The Pellicle Podcast

• Ep81 — Modern Scottish Beer

  When I wrote my 2021 book, Modern British Beer, I made the very intentional decision to put Fyne Ales irreplaceable Blonde Ale, Jarl, right at the beginning. For me, it’s a beer that merges two schools of thought: that it is a modern beer, hopped with Citra imported from the Pacific Northwest, showcasing a bold, citrus fruit character, but one that is also a 3.8% cask beer, and at the same time feels resolutely anchored to British brewing tradition. Jarl, though, is not simply a modern British beer—it is a modern Scottish beer. Honestly, there is perhaps no beer experience that is resolutely more Scottish than to enjoy a pint at its source in Glen Fyne. That was the inspiration for this particular discussion—an effort to take a closer look at what’s happening in the contemporary world of Scottish brewing. FyneFest, conveniently, provided the perfect place to chew on this topic and indeed it features Fyne Ales’ very own head brewer Sam Shrimpton. Also on the panel are two owners/brewers at two of Scotland's youngest breweries: Lucy Stevens of Closet Brewing in Edinburgh, and Harry Weskin of Dookit Brewing in Glasgow.Listening to this episode, you’ll quickly realise that no one on the panel claims immediate Scottish heritage (although Harry is pretty damn close.) However, they are, each in their own way, vital to the local, independent beer community. It’s great to find out that the spirit that bound businesses together during the last resurgence of small breweries still exists today—in fact I’d argue it probably wouldn’t exist without it.Tune in to hear two of the best young Scottish breweries talk about what they do, while perhaps one of the finest contemporary breweries to exist north of the border provides balance and context to this conversation.We’re able to produce The Pellicle Podcast directly thanks to our Patreon subscribers, and our sponsors Get ‘Er Brewed. If you’re enjoying this podcast, or the weekly articles we publish, please consider taking out a monthly subscription for less than the price of a pint a month.Tickets for FyneFest 2026 are available now, and we’ll be back hosting our panel talks and tastings for another year! Get your tickets here.

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• Ep80 — Nick Scarffe and Elizabeth Townsend of Kerroo Brewing

  A few months ago I met a couple who had recently opened their own brewery on the Isle of Man. I was really compelled by their story, that one of them had lived on the island for most of his life, and how the other had returned from a life in London. Together they were trying to bring modern beer styles to a British dependency with a population of just 85,000 people, surrounded by the Irish Sea.That was Nick Scarffe and Elizabeth Townsend, the founders of Kerroo Brewing. Since then we’ve met on several occasions and their story has only grown more compelling, so the next time they arranged to hop on the ferry and visit Manchester, I managed to pin them down for an hour* and have an in depth conversation about their brewery.I was fascinated to learn that the beer culture on the Isle of Man remains relatively traditional, with a handful of independent breweries—from the 175 year old family brewer, Okells, to more up-to-date outfits like Bushy’s—but many residents hadn’t yet been exposed to such wonders as hazy IPA…A keen homebrewer, Nick had dialled in his recipes, and when she turned back up on the island during lockdown, the two shared beers, started dating, and eventually decided to do what they thought was the most reasonable thing: to open a brewery of their own.Operating in the village of Port Erin at the southwestern tip of the island, they run a 1000 litre brewery and a small taproom that opens monthly. We had the chance to chat about the struggles they’ve faced bringing modern beer styles to a market that remains relatively traditional—at least compared to mainland cities like Liverpool and Manchester—and how challenging it has been getting their beer out into the wider market. Despite this, they’re still giving it a go. And take it from me, the beers are delicious, hence why I found their whole story, and this conversation, so compelling. Thanks to Nick and Elizabeth for joining me in this conversation.We’re able to produce The Pellicle Podcast directly thanks to our Patreon subscribers, and our sponsors Get ‘Er Brewed. If you’re enjoying this podcast, or the weekly articles we publish, please consider taking out a monthly subscription for less than the price of a pint a month.*We may have enjoyed several pints over several hours after the recording of this podcast.

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• Ep79 — Time Hopping with Siren Craft Brew

  Established in 2013, Berkshire’s Siren Craft Brew has rightfully grown to become one of the most well-respected modern breweries in the United Kingdom.We at Pellicle have been lucky to have followed Siren’s journey since pretty much the beginning—I even hosted a tasting with founder Darron Anley at the Duke’s Head Pub in Highgate all the way back in 2015. They’re also one of our dedicated pro-Patreon supporters. As such, when their head of marketing, Andy Nowlan, got in touch to ask if we’d be interested in doing some collaborative content around the second edition of their Time Hops project, we said yes without giving it a second thought. Time Hops is Siren’s way of helping drinkers to understand the nature of hops, from their development and cultivation, to how they present themselves in finished beers. Siren produced four different beers for this year's edition, and we diligently produced four different stories about each of them, and the hop they focused on.Mark Dredge donned his lager hat once again, and told us the story of the sublimely elegant noble hop, Saaz, from the Czech Republic. In her Pellicle debut, Robyn Gilmour wrote about Australia’s fantastic Galaxy—a hop with something of a chequered past that is finally beginning to come back into its own. Katie Mather told us a story from the other side of the Tasman Sea, about one of modern beer’s darling hops, Nelson Sauvin. Last but not least, Lily Waite-Marsden dug into the more recent story of Strata, one of the most exciting young hops on the market today.But we weren’t done there. As part of Siren’s Time Hops event at their taproom in the village of Finchampstead, Pellicle headed down to host a panel-led discussion all about the project and the four beers that have resulted from it. In this episode I’m joined by Darron Anley, plus head brewer Sean Knight, and Martin Rake from The Malt Miller, who delivers some fantastic insight into hop procurement. It’s a long conversation, and a fascinating one to boot, especially if you’re interested in all things hop-related. Thanks again for Siren for inviting us to collaborate on this fascinating project with them.We’re able to produce The Pellicle Podcast directly thanks to our Patreon subscribers, and our sponsors Get ‘Er Brewed. If you’re enjoying this podcast, or the weekly articles we publish, please consider taking out a monthly subscription for less than the price of a pint a month.

