern beer has, over the past 10 or 20 years, been discussed to death. But we felt there was life in the old dog yet. That’s why at FyneFest earlier this year we hosted a panel discussion to talk about the present and future of the IPA with two breweries who are pushing the envelope as far as this category is concerned.

Matt Dutton is the head brewer at Manchester’s Track Brewing, one of the innovators at the fo...

What do you think of when you think about a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord? Is it a seamless marriage of hop, malt, yeast and water? Or is it perhaps the pristine vistas offered by the hills and dales of Yorkshire? God’s Own Country they call it, modestly. Maybe it’s about that duff pint you had in a random Soho pub that tasted of idleness and regret? All three perspectives are valid.

There is a lot that goes into the production, consumption and (potentially) enjoyment of this near universally acknowledged and appreciated beer. One that i...

It always brings me great joy to publish the recordings of the panel discussions we have at FyneFest each year. This year’s were our best and busiest yet, with our new Origins Tent making our small portion of the festival feel more accessible and welcoming than ever before. Thanks to everyone that came down, and if you enjoy the sound of this, then head to fynefest.com this week to secure your tickets to next year's festival. We’ll be back again, hosting more talks and tastings just like this one!

Speaking of which, this has to b...

I used to be a bit of a stickler when it came to low and no alcohol beer—because it didn’t really fit into my lifestyle at the time, I didn’t see the point of it. 

These days, however, I’ve not only accepted that it’s important to see more alcohol free beer on the bar, but believe its increasing availability is a net positive to beer culture as a whole. Not only does it give people who don’t drink alcohol the chance to enjoy beer, but it allows people to curate their habits, wheth...

I was once a craft beer evangelist. I believed it was the future, and the past was dead in the water. That past, to me, was over a century of British brewing tradition: bitter, mild, porter. I was ready for the global Americanisation of beer culture—double dry hopped everything. 

But I was wrong, and eventually I realised that. Craft beer was not new, not a revolution, not the sea change of an entire culture I, for some reason, longed for, just the continuation of a thing that already existed: beer. 

I have realised there are...

Since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent cost of living crisis, the UK has experienced the closure, or change in ownership of nearly 200 small, independent breweries. Prior to that, however, we saw a boom, growing from just over 700 in 2013, to more than 2000 at the start of 2020.

Around 700 of these breweries are members of SIBA, the Society for Independent Brewers and Associates. In March 2024, our host Matthew Curtis visited its annual trade show, Beer X, in Liverpool, and wandered the trade floor asking members two simple questions: what’s the biggest challenge facing their business at...

Yeast so often plays third fiddle in the conversation about beer, and how it’s made. It never quite shares the limelight with hops, the most glamorous beer ingredient, and to some extent malt. And yet, it’s one of the most fascinating elements within beer's makeup. In this episode we chat to Alix Blease of Lallemand, and dig into the importance of yeast in brewing.

There’s a saying some brewers like to peddle, not to mention Alix herself in this episode: “brewers make wort, yeast makes beer.” It’s a statement I’ve never been inclined to ag...

How does the beer industry navigate a cost of living crisis? In a panel discussion recorded at IndyManBeerCon 2023, Jonny Hamilton chats to Phil Sisson from Glasgow’s Simple Things Fermentation, Julie O’Grady from Neptune Brewery in Liverpool and Toby McKenzie from RedWillow Brewery in Macclesfield to find out how the financial squeeze is affection small breweries, and their customers. 

I’m sure most of you have felt the pinch by now: you want to get a big haul in from that local bottle shop, but instead you opt for a couple of specials and a case of some...

We were deeply saddened to hear that our peers at Good Beer Hunting would be closing their publication. In this episode Matthew shares some thoughts on GBH's significance, and why its more important than ever to support independent beer writing. 

Like beer, whisky has always fascinated me. Maybe it’s because, like beer, it’s brewed, and before distillation the resulting wash (the distilling term for wort) undergoes a period of open fermentation, not unlike a wild or mixed fermentation beer. Or maybe it's because it’s simply delicious. Enough so to pique my curiosity and to discover more about how it’s made, and the people who make it.

At White Peak Distillery in Ambergate, Derbyshire I found another beer hook from which I could hang my hat—that it uses brewers yeast sourced from the nearby Tho...

How important is the role of sustainability in brewing? How does beer actually get made sustainably when it’s an incredibly energy-intensive process to actually get your beer from the farm to your glass? And how does the industry avoid greenwashing as it attempts to be more responsible about its impact on our climate and the environment?

