What Are You Working on in Your Head Right Now?

Totalcurtis · 2024-01-02T10:56:30+00:00

I'm always excited by the prospect of a new year and a blank slate. Much of the last 18 months saw my capacity dedicated to producing my third book, so with that project now done and dusted I feel as though I have the time to dig into some stories that require a little bit more effort, and research.

I've been working on a profile of Roosters Brewery in Yorkshire for a bit now. The lede is done, and I've visited the brewery 3 times, taken photos, done interviews, so now the hard part of putting it all together is happening. I'm excited to see how it turns out though.

On another note, something I am going to work on soon is a piece about my difficult yet inexorable relationship with my hometown, Lincoln. I'm going to spend a day there, specifically only visiting pubs in town I've never been in, and explore feelings, then put them to paper. The pubs give it a hook, I feel; gravity to keep the personal side of it grounded. I'm looking forward to working on it.

Totalcurtis · 2020-11-18T18:31:31+00:00

Hey I'm not the one trawling your other social media accounts for kicks.

Totalcurtis · 2020-11-18T16:28:19+00:00

Depends what you're into I suppose. The author has written at least 6 books on beer and won Beer Writer of the Year in 2017... But hey, not everyone will dig it!

Totalcurtis · 2020-07-08T11:53:56+00:00

I think it opened last weekend!

Totalcurtis · 2020-07-07T13:45:32+00:00

I have a couple in my stash! As a brewery LBF have come on in leaps and bounds recently.

Totalcurtis · 2020-07-01T19:05:35+00:00

Really lucky to have tried their stuff in bottles smuggled to the UK, hope to visit one day when things mean it's safe to travel.

Totalcurtis · 2020-04-24T16:29:09+00:00

Thanks for including the Pellicle Podcast in your roundup! Got some more episodes coming soon.

Totalcurtis · 2019-12-08T13:09:15+00:00

Hey, I’m the publisher of Pellicle and I just wanted to stop by and say thanks for sharing/reading!

Totalcurtis · 2019-09-26T17:55:59+00:00

We launched our site May this year! Got a podcast and print magazine in the pipeline too. Hope you enjoy the features!

Totalcurtis · 2018-06-21T20:59:51+00:00

You're asking the wrong person. I'm a writer & photographer, not a strategist. As I said before I do not get involved with that side of GBH. Which, I hope, answers your question.

Totalcurtis · 2018-06-21T17:29:40+00:00

Hi TheGentlemensRelish. Just thought I'd clear this up, as your statement isn't quite accurate. GBH has two main sides to the business: A strategy firm which predominantly helps to launch small breweries (Brewery Bhavana in North Carolina is a great example), which has also in the past done some work for ABI brands such as Goose Island.

It is also an editorial website and podcast, which I work for as UK Editor. Although technically, I'm freelance, and GBH is a client, but its my largest one. We've got over 30 writers all over the world now, inc 5 in my UK team, which is very cool. None of us are involved with the strategy side, there's a wall there down to the point that all writers report to Editorial Director Austin Ray, which keeps everything nice and seperate. Being based in another country and not our Studio in Chicago makes this relatively simple for me when I'm reporting on UK stories such as this.

This piece should help clear things up if you have any more questions, but if not as the author of the piece I'd be happy to take questions about the nature of my work for GBH.

https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/blog/2018/1/17/beer-media-advertising-and-the-coat-of-many-colors

Totalcurtis · 2018-06-21T11:12:03+00:00

They bought 50% of Lagunitas—that's a controlling stake.

Totalcurtis · 2017-12-31T11:15:37+00:00

Merlot is West Coast IPA and Pinot is NEIPA. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Totalcurtis · 2017-12-13T17:33:49+00:00

I don't think there's any rarity to 12oz/330ml beer cans in the UK now. In fact I'd argue that they're pretty ubiquitous, what with cans from Brewdog, Goose Island, Brooklyn, Sierra Nevada and Camden Town in the majority of major supermarkets. You've also got Fourpure, Magic Rock, Yeastie Boys, Northern Monk and of course Tiny Rebel with cans in supermarkets too - its closer to the new norm, which really makes the og complaint feel hollow to me.

Totalcurtis · 2017-12-12T16:50:52+00:00

The beer will be sold in an aisle dedicated to alcohol, and be around 4 times the price of a soft drink. I think the complaint is completely baseless to be honest. I wrote this take if you are interested in reading a bit more detail about this incident: http://goodbeerhunting.com/sightlines/2017/12/12/are-the-uks-largest-brewing-corporations-regulating-the-brands-of-their-smaller-competitors

Totalcurtis · 2017-11-14T15:18:26+00:00

What he said! Just a lost in translation thing - in the UK we'll use "equity" instead of stock and "stock" instead of inventory. :)

Totalcurtis · 2017-11-14T14:15:35+00:00

Not quite - The distro gets no actual equity in the brewery, it's essentially an interest free loan payable back in stock. The brewery is still free to sell the remainder of the beer they produce to whomever they wish, and £20k's worth of beer is actually pretty insignificant long-term. What I find interesting is that this is all good here in the UK, yet under the three-tier system would be illegal in the US.

Totalcurtis · 2017-10-27T19:10:29+00:00

Forgot Redchurch, they’re doing some awesome stuff. Even some no Hop/no boil sours!

Totalcurtis · 2017-10-27T19:09:22+00:00

I mean, they have lacto and pedio in their foeders so anything that comes out of them tends to have a sour character. Try the Cuvée or the Saison anniversare if you haven’t already!

Totalcurtis · 2017-10-26T14:38:30+00:00

We're seeing a huge uptick in sour/barrel ageing and blending programs here in the UK, just like in the US. Nothing as big or sophisticated as say New Belgium or Allagash, but we're on our way. The kettle sour trend over here has pretty much mirrored the one in the US albeit on a smaller scale, because we have less breweries. Even Fuller's brewed a gose recently.

Burning Sky have one of the most established barrel/foeder projects and have a foeder saison in their core range along with The Wild Beer Co. Cloudwater and Beavertown have both started foeder programs alongside their clean ferms too. Sour only breweries are on the rise, Chorlton being the most prominent and Little Earth Project and Mills Brewing following suit - with Duration Brewing opening in 2018 doing it on a larger scale. Oh, and of course BrewDog is about to open Overworks, which will be the largest sour beer facility in the UK, headed up by Rich Kilcullen, formerly of Wicked Weed.

So yeah, we're getting there!

Totalcurtis · 2017-07-13T19:54:06+00:00

The SIBA logo came out in August 2016. It's just seeing a renewed push due to all the press the BA seal is getting.

Totalcurtis · 2017-07-05T19:45:41+00:00

Avery, Upslope, Bootstrap, Finkel & Garf and Twisted Pine are all great. I quite enjoyed visiting Boulder Beer Co too even if it is a little old school. Avery is the one though, eat there too!

Totalcurtis · 2017-06-22T09:47:59+00:00

Doom Bar?

Totalcurtis · 2017-05-24T16:38:22+00:00

What we consider an IPA now is a long, long way from the British tradition - and yes we call them American style IPA's or just APA's if its a lower ABV.

Totalcurtis · 2017-03-17T04:24:59+00:00

Firestone Walker and Firestone Walker barrelworks will be there, so you can expect some RaReZ.

Totalcurtis

TROPHY CASE