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• Ep78 — Into The Black (A Discussion of Dark Beer)

  If you’re anything like me, you might have noticed that a certain dark beer has slowly but surely become the most ubiquitous beer in the UK. I am of course talking about Guinness. Now the most popular beer in the country (by value) it feels almost impossible to escape the gravity created by The Black Stuff. Many of the smaller breweries I speak to—particularly those in Ireland—malign the ubiquity of Guinness. But perhaps where there is one popular stout that a whole new generation of drinkers is drawing enjoyment from there is also opportunity. Convincing someone to switch up from their favourite macro lager into something a bit more complex is challenging, but if they’re already drinking stout, that way opportunities potentially lie.At FyneFest I recruited a panel from three independent breweries who are doing incredibly exciting things with their dark beers. At Lost Cause, Colin Stronge is continuing the great work he built his reputation on at breweries like Buxton and Salt, but now completely under his own steam. In Northumberland, Rigg and Furrow is focused on producing beers with a sense of place, and this feeds into some truly unique stouts and porters. Marketing manager Harriet Edgar is here to fill us in on those. And at Barney’s Beer in Edinburgh, career brewer Andrew ‘Barney’ Barnett is getting really experimental with his post mortem series.While you won’t get to taste through the beers like our gathered audience at FyneFest, by listening to this you will get to enjoy a fascinating, and hugely jovial conversation about why we love dark beers with three hugely entertaining guests. The laughter and merriment throughout is a great reminder of why we return to the festival every year, and why you should consider joining us next time around. Until then, get your ears around this. We’re able to produce The Pellicle Podcast directly thanks to our Patreon subscribers, and our sponsors Get ‘Er Brewed. If you’re enjoying this podcast, or the weekly articles we publish, please consider taking out a monthly subscription for less than the price of a pint a month.

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• Ep77 — Will Evans of Manchester Union Brewery

  Let’s begin the description of this episode with a mea culpa. In February 2025 I visited the Trading Route, a new venue from the people behind Manchester Union Brewery, and Manchester restaurants Trof, and Stow. One of the main reasons I was excited to go was because Manchester Union co-founder Will Evans had appeared in an Instagram video advertising slow poured versions of their lager, complete with voluminous creamy heads. Slow poured lager—like that offered at Denver’s Bierstadt Lagerhaus—is something I love. This method of pouring the beer in stages, letting the beer rest for anywhere between three to seven minutes between each stage of a three or four part pour has this magical effect of bringing out malt sweetness. This works particularly well in bitter lager beers, such as Bierstadt’s eponymous Slow Pour Pils. Manchester Union’s own lager is a 12º Czech-style, decoction mashed pilsner, with a bitterness of around 35IBU (International Bitterness Units) which brings it close the the 39 possessed by perhaps the most famous Czech lager in the world: Pilsner Urquell.Only, that’s not quite what happened. The food was fantastic, the lager itself tasted great. But when it came to the slow pour, I found the experience to be lacklustre, so I decided to use the experience to practise my critical writing skills over at my personal blog, Total Ales. Here’s the thing though. Trading Route, sidled right up to the brand new Aviva Studios (or Factory International or whatever you want to call it) is a lone independent in a sea of transplanted London-chains, from Hawksmoor to Dishoom, and even a brand new Caravan Coffee right next door. Good ideas often take time to perfect, especially without the same level of resources of those chains I’ve just mentioned. Was zooming in for a hot take three months into Trading Route existence the right thing to do? Maybe, just maybe, I jumped the gun a little with my review.Regardless, I’ve now been back to the Trading Route—in a way, Manchester Union’s de facto taproom—several times, and on my last two visits the Slow Pour was served as advertised. I also took this opportunity to catch up with Will on record, and have an important conversation about the brewery he helped to establish in 2018, because it’s a brewery worth knowing about. Manchester Union is the city’s only dedicated lager brewery, and the fact that they’re concentrating on Czech style lagers (including a fantastic dark lager) is an important point of difference to me. How do you stand out when lager is still the most visible product on any given bar? The answer is quite Mancunian in nature, as it happens: to do things differently.In this episode of the Pellicle Podcast I catch up with brewery co-founder Will Evans and get to the nub of what makes Manchester’s only dedicated lager brewery tick.With special thanks to our dedicated Patreon supporters who help bring the Pellicle Podcast to life.

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