All these questions and more are answered in our latest podcast episode: An Open Discussion About Sustainability in Beer. Recorded live at IndyManBeerCon in October 2023, this episode features Ben Stubbs of Rivington Brew Co, Chris Drummond of Allkin Brewing, IMBC fo...

Cast your mind back to February 2021, when I published episode 20 of this podcast. In an effort to experiment with the format of the show, I’d begun recording long monologues loosely based on the idea that I would ask myself a question and try to both answer and contextualise it in under an hour. 

One of the first questions I asked myself was “does cider have an image problem?” And, over the course of about 55 minutes, I sent myself down a rabbit hole of loaded opinion in which I expressed some deep feelings about cider and perry. It prov...

In hindsight, it’s easy to say that when writer David Jesudason pitched me a story on the history and significance of Desi Pubs, I bit his hand off. But reality is never that simple. While it’s true that I was desperate to commission stories by writers from non-white backgrounds, and publish stories that explored previously uncovered elements of British beer culture, I am always wary before I commit to an idea. 

The question I ask myself before I commission a story, whether I like it or not, is “would our readers enjoy this.” Although I get the f...

Please note this is the second part of a two-part episode. Find part one, Episode 50, right here. 

There exists a curious tension at Roosters Brewing Company, one that few other breweries have to navigate in terms of both their identity, and their position within the UK beer market. 

On the one hand this is a resolutely contemporary brewery, creating modern IPAs as delicious and precise as the cask ales loved by locals it built its reputation upon. But there’s also the fact that this is a three-decade old brewery, with a considerable legacy established by i...

There exists a curious tension at Roosters Brewing Company, one that few other breweries have to navigate in terms of both their identity, and their position within the UK beer market. 

On the one hand this is a resolutely contemporary brewery, creating modern IPAs as delicious and precise as the cask ales loved by locals it built its reputation upon. But there’s also the fact that this is a three-decade old brewery, with a considerable legacy established by its previous owner, Sean Franklin, and its flagship beer, Yankee. It’s a persistent problem, one that’s always...

During one of our first ever panel discussions at FyneFest, held way back in 2019, we spoke about the importance of independence in brewing. Not only were the results of the conversation inconclusive, two of the breweries represented in that discussion—Hawkshead and Harbour— have since sold out to larger corporations…

With several years having passed since this talk took place, and the brewing landscape also having changed dramatically during this time, we felt it was time to return to it once again and ask: is independence more important than ever? Join Matthew Curtis for a debate featuring an exp...

There is no getting away from the fact that producing beer is a hugely energy intensive process. The very nature of brewing requires boiling a huge vat of liquid, which then needs to be cooled quickly, and kept at near freezing temperatures for several weeks. The finished product also needs constant refrigeration if it’s to be kept at its best. Other processes connected to brewing, such as the farming of ingredients, and the production of the chemicals used for sanitisation, all add to its large carbon footprint.

In this panel discussion, hosted by Matthew Curtis, we ex...

We can all agree that the last few years have been tough, and as a result, it can be difficult to find the joy in life’s simple pleasures — of which beer is one of the best. The past decade in British brewing has been pretty exhausting, with thousands of newcomers entering the category, many of whom have been in a race to make the haziest, juiciest, pastriest, and most intense beers possible. As a result, many of us have reached our saturation point within beer culture.

For this panel discussion, Jonathan Hamilton speaks to people from with...

Perhaps one of the most exciting things to have happened within the UK brewing industry over the past decade is the birth of modern British lager. Whether they’ve been directly inspired by the brewing traditions of Germany and the Czech Republic, or by more contemporary influences such as the American West Coast, the wealth of great lager beers now produced by British breweries, from Helles, to Baltic Porters and even newer styles such as India Pale Lager, is breathtaking.

For this discussion you’ll join Pellicle co-founder, lager enthusiast, and Heriot Watt brewing and distilling masters alum...

From the pandemic to Brexit, the cost of living crisis has impacted everyone’s pockets. For brewers, the price of beer production is through the roof, with rising ingredient costs and soaring energy bills, everything has become significantly more expensive. Perhaps the greatest challenge, however, is passing this cost onto the consumer. Beer is an egalitarian product, and drinkers have always had an expectation that it remains affordable, accessible, and live in hope that it doesn’t become a very occasional luxury.

In this debate, featuring members of the brewing industry and hosted by Pellicle co-founder Matthew Curt...

In a recent team discussion both of our associate editors, Katie Mather and Lily Waite, asked if they could narrate some of their stories for a podcast episode. Long-term listeners will know this is something I experimented with in early episodes, with varying results. I found reading my own stories to be a delight. I felt it gave me the ability to add detail using tone and inflection that might not have quite the same impact when read, but I struggled a little when narrating those written by others. It really needs the writer's voice to help the listener...

