Next week our first Brewers Lectures of 2026 takes place at the fantastic Full Circle Brew Co in Newcastle on the 25th February.

We’ve got a brilliant line-up of industry talent taking part including Jack Walker, the head brewer at Azvex.

Since being founded by Adam Henderson in 2020, Azvex Brewing Company has gone on to become of the UK’s most respected producers of hop-forward pale ales and IPAs, fruited sours, and imperial stouts.

And head brewer Jack Walker has played a huge part in that journey.

Next week Jack will share his brewing expertise and give us an insight into how he produces the brewery’s beautiful West Coast Pils.

While we look forward to that talk, Jack also shared some experiences of a different kind during our Manchester lectures last year.

In 2025 Jack has found himself in the final stages of a coeliac diagnosis and in his lecture he outlines the challenges that has presented for a brewing professional while also outlining some of the misinformation and misunderstanding that surrounds the condition. 

The role provenance plays in beer is something we rightfully celebrate. It can give the beer an identity and a sense of place. And today’s guest has made it his goal to recognise and toast British ingredients, as well as the agricultural excellence that helps make it all possible.

Meet Kirk Stamford. He’s the founder of Atlantic Archipelago, an independent beer brand headquartered in Norfolk. Following an extended period of travel across the United Kingdom, the business draws inspiration from the nation’s varied landscapes, longstanding agricultural traditions, and deeply rooted regional cultures.

Established in 2023 and informed by a strong agricultural heritage, Atlantic Archipelago was conceived around three guiding principles: the stewardship of British farming, the support of British enterprise, and the strengthening of British communities.

According to Kirk, the business holds a deep respect for the role British agriculture plays in shaping the country’s economy, environment, and historic identity. As such, they are committed to working closely with farmers and producers throughout their supply chain. Wherever possible, British-grown ingredients are prioritised, ensuring both exceptional quality and a meaningful contribution to rural prosperity.

The company’s portfolio comprises six beers. These are Act of Union Premium Bitter, The West Saxon SIPA, Province of Britannia Golden Ale, The Tea Clipper Pale Ale, Queen and Empress Lager, and The Prince Regent Draught Stout. 

And as the company enters its third year in business, we speak to Kirk about his passion British ingredients, his love of agriculture and travel, and also how these all inform the beers that Atlantic Archipelago are seeing great success with.

Fresh from celebrating the brewery’s latest birthday at the end of 2025, the team at Full Circle are gearing up for another year of growth and evolution.

One of the UK’s most revered and regarded modern breweries, Full Circle’s 2025 was characterised by new releases and collaborations to events, community gatherings, and behind-the-scenes milestones.

And later this month, we are thrilled to be heading to their excellent Newcastle taproom for our first Brewers Lectures of 2026.

The Brewers Lectures will take place on the 25th February from 12:00-17:00 at the brewery’s taproom, which can be found at Hoults Yard, Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne NE6 2HL. You can get your tickets right here.

Supported by Certuss Steam Generators, the event will feature a raft of brilliant figures from across the world of beer and brewing.

We’ll have talks from Tom Bott, the co-founder of London’s Signature Brew, Tim Bloomer, the co-founder and sustainability director at Fell Brewery and Daisy Turnell, a marketing professional with 24 years of experience in the craft beer and hospitality industries.

We’ll also be joined by Jack Walker, the head brewer at Liverpool-based Azvex, Ben Murphy, the head distiller at Ad Gefrin and Andrew Barnett, the founder of Barney’s Beer in Edinburgh. 

There will also be talks from Dan Hocking, the head brewer at Bundobust in Manchester and Red Kellie, joint owner and head brewer of the First & Last Brewery, a family-run brewery, taproom and event space situated in rural Northumberland.

For more information and to get your tickets, please visit www.brewersjournal.info

So on that note, what better opportunity to revisit our chat with Full Circle Brew Co founder Ben Cleary from 2023. And while his values and ethos remain the same, Full Circle Brew Co has come on leaps and bounds since then…

When it comes to brewing, what excites you? The beautiful thing about beer is that we all come at it from different directions, with different passions, different opinions.

And for Red Kellie, she loves making a wealth of different beers that end up in cask, keg, bottle and can. But it’s working with wild and foraged ingredients where her and team really come into their own.

Red is joint owner and head brewer of the First & Last Brewery. Founded with husband Sam, First & Last is a family-run brewery, taproom and event space situated in rural Northumberland.

The brewery doubles as a community space used for everything from art workshops to gigs and literature events. They brew a wide range of styles from hazy IPAs, through to sours, wheat beers, stouts and Belgian beers.

At their core, they enjoy brewing well-balanced beers that you want to have another sip of. They also create those using locally sourced & foraged ingredients to produce seasonal specialty beers that offer a true taste of Northumberland.

After helping to establish Stu Brew at Newcastle University, Europe’s first student run brewery, and then Twice Brewed Brewery, Red set up the First & Last Brewery in 2016. 

