The Pellicle Podcast

Welcome you what you could consider the beginning of The Pellicle Podcast 2.0. After much deliberation we've made the decision to switch from a series-based format to an episodic one. We just didn't have the time or the resources available in our current schedule to produce the documentary-style episodes we had in mind when originally launching this podcast. This change will allow us to produce episodes in a more timely fashion, thus keeping the show's momentum going.

We've also made a few editorial changes, for example we'll be introducing more long-form interviews. We know a lot of beer podcasts already do these very well, but you know the feeling where you're listening to a conversation and wish they'd ask the question that's burning away at the back of your mind? Well, we're in an advantageous situation where we can do exactly that, and who are we to deny you folks? In addition, our host—Pellicle co-founder Matthew Curtis—will be using the podcast as his personal scratchpad to explore his feelings on some of the bigger (and smaller) topics in beer, wine and cider.

Which brings us to our latest episode. Over the past few years the UK's beer industry has been embroiled in debate over whether or not some of its smallest brewers are paying enough tax, and if some of its larger brewers are paying too much. In this episode our host explores his personal feelings on a matter he's spent much of the past three years covering, with few holds barred, and a conclusion that perhaps changes to the duty system should be the least of small brewers concerns. 

If you enjoy this new format of the show—or you didn't—drop us a line and let us know.

In this episode we reference an article on Marston's by Jonny Garrett for Good Beer Hunting, which can be read here: https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/sightlines/2019/12/9/years-of-lying-to-pub-tenants-could-cost-marstons-millions

Thanks again to our Patreon subscribers for making this podcast possible. If you’re able to support Pellicle with a monthly donation, please head to patreon.com/pelliclemag.

Episode Host: Matthew Curtis
Read more at www.pelliclemag.com

Welcome to this special edition of the Pellicle Podcast. Today’s episode was recorded back in February at Cloudwater’s Friends and Family and Beer Festival. It’s hard to believe that such a brilliant event actually happened in 2020, but we’re so glad it did, and we’ll remember that weekend fondly for a long time to come. Thanks again to Paul, Doreen and Connor at Cloudwater for inviting Jonny and I up to host these talks at the festival.

In this episode, we chat to Alex Troncoso of Lost and Grounded in Bristol, and Katie Pietsch from WhiteFrontier in Switzerland, as we get into conversation about what makes lager so universally appealing, and contemplate why its popularity has been steadily growing among craft beer consumers who typically lean towards American hops, complex sours, and delectably big stouts.

Thanks again to our Patreon subscribers for making this podcast possible, including Cloudwater, who are one of our pro-tier subscribers. If you’re able to support Pellicle with a monthly donation, please head to patreon.com/pelliclemag. 

Host: Matthew Curtis 
Guests: Alex Troncoso — Lost & Grounded, Katie Pietsch — WhiteFrontier
Read more at www.pelliclemag.com
 

Welcome to this special edition of the Pellicle Podcast. Today’s episode was recorded back in February at Cloudwater’s Friends and Family and Beer Festival. It’s hard to believe that such a brilliant event actually happened in 2020, but we’re so glad it did, and we’ll remember that weekend fondly for a long time to come. Thanks again to Paul, Doreen and Connor at Cloudwater for inviting Jonny and I up to host these talks at the festival.

In this episode Jonny Hamilton chats with Khris Johnson from Green Bench in Florida, Andrew Schwartz from Modern Times in San Diego, California and Felix Nash from The Fine Cider Company here in the UK, on what happens when the production of beer, wine and cider are brought together, and what potential experiences does this offers to the curious drinker. This is a fascinating insight into the crossover of beer, wine and cider, and I hope you find this discussion as compelling as I did when I got to sit in the audience and listen in.

Thanks again to our Patreon subscribers for making this podcast possible, including Cloudwater, who are one of our pro-tier subscribers. If you’re able to support Pellicle with a monthly donation, please head to patreon.com/pelliclemag.

Host: Jonny Hamilton 
Guests: Khris Johnson — Green Bench, Andrew Schwarz — Modern Times, Felix Nash — The Fine Cider Company
Read more at www.pelliclemag.com
 

Welcome to this special edition of the Pellicle Podcast. Today’s episode was recorded back in February at Cloudwater’s Friends and Family and Beer Festival. It’s hard to believe that such a brilliant event actually happened in 2020, but we’re so glad it did, and we’ll remember that weekend fondly for a long time to come. Thanks again to Paul, Doreen and Connor at Cloudwater for inviting Jonny and I up to host these talks at the festival.

In this episode we take great pleasure in chatting to two bonafide industry legends: Doug Odell from Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Paul Wood, now retired but formerly of Manchester’s own JW Lees Brewery. Over the next half hour, we chat about how styles vital to the beer heritage of the United Kingdom such as bitter and mild remain as vital today, and tomorrow, as they’ve always been.

