Boak & Bailey (Jess & Ray)
@boakandbailey.bsky.social
In Bristol. Beer blogging in the UK since 2007. Also wrote some books about beer and pubs. Header image shows a detail from the cover of one. Won't repost if you don't use alt text. Find us at boakandbailey.com
The latest beer from Ashley Down Brewery is called ? Made by the brewer formerly known as Vince.
BLOG POST: “What these colours also echo, now we think about it, are the two chambers of the Palace of Westminster. The benches are green in the House of Commons and red in the House of Lords...” boakandbailey.com/2026/08/what...
What makes a pub feel modern?
If your pub is painted mostly grey or has an industrial look, it probably feels old-fashioned. The best modern pubs are just Victorian enough.
boakandbailey.com
Another Substack piece migrated over to the blog proper, and backdated: "In which, desperate for attention, we put forward a controversial opinion..." boakandbailey.com/2024/05/pubs...
Pubs: they’re quite good
Look, call us controversialists or clickbait merchants if you like but we speak our minds. And we happen to think that pubs are quite good. There. We said it.
boakandbailey.com
GOOD MORNING! Here's the latest edition of news, nuggets and longreads, top and tailed with lagers (one a classic, the other 'watery'), and with a couple of notes from Ireland in the middle. boakandbailey.com/2026/08/news...
News, nuggets and longreads 1 August 2026: African Psycho
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got warmer Guinness, Italian pils and the Good People.
boakandbailey.com
of all the turns of phrase people use in the pub "do you know where the toilets are" is one of the funniest. no. we've been looking for them for years now
“When we talked about the pubs that we admired most, like our sources of inspiration in the [United Kingdom], there was always a handwritten menu...”
Ray Newman@raynewman.bsky.social · 6d ago“‘Frictionmaxxing,’ a term that writer Kathryn Jezer-Morton coined to refer to a rejection of technologies of convenience in favor of slower and more analog processes, has escaped containment, coming to mean the general choice to choose pre-internet ways of creation and problem-solving.”
We had the most amazing day at Schönramer brewery. An excellent brewery tour at a local brewery working at surprising scale. If you're in the area, definitely worth a visit.
Looks like I need to get over to Bill Aherne’s, had been wondering about the spot. Certainly a post @boakandbailey.bsky.social should not miss from @3castlesburning.bsky.social: The Modern Pint Is Too Cold. Willie Aherne Has a Solution. substack.com/@publichouse...
The Modern Pint Is Too Cold. Willie Aherne Has a Solution.
A rare 1950s Guinness tap box is one thing, but room temperature Guinness is a different throwback entirely.
substack.com
“The fact that the arrival of a Wetherspoons pub in the town was a major game changer tells all that you really need to know.” There are two types of town, etc.
Sean The Brewer@seanayling.bsky.social · last wk.musinganorak.com/this-is-crew... @musinganorak.bsky.social wrote this a few years ago. Craft Beer Oasis has gone but the others are there.
Follow up question: who has written about the pubs of Crewe? @chrisd55.bsky.social maybe?
Sean The Brewer@seanayling.bsky.social · last wk.That would be the Borough Arms 1857ish but Crewe didn't exist before the railways and, because the railways came first the town is laid out in three silos. Needs a shuttle bus really, or a really good boozer on the platform.
BLOG POST: We don't hesitate to declare the revived Crown Inn in Stockport one of the country's great pubs. boakandbailey.com/2026/07/the-...
The Crown Inn, Stockport, feels just right | Boak & Bailey Beer Blog
You know The Crown Inn: it’s the gorgeous Victorian pub beneath the wonder of the world that is the Stockport viaduct.
boakandbailey.com
Guest beers at Brewdog Waverley tell a very 2026 story
Every now and then we're prompted to move something we wrote on Substack over the blog proper, backdated. Here's something from 2024 on pubs and psychogeography. boakandbailey.com/2024/06/pub-...
