Craft beer has gone stale: let’s hear it for age-old favourites | Richard Godwin
The writer Vladimir Nabokov was extremely particular when it came to language, and rather more basic when it came to sustenance: “My habits are simple, my tastes banal,” he once told an interviewer.“I would not exchange my favourite fare (bacon and eggs, beer) for the most misspelt menu in the world.”I’ve often thought of this as I’ve perused misspelt beer menus over the years, wondering what Nabokov would make of all the hazy dubble IPAs and triple brown mocha porters, because, over the course of what we might have to label the “craft era”, beer has become anything but simple.You may well have lamented this, too, especially if you’ve ever been cornered by an enthusiast at a party.India pale ale (IPA), for example, which was once a distinctly British style of ale designed for export, has, in the hands of American craft brewers, become a sort of standard-bearer for complicated beer: aggressively hopped, often startlingly bitter and/or sour, and redolent of a bygone era of millennial hipster striving.
The very term “craft beer” itself is confusing enough,It was originally used by the Colorado-based Brewers Association to denote “small, independent and traditional” breweries, but many of the movement’s trailblazers (Goose Island and Brooklyn to name just two) have since been snapped up by multinationals, while the actual American craft sector declined last year even as IPA tightened its grip,Still, every trend has its counter-trend and, in retrospect, the moment when Beavertown Neck Oil became available on draught at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium may well have been a turning point,And the unashamedly mass-produced Guinness is famously the order of choice for gen Z,Meanwhile, I’ve noticed a definite uptick in “Erm.
..lager?” when ordering rounds with my friends (often accompanied by complaints about the dire effects of IPAs on the middle-aged stomach).There’s also a subset of British brewers who are pushing to make beer, well, beer again.“You can now see these American-style IPAs in every pub around the country,” says Adrian Peskin of Woodshedding Brewery in Shepton Mallet, Somerset.
“So, the craftiest thing you can do now is to turn 180 and go back to where it was before,” Peskin, who is of dual English-German heritage, typifies this new generation,He runs a genuinely small operation out of an old milk barn where he concentrates on “simple beers from complex soil” – old-world styles that have either been neglected or forgotten,Among his beers is Stubn, a rich, ruby alt beer, a style popular in Düsseldorf before Bavarian-style lager came to dominate; he also champions the slept-on British beer styles made “since for ever” by medium-sized regional breweries such as Timothy Taylor’s in West Yorkshire and Harvey’s in East Sussex,Peskin reckons it’s also about appreciating beer’s role in society: “The craft beer movement really shifted the focus on to the beer itself,” he says, “whereas, traditionally, beer was more like a conduit for other stuff – good chat, gathering people together.
It was never meant to be as divisive as it’s become,” Amen to that!Ecks Victorian Mild Ale £28,80 (6 x 440ml cans) woodsheddingbrew,com, 5,7%.
Dark, malty and strong, but light in taste and in a style that almost disappeared after the war.Great with bacon and eggs.Timothy Taylor’s Landlord £2.40 (500ml bottle) Tesco, 4.1%.
An all-time classic pale ale, and an unbeatable pie accompaniment.A must-order whenever it’s on draught.Five Points Best £2.50 (500ml bottle) Morrisons, 4.1%.
A classic new-school old-school bitter from Hackney’s Five Points, made with Kentish fuggle hops.Paulaner Münchner Hell £22.80 (12 x 500ml bottles) Majestic, 4.9%.Malty and crisp, this quintessential Bavarian lager hits the spot with the reliable accuracy of a German penalty taker.
John Virgo obituary
John Virgo, who has died aged 79, made his name through snooker, but found fame through television – chiefly in the form of the Big Break gameshow on BBC1, which attracted millions of viewers in the 1990s.Having had a respectable but non-stellar career on the green baize, Virgo transitioned to the small screen as a referee in the snooker-based Big Break, which was hosted by the comedian Jim Davidson and ran in a prime-time Saturday evening slot from 1991 to 2002, attracting up to 14 million viewers per episode at its peak.Initially scripted as Davidson’s assistant, he quickly became much more than that, with his own party pieces, trick shots and catchphrases. Success in that half-hour format opened up other light entertainment opportunities and enhanced his popularity as a BBC snooker commentator, a role he had taken on once his playing career began to stall.As a snooker player Virgo won the UK Championship in 1979, and also made it to the semi-finals of the World Championship, reaching a world ranking of No 10 in 1980
From London to LX: the British mastermind behind the Seahawks’ standout Super Bowl defense
Midway through the 2023 NFL season, Dallas Cowboys star edge rusher Micah Parsons was frustrated. Asked about the source – a feeling of being held by opponents all the time – Parsons credited his defensive line coach Aden Durde with keeping him in check.“[Coach Durde] pulled me aside and said, ‘You gotta remember, you’re Micah fucking Parsons,” he recalled. “‘This shit is going to happen. You just gotta keep going
The Patriots’ Robert Kraft posed as an NFL voice of reason – then fell back in line for Trump | Howard Bryant
During the worst of it, when Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were killed by police a decade ago and Colin Kaepernick took a knee in protest, when a widespread reaction was to tell the highly accomplished, overwhelmingly Black professional athletes they were un-American, or well-paid farmhands who needed to get back to work, or both, and some of his peers in the ownership class were releasing players as punishment for joining the protest, it was New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft who positioned himself as the voice of reason.Kraft attempted to broker peace between the ownership hawks who saw the high-paid kneelers as ungrateful mutineers and, after decades of docility, the radicalized players unwilling to collect their checks in exchange for political silence. Kraft encouraged two of his players – the twins Devin and Jason McCourty – into deeper citizenship, to engage with the legal and political systems and promote reforms. As a sign of compassion and a willingness to listen, Kraft visited the incarcerated rapper Meek Mill, and later the two partnered with another artist, Jay-Z, on various criminal justice initiatives.On 6 January 2021, when so many of the voices loudest in their opposition to player protests, the ones who said the dissenting ballplayers were treasonous for disrespecting both the American flag and law enforcement at the behest of outgoing president Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol and contributed to the deaths of one policeman and the trauma and eventual deaths of several others, it was Kraft who was apparently so disgusted that he stopped talking to Trump, publicly distancing himself from the man to whose inauguration four years earlier he had donated $1m
‘I would call it a miracle’: Italy’s motley crew prepare for T20 Cricket World Cup
In a basement office in the north of Rome, Riccardo Maggio is unpacking boxes of blue jerseys with “Italia” written on them. He sighs when the landline phone rings again, and then again. Maggio is on his own, multitasking in the headquarters of the Italian Cricket Federation, tucked away in the building that houses the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni), the governing body for national sports.The room is small and improvised, its shelves cluttered with old trophies, faded photographs of players and souvenir cricket bats. The base for Italian cricket is hardly the nucleus of a global sporting moment
Winter Olympics 2026: all your questions about the Milano Cortina Games, answered
The Winter Olympics are back – and this time they’re zigzagging across northern Italy. Milano Cortina 2026 will be the most spread-out Winter Games ever staged, jumping from Milan’s arenas to the Dolomites’ classic Alpine slopes. With returning superstars, brand-new events and Italy leaning hard into its Olympic heritage, these Games may feel like they’ve arrived quietly – but there is a lot going on. From how and when to watch, to who matters and why these Olympics could look very different, here are your most pressing questions answered.Yes
Heated rivalries and curling couples: 10 things to look out for at the Winter Olympics
Stars could align for USA and Canada in ice hockey, while hosts Italy are getting their downhill hopes upAll eyes are on the, ah, essentials of the Norwegian men’s ski jump team as they try to recover from one of the great botched crotch stitch switch scandals of 2025. Two of their gold medal-winning athletes from Beijing 2022, including the defending Olympic champion on the long hill, were banned for three months after a whistleblower published a video of their coach tampering with the (strictly regulated) crotch stitching on their jumpsuits at the Nordic world championships last year, in an attempt to make them more aerodynamic by adding padding. Groin-gate led to a national debate about ethics in sport and a complete overhaul of the rules. We’re told doctors are now using “3D measurements” to carefully scrutinise all competing athletes before competition.After a 12-year holdout, the National Hockey League has finally agreed to let its players participate in the Olympics again, which means the ice hockey tournament at Milano Cortina is going to be a proper test of the world’s best for the first time since Sochi in 2014
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