Boak & Bailey (Jess & Ray)

Here's me on Martyn's big black book of big black beer: beoir.org/2025/12/05/p...

Britain's first community-operated pub on a housing estate, the Bevy in Brighton, is looking for a new owner for the building: thebevypub.co.uk/bevy-is-goin...

My dad used to tell me about the 'family speakeasy' in a room above the gas station on his parents' farm in what was then rural Missouri...post-Prohibition, it became a casual gambling spot. Much more on the seedy end!

When it gets too hot even for a refreshing beer: how heatwaves hit pubs There's summer, when you want to hang out in a beer garden and drink lager. And there are heatwaves, when you want to hide and chew ice cubes.

Vault City? Might have been this:

boakandbailey.substack.com/p/when-it-ge...

A Seidla of warmed Lagerbier at the Brauerei Spezial

Good morning from the Brauerei Spezial in Bamberg.

Pro tip: if you order a "gewärmtes", your beer will be gently heated with an immersion heater, which knocks out some of the carbonation.

Speakeasies: jazz age glamour, or just another type of boozer? The modern idea of the prohibition-era speakeasy is distorted via cinematic fantasies of the jazz age and by hipsterish cocktail bars.

BLOG POST: We haven't given much thought to speakeasies until now but they're a fascinating example of a type of boozer that could only exist in a particular time and place. 🍺🍻

boakandbailey.com/2025/11/spea...

Beginning to look to me like the only type of boiled beer is European commercial beer. I don't think any of the other continents boiled, and European farmhouse brewers largely didn't, either.

So of course everyone concluded all beer must be boiled.

We sometimes wonder if 8 am is the best time to share these. When everyone is asleep or hungover.

Beer mats from bars and pubs in Prague, Nuremberg, Bamberg and Brussels

Back from a couple of weeks study of beers and bars in Prague, Nuremberg, Bamberg, Köln and Brussels along with two days in London at the end - here’s a testologist’s guide to the places I went to

Ink drawing of Afraid You Might Taste Something Lagerboy Hobgoblin

Breal-backed beer group Keystone Brewing on verge of administration Keystone employs almost 200 people in the UK and owns two production sites in Yorkshire and Warwickshire

Breal bought a slew of unloved brands and then engaged in a damaging race to the bottom. This was the inevitable conclusion and the only surprise is that it has taken this long.

My thoughts are with the blameless employees that will be affected by their failure.

www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/breal-b...

Footnotes on news, nuggets and longreads 29 November 2025 | Boak & Bailey Get more from Boak & Bailey on Patreon

Here are the footnotes with so many bonus links it's almost a full extra edition of NNL:

www.patreon.com/posts/144647...

The footnotes for Patreon supporters will be along shortly, with a bunch of bonus links because there was just too much interesting stuff this week.

News, nuggets and longreads 29 November 2025: Suburbia Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got dodgy dates, kidney beans and The Fat Cat.

GOOD MORNING! Here's our weekly round up of good writing about beer, with pubs in Norwich and Bradford, thoughts on the budget, and notes on a kitsch advertisement for Hamm's beer. 🍻🍺

boakandbailey.com/2025/11/news...

A bottle of Kinnegar Jackrabbit and another of O'Hara's Leann Folláin with a metal tankard of that mix in between.

A play on an Ale Flip, with strong porter, ginger beer, a beaten egg, brown sugar, hot honey, and caraway seeds ...

This year I used a bottle of St Austell's Black Square Imperial Stout, which based on recent tastings hasn't aged brilliantly so we didn't mind sacrificing a bottle. It definitely delivers the required bitterness for the pud. (Jess)

Public Service Announcement: Barley Wine for Stir-Up Sunday Every year we start getting visits to the website from people searching for barley wine to put in their Christmas pudding.

It's Stir-Up Sunday, so time for our annual boost for this post, designed to help out anxious home cooks trying to track down barley wine.

boakandbailey.com/2015/11/publ...

Footnotes on news, nuggets and longreads 22 November 2025 | Boak & Bailey Get more from Boak & Bailey on Patreon

And, exclusively for Patreon supporters (thank you!) here are the footnotes, with further thoughts on the stories we shared, plus some bonus links.

www.patreon.com/posts/144140...

News, nuggets and longreads 22 November 2025: Modern Times Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got production value, community, and inclusive beer festivals.

GOOD MORNING! Here's this morning's round up of good writing about beer and pubs from the past week, with a common thread about *doing it right*. 🍺🍻

boakandbailey.com/2025/11/news...

For me, being a Co-Owner of the UK’s first employee owned brewery @abbeydalebeers.bsky.social makes me so proud, and I hope it shows there’s a way more positive alternative available to selling out to a macro! I hope we’re not the only ones for much longer!

Reasons to be cheerful about beer in 2025 It’s not all doom and gloom even if (looks out of window) it is literally all gloom. From pubs to breweries, there’s plenty to give us a warm glow.

Our latest newsletter went out yesterday. Subscribers will have already seen it in their inboxes. Those who withhold their affection by refusing to subscribe can read it online.

boakandbailey.substack.com/p/reasons-to...

Flyer for the launch of PINTJES Vol.3, featuring an illustration of a Belgian beer chalice with golden liquid and foamy head, on a background of a pencil sketch of cobblestones and bing bags. With the following text: PINTJES VOL.3 MAROLLEN IN THE DEEP ZINE LAUNCH PARTY: 19H THURSDAY 11TH DECEMBER CHAFF PL. DU JEU DE BALLE 21, MAROLLES

Re-posting this now, with ALT text (because I forgot the first time)

For PINTJES #3, we're tackling hallowed turf - a pub crawl around Brussels' Place du Jeu de Balle.

open.substack.com/pub/brussels...

Just discovered it ought to be pretty simple to do a walk out of Bamberg that takes in three breweries all named Wagner in one day.

We thought we might have spotted you!

10 observations from a long weekend in London | Boak & Bailey We’ve just spent a few days in London stomping our way through the West, the East and the South, stopping to look at pubs and drink a few beers along the way.

BLOG POST: “London is a uniquely stimulating place, especially if you’re interested in beer, and we found ourselves fired up with lots of thoughts and ideas...” 🍺🍻

boakandbailey.com/2025/11/10-o...

Cork’s Franciscan Well brewery to cease production in new year, impacting 15 staff Molson Coors says economic pressures and a struggling craft beer sector forced the decision, with 15 employees affected

Today in "big breweries fuck things up when they buy small breweries" (via @everypubindublin.ie): www.irishexaminer.com/business/com...

A pint of bass on a pub table in front of an open fire

Crown Inn, Stockport

The gable end of a modernist pub that looks a bit like a normal house. The sign says The Alex.

A gilded cockerel, the logo of Courage brewery, on a window.

A sign on a door, in serif lettering: Town Bar.

The Princess Alexandra, Canning Town – a post-war Courage pub with some original features.

A pub, painted externally with a Christmas scene: Snowmen, trees and presents.

Early festive pub, Cambridge

Crikey - Rogue and Underdog. And this is how I find out. Shows how far away from beer discourse I am at present.

It's like going back to your student town/city and seeing that all the locations that formed your memories have gone. I'm as nostalgic for the 2010s beer scene as I am for 90s football