One additional, very important thing about this episode. At the moment I am not actively supporting JW Lees brewery, due to their stance on beer taxation reform in the UK, and how this might negatively affect many of the UK's small breweries. However, I really enjoyed this conversation, and still consider it having value, hence why I’m sharing it. But not everything I say during this recording is reflective of my present stance—find me on twitter @totalcurtis for a more updated view.

Thanks again to our Patreon subscribers for making this podcast possible, including Cloudwater, who are one of our pro-tier subscribers. If you’re able to support Pellicle with a monthly donation, please head to patreon.com/pelliclemag. 

Host: Matthew Curtis 
Guests: Paul Wood — J.W. Lees, Doug Odell — Odell Brewing
Read more at www.pelliclemag.com
 

Here’s something a little different for you. The latest episode of our podcast is spoken word recording of our co-founder Matthew Curtis’ popular article on his visit to Russian River’s brewpub in Santa Rosa, California, for a taste of its revered Pliny the Elder at the source. It’s a short episode at just 13 minutes, but one we still hope you’ll enjoy a great deal.

Regular listeners will know that we’ve narrated a couple of our stories before during a couple of the episodes in the first series of our podcast. This time, however, we’ve not only decided to produce a spoken word version of a feature, but also underpin it with a score. One will—hopefully—add a little extra drama and impact to the listening experience. It should go without saying that we welcome all feedback on how this worked (or didn’t) for you.

There is intent behind this too, as we wanted to see how viable it would be in terms of time and resources to record scores for the episodes planned as part of The Pellicle Podcast’s second series. The answer is that 12-minute-long soundtracks probably aren’t going to become a regular part of our broadcasting, but hopefully we’ll figure out a more time-sensitive way of adding a little colour and flare to S2 when it’s in post-production. More on that soon.

For now, please enjoy this episode, which you can either stream or download below, or via popular services such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and many more. If you’re enjoying our podcasts please subscribe on your app and leave a review if you’ve time, and if you want to help fund more content like this, please consider signing up for a monthly donation via our Patreon page. 

The track in this episode is called “Sonoma” and is written, produced and performed by Matthew Curtis. We recommend sitting in a big, comfy chair with headphones and a cold class of IPA for an optimal listening experience. 

Host: Matthew Curtis 
Read more at www.pelliclemag.com
Support our podcast at patreon.com/pelliclemag

It’s over to my partner in crime Jonathan Hamilton to host this, our final panel talk from FyneFest 2019. This discussion is all about spontaneous, mixed fermentation and wild ales—perhaps collectively better known, for better or worse, as “sours”. He’s joined on the panel by Andy Gibson, who at the time was working for BrewDog Overworks, Steven Smith-Hay from Vault City, Jim Rangeley of Abbeydale’s Funk Dungeon project, and Andrea Ladas, who helped establish the Origins project at Fyne Ales. 

This episode is a must listen for anyone curious about the production of sour beers, as this is a super fun, and geeky chat. I’ll leave it there but quickly want to say thank you for listening to these talks, and thanks again to Fyne Ales for having us. We’ll see you back in the Glen in 2021. And I’ll be back in a week or two with some more episodes, including yet more panel talks from this year’s Cloudwater Friends & Family & Beer festival. Stay tuned! 

Host: Jonny Hamilton 
Guests: Jim Rangeley — Abbeydale, Andy Gibson — BrewDog Overworks, Steven Smith-Hay — Vault City, Andrea Ladas — Fyne Ales
Read more at www.pelliclemag.com
Support our podcast at patreon.com/pelliclemag

In recent months I’ve become fascinated by the idea of legacy in modern beer, and what kind of impact today’s brewers will have on the next generation of beer lovers. We’re incredibly fortunate for the existence of beers like Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, Harvey’s Best, St. Austell Tribute and Fyne Ale’s very own Jarl—beers with a seemingly timeless quality that will hopefully continue to be enjoyed for decades to come. 

But what’s next? They say it takes at least 10 years to build a brand, and with many modern breweries focusing instead on limited releases and one-off beers, what are they building in terms of brand and identity? In this discussion we try to get to the bottom of this.

I’m joined on this panel by three people who are highly invested in their brands: Tina Breslin, the illustrator behind the compelling cans from Manchester’s Wander Beyond, Andrew Mathews of Vibrant Forest Brewery, known for its equally vibrant artwork, and the lovely Iain Smith, marketing manager at Fyne Ales, who was the person kind enough to let us folks at Pellicle host these talks. 

It’s a fascinating chat, especially if you’re interested in branding and design as well as the beer itself. And apologies for a little background noise, this was recorded at a festival heading well into the livelier portion of its afternoon.

