Liverpool Gin

Liverpool Gin started life as a small independent gin distillery in 2013, set up by John O’Dowd and Mark Hensby (of the Liverpool Organic Brewery). By 2016, it had become part of the Halewood International empire; a large drinks producer and distributor that already had a number of gins in its portfolio, along with vodkas,… Read more »

Empress Ale

I have to admit to being nervous whenever I hear that a beer has been designed for a specific market or niche. Experience has taught me that the resulting drink often bears all the hallmarks of being created by a committee composed of the Marketing Department and the Finance Department resulting in, well, a less… Read more »

Bridgehead Bytown Boom

One of the great pleasures of travelling is exploring local food and drink; for obvious reasons my focus tends to be more on the drink than the food! Local beer is always top on my list, but often there will be local wines, spirits and – increasingly – coffee to be explored too. Our trip… Read more »

Magic Spells Brewery Tour At Home

Magic Spells Brewery are a new East London brewery, very firmly at the ‘craft’ end of the beery spectrum. They have a familiar enough backstory, starting with (a rather substantial 1/2 barrel) homebrewing background 3 years ago and finally going commercial at the start of this year. At the moment they’re still ‘gypsy brewing’ in… Read more »