Cloudwater’s Friends & Family & Beer Festival is now but a distant, yet no less satisfying memory. If we were to have known what would unfold over the coming weeks and months, we would have perhaps cherished this moment even more dearly. Still, this festival stands in testament to there still being some good times that went down in this intensely difficult year. And the good news is that Pellicle was there to record some stirring conversations with some of our favourite folks in beer, which we’re happy to bring you today in the form of our podcast.

We were invited up to Friends & Family & Beer to talk specifically about beer styles. For his talks Matthew chose lager first, and then decided to have a chat with two (and this is something of an understatement) brewing legends about Bitter and Mild. Meanwhile, Jonny decided to talk about one of his favourite subjects: mixed-fermentation hybrids, with luminaries of both beer and cider.

Thanks again to Connor, Doreen and Paul at Cloudwater for inviting us up to speak at the event. We’re also incredibly grateful for Cloudwater’s support as one of our pro-tier Patreon supporters, which helped make turning these panel discussions into podcasts possible. If you’re able to support our content with a monthly donation, you can sign up here.

These will likely be our final podcasts for the year, but pre-production is underway on series two, which we promise will be very special indeed. Until then, please enjoy these episodes.

Ep15 — Friends & Family & Beer 2020: Looking Back to Go Forward

In this episode we take great pleasure in chatting to two bonafide industry legends: Doug Odell from Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Paul Wood, now retired but formerly of Manchester’s own JW Lees Brewery. Over the next half hour, we chat about how styles vital to the beer heritage of the United Kingdom such as bitter and mild remain as vital today, and tomorrow, as they’ve always been.

Ep16 — Friends & Family & Beer 2020: Of Must and Graf

In this episode Jonny Hamilton chats with Khris Johnson from Green Bench in Florida, Andrew Schwartz from Modern Times in San Diego, California and Felix Nash from The Fine Cider Company here in the UK, on what happens when the production of beer, wine and cider are brought together, and what potential experiences does this offers to the curious drinker.

EP17 — Friends & Family & Beer 2020: Hurry up and Wait

In this episode, we chat to Alex Troncoso of Lost and Grounded in Bristol, and Katie Pietsch from WhiteFrontier in Switzerland, as we get into conversation about what makes lager so universally appealing, and contemplate why its popularity has been steadily growing among craft beer consumers who typically lean towards American hