The Pellicle Podcast

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 difference. Social justice is a part of this brewery's core ethos, and at the heart of this are the efforts to work with individuals exiting the prison system, and finding them employment. In fact, around a third of Tap Social’s employees have been hired through this system, and you’ll hear plenty about this from two of the company’s directors, Tess Taylor and Matt Elliot, in the first of two interviews in this episode. In the second interview, we’ll learn all about the other side of the business—the beer—as we chat to head brewer, Jason Bolger. Our visit coincided with us producing a collaboration beer with Tap Social, a modern British bitter, which we called ‘Wake Up’ after the song by Rage Against the Machine—a little nod to the social justice this brewery was founded upon. Speaking of beer, there’s also plenty of time at the beginning of the episode for our host to talk about some of the things he’s been enjoying lately, and about his recent trips to Edinburgh, and Fort Collins, Colorado. Don’t forget that if you enjoy this, and other content that Pellicle creates, please consider subscribing via Patreon, and support our independent magazine and podcast.

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 real ale they had to offer. Their keenness to explore the best of the UK's beer traditions is also represented in their own approach to beer making. You might be thinking what does best bitter have to do with the complex, mixed and wild fermentation beers that Wildflower has built its deserved reputation upon? The answer is simple: everything. Since I first had the privilege of meeting Topher at a beer festival in Denver, Colorado back in 2018, I have been fascinated—not just by Wildflowers processes—but by how mindful in their approach to drinking, and the culture of drinking, this brewery is. This approach can be heard throughout this bumper-length interview, which covers everything from their processes in the brewery, to what inspires them as producers, and how they unpack and consider the impact of colonialism on what they make and sell.Need a primer on Wildflower before diving in? Check out this profile we published way back in 2020, written by Australian writer Anastasia Prikhodko, and then dive into this fantastic interview. Thanks again to Topher and Chris for making time in their travel schedule to record this interview, and for sharing some wonderful beers with us during your stay. Don’t forget that if you enjoy this, and other content that Pellicle creates, please consider subscribing via Patreon, and support our independent magazine and podcast.

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 city’s annual craft beer week, after being invited to talk about my book, Modern British Beer, at one of the many events happening around town. I was also offered an opportunity to record a podcast at the office’s of Leftlion, the local music, arts and culture magazine that is behind both Nottingham Craft Beer Week, and the annual beer festival that forms the centerpiece to these events. In this bumper-length roundtable discussion I chat to Aimee Harbison of The Barrel Drop pub, Lucy Simons of The Abdication micropub, Alex Wilson of Black Iris Brewing, and Josh Mellor of Neon Raptor Brewing Co. It’s a fascinating conversation that digs into one of the most exciting beer scenes in the UK—and one that, for some reason, doesn’t quite get as much coverage as other, more vocal cities. What I found, however, is that the locals know exactly how good it is, so it was a delight to chat to some of the folks who are making Nottingham such a destination city for great beer.Special thanks to Jared Wilson for inviting me down to Nottingham, and arranging this podcast. Tickets for this years Nottingham Craft Beer Festival are available now, and with the lineup of breweries already signed up, I’d highly recommend paying it a visit. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing via Patreon, and help in our effort to turn Pellicle into a sustainable, profit-making business in 2023.

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 the resurgence in traditional styles such as bitter and mild is here to stay, or if it's merely a flash in the pan. (Or, indeed, consider if it never went away in the first place.)We also dig into some more serious topics. With statistics indicating that the cask ale category is ailing, we ask if premiumisation is the answer to sparking a true resurgence, and debate the much talked over discussion point that is the price of a pint.It’s been a thrill, as always, to host these discussions, and we hope you’ve enjoyed them as much as we have. We’ll be back for more at FyneFest 2023, so make sure you grab your tickets now so you can join us there. And don’t forget to subscribe to Pellicle via Patreon if you’re able to support our website and podcast with a monthly, or yearly donation.

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 the beer category? Who’s actually buying them? And perhaps more importantly: how are breweries making any profit from a project that takes an immense amount of time and space to produce, and is largely driven by passion?For this panel we put together a group of brewers making (in our opinion) some of the best barrel aged beers in the UK: Toby McKenzie of Macclesfield’s RedWillow Brewery, Dave McHardy of Fierce Beer in Aberdeen, and Lee Grabham of York’s appropriately named Brew York. The trio discuss everything from the processes behind their barrel aged beers, to what they think the future of the market looks like for them.

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 Thornbridge. The panel discusses a range of points within the subject of mental health, from setting boundaries within the workplace, to managing the mental health of our colleagues, employees and friends, as we try to make the beer industry a safer, friendlier place to work.CW: Topics discussed include depression and alcoholism. If you’re struggling with your mental health we urge you not to suffer alone, and recommend contacting an organisation such as The Drinks Trust or The Samaritans for support.

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 North America called Citra. The event was a huge success, and today FyneFest sees over 3000 people travel from all over Europe (and even from the US) to attend. The beer didn’t go down too badly either, and was eventually given the name Jarl. It now accounts for well over half of the brewery's total production volume. In this conversation Jamie and I discuss everything, from these origins, to how the pandemic affected the brewery, to how it's looking at taking on challenges such as the cost of living crisis, and the means of making the brewery more sustainable. Jamie is undoubtedly one of the keenest minds within the UK brewing industry, and it was a true privilege to have such an open and honest discussion about these issues during the business of the festival. We’re pleased to say we’ll be back at FyneFest in 2023, with a whole new host of guests and topics to discuss. Tickets are available now from FyneFest.com, and trust us when we say this is an event you don’t want to miss. We look forward to seeing you in the Glen later this year. Special thanks to Fyne Ales for hosting us at the event, and for being one of our pro-tier Patreon supporters. Pellicle is supported by our Patreon subscribers—please consider helping to keep our independent magazine and podcast sustainable with a monthly, or yearly donation. If you are interested in sponsoring future episodes, please get in touch.