Here, her driving passion is for pairing wild ingredients from the local hedgerows and forests with beer styles, so that their qualities complement and accentuate each other.

Experimentation and innovation of working with fresh, hand-picked ingredients such as gorseflowers, sprucetips, bullaces and wild raspberries also give her the perfect excuse to be outside soaking up the beautiful local landscape.

And in 2026, the team mark 10 years since the brewery was incorporated. In this episode, we speak to Red about her storied journey in beer which would eventually lead to opening a brewery to call her own.

We discuss the impact Stu Brew continues to have on the wider UK brewing industry, the love of fermentation she shares with husband and co-founder Sam, and why in a crowded beverage landscape she feels that wild and foraged beers are simply special.

Photo Credit: First & Last Brewery

Fresh from celebrating their triumphant 20th anniversary in 2025, Thornbridge can reflect on another year of growth and evolution. And in 2026, beer fans can expect a raft of new beers including a number of fresh releases from its celebrated Union system.

So as we gear up for another 12 months of beautiful beer, let’s take a look back at our conversation with brewery co-founder Simon Webster from this time last year ahead of what prove to be a fantastic period for the Bakewell business.

There are certain joys, certain constants when it comes to the world of beer. And one of those has to be the pleasure when scanning the bar for a pint and you happen across the pump clip for Jaipur on cask.

It’s a seminal beer that has stood the test of time and this year the brewery responsible, Thornbridge, based in the Derbyshire Dales, celebrates the 20th anniversary of both that beer and the business, too.

The Thornbridge story began back in 2005 when founders Jim Harrison and Simon Webster recruited two young brewers to brew on a second hand 10-barrel kit in the grounds of Thornbridge Hall.

A journey that began in the small Stonemasons Workshop at Thornbridge Hall is one that has gone on to grow into the Riverside Brewery in Bakewell where the team produce some nine million pints of beer each year.

Like any good business, the brewery has moved with the times. While Jaipur remains the flagship, its gluten-free Helles Lukas and Green Mountain, a 4.3% Hazy Session IPA, also account for a significant amount of the brewery’s production.

Thanks to a brewing team led by Ben Wood, Dominic Driscoll and Rob Lovatt, they create beers that cater for a wide and diverse audience.

So as the celebrated brewery embarks on a year that will toast two decades in business, we caught up with co-founder Simon Webster to discuss the Thornbridge journey.

We look at the recent fantastic new addition of a Burton Union set, why collaborations continue to play a key part in the brewery’s proposition and, with new pub openings on the horizon, why Simon believes that such environments remain the best choice when it comes to enjoying a beer.

Meet Tamar Banner, a veteran of the craft beer industry, having started brewing professionally in the US in 2001.

In more than 24 years of brewing, she has worked in the brewhouse, cellar, packaging, quality, and management.

She is currently the brewmaster at To Øl Brewery in Denmark where she manages brewing, packaging, quality and recipe development. Prior to To Øl, she worked for Harpoon Brewery in both Boston and Vermont, New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, and BrewDog Brewery in Canal Winchester, Ohio.

As a Certified Cicerone, she has a passion for beer/food pairing, and speaks regularly at beer dinners, festivals, and events. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree in Brewing and Distilling Science from Heriot Watt University. 

She has been on the board of two different chapters of the Master Brewers Association of the Americas, and is currently an active member of the Danish Brewmasters Association. 

In her spare time, she loves experimenting with other forms of fermentation, and makes her own cheeses at home.

And with such a decorated career, we invited Tamar to deliver a keynote address at our Brewers Congress event in London last Autumn.

In this extract from that talk, Tamar asked brewers if they thought their beer tastes the way they intended when the customer is drinking it? And if brewers are satisfied with how their beer tastes at the end of its shelf life.

She also emphasised the need for industry collaboration, better refrigeration practices, and consumer education to ensure fresher beer.

From Café Kick to Coin Laundry, and from Moro to Mikkeller, Exmouth Market in London is a favourite spot for many in the capital. For good reason, too…

And since late 2019, the Mikkeller Brewpub has been serving the great and the good a wealth of excellent beers. 

For fans of brilliant beer there are few experiences more enjoyable than imbibing it at the source. Be that at a brewery taproom, or the brewpub model more commonly found in North America, the idea of grain to glass can mean beer at its best.

And under the guidance of head brewer Will Phoenix, patrons can enjoy just that in Clerkenwell in London. The majority of the brewpub’s 20 taps are beers produced on-site with current offerings including New England IPA Mic Drop, Market Best Bitter and Grandma’s Fridge Cake, an Imperial Pastry Stout produced in collaboration with Lervig.

While visitors to Exmouth Market can look forward to an upcoming lager showcase starting later in January, we caught up with head brewer Will and location manager Jake Milne at the end of November.

With Jake having since returned to his native New Zealand following a decorated career in hospitality in the UK, we discussed what makes him tick and what makes for a successful hospitality environment.

