Extra Matter

Big beer may not be beautiful

 

Beer-drinkers in the UK who thought that consolidation and “crafty” brews were an evil to be found only in the USA will be distressed by news in today’s Guardian: British craft beer boom stalls as big drinks companies muscle in. The paper says that only eight new breweries opened in the UK in the past 12 months, compared to 390 in the year before. And, of course, small breweries – Camden Town Brewery, Dark Star and Beavertown among them – have been bought for big sums. Buyer beware.

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