Will Hawkes is a freelance journalist and the author of Craft Beer London, a book and iphone app devoted to the city's burgeoning beer scene. He has written for The Independent, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Sydney Morning Herald and a host of other publications.
It seems like half of the breweries in Britain have produced a new beer for the occasion – or, at the very least, re-badged an old one in order to capture some of the Jubilee frenzy. Nor can those in charge claim to have been taken by surprise by the volume of celebratory brews: it’s an old tradition. British brewers have been marking big Royal occasions with special beers for many generations.
By Will Hawkes | Notebook, Opinion | Friday, 1 June 2012 at 8:32 am
Britons tend to return disappointed from World Cups; the tradition is to skulk off amid bitter recriminations just as the real meat of the competition is getting started…but that’s not how it always goes. There are exceptions. One such came at the World Beer Cup – yes, even beer now has a world cup – in San Diego this month.
By Will Hawkes | Notebook | Friday, 18 May 2012 at 10:21 am
It’s enough to make an ale drinker’s beard turn white. Beer cocktails? Even to the more open-minded drinker, it sounds a far-fetched idea: cocktails and beer don’t always comfortably share the same bar space, let alone the same glass – but things are changing. A trend that began in the US has skipped daintily across [...]
By Will Hawkes | Notebook | Friday, 20 April 2012 at 10:15 am
There’s a huge piece of graffiti on the wall of the Tiny Rebel Brewing Co in Newport, Wales, but the owners don’t mind. After all, they asked for it. Brad Cummings, who opened the brewery this year with brother-in-law Gareth Williams, is delighted with the handiwork of Bristol artist Dones One (right) – and if [...]
By Will Hawkes | Notebook | Friday, 23 March 2012 at 10:15 am
There was a big do at the Norwegian Embassy last night. Ambassador Kim Traavik had invited a motley collection of beer worthies – brewers, writers, serious drinkers – to Palace Green in London to celebrate the official British launch of Nogne O’s beers. It was a convivial occasion, and a sign of the impact craft [...]
By Will Hawkes | Notebook | Friday, 16 March 2012 at 9:33 am
If you want to appreciate how British beer has changed, have a lager. Once upon a time this middle-European beer style was regarded as the devil incarnate by many British ale drinkers, the cuckoo in the nest that had laid waste to a nation’s proud heritage. Not any more.
By Will Hawkes | Notebook | Friday, 9 March 2012 at 8:36 am
Ken Grossman is not a boastful man, despite having plenty to feel smug about. His Sierra Nevada brewery, founded in 1980, played a pivotal role – perhaps the pivotal role – in launching America’s craft beer revolution, and the flagship product, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, has become an icon, inspiring countless brewers across the globe. [...]
By Will Hawkes | Notebook | Friday, 2 March 2012 at 8:50 am
Stereotypes die hard. ‘The Very Hungry Frenchman’, the BBC’s current television series following chef Raymond Blanc as he scoffs his way around his native land, demonstrates just how committed the British are to thinking of France in a certain way: good food, joie de vivre, Citroen 2CVs. This is the land where everyone appreciates a [...]
By Will Hawkes | Notebook | Friday, 17 February 2012 at 8:50 am
There are few concepts quite as French as that of terroir. This idea – which, to put it as simply as humanly possible, suggests wine has a unique character dictated by the spot in which the grapes were grown – is both fanciful and beguiling, and thus deadly when it enters the head of the [...]
By Will Hawkes | Notebook | Friday, 3 February 2012 at 8:51 am
Cornwall’s newest brewery opened last week. The Harbour Brewing Company, based in Bodmin, joins a crowded market: England’s most westerly county may once have been regarded as something of a good beer desert, but times have changed. There are now more than 20 breweries in the county, and a handful of them are known nationwide. [...]
By Will Hawkes | Notebook | Friday, 27 January 2012 at 8:52 am
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