There are signs that Non-Alcoholic beer is hitting the mainstream and is poised to hit the big time, but just how popular will it become? In this article I’ll look at some of the signs that show ‘NOLO’ (non or low alcoholic) beer is becoming a serious player in our industry, and how its development might progress in the UK.

Ask someone down the pub for the reasons behind Britain’s recent Beer revival, and you’re guaranteed all sorts of different explanations. In 2017 the number of UK breweries passed the 2000 mark, which puts us well ahead of European neighbours. Most will have a reasonable argument for why, but you can bet your double-dry hopped DIPA that very few of them would mention Gordon Brown, ex-PM and former Chancellor of the Exchequer.

It's the second in a new series featuring the favourite beers of Beer Hawk staff. Up now is Anthony who is loving the German classic, Flensburger Gold

Welcome to the first in a new series featuring the current favourite beers of Beer Hawk staff. First up is Ellie who chooses Magic Rock's High Wire Grapefruit

Which is the most innovative beer country? Belgium? The US? Britain?  Patrick Gengler turns his attention to France and Italy to see how traditional wine growing regions make beer

Which is the most innovative beer country? It's not Belgium according to Patrick Gengler who is writing a series about what drives innovation in beer

Which is the most innovative beer country? Belgium? The US? Britain? Maybe even Sweden? In a new series Patrick Gengler looks at what drives innovation in beer... and it may not be what you think

With love for IPA spanning nearly the entire globe, we are using more hops than ever before. Beer Hawk’s Beer Sherpa Patrick Gengler wonders if it is coming to an end… and what’s next?

The biggest, most controversial issue in the beer world right now*? It's the Iceman pour. Instagram-tastic it may be, but that's no mitigation argues Beer Hawk's Rob Flanagan. It should cease. Now.

These are the winners of CAMRA’s Champion Bottled Beer of Britain 

This prestigious award celebrates the country’s best bottle-conditioned beers. These are the winners…

Des de Moor, a brilliant author and all-round Good Guy, asks if local beers actually taste of the place where they're brewed? And finds some surprising examples of a new localism in British beer

With more than 1,500 breweries in the UK, more and more of us live within walking distance of one. But how many of our local beers actually taste of the place where they're brewed?

Never ones to miss an amusing promotional opportunity – and this one is extra special – BrewDog founders Martin Dickie and James Watt have changed their names by deed poll to 'Elvis' during a legal spat with the Elvis Presley estate over their beer Elvis Juice.

We're really excited to announce the launch of Camden Town Brewery on our site; a flagship London brewer, they've done loads to drive the British craft beer scene and any one of their core range of beers is a great introduction to the style. To find out more about what makes Camden tick, our Beer Sommelier Maggie caught up with Camden Founder Jasper to chat beer trends, collabs, and the best beer cities in the world.

 

YESSS! It’s the first day of the CAMRA Great British Beer Festival, one of the world’s greatest beer festivals. We’ve sniffed (and sniggered), we’ve sipped, slugged, we’ve swirled and swilled and, as of now, these are the BEST BEERS OF THE FESTIVAL… in our somewhat limited opinion the first six hours anyway.

Happy #IPADay! (what do you mean you didn’t know?). Yes, today is the day where we celebrate the India Pale Ale, a beer that has become craft beer’s flagship brew with many breweries having one of these hoppy monsters in their core range. To wildly misquote Churchill however, the history of the IPA is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. There’s a lot of debate and conjecture surrounding its history (some no doubt to surface here). So here’s our brief, and mostly accurate, history of the IPA.

Big Changes in Craft Beer

In case you haven't noticed yet, Craft Beer is now Big Business. Gone are the days of the business plan being few guys in an old warehouse dumping anything in a kettle and seeing what they get. With each passing month, and with the opening of each new brewery, the culture is changing as the competition increases. And beer lovers everywhere get to reap the rewards.

Whether you're a fan of German beers or not, each April 23 is a momentous day on the beery calendar--and this year's even more so. Every year on this date German beer enthusiasts celebrate the "Day of German Beer" which commemorates the establishment of the Reinheitsgebot, or the German Purity Law. Established in the year 1516, this law--which these days is more-or-less adhered to voluntarily--decrees that German beer shall only be made with four ingredients: water, barley, hops and yeast. With this Saturday being the 500-year anniversary of the advent of the law, we're going to party like it's 1516!

Well, maybe not. We like our indoor plumbing and Sky OnDemand.

Interestingly, Germany--and its modern craft brewers--are finding themselves at a bit of a crossroads. Do we or don't we accept beer standards that were set in place 500 years ago? While much has changed in 500 years (for a start, at the time the law was written yeast was not included as one of the ingredients

So, we’ve got some big news today that we’re really quite excited about up here at Beer Hawk Towers… 

Great News - Beer Hawk have received our accreditation from The Living Wage Foundation and Beer Hawk is now a fully signed up Living Wage employer!

Well, that's it. Indy-Man-Beer-Con 2015 is in the books. And while this acclaimed beer festival is always a good time, I think that this year's iteration is the best yet. In fact, after attending a couple of expertly-organized sessions drinking some of the UK's (and New Zealand's) best beer in the beautiful surroundings of Manchester's Victoria Baths, I'm calling it now: IMBC is the best beer festival in the UK.

On Friday, September 18th after several years of researching, studying, writing, and, ermm, drinking beer, I finally got my Beer Sommelier certification from the prestigious Beer Academy--an arm of the Institute of Brewing and Distilling--in London. I'm very proud to join the ranks of some of the best beer people out there  and super excited to be Beer Hawk's actual-on-piece-of-paper beer sommelier.

I'd like to start this out by stating that I'm not trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes and trying to convince you that we can sell out-of-date beer. We shouldn't. By selling beer, we've essentially promised the brewer (and the customer) that we'd take good care of their baby and send it out into the world in the flourish of beauty that they had intended.

Slapping these guys on a bottle makes about as much sense as a lot of what's out there.

Clearly, all beers have a description (otherwise you've had too many.) On the most basic level a beer can be described as light or dark, bitter or not, strong or weak. But how do you categorize a beer that's amber coloured? Or sour? Or gives you a buzz after two? That's where beer style guidelines come in to play.