Will Hawkes

Beer: the mistake that beat the world

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 - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 18 May 2012 at 10:21 am

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Beer cocktails: ‘It’s about having fun’

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 - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 20 April 2012 at 10:15 am

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Craft beer creeps across the Severn

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 - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 23 March 2012 at 10:15 am

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Why brewers fear the budget

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 - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 16 March 2012 at 9:33 am

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Lager is dead. Long live lager

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 - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 9 March 2012 at 8:36 am

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The brewery that changed America

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 - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 2 March 2012 at 8:50 am

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‘French beer is unknown. We must change that’

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 - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 17 February 2012 at 8:50 am

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Beer: A little local deity

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 - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 3 February 2012 at 8:51 am

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Beer: ‘Cornwall is now en vogue’

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 - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 27 January 2012 at 8:52 am

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The rise and rise of the beer festival

It’s sometimes said that you’re never more than six feet away from a rat, which is a sobering thought. These days, you could equally say that you’re never more than a few days from a beer festival, a claim which has the benefit of being rather less sobering and far more likely to be true. [...]

By Will Hawkes | Notebook - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 20 January 2012 at 8:56 am

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