For this episode the BWF team hopped on the train to Birmingham and huddled around a microphone in independent bottle shop Clink in Digbeth. We were joined by special guest Rob Derbyshire of @Hopzine beer reviews on You Tube and discussed reviewing beers on YouTube and the news that Beavertown have sold a minority share to behemoth brewers Heineken for £40m.

Correction: In this episode Simon mentions the Lock and Key beer convention in Birmingham. Unfortunately he got the date wrong! It should have been the 20th to 22nd July, not the 28th. Info here: http://www.lockandkeybeercon.co.uk

You Tube beer reviewers:

Hopzine: https://www.youtube.com/user/HopZine/

Kent Beer Reviews - https://www.youtube.com/user/craigy1

Jake O Beer - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTSmFgXyGeMKyy4PnURLx2Q/featured

Bluenose Beer Reviews - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDfKH1VISLdiDwMap--KzsQ

Clueless Drinker - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2TbXwwFvkIO1PM2o4TpBuQ

Pint Sized - https://www.youtube.com/user/pintsizedthinking

Dean's Beer Reviews - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC12GDsaOxH8OTdP98RgN0pA

Beers tasted during this episode:

@lostandgrounded Keller Pils

@BrewYorkBeer Oats Ala Mande

@cloudwaterbrew New Things and New Tidings

@padstowbrewing Loading Bay IPA

@salopianbrewery Mortal Coil

Venue: http://www.clinkbeer.com

Local Birmingham beer blog: http://www.wednesdaybeers.co.uk

Disclosure: in this episode we talk about our visit to Head of Steam in Birmingham. We were invited to a special launch event and got some free stuff. This did not affect our impression of the venue and our experience there. Check them out: http://www.theheadofsteam.co.uk/bars/birmingham

The BWF team chat with Gemma and Steve from The Old Post Office, a Warwick micro pub and winner of Heart of Warwickshire CAMRA pub of the year 2018. The pub has been very successful since opening in 2014 serving cask ale and traditional ciders. Recently they have added two keg lines for craft beers and are serving some of the most in demand beers from breweries such as Northern Monk, Magic Rock, Deya and Verdant.

Pics of the pub can be found on our instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/beerswithoutfrontiers/

The Old Post Office are on social media where they post regular updates to their ever changing beer line-up:

https://www.facebook.com/oldpostofficewarwick/

Twitter: @oldpowarwick

Note: apologies for the mobile phone interference on the latter part of the recording. Sadly no audio processing could remove it.

Episode 4 – Supermarket Sweep

Simon, Charles and Neil venture into the supermarkets and bring back some beers from Four Pure, Yeastie Boys, Marks and Spencer and Wild Beer.

We discuss Beavertown’s recent announcement that their beers will soon be available in Waitrose and what the increasing amount of craft beers in supermarkets means for both the drinker and the retailer.

We also discuss Hop City beer festival held at Northern Monk in Leeds, our recent trip to the Bermondsey Beer mile in London and recent bar and tap room openings in Birmingham and Leamington.

Beers tasted:

Four Pure Easy Peeler

Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black

Marks and Spencer British Clipper

Wild Beer Ninkasi

Links:

www.fourpure.com

www.yeastieboys.co.nz

www.marksandspencer.com

www.wildbeerco.com

Back in 2014 Ritchie Bosworth and Chris Cooper set up the UK’s first ‘pico brewery’ using a tiny 60 litre kit, brewing in Chris’s garage in Tile Hill, Coventry. Demand soon outstripped supply and they set up in FarGo village, an artistically repurposed industrial space in Coventry City Centre, designed exclusively for creative, independent businesses. Here they set up a brand new brewery and tap house which was such a success that in 2017 they moved yet again to a larger unit within FarGo village to a space that can hold 300 people and furnished with 23 keg lines and 2 cask beers.

We headed over to the tap room, grabbed a beer and fired some questions at Ritchie…

www.twistedbarrel.co.uk

www.fargovillage.co.uk

Simon, Charles and Neil sample beers from local Coventry brewery Twisted Barrel and Newcastle brewery Wylam. We also discuss brewery crowd funding and brewing beer at BeerTorrent in Leamington, the Warwick winter beer festival and the 6 degrees of Beaveration event hosted by Beavertown brewery in London.

Beers tasted:

Twisted Barrel Wrapped in Simcoe and Be Back Before Dawn

Wyam and Yeastie Boys WxY3

Links:

Twisted Barrel: www.twistedbarrelale.co.uk

Wylam: www.wylambrewery.co.uk

Yeastie Boys: www.yeastieboys.co.nz

Beer Torrent: www.beertorrent.uk

Glasshouse Beer crowd fund: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/glasshouse-expansion-tap-room-development

Simon, Charles and Neil visit some pubs in Leamington Spa and sample beers from Thornbridge, Arbor, Tiny Rebel, Magic Rock and ABC. They also discuss their beer highlights from 2017 and try and forecast what we might see in 2018.

Simon, Neil and Charles try beers from Cloudwater and Northern Monk breweries and talk about the beer scene in Warwickshire and the West Midlands.