At the beginning of the year I arrogantly tweeted that this would be my “year of podcasts.” For various reasons I ended up managing to produce less than half of my target number of 20 episodes, but I hope that those who’ve been waiting for new episodes have enjoyed what we’ve managed to publish this year. This brings us to one of my favourite, and our most popular episodes, now in its third edition: our beers, w̶i̶n̶e̶s̶ and ciders of the year. Why are wines struck out, you ask? Simply because when recording myself talking about this year's favourites I didn’t find myself vibing with my selections. I don’t want to disappoint our listeners, and I didn’t feel there was enough conviction (or indeed, knowledge) about my favourite wines of the year to warrant including them in the show. This is something I’ll figure out in future years by hopefully bringing the rest of the team into this episode somehow. Either way, I’m considering shaking up this format a little next year. What this did give me is plenty of space to talk about my favourite ciders—as well as sharing a few thoughts on how my cider drinking has changed this year. I also reveal a handful of my favourite pubs in 2022, before ploughing into another bumper beer list—with no less than 10 beers—including announcing what I'll be awarding my coveted beer of the year prize. This being our third edition I also decided to hand out a few accolades, including cider/cidermaker of the year, brewery of the year, new brewery of the year, as well as naming the beer I enjoyed more than any other over the past 12 months. Initially, these will only be revealed on the podcast, so make sure you listen in to find out which beers really rocked my world in 2022.Thanks to all of you for listening this year. Here’s to a fantastic holiday season, and a promise from me to deliver all of those long awaited episodes in 2023.Pellicle is supported by our Patreon subscribers — please consider helping to keep our independent magazine and podcast sustainable with a monthly, or yearly donation. If you are interested in sponsoring future episodes, please get in touch.

I’ve never given Birmingham the credit it’s due. The City of 1000 Trades knows and loves its beer. And yet, for some unknown reason, for many drinkers who live outside the area it doesn’t rank among the UK’s top beer towns. As I learned on my most recent visit, this sentiment is neither fair nor accurate. In reality, Birmingham has not only a thriving but a varied scene. In the town centre you can hop from proper pubs such as the Post Office Vaults or The Wellington, to craft beer joints like Tilt or Kilder, or to brewery taprooms such as Dig or Burning Soul. Like a lot of bigger cities, however, some of the best beer in modern beer culture lies beyond this periphery. Neighbourhood bars and bottle shops are becoming cornerstones of the suburban communities, as are its breweries. In Stirchley, to the south of central Birmingham, the scene is thriving, and it’s here where Glasshouse Beer Co. has made its home. Founded in 2018, the brewery has quickly established itself both locally, and in some of the more beer savvy venues around the UK. This is largely thanks to its mastery over hazy pale ales, which range from sessionable table beers, right the way through to almighty DIPAs. There’s far more to this young brewery than a bit of fuss though, and it’s already dialling in other styles, from lagers, to barrel aged sour beers. I sat down for a fun, beer fuelled chat with founder Josh Hughes, lead brewer Dave Sharp, and head of sales Josh Mitchell. We cover a lot of ground, talking about the brewery and the beers themselves, to digging into why Birmingham’s beer scene doesn’t get its fair share of the limelight. Seeing as its four blokes sat around the table (a classic beer podcast scenario, one might say) we also take time to discuss the recent reckoning within craft beer, and how groups like ours can take proper accountability and action in light of accusations of sexism and workplace abuse. Pellicle is supported by our Patreon subscribers — please consider helping to keep our independent magazine and podcast sustainable with a monthly, or yearly donation. If you are interested in sponsoring future episodes, please get in touch.

I worry about the beer industry, it sometimes keeps me awake at night. Following the unprecedented experience of the pandemic and lockdowns that changed our lives, to the newly realised cost of living crisis, the breweries and pubs we love are up against it. The reality is that many will not survive these challenges, and some already haven’t. While, relatively speaking, things have been pretty good for the past 10-15 years—during which the number of breweries in the UK has more than doubled—now, whether you’re operating a production brewery, or a hospitality business, the outlook is bleak. The cost of everything is increasing, from raw materials such as hops and malt, to chemicals, carbon dioxide, aluminum cans, and the devastating increases to utility bills. That’s even before you’ve considered your staff, and increasing their wages so they can work through this crisis too. When looking at the big picture, it feels like not only are the glory days over, but that we are yet to see the true extent of the damage this will cause to these livelihoods. But there’s always hope. Right? In this episode I decided to take a look at how the cost of living crisis is affecting the beer industry from two different perspectives. Inspired by the classic Red Dwarf episode ‘Confidence and Paranoia’ I listen to both of these internal voices, to try and make sense of what’s happening out there at the moment.This was inspired by the interview featured in this show with William Burgess, co-founder of Gan Yam Brew Co. Based in Kendal, on the edge of the Lake District. Back in February on a visit to the brewery I had the opportunity to William about what it’s like to set up a business during the middle of a pandemic, without really understanding (at this point) how the cost of living crisis was going to make things even worse. But if things are truly so awful, then why exactly are new breweries like Gan Yam deciding to make a go of it at all? Listen on to find out…This episode of The Pellicle Podcast is sponsored by Hand & Heart. We’ve partnered with them to offer listeners of The Pellicle Podcast a free 30-minute advice session. You could be a business owner wondering what the hell DEI means, an employee wanting to upskill, thinking about starting a business, or at a loss of how to develop your current business. To sign up head to www.handandheart.eu/pellicle.Pellicle is supported by our Patreon subscribers — please consider helping to keep our independent magazine and podcast sustainable with a monthly, or yearly donation.