DEYA. It’s spelled in capital letters, a reminder so you can shout its name joyfully from the rooftops. Joy is certainly one thing the Cheltenham based brewery provides in abundance. This is through their carefully put together beers—such as its flagship pale ale Steady Rolling Man—or its vibrantly colourful, energetic, and yet at the same time peaceful taproom. DEYA is a brewery of multiple dispositions.

In November 2022 I finally visited the brewery itself for the first time, doing the 3-and-a-bit hour journey from Manchester (via Birmingham) and back again inside a day to take some p...

Manchester has a fascinating beer history, stretching back well over two centuries, and into the industrial revolution. What’s remarkable is how that history still influences the northwestern city’s beer culture today, whether via one of its four, storied family brewers like Robinson’s or JW Lees, or one of its modern trailblazers such as Track or Cloudwater. 

One of the city’s most unquestionably influential breweries is Marble, which was originally established in the Marble arch pub in 1997. The brewery has since gone through two expansions, its most recent in 2019 when it relocated from Manchester to Salfor...

In a British beer market that has expanded rapidly over the previous couple of decades (before grinding to a halt during the current cost of living crisis), finding a point of difference has been vital for these small businesses to succeed. For some it has meant focusing on particular styles, like Hazy IPA, or crisp, refreshing lager. While for others it could have been producing a rock solid hospitality offering, and direct-to-consumer sales via a bar, or taproom. 

For Oxford’s Tap Social Movement, which was established in 2016, that point of difference has been about making—well—a diffe...

In the summer of 2022 I had the privilege of escorting Topher Boehm and Chris Allen of Sydney, Australia’s Wildflower Brewing & Blending on a day out in which we enjoyed a few beers in Clitheroe, Lancashire. Topher and Chris were keen to visit Corto after listening to the conversation I had previously published on this very podcast between myself and my friend and colleague, Katie Mather. 

As long time readers and listeners of Pellicle, Topher and Chris were keen to explore the beer scene in the North West—most notably, its traditional pubs, and the bountiful selection of re...

Growing up in the nearby city of Lincoln, in my late teens day trips to nearby Nottingham held a great deal of anticipation and promise. While my hometown felt, in some ways, culturally deficit, Nottingham had it all—namely venues such as Rock City and The Rescue Rooms where I could see the touring bands I loved. 

Although, when I eventually moved away from Lincolnshire, so too did I remove myself from the culture of the Midlands, and this absence continued as I began exploring beer. Last year, however, I was presented with the opportunity to visit the...

If you've been on Beer Twitter at all recently you’ll have likely noticed our podcast host Matthew Curtis harping on about bitter and mild. Cask beer is something we love at Pellicle and so we were always going to dedicate one of our panel discussions at Fynefest 2022 to this much debated category.

Joined by an expert panel including Mark Welsby of Stockport’s Runaway Brewery, Laura Rangeley of Sheffield’s Abbeydale Brewery, and Malcolm Downie of our hosts Fyne Ales, we attempt to get serious about the discussion around cask. We start by asking whether or not th...

Over the past couple of decades barrel aged beers have become increasingly popular among craft beer enthusiasts. From intensely flavourful spirit barrel aged strong stouts, to more nuanced and complex sour and wild ales matured in former wine casks, the range of barrel aged beers is as breathtaking as some of the beers which eventually emerge from the barrels themselves.

But as the market has become saturated with these often costly beers, and the post-pandemic, cost of living crisis driven drinker looks towards simpler, less wallet-intensive beverages, what does the future look like for this subgenre within...

Mental health is a seldom talked about subject within the brewing industry. Perhaps this is because the demographic working within brewing skews highly male, and men are infamous for often being unable to discuss this topic adequately. Thankfully, in more recent times, the discussion is becoming more open and more frequent—valuable indeed, considering how tumultuous the past couple of years have been on our minds, as well as our bodies. 

In this discussion recorded at FyneFest 2022, host Matthew Curtis is joined by Miranda Hudson of Duration Brewing, Vik Stronge of Magic Rock, and Dominic Driscoll of Tho...

Throughout this month we’ll be bringing you our panel discussions from FyneFest 2022, kicking off with a fantastic, in-depth conversation with Fyne Ale's managing director, Jamie Delap. Founded in 2001 by his parents Jonny and Tuggy Delap, the day-to-day running of the brewery passed on to Jamie when his father passed away in 2009. 

The following year, Fyne Ales held a small gathering for a few hundred people on the family farm within Glen Fyne, where the brewery is located. They even brewed a special beer for the event at 3.8% ABV, hopped with a new variety of hops from Nor...