Host: Matthew Curtis 
Guests: Tina Breslin — Wander Beyond, Andrew Mathews — Vibrant Forest, Iain "Arrows" Smith — Fyne Ales
Read more at www.pelliclemag.com
Support our podcast at patreon.com/pelliclemag

You already know how much we love beer, wine and cider here at Pellicle. Something that also fascinates us, however, are hybrids—co-fermentations of beer with wine grapes for example, or blends of beer and cider, which is sometimes referred to as graf. These boundary pushing beverages aren’t just incredibly delicious, but within them also lies potential. Too often the worlds of beer, wine and cider are viewed separately, but I see them as three cards within the same deck. Hybrids provide each of these worlds with an opportunity to understand each other, and, hopefully, bring them closer together in the process. 

Take this episodes panelists, for example. Jonny Mills of Mills Brewing has caused a stir among hardened beer collectors with his incredible beer/cider hybrids, produced in collaboration with cidermaker Tom Oliver. At Duration Brewing in Norfolk, head brewer Derek Bates is inspired to use seasonal produce within his beers, and has previously made a grape must infused New England IPA with his friends at Verdant Brewing in Cornwall. And before he moved on from Beavertown, my Pellicle co-founder Jonny Hamilton was creating mixed fermentation beers incorporating grapes from Chapel Down winery in Kent. He even got to pour them in California at Firestone Walker’s Terroir Project—a festival of beer/wine hybrids.

In this panel discussion, recorded at FyneFest 2019, we dig into the world of hybrid fermentations, discussing their potential, who their prospective audience is, and why they are oh so delicious.

Host: Matthew Curtis
Guests: Jonny Mills — Mills Brewing, Derek Bates — Duration, Jonny Hamilton — Pellicle
Read more at www.pelliclemag.com
Support our podcast at patreon.com/pelliclemag

Time. It makes fools of us all. When listening back to this episode I couldn’t decide whether to publish or not, as so much has changed over the last 12 months. However, I feel this episode is still relevant and worthwhile. Perhaps serving as a marker of how we felt about independence in beer in 2019, feelings that have likely intensified significantly over the past few months. 

Independence is hugely important to me, but getting to the bottom of why it’s so important is challenging. On this panel I’m joined by Eddie Lofthouse, founder of Harbour Brewing in Cornwall, Matt Clarke, who at the time of this recording was the head brewer at Hawkshead Brewery in Cumbria, and Kevin Brooks, who at the time was working for US importer Shelton Brothers, but has recently left to set up his own company, Oasthouse Creative.  

The reason I was so reticent about publishing isn’t just because during this panel I don’t really manage to gather enough evidence to make a case for independence. But since then, Matt Clarke has been made redundant, along with 14 other staff at Hawkshead, as its owner Halewood Wines and Spirits—who acquired the brewery in March 2017—covered its losses during the financial difficulties created by the pandemic. For me, this signified how important independence is, and what it means: control, or the lack of. In making those redundancies I feel the heart and soul—its people—has been torn out of Hawkshead Brewery. 

This episode is also evidence of how fast the beer industry moves. To my panelists, if you’re listening, thank you for being on this episode. And, if your opinions have changed since its recording, please drop me a line, as I’d love to get you back on the show to talk about it. 

I hope you enjoy this one folks — and just a reminder that this was recorded at a festival, so there’s a little background noise, but hopefully it’s not too intrusive. 

Host: Matthew Curtis 
Guests: Matt Clarke — Hawkshead, Eddie Lofthouse — Harbour, Kevin Brooks — Shelton Bros. 
Read more at www.pelliclemag.com
Support our podcast at patreon.com/pelliclemag

Today’s show is part of a series of panel talks recorded at 2019’s Fynefest—The annual festival held by Fyne Ales, at the home of their brewery and family farm in Cairndow, Scotland.

In this episode we debate about one of my favourite subjects—cask ale—and why it means so much to both British brewing traditions, and to modern beer culture. Our panelists in this session were Stuart Ross of Magic Rock Brewing Company, Abbeydale Brewery’s Laura Rangeley and Doreen Joy Barber of Cloudwater. Plus, there’s a special guest appearance at the start from Cloudwater’s Jay Krause while we waited for Doreen to find the venue, where we hosted these talks.

Fyne Ales have been huge friends and supporters of Pellicle since day one, and it was a privilege to be invited to host these talks. We were gutted not to be able to return to the Glen in 2020 due to the pandemic, but are already relishing returning in 2021 with gusto. 

Host: Matthew Curtis 
Guests: Stuart Ross — Magic Rock, Laura Rangeley — Abbeydale, Doreen Joy Barber — Cloudwater, Jay Krause — Cloudwater
Read more at www.pelliclemag.com
Support our podcast at patreon.com/pelliclemag