We also spoke with Will about his journey in the world of beer, starting out in a mixed fermentation brewery at Pastore of Cambridge, and his love of producing beers in the Mikkeller brewpub environment. The challenges and opportunities this setup presents and his plans for the year ahead.

It’s been another fantastic year for Windsor’s Two Flints…

Following on from the recent release of their celebrated collab Double IPA with Ghost Whale’s Ray Hadnett, the brewery has also worked with NZ Hops on their Bract Project initiative.

Not only that, they’ve released one of the year’s best dark beers in Heartwood – the barrel aged evolution of their debut Imperial Stout ‘Into the Night’.

So with that in mind, we’re revisiting our conversation with founder Alex Kerr from earlier this year.

In this episode we speak with Alex to learn about his early influences and how he found a passion for brewing while living in Singapore.

We discuss his fascination with hops and the qualities they impart on the beers they brew, the importance of Two Flints’ taproom and also reflect on his desire for continuous improvement in everything that they do.

“It takes two flints to make a fire”

Where did the inspiration for your brewery name come from? For Alex Kerr, founder of Windsor, Berkshire-based Two Flints, he has his own story to tell. And drawing influence from the famous quote from Louisa May Alcott’s coming-of-age novel Little Women was just the place to start.

Opening at the end of 2022, Two Flints recently has marked its second anniversary brewing in Berkshire. 

A town that has been the home of Windsor and Eton Brewery for more than 10 years, Alex Kerr and his team have given beer fans another new spot for excellent beer. And soon after in 2023, they would soon be joined in Windsor by neighbours Indie Rabble, the brewery founded by Naomi and Dave Hayward.

Since starting out, Two Flints has made its name with a series of excellent hop-forward, hazy pale ales and IPAs such as Santiago, Never End and Big Bash. But they also make superb lagers and other styles, too.

Being part of the teams at two of the UK’s most regarded breweries is good going by anyone’s standards. But for Robin Head-Fourman, the opportunity to open a brewery of his own was an opportunity that was too hard to turn down. And in doing so, represents the latest stage in a decorated brewing career.

And if you don’t know him personally, there’s a good chance you have enjoyed a beer he has brewed.

Part of the revered Burning Sky in Firle since 2016, he would go on to join a fellow Sussex brewery in Beak during their infancy. Here, as head brewer for more than four years, he and the team helped grow the business to become one of the UK’s best modern breweries.

Robin’s professional brewing story started back in 2014 where he completed his MSc in Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh.

It was the latest stage of a journey that had seen Robin brew beer at home – long before it was legal for him to drink it.

But during his time at Heriot-Watt, he would meet Burning Sky founder Mark Tranter who gave Robin invaluable work experience at the brewery he would eventually go on to join.

Several years later, when Robin got word that Leeds-native Danny Tapper was to start a new brewery in Sussex, a meeting arranged by mutual friend Jonny Hamilton, would help set the foundations of Beak Brewery firmly in place.

Part of a team completed by head of operations and sales Katerina Türková, Beak has grown and evolved since opening its doors during the pandemic-enforced lockdown in 2020.

But after a rewarding stint at Beak, another brewing opportunity appeared somewhat out of nowhere. And it was the chance to do something different – something on his own.

Following an eight-year closure, The Trevor Arms pub in Glynde, East Sussex reopened earlier this year. Now run by Steve Keegan and Bethany Warren, there was scope for a brewing operation on-site.

And in a case of right place, right time, Robin’s wife Katie got word of the new establishment. And just like that, Fourman Brewery was born…

In this episode, Robin takes us through his career to-date, why this new opportunity was too difficult to turn down and how he is now using his wealth of brewing expertise to create excellent, small-batch beers in East Sussex.

Photo Credit: Alex Catt

Showcasing and celebrating the finest beers and breweries from around the globe is one of the most rewarding parts of the brewing industry.

And at the end of September here at The Brewers Journal we toasted the winners of our very own Brewers Choice Awards.

But for these events to happen, breweries need to be prepared to show off their latest creations and decorated judges from far and wide need to assess the great and good.

And with the entry deadline for the 2026 World Beer Cup rapidly approaching, we invited someone who knows a thing or two about this most fulfilling element of beer and brewing.

Meet Lotte Peplow. Lotte is is the Brewers Association’s American Craft Beer Ambassador for Europe. Her role is to identify opportunities for international expansion of American craft beer and to raise awareness about the quality, diversity and innovation from America’s small and independent craft brewers.

Based in London, UK she’s a Certified Cicerone, Beer Sommelier, beer writer, author, international beer judge and keen beer and food pairing advocate.

And in judging beer competitions around the world, she knows the dos and don’ts when it comes to entering these contests and also how to judge them, too.

So in this episode, we speak to Lotte about the different competitions available to brewers, unearth some tips and tricks for entering (and winning!) and also essential information on how to become a beer judge.

Main image credit: Bart Van De Per

Second image credit: Noelia Amado