All Articles

Other Writing: Consumer Press

A selection of articles I’ve written for other publications.

Beer: The Drink Tuscan Food Has Been Waiting For

Publication:
Published On: 20th November 2011

Imagine you had to introduce beer to an environment where it was all but unknown. People don’t drink much, but when they do drink, it’s almost always wine. So there are few pubs or bars—not as we know them—and hardly any selling draft beer. There are restaurants and cafes, and coffee shops that arguably serve

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Surviving Being Over-Entertained

Publication:
Published On: 17th November 2010

Swearing, when judiciously employed, is brilliant. Sometimes, there’s simply no non-cuss word that will do, no mild alternative that can add the same perfect spice and flavor to a sentence. Arguably, one of the sweariest – and certainly one of the most quotable – films of all time is the Brit cult comedy Withnail and

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Blind Eyes, Bribes and Beers on the High Seas

Publication:
Published On: 11th January 2009

“The only people who drink in this bar are sailors, drug dealers and whores.  Shall we go in?” Two hours after nodding mutely in reply to the cargo ship’s captain, eating cake at a Brazilian prostitute’s birthday party while my seafaring companion told the gathered ladies how I’d slept through my watch the night I

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Mythbusting IPA

Publication:
Published On: 11th January 2009

Most people would call it crazy, but the crazies call it ‘living archeology’: if material remains of our past no longer exist, we have to recreate past times as best we can in order to figure out the truth of how people lived back then. It drives some to live as bronze-age villagers, others to

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Burton Beers Today

Publication:
Published On: 1st March 2007

A visit to Burton-on-Trent can still yield delights for the discerning beer drinker. These beers may not fit the American idea of what an IPA should be, but they are all heirs to the tradition and have much to recommend them.

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Rounds and Reciprocity

Publication:
Published On: 11th January 2005

Let’s call him Dave (that was, after all, his name). Years ago, when my friends and I were on the cusp of legal drinking age, we’d go to the pub every Friday and Saturday night, simply because we could. Standing there self-consciously holding our pints, trying to grow wispy moustaches, we were a bunch of

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