Pellicle

21/09/2026

We are so pleased to welcome UK beer icons as our newest Pro Patreon subscribers.

Thank you Evin and the entire team at The Kernel for choosing to support independent publishing!

16/09/2026

Aotearoa New Zealand is this week's destination, as Martin Bridges brings us the story of one of it's most exciting breweries, the trailblazing Garage Project. With photography by Jed Soane, you can read it on our reader-supported, paywall-free site, right here:

On a cold Tuesday night in 2011 in Wellington, New Zealand, a crowd of beer geeks gathered in a subterranean bar on Taranaki Street. They had come to Hashigo Zake—a cult beer bar housed in the former cellblock of an old police station, sadly no longer with us—to sample the first beers from Garag...

11/09/2026

NEWS: Pellicle magazine's managing editor Katie Mather wins the Champagne Laurent-Perrier award for long-form writing at the 67 Pall Mall London Global Wine Communications Awards 🏆

It was KM's story on winemaking in Tenerife edited by and published in Pellicle that the judges picked. Head judge Elaine Chukan Brown said: "I kept going back to read it. It was a brilliant piece."

A huge achievement! The whole team is super proud!

"I'm a working class northerner, I've never been to Bordeaux, and I'm a q***r woman. How's that for a wine writing CV?" - KM

09/09/2026

Have you been on a beer crawl around Nottingham? After Peter Michael Blackburn pitched this story to us, we've been desperate to visit. His pure affection for the city and for Nottingham Forest shines through the page—this isn't just a list of pubs to visit. However! You could use it as a complete guide.

With Castle Rock Brewery, Liquid Light Brewing Company, Black Iris Brewery, Lenton Lane Brewery and Neon Raptor Brewing Company all brewing there, and pubs like The King Billy, The Abdication, Brew Tavern
and Brew Cavern, maybe we should put on a bus and get us all down for the day?

Matthew Curtis took a trip to the city to take the photographs for the story, and reports that it really is as good as Pete says.

Read the full story paywall-free at pelliclemag.com

06/09/2026

What's the matter crispyboi?

From the archive, David Jesudason writes about Wychwood Hobgoblin and the effect that little goblin guy had on British beer—and on himself.

Read the full story on Pelliclemag.com, just search "hobgoblin" when you get there.

Original art by Jessica Wild

02/09/2026

It's a pleasure to welcome writer Anaïs Lecoq and photographer Claire-Marie Luttun back to our pages today, with a fascinating story about one of our favourite subjects: BUTTER. Read the latest story from this dream team here:

Bright buttercup yellow, it catches the eye, even through the shop window. A woman digs into the generous, fluffy mound of butter and scoops a piece onto the scale. With the help of two notched wooden paddles, she forms it into a perfectly rectangular pat while a studious, delighted audience watches

01/09/2026

Founded in 2012, Manchester's Blackjack Brew Co. is known and loved for its approachable "pub style" ales and lagers. We caught up with George and Matt in their Northern Quarter venue Blackjack Taphouse at the The Smithfield for a quick chat. Watch it here:

26/08/2026

What happens to a community when the thing that anchored it is taken away?

Today's feature takes us to the village of Rainworth, near Mansfield. Once home to a thriving coal mining industry, now the collieries sit idle. Thankfully, those that worked within them haven't, including the likes of Ian Johnson, who together with friends opened the Inkpot, a local micropub invested in serving real ale from small, local breweries. Community, as it turns out, has a way of coming together.

Read this brand new story on our paywall-free, reader supported site right now, written by Sophie Prosolek, and illustrated by Dick Vincent. If you enjoy this story, consider supporting us so we can commission more just like it.

In the 1980s beer culture went hand-in-hand with mining here in the East Midlands. Back then, the brewing industry in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, was thriving, and many of the collieries were yet to experience peak production. A pint of mild or bitter wasn’t a curated lifestyle choice; it was a ha...

24/08/2026

THE PELLICLE PODCAST HAS RETURNED.

Stream our latest episode – 'THE STATE OF BEER MEDIA' – wherever you get your podcasts now.

The U.K. beer media landscape is a curious one. A niche within a niche, at its most simple it’s a genre of food writing, albeit one with a far smaller audience than say, restaurant or wine reviews. Its audience is more interesting still. Beer readers are often hyper engaged and extremely knowledge...

19/08/2026

Before there was craft beer, before the hype and the FOMO, there was Stirchley Wines & Spirits.

Quietly, serving the people of Birmingham for almost 50 years, today their fascinating story is brought into focus by current beer writer of the year David Jesudason, and photographed by our editor-in-chief Matthew Curtis.

Read it now on our 100% paywall-free site, supported by our growing number of subscribers. If you enjoy this article why not consider joining them, so we can commission more stories just like it?

Krishan Rajput takes an emerald Budvar bottle from a shelf and tells me how this is where his beer journey began in 1989. He explains how his family shop, Stirchley Wines & Spirits began selling a range of beers a world apart from other off-licences. This was a decade after his father, Amrik