I'm a 30-something male lifestyle blogger from Hampshire writing about craft beer, food and drink, pubs, restaurants and getting outside.
Why is keg craft beer more expensive than cask beer and ale? To find out, I asked some of the south’s top brewers and publicans. Here’s what I learnt.
Kegs – through their association with bland, mass-produced beer and lager – used to be a dirty word when it came to quality beer and ale.
Not so anymore.
While some real ale stalwarts will only drink draught beer served from a cask, savvy drinkers recognise that there are now lots of decent craft keg beers available in the UK.… Read more
See how I fared when I joined head brewer David Mackie to find out how the Flower Pots Brewery in Cheriton near Winchester turns humble ingredients into award-winning craft ales.
The Flower Pots Brewery in Cheriton near Winchester is only 11 years old. So it’s easy to forget it’s one of Hampshire’s oldest breweries, coming before the recent boom in craft brewers in the county.… Read more
Whether it’s traditional country inns, city bars or trendy micropubs, the Southampton, Winchester and Portsmouth area is blessed with many great places that serve Hampshire beer.
But there are still few better places to sample the best ales from Hampshire’s 30+ breweries than at a local beer festival.
After a break of a few years due to always forgetting to buy a ticket (doh), I headed to the first session of the sold-out Winchester Beer and Cider Festival at the city’s Guildhall last Friday afternoon.… Read more
Judging from the messages I’ve received over the past year or so, a search for Hampshire’s best burger isn’t complete without a visit to 7Bone Burger Co.
The birth of 7Bone was the subject of an episode of the BBC TV show, “Restaurant Man” in 2014. It now has restaurants in Southampton, Bournemouth, Camberley and Reading.
We finally headed to the Southampton branch in Portswood last week for an impromptu night out to celebrate my birthday.… Read more
Find out how I got on when I spent the weekend visiting some of Leeds’ many craft beer bars and real ale pubs.
It’s Saturday morning in early March on the south bank of the Leeds and Liverpool canal a few hundred yards from Leeds city centre.
Jamie and I are treading carefully along the sodden towpath to pick up our friend, Robbie.… Read more
I do love a good pub crawl.
But there are times when it’s nice to settle in at a pub or bar for a few hours and relax with some good beers and something to eat.
That’s what Tiff and I did a couple of weeks ago before a rare trip to watch a gig at the Engine Rooms in Southampton.… Read more