Boak & Bailey (Jess & Ray)

We can't speak for Nick but he made a distinction between interpretation and proof, i.e. where there is no equally good alternative interpretation for the same evidence. You got a whole slide in the presentation!

It's mostly brewed for supermarkets so we'd try those.

The proposed policy change there is making it easier/faster to get a licence with extended hours. Applying for a longer-hours licence is possible now but a pain in the arse, and they're often rejected. We think that's what it's all about, anyway.

Footnotes on news, nuggets and longreads 11 October 2025 | Boak & Bailey Get more from Boak & Bailey on Patreon

And here are the footnotes just for Patreon supporters, with some local Bristol news, further thoughts on The Dog & Bell, and bonus links on the visibility of cask ale, among other topics.

www.patreon.com/posts/140960...

News, nuggets and longreads 11 October 2025: The Bird That You Can’t See Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got Deptford, Belgian craft, and more on beer festivals.

This week's edition of news, nuggets and longreads is now up, with all sorts of great stuff, including several responses to one of our own posts from earlier in the week. 🍺🍻

boakandbailey.com/2025/10/news...

A Very Biased Guide To Berlin Beer and Pubs, October 2023 Edition - Daft Eejit Brewing Daft Eejit Brewing - A Very Biased Guide To Berlin Beer and Pubs, October 2023 Edition

We always refer people to the guide @akrennmair.bsky.social and @louisekrennmair.bsky.social put together for us:

dafteejit.com/2023/10/a-ve...

Another problem is how you give a venue – especially a taproom – a good atmosphere whether it's busy, or quiet. If people think a place is “always dead” it will always *be* dead. Music can help. Busy staff doing stuff, rather than dozing at the bar, maybe? Hmm.

This heartfelt response to a silly post has made us think: what we want from a pub, or taproom, is for it to be open regularly and reliably; to get a human welcome; and for the beer to be good. Events are actually a turn off for us, because they're usually noisy and disrupt our routines.

Ah, sorry, we were just being silly about the fact that this pub seems to be advertising the presence of kittens.

YouTube video by BBC Archive 1974: Working in a Traditional English Brewery | Industrial Grand Tour | World of Work | BBC Archive

Footage of Hook Norton, still steam powered in 1974. (CAMSPA – the Campaign for Steam Powered Ale?)

youtu.be/HHDESSHVpcc

Bonn — Katie Mather Writes A very good place

Have you ever been to Bonn? My latest blog post/newsletter is up now.

www.katiematherwrites.com/the-gulp/bonn

Think While You Drink Join Good Chemistry and Drinking Studies Network for a series of free talks designed to make you THINK WHILE YOU DRINK! Bringing interesting talks on beers, brewing, pubs, the industry and wider drink...

Excellent talk by Nick Fitzgerald at the latest Think While You Drink event, with follow up questions and discussion from @beernouveau.co.uk. Very much appreciated Nick’s “we don't have evidence for that" stance, even if he seems to regret having cast himself as a party pooper. [Ray]

It's the opposite of having the zoomies.

An A board outside a pub warning people to drive slowly because kittens are playing outside the pub and around it.

Pubs must try new ideas to draw in customers.

Anyway, as we were saying...

boakandbailey.com/2024/09/have...

What Matt says. If we unfollowed you, this is probably why. Not saying you shouldn't post about politics – it's your account, do what you like – but it was becoming a fire hose of misery.

Or Boddies tbh. From first hand observations I think an entirely new generation of drinkers is being normalised to ordering it.

Bass is up 19 percent Y-on-Y. Cask needs recognisable brands & you don't get many better than Bass.

Well, things came to be which were not certain. The unknown became the known - or will be when the covers are lifted later. Time is a’ticking. That’s never as clear as the dawn when that zap of frost hits. And the Yankees lost. So it’s still a happy day. I can buy frikkin canned tomatoes all winter.

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out — The Dog and Bell in Deptford, London — Pellicle On a Friday night in early December, Deptford’s Dog and Bell is Christmas as imagined by a Haribo-addled toddler.  A huge resin Santa, grinning merrily in his sleigh, squats in Prince Street out...

When someone calls a pub an institution, there are always detractors. But we can't think of a single person who wouldn't agree that The Dog & Bell is exactly that.

Will Hawkes joins us again for an insight into Deptford's most beloved pub.

www.pelliclemag.com/home/2025/9/...

A Bubble Versus a Mature Market — Beervana A spate of “craft beer is crashing” pieces has me thinking about a post I wrote twelve years ago. Is the difference between a bubble and a mature market more about vibes than dollars?

A spate of “craft beer is crashing” pieces has me thinking about a post I wrote twelve years ago. Is the difference between a bubble and a mature market more about vibes than dollars?

Think While You Drink Join Good Chemistry and Drinking Studies Network for a series of free talks designed to make you THINK WHILE YOU DRINK! Bringing interesting talks on beers, brewing, pubs, the industry and wider drink...

Think While You Drink on Thurs features Local Archaeologist & Brewer Nick Fitzgerald and Heritage Brewer @beernouveau.co.uk. Together, they'll explore what early (pre-historic) beers might have tasted like, and what flavours are still used today.

goodchemistrybrewing.co.uk/pages/think-...

I was at the Brussels Beer Project bar in Ixelles a week or two ago looking at the board with 20 different IPAs and had similar feelings: that's not what I go to Belgium for. But I guess someone must like it.

This is great.

Delivered a van load of beer to a beer festival yesterday.

A reminder to me that our threats are Netflix, Deliveroo, and supermarkets not other small breweries and independent pubs.

An interior shot of the Blythe Hill Tavern in SE23, featuring happy customers, various mirrors and horse-racing memorabilia

You'll be delighted to hear that I've finally got around to putting some back copies of @londonbeercity.bsky.social on my website. Here's March: www.willhawkes.net/blog/2025/ma...

It's like visiting Britain and being dragged by locals to shiny tap rooms or bars that look like student flats to drink the same uninspiring hop juice that prevails everywhere else.

Flash reaction - the provincials have a right to feel cosmopolitan every now and then!

More considered reaction maybe later 😂

If we'd written this for a magazine, we'd have interviewed or corresponded with people like @bonsvoeux1.bsky.social and @eoghanwalshbxl.bsky.social and quoted them in the piece. As it is, we thought we'd let them tell us if/how we might be wrong in public. More fun that way, innit?

We don’t want Belgian beer to change – and that’s our problem On a recent trip to Liège we ended up visiting a couple of more modern bars which, although very pleasant, didn’t give us what we want from Belgian beer.

BLOG POST: "...we recognise the problem in tourists demanding that the places they visit stay exactly the same, while expecting bars at home to do the opposite... But Belgium really does feel different, for a few reasons..." 🍺🍻

boakandbailey.com/2025/10/we-d...