Pub crawling as a way to practice psychogeography
There are few better ways to get to know a town or city than to go on a pub crawl with your eyes and brain engaged. Psychogeography is the exploration of towns and cities while reflecting on the meani...
boakandbailey.com
Thanks for the link to the blog on Borth. Stayed there with the family for a few days around the time Covid-19 restrictions ended. The view from Victoria Inn’s beer garden was lovely, made better with the respite of a sleeping toddler. There were plenty of Aston Villa jerseys donned.
GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular round up of good writing about beer and pubs, with an emphasis on the latter this week. boakandbailey.com/2026/07/news...
News, nuggets and longreads 25 July 2026: Grimscribe
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got West Wales, South Wales, Belfast and Edinburgh.
boakandbailey.com
“The barman told me that Hoegaarden in draught (keg) form is ceasing UK distribution.” tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.com/2026/07/a-co...
A Couple of Things
We had our CAMRA Rochdale, Oldham and Bury committee meeting at the Baum in Rochdale last night. It used to be our main branch venue until ...
tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.com
Boak & Bailey (Jess & Ray)@boakandbailey.bsky.social · 2w agoBLOG POST: When it gets warm we want to drink Witbier, it turns out. boakandbailey.com/2026/07/what...
BLOG POST: When it gets warm we want to drink Witbier, it turns out. boakandbailey.com/2026/07/what...
What is the correct beer for hot weather and why is it Witbier?
Because Belgian or Belgian-style Witbier has become such a minority style these days we forget just how good it is in hot weather.
boakandbailey.com
Here's one for the beer history (and in particular Vienna Lager) enthusiasts: the very first Carl Linde refrigeration machine using compressed ammonia, installed in 1876 at the Dreher brewery in Trieste. #beerhistory
48 countries - 1 city Mapping every world cup country's presence in Brussels
Brussels Notes - World Cup City - Google My Maps
Brussels Notes - World Cup City
google.com
Instead of a newsletter for July 2026... Notes from a heatwave, where fans, air-conditioning and cold beer are the topics of the day in pubs, bars and taprooms. boakandbailey.com/2026/07/inst...
Instead of a newsletter for July 2026… Notes from a heatwave
As you might have noticed, there’s been another heatwave in the UK, and we’ve noticed signs of drinkers and pubs adapting to this new reality. At The King’s Head the other week we found ourselves sitt...
boakandbailey.com
This weekend I'm on a Franconian brewery adventure with @fredcook.co.uk @louisekrennmair.bsky.social and @akrennmair.bsky.social We stopped for Brotzeit and beers at the Brauerei Göller in Drosendorf.
GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular weekly roundup of good writing about beer and pubs. This time we've got a lost beer style from Breslau, extreme pub crawling, and an unusual Wetherspoon, among other items. boakandbailey.com/2026/07/news...
News, nuggets and longreads 18 July 2026: Nights of Cabiria
Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got pubs by bike, Nigerian Guinness and the wonder of pubs.
boakandbailey.com
Someone should write a profile of Vince from Ashley Down brewery and his absolute refusal to do any marketing, or contribute to making his beers sellable at all. The only thing is, he wouldn't let you do that, because that would be marketing, and marketing is for losers.
Kings Head BS1@kingsheadbs1.bsky.social · 3w agoHarbour Fest weekend here in Bristol so we thought we'd put some extra cask on for the occasion. One of these is Bristol's own Ashley Down Brewery. '?' is 1/2 Wheat 1/2 Barley, fermented with fancy Belgian yeast and finished with homemade marmalade #bskybeer
This is the new book project I started working on: dafteejit.com/2026/07/my-n... #homebrewing #beerhistory
My New Book Project - Daft Eejit Brewing
In which I briefly talk about my new beer history book project, why I'm excited about it, and when you can roughly expect it to be published.
dafteejit.com
Fascinating stuff from @boakandbailey.bsky.social on pubs during the 1966 World Cup. We were at the seaside on holiday and I remember watching the final in a pub, the children's room, on a tiny screen in the corner - while playing table-tennis, my preferred sport boakandbailey.com/2026/07/pubs...
Pubs and the 1966 football World Cup | Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog
Sixty years ago England was hosting the football World Cup and pubs were very much part of the story.
boakandbailey.com