Interview with Beer Connoisseur Jane Peyton – What’s Currently Happening in the British Beer Culture?
The founder of the School of Booze and a beer sommelier Jane Peyton answered to our questions about what’s going on in Britain after the two long years of pandemia. She’s also providing for all Pint Please users a discount code to her online courses.
First, tell me a little about yourself, who are you, where do you come from and what do you do? What is the School of Booze? What does it offer?
I am Jane Peyton, born in Skipton, England and now resident in Brighton, England. In professional terms I describe myself as a drinks educator and I am the founder of the School of Booze. School of Booze is a consultancy offering events, training, education, writing, glassware design, recipe development, speeches, broadcasting, and other things connected with alcoholic drinks enlightenment. I have an e-learning platform where people can download beer, cider, and wine courses. I am accredited as a sommelier from the Beer & Cider Academy, and studied wine at the Wine & Spirits Education Trust. I was the UK’s first accredited cider sommelier, the first beer sommelier of the year, and am a former drinks educator of the year.
After two years from the start of the corona pandemia, how’s the situation now in Britain? Are the pubs and festivals recovering? How do you see the future?
Festivals were cancelled during the pandemic and in 2022 they are back! There is so much excitement on social media about life getting back to normal, which for people who love to try lots of different beers means visiting a beer festival. The Great British Beer Festival, which is the world’s largest cask ale festival will be happening in London in August, and there are dozens of smaller regional festivals bringing people together to be sociable and drink beer.
Pubs were badly impacted by the pandemic and consequently many pubs have gone out of business, especially ones in the suburbs and small towns. It’s always sad to see a building that was formerly a pub no longer trading. The good news is that craft beer pubs that sell beer from independent breweries are flourishing because they are usually situated in cities where there is a big market and demand for quality beer.
Have your own beer drinking habits changed during the pandemia?
Yes, my habits changed during lock-down because I was unable to drink cask conditioned ale. That type of beer is only available in pubs and the pubs were closed for months. Cask conditioned ale is beer where the yeast is still alive and it is served at a specific temperature and with no added carbonation. It is smooth, flavourful and is my favourite format for drinking beer! Normally I never drink at home, but the pandemic meant that I socialised on Zoom with friends and drank some delicious beers in cans from my favourite breweries – Brewster’s, Utopian, and Signature.
Any news from the local beer culture? What’s happening right now?
In the past few years an increasing number of craft breweries have been producing classic German and Czech lager styles in addition to ales. Pilsners and helles are the opposite to the hugely hopped pale ales that have dominated the craft beer market for so long. Breweries making farmhouse styles, using wild fermentation, beers from foraged ingredients, and barrel aged beers are intriguing brews that excite people’s tastebuds!
What about in the future? Can you predict if there’s gonna be new beer trends in the near future? Or are the British folks too traditional for that?
There are three distinctly different types of beer drinkers in Britain. Those who drink only pale lagers made in huge volume by global brewers, those who drink traditional British styles of ale from mainstream brewers and who are not adventurous in their drinking habits, and craft beer drinkers who like to try different styles, and support small independents.
In craft beer brewing, there are a couple of trends which arose as a counterpoint to the ubiquity of highly hopped and high alcohol beers. Besides these trends are brewers producing old British traditional styles of beer that are dominated by malt and where hop character is not prominent. The styles include Mild, Best Bitter, Brown Ale, and Scotch Ale, sometimes known as Wee Heavy. The alcohol level is around 3.5 to 5% ABV so these are great session beers to drink for a few hours in the pub or the taproom without falling over!
Jane Peyton is offering Pint Please users a discount for her School of Booze e-learning platform. You can find there downloadable courses in beer, cider and wine, that are especially good for people studying to be a beer, cider of wine sommelier. Check out the online courses here!
Use the code ‘COURSE10’ when you purchase the courses via School of Booze webshop. The code is valid on single courses or bundles. In addition to beer courses, the discount also applies to cider and wine courses.
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