Stu McKinlay is the brewing brains behind Yeastie Boys – a multiple award-winning New Zealand brewery. He formed Yeastie Boys with friend and fellow beerhunter Sam Possenniskie, in 2008, and they’ve been bucking trends ever since. They burst onto the scene with their style-bending debut ale Pot Kettle Black (still the only beer to have won two BrewNZ trophies in a single year), and this month were awarded the BrewNZ ‘Morton Coutts Trophy for Innovation’ for their heavily-peated single malt golden ale Rex Attitude.

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Ian Bradford’s brewery is a tale of two Staffordshire towns: Newcastle under Lyme, most famous for its hatting trade, and Stone, where they’ve been brewing beer for 1,000 years. Ian spent a small percentage of that time cutting his nose at Titanic in Stoke, where he brewed for 12 years before setting up the family-run Lymestone Brewery.

Lymestone’s beers range from the 2.8% Stoney Broke to the 6.6% Stone Dead. In addition Ian has used the honey produced by a colony of bees on the brewery roof to brew Stone Brood, a 4.4% chocolate honey beer (which should hopefully be available in bottles around about now!)

Ian Bradford (Brad) and his Lymestone bees

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Amongst many things Des de Moor is a beer writer. Based in Deptford, London and though born in England to an English mother and speaking English as a first language, his father was Dutch.

In summer 2011, Des will be publishing his first book, The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars, a comprehensive guide to one of the world’s great beer drinking cities and a timely celebration of the current renaissance of London brewing.

Since 2002 he’s been writing regular bottled beer reviews for the member magazines of Britain’s Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), first for What’s Brewing, then for BEER, as well as the occasional feature on topics like beer retailing and pub walks, and was a contributor to 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die.

His areas of expertise are beers from the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and France.
Des also writes about his passions outside of beer — he’s a regular contributor to the Ramblers magazine Walk Mag (he was previously their books editor) and works for the Ramblers as a day job, promoting everyday walking for health, developing projects and doing policy work. In a more leisurely frame he has a walking blog focused on walking in London, London Underfoot.

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Paul Jefferies comes from Burton on Trent and has family connections with the brewing industry going back many generations. He graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from Hull University and worked in Bass Research before joining Allied Breweries in 1988 at the Leeds Brewery as a Production Management Trainee.

Paul held a number of posts at Joshua Tetley (which was then producing in excess of 1m barrels of cask beer a year) before finally rising to Brewing Manager. During his time at Tetley, Paul qualified as a Diploma and then Master Brewer of the Institute of Brewing.

In 1997 he joined Brewery Group Denmark as Head Brewer of Robert Cain Brewery in Liverpool. Paul is now Production and Distribution Director of Hydes Brewery in Manchester and has recently set up his own micro brewing operation in Waunfawr, North Wales, which he runs in his spare time. Big Bog Brewing Company (Waunfawr translates as “Big Bog” from Welsh) is proving an exciting venture and along with his role at Hydes, allows him to do what he is passionate about – brew fantastic beer!”

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The thing about enthusiasm is that it’s infectious, and Kelly Ryan is a man who exudes a passion for beer like there’s no tomorrow.

Kelly is best known for his time at Thornbridge Brewery in Derbyshire but is now safely back on native New Zealand soil brewing at Epic Brewery.

We’ve been fortunate enough to meet Kelly a few times at beery tasting events (like this one at the Sheffield Tap) and the odd twiss up and have seen his knowledge and excitement about good beer first hand.

We’re guessing there’ll be some big beers on Kelly’s ideal desert island…

Kelly Ryan

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Adrian Tierney-Jones loves beers and pubs. So much so he has a job writing about them!

As well as visiting the best inns and public houses of the UK for The Telegraph, Adrian is secretary of the British Guild of Beer Writers and has written extensively – from national newspapers to the Society of Independent Brewers South West’s Brewers Herald (say that after a few pints!)

ATJ is a connoisseur of film and music as well being an expert beer and cider taster – but how will he fair on an island with no watering holes…?

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The first ‘episode’ of our all new co-produced Desert Island Beers starts with a bit of a bang, with George de Piro, Brewmaster at C.H. Evans Brewing Company, brewers of Kick-Ass Brown: three times winner of the Best American Brown Ale at the Great American Beer Festival (2000, 2002 & 2008), and a World Beer Cup Bronze (2004).

George de Piro of Albany Pump Station

George lives in Albany and graduated from Syracuse University with a BS in biology (concentration in biochemistry) and has completed brewing courses at the Siebel Institute. He originally earned a reputation as a very good hobby brewer, winning several major contests and writing about beer for a home brewing magazine and on the Internet. He then met Neil Evans at a homebrew contest where they judged together; they got along, and a couple of months later Neil got in touch to see if George wanted to join his project to build a brew pub in Albany. He now says that since his job as a chemist for a pharmaceutical company paid really well and was very secure, he figured he’d be happier making less money and working longer hours as a craft brewer and has never looked back!.

And when asked how he likes the job “I love it. On the worst day, it still comes down to the fact that I get paid to make beer”. Read the rest of this entry »

Many moons ago we started a feature called Desert Island Beers. The premise was simple: to get under the skin of beer lovers and find a bit more about the beers that really make them tick.

2011′s new year’s resolution was to get that feature back on track, so when beer enthusiast and brewer David Mayhall of All Gates Brewery asked if the concept was still going, we jumped at the opportunity to work together to revive it.

So, with David’s help and persistence, here starts the first of many Desert Island Beers, with a new islander featuring on this blog, and David’s, every Friday.

The concept is simple: it’s just like the Radio 4 show we’ve taken our inspiration from, only that we will be asking guests what beers they would take to a desert island rather than what music.

We’re going to ask each guest to select 5 beers they just could not live without; and if our castaway is a brewer then only one of their selected beers may be brewed by their own fair hands.

And as we’re generous island chiefs, we’re going to allow our castaways a couple of extras: a meal to go with the beers, one luxury item, a CD and some books that they’d like to take along to keep their spirits up
(the luxury item must be inanimate and of no use in escaping the island or allowing communication from outside!)

And for any pedants out there we’re going to assume that the friendly island gods will take care of opening the beer bottles (or casks!) and the playing of the selected music…

We have some great guests lined up including beer writers, brewers and beer lovers and hopefully down the line we may even attract the odd B(eer)-list celebrity!

Before we kick off, a quick reminder of our castaways so far…

Zak Avery, bearded beer writer and retailer

Pete Brown, beer author, marketer, journalist

Jeff Evans, editor of the Good Bottled Beer Guide

James Watt, Head of Stuff at BrewDog

Stay tuned: our next desert island visitor will be appearing at 12pm…today!

Pete Brown – beer writer and marketer

Picking our first post of the New Year was easy. The ‘Bill Bryson of the beer world’, Pete Brown is one of the UK’s best loved beer writers, his three books Man Walks Into A Pub, Three Sheets To The Wind and the much celebrated Hops & Glory are responsible for much laughing, beer drinking and fits of coughing when we do both at the same time.

Fresh from his coronation as The British Guild of Beer Writers Beer Writer of the Year, 2010 is Pete’s year to enjoy so what better way to nestle up with one of his books and try some of his favourite tipples too.

A quick reminder on the island rules: Pete can pick three beers to take and a meal to eat with the beers, plus a handful of personal effects to keep boredom at arms length: a book to read, a record to listen to and a luxury item. For the pedants amongst you we’re going to assume that the friendly island gods will take care of opening your beer bottle (or cask!) and the playing of your selected music…

Pete Brown reads from Hops & Glory on his book launch tour in 2009

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Zak Avery – beer writer and shop owner

Welcome to the first ‘episode’ of Desert Island Discs, our regular interview with beer lovers. Our first week starts with a bang, with British Guild of Beer Writers’ Beer Writer of the Year 2008, Mr Zak Avery.

Lots of you will know Zak, and many may have read his beer words, for those who are lucky enough to live in Leeds you might have bought a few bottles of beer from Zak’s shop, Beer Ritz in Far Headingley.

Zak’s shop is probably the most welcoming emporium of beer I know, but what will he make of the hospitality on our Desert Island?

Actually, he made himself right at home, taking advantage of our not very stringent rules!

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