Hops are Centennial, Challenger & Citra. Feels a weird choice to brand it as Bishop's Finger IPA, although Sheps have form with turning beers into brands, qv Spitfire Gold & Lager. But as with those, the extension only works IMO if it relates to the original, which this doesn't? Whitstable maybe?

Beer Today@beertoday.bsky.social · 6d ago

Shepherd Neame is building on the popularity of its iconic Bishops Finger ale with the launch of a new beer, Bishops Finger IPA Reserve beertoday.co.uk/2026/11/02/b... #beer #beernews #ipa @shepherdneame.bsky.social

Refinement of Cs genomes (and more global sampling) helps clarify the evolutionary relationship with Humulus (#hops), in particular in relation to the evolution of cannabinoid synthase genes (aka why hops/beer don't get you stoned).

Plant Biotechnology Journal@plantbiotechj.bsky.social · 2w ago

🌱 RESEARCH 🌱 Gap-Free Cannabis sativa Assemblies Reveal Post-Polyploid Genome Remodelling and Refine the Evolution of Cannabinoid Synthase Genes - Zhang et al. 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/pbi.... #plantscience

“When the homebrewers stop entering the profession, and the backyard breweries are squeezed out, then it will become stagnant. You gotta keep getting the guys who say, ‘Cool, I can sell the beer I make. I can do it.’ ” -Vermont Pub & Brewery founder Greg Noonan (RIP) www.wcax.com/2026/10/27/v...

The Vermont Pub & Brewery announces closure after almost 38 years

Vermont’s oldest craft brewery announced its closure on Monday.

wcax.com

New Resource: "Chromosome-level phylogenomics and genome evolution of the grape family" rdcu.be/25RCaLYxvmia Family-wide phylogenomics sheds light on evolution of grapevine; role of Helitron transposons in the expansion and regulation of NLR resistance genes in grapevines. #PlantScience

I particularly like the serving suggestion.

The Times have been rummaging through their photo archives for pictures of pubs, a world with a lot of smoke and very few women (other than behind the bar): www.thetimes.com/uk/photograp... @boakandbailey.bsky.social

Going back a few years to when punters knew a bit about beer

Black and white photographs of Britain’s pubs capture so vividly a bygone era and atmosphere of these traditional pubs, you can almost smell it

thetimes.com

Perhaps the most shocking bit of this piece on deliberately breeding rice to optimise it for brewing is that a sensory panel of Germans preferred a N/A beer made with 70% rice, a US panel preferred one with 30% rice. Presumably Reinheitsgebot doesn't apply to 0% products - give 🇩🇪 what they want!

American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC)@brewingchemists.bsky.social · 4w ago

Arkansas understands the value of rice in acres, bushels, and exports. Dr. Scott Lafontaine of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture is asking a different question: What if we also measured its value by pints? https://armoneyandpolitics.com/arkansas-rice-ferment-economic-value/

INRA sequence genomes of several Metschnikowia species (used in wine and rarely as secondary 'flavour' yeast in beer, Yeast Bay sell one) to find they're all part of the M. pulcherrima family, but M. leonuri and chrysopulae appear to be triploid hybrids with an unknown relative of M. citrensis

Yeast Journal@yeast-journal.bsky.social · last mo.

New study out in #Yeast: Samer El Khoury, Cecile Grondin, Hugo Devillers, Marizeth Groenewald and @jllegras.bsky.social analyzed the genome of the Metschnikowia pulcherrima complex to resolve #taxonomic issues regarding the classification of this species. 👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

www.thetimes.com/uk/london/ar...

The right to enjoy a pint while standing is sacrosanct, council insists

Westminster had been accused of trying to clamp down on ‘vertical drinking’ in Soho, but now says it just needed to improve its communication

thetimes.com

Climate change, anybody? How about some Saaz* with only 1.8% alpha acids? *Full disclosure. Not Saaz in photo. hopqueries.com/very-bad-new...

Very bad news from European hop fields - HOP QUERIES

For the second time in five years, hop production across Europe has tumbled as a result of an intense heat wave and below average rainfall. – The Association of German Hop Growers estimates they will ...

hopqueries.com

...meh?

Jessica Mason@drinksmaven.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Timothy Taylor’s makes £9 million investment into cask @teamdb.bsky.social

reveev.com/a-black-fung...

A black fungus is thriving in the midst of Ireland’s whiskey boom – we need to know more about it

The fungus appears to feed on the airborne alcohol vapours produced during whiskey maturation....

reveev.com

🧬 The VGP Phase I preprint is out! 🎉 The Vertebrate Genomes Project has completed Phase I, delivering 816 of the highest-quality vertebrate reference genomes ever produced. Explore this major new resource for vertebrate genomics: 📄 tinyurl.com/VGPphase1 @vertebrategenomes.bsky.social #Genomics

New paper out in PNAS! 🍇🧬 Vitis phylogenomics is a tangled vine. Highlights: • ~14% of the average grape genome comes from introgression • Two classic “hybrid species” are better described as hybrid swarms • Repeated adaptation is fueled by introgression and standing genetic variation

The dynamics of introgression and parallel adaptation across North American Vitis species | PNAS

Hybridization between species can contribute to parallel adaptive events. However, the prevalence of introgression is rarely measured across multip...

pnas.org

"Kew Gardens has had a weather station since 1871. This July was, based on third party analysis of Met Office data collected at the site, the first calendar month on record where no rainfall was measured at Kew."

London's first month without rain

Plus: There's nowhere to bury the dead • London wants to keep its money • When will it stop being so damn hot • Who is to blame for turning off the air conditioning in the tower block?

londoncentric.media

Lebleux et al. investigated diversity in Maudiozyma humilis, the second most frequently encountered yeast species in sourdough bread, challenging the hypothesis that increases in ploidy are necessarily beneficial in domesticated species. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag176 #societyjournal #evolution

Genotypic and Phenotypic Diversity of Maudiozyma humilis: The Multiple Evolutionary Trajectories of a Domesticated Yeast

Abstract. Maudiozyma humilis is the second most frequently encountered yeast species in sourdough bread. Despite its ecological and food relevance, little

doi.org

PRESS RELEASE: UK's first precision bred potato receives marketing notice approval under the new regulatory framework Disease-resistant Maris Piper potatoes are now a step closer to farmers, built on decades of plant science research by @jonathandgjones.bsky.social and his team. buff.ly/jut0bX0

TSL's Disease-Resistant Potato Approved as Precision Bred

Landmark regulatory approval paves the way for a Maris Piper which has the biological capability to resist late blight and potato viruses, thus dramatically reducing the need for chemical control.

tsl.ac.uk

2026 is on track to be the warmest (~35% chance) or second warmest (~63%) year on record, while 2027 is very likely (92% chance) to be the warmest on record on the back of a growing super El Niño event. For more, check out my new Carbon Brief State of the Climate Q2 update: www.carbonbrief.org/...

🔍 Looking closely at a hawthorn leaf could help support important tree health research. Learn how to take part and where to send your observations: 🔗 https://ow.ly/w0bS50ZrhmV #CitizenScience #Hawthorn #TreeHealth #PlantHealth

Volunteers sought to help safeguard the future of UK hedgerows - Forest Research

a new national research initiative is calling on volunteers to help strengthen our understanding of hawthorn resilience in a changing world.

ow.ly

A little toasty in Turkmenistan right now ....

Extreme Temperatures Around the World@extremetemps.bsky.social · 4mo ago

50 AGAIN IN CENTRAL ASIA ! 🇹🇲 50.0 Bagtiyarlyk 48.6 Kerki 47.8 Turkmenbat 46.2 BurdalykM 🇰🇿 49 Konyrolen 48.9 Arys 48.5 Shardara 46.5 ToleBi 45.2 Shkymkent 44.5 Bakanas 🇰🇬 44.6 Jhagy Jer NATIONAL RECORD AGAIN 43.5 Bishkek 40.1 Talas 🇹🇯 43.8 DushanbeM 42.5 Pendzhikent 🇺🇿 43.9 Dzizak 43.6 Samarkhand

Take your eggs down to Holborn : "the tarmac at roadworks in Holborn, central London, registered 65C (149F)" www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7... Going back to Steve's original point, I suspect a factor is that the junior journalists on these stories don't see many eggs being fried in their households

El Sid@elsid.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Google thinks air temperature needs to be 38°C to 43°C to generate the 65°C to 70°C on the surface of a bonnet in full sun needed to coagulate yolks, egg white needs 62-65°C. So we're in the neighbourhood of fried eggs with runny yolks, not yet solid yolks.

Yes, less humid and much cooler nights in 1976. Peak night time temperatures were around 16°C back then.

"From Thursday to Sunday, [Sam Adams] said the Tartan Army drank four times as much Boston Lager as it normally sells during a typical four-day holiday stretch like the Fourth of July." (and they drank the taproom dry) www.nbcnews.com/sports/socce...

Are Scottish soccer fans drinking all of the beer in Boston?

The Tartan Army has been drinking a lot of beer for the World Cup, so much so that some Boston bars ran out.

nbcnews.com

Thanks to @stanhieronymus.bsky.social for pointing out that the paper on the haplotype-resolved genome (ie the best kind) of #hop Apollo has finally been published. Hop genetics are messy & complicated, this is significant as first good genome from the Wye family. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Microscopyfriday A while ago, I was looking for phenotypes in my barley mutants and thought the length of the rachilla hairs could be changed. Was not the case but the resulting SEM pictures were still beautiful. Side fact I learned on the way: rachillas can be used as barley cultivar indicators

Deep time: James Hutton, Scottish Enlightenment naturalist, founder of modern geology, born #OTD 1726; pioneer of uniformitarianism, his landmark work Theory of the Earth recognised importance of gradual natural processes in formation of earth’s crust.300th Portrait by Raeburn 1776 ALT N.G. Scotland

I wish I could write like this. And I wish Lindy West wrote tutorial papers in psychometrics. (Source: Lindy West, 2019 essay collection 'The Witches Are Coming')

Barley produces high amounts of phenylalanine- and tryptophan-derived secondary metabolites, including hydorxycinnamic acid amides as well as related hordatines in response to Fusarium Head Blight. Multiomics finds this as the most consistent response over four diverse genotypes. rdcu.be/fl4uO

Interesting how media awareness of hops vs climate change is spreading. Saaz is an interesting case as the biggest aroma hop in the world by acreage and >80% of Czechia, but tough to breed. I've been saying for years lager hops are a big opportunity for UK industry, but brewers need encouragement

Jessica Mason@drinksmaven.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Reasons why Saaz hops are under threat @teamdb.bsky.social

Kew Gardens broke its all-time June temperature record in May.

MetJam@metjam.co.uk · 6mo ago

34.8ºC at Kew Gardens breaks its May AND June records by OVER 4ºC for its May record set in 1922 and by 0.2ºC for its June record set in 1976. Unprecedented heat for the UK in late May, and likely to be bettered tomorrow. A rounded 35ºC temperature should not happen in May.