mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-08Ray & Jess, blogging about beer since 2007. We manage this account together.
BLOG POST: “Rosenheim is a city in Upper Bavaria with a population smaller than that of Taunton. We chose it as a stop on the way home from Czechia not realising that we’d picked the biggest weekend of the year until we tried to book a hotel...”
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/09/impressions-of-rosenheim-goth-dirndls-and-concrete-maskrugs/
BLOG POST: Brno, the capital of Moravia, is Czechia’s second city and was the primary goal of our recent round trip by train. As lovers of beer, architecture, history and folk tradition, we found plenty to enjoy.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/09/futuristic-functional-folk-impressions-of-brno-czechia/
GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular round-up of good writing about beer and pubs, this time with a couple of themes around (a) Oktoberfest and (b) making space for beer and pubs in communities.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/09/news-nuggets-and-longreads-12-september-2026-pendas-fen/
BLOG POST: “The beer list is what really got us excited, not so much for what’s on it – what do we know about Czech beer? – but for the logic behind it.”
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/09/pult-in-prague-has-an-approach-worth-stealing/
GOOD MORNING! Here's the latest edition of news, nuggets and longreads, with plenty of pubs and a little bit of road-transport logistics for those who are into that sort of thing.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/09/news-nuggets-and-longreads-5-september-2026-grand-vitesse/
BLOG POST: As pubs got bigger and more flashy, they also began to feel less human, and this worried people – especially those who had just fought a war against this sort of thing.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/08/fear-of-the-super-pub-in-mid-century-britain/
GOOD MORNING! We've just posted the latest edition of news, nuggets and longreads on the blog. There's a theme this week about community pubs, third places, class and ownership.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/08/news-nuggets-and-longreads-29-august-2026-europe-endless/
BLOG POST: Instead of obsessing over preserving old ones, why not just open new pubs if there's demand? Well...
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/08/why-not-just-open-a-new-pub/
BLOG POST: We don't hesitate to declare the revived Crown Inn in Stockport one of the country's great pubs.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/07/the-crown-inn-stockport-feels-just-right/
BLOG POST: We've had some good service in pubs lately, from book recommendations to diplomatic handling of dodgy pints.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/08/some-good-bar-staffing-we-have-seen/
GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular round up of good reading about beer and pubs.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/08/news-nuggets-and-longreads-22-august-2026-tales-from-the-folly
GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular round up of good writing about beer and pubs, with an emphasis on the latter this week.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/07/news-nuggets-and-longreads-25-july-2026-grimscribe/
GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular weekly round-up of good writing about beer and pubs with notes on dive bar life, shipwrecked Guinness, the nature of saison, beers that don't feel like beer, and Japan.
GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular weekly round-up of good writing about beer and pubs, with notes from Hanoi, Newark and Belfast.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/08/news-nuggets-and-longreads-8-august-2026-gold-coast/
BLOG POST: Is the reason brewers don't declare where their 'world lagers' are actually made because... it would spoil the fun for drinkers?
BLOG POST: Go on then – *you* describe the flavour of Helles.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/07/what-does-helles-taste-like/
BLOG POST: “It was startling... to see various people on non-beer social media railing against this policy for reasons like…it’s for Reform voters; pubs are ‘Brexit coded’... it’s just encouraging drinking, a social ill...”
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/08/outside-the-bubble-pubs-dont-deserve-special-treatment/
BLOG POST: “Multiple times in recent weeks we’ve watched bar staff awkwardly pass pints between handpulls, or around one side, only to spill some on the way and have to spider claw the glass back for a refill...”
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/07/the-traditional-pub-bar-is-pretty-annoying-and-badly-designed/
Instead of a newsletter for August 2026... thoughts on the fate of cask ale in what looks set to be the hottest UK summer on record.
GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular round-up of good writing about beer and pubs with vague themes around Bavarian beer culture and, oddly, that pub Lidl have opened in Northern Ireland.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/07/news-nuggets-and-longreads-11-july-2026-bee-speaker/
BLOG POST: If your pub is painted mostly grey or has an industrial look, it probably feels old-fashioned. The best modern pubs are just Victorian enough.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/08/what-makes-a-pub-feel-modern/
Another Substack piece migrated over to the blog proper, and backdated: "In which, desperate for attention, we put forward a controversial opinion..."
GOOD MORNING! Here's the latest edition of news, nuggets and longreads, top and tailed with lagers (one a classic, the other 'watery'), and with a couple of notes from Ireland in the middle.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/08/news-nuggets-and-longreads-1-august-2026-african-psycho/
Instead of a newsletter for July 2026... Notes from a heatwave, where fans, air-conditioning and cold beer are the topics of the day in pubs, bars and taprooms.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/07/instead-of-a-newsletter-for-july-2026-notes-from-a-heatwave/
GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular weekly roundup of good writing about beer and pubs. This time we've got a lost beer style from Breslau, extreme pub crawling, and an unusual Wetherspoon, among other items.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/07/news-nuggets-and-longreads-18-july-2026-nights-of-cabiria/
BLOG POST: It's hard to imagine but there was a time before people watched football matches on TV in the pub.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/07/pubs-and-the-1966-football-world-cup/
SHORT BLOG POST: We're trying something different this week.
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/07/a-week-of-session-strength-blogging-in-smaller-measures/
BLOG POST: On the one hand... On the other hand... We think the Bass boom might be good news for cask ale, on balance, though we do hear the arguments against. 🍻🍺
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/03/boring-beer-is-where-an-interest-in-good-beer-starts/
BLOG POST: Turns out everyone does want to go out and have fun... but where?
https://boakandbailey.com/2026/07/the-high-cost-of-having-fun-and-the-lack-of-fun-places/
