The Last Boak & Bailey Newsletter
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Boak & Bailey's Newsletter
Our monthly update on beer and pubs.
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Latest episodes
You should start writing about beer and pubs
There’s always room for more people visiting pubs, drinking beer, and sharing their thoughts and observations.
Looking back on 2025 in beer and pubs
Highlighting the best of our own writing, interesting writing by others, and wrapping up with some conclusions about where British beer is at as we enter 2026.
Reasons to be cheerful about beer in 2025
It’s not all doom and gloom even if (looks out of window) it is literally all gloom. From pubs to breweries, there’s plenty to give us a warm glow.
We can’t speak for anyone else but here’s how to attract us to your pub
You’re trying hard, you’re doing everything right – so why is nobody coming to drink in your pub, bar or taproom?
Reinvention and redundancy
Pubs, breweries and, uh, massive campaigning organisations can reinvent themselves. Or they can declare themselves redundant.
Why aren’t there more clones of cult beers on the market?
Perhaps brewers are too polite to copy each other’s homework. Maybe brewing clones is not really possible. Or it could just be an understandable fear of lawyers.
When it gets too hot even for a refreshing beer: how heatwaves hit pubs
There's summer, when you want to hang out in a beer garden and drink lager. And there are heatwaves, when you want to hide and chew ice cubes.
10 breweries that make us say “Ooh!”
When we walk into a pub and see these breweries' beers on the bar we get a little bit excited and know we're going to end up stuck for a session.
“Pils, please.” – the power of the calibration lager
Ordering "the blandest thing on the menu" is a great way to understand whether a brewery really knows what it's doing.
Stress and confusion: the concept of cognitive load in the world of beer
Whether we realise it or not, most of us seek pubs (and beers) which require us to use less brain power, and to do less on-the-fly risk assessment.
A world that smells of cinnamon, berries and vanilla
“We’re not allowed to eat pudding anymore so we’re smoking and drinking it instead.”
The soft brewery boycott: disenchantment and ennui
Or, how beer drinkers can simply ignore a brand to death without ever quite hating it.
Your beer brand does not need AI
Sure, it might be fun to use, and might feel magical – but AI artwork on your beer packaging is a major turnoff.
Are you feeling Christmassy yet?
It's the time of year for reflecting, making plans for next year, and bonding in the mead hall by eating and drinking far too much.
The autumnal delights of Friday night pub exploring
As the nights draw in, we've been trying to get out and about, pounding the streets of Bristol to check in on its many and varied pubs, bars and taprooms.
Is the New English Bitter (NEB) a thing?
Privately we've started describing certain beers this way – those which walk a tightrope between past and present.
Under new management
When we talk about ‘perfect pubs’ do we give enough credit to the contribution of individual publicans or managers?
August is a bad time for cask ale
This month's newsletter has notes on dodgy beer, a death in the family, and the importance of alt text.
There’s now one less place for beer writers to write about beer
With Good Beer Hunting leaving the scene what does that mean for people who pay the mortgage writing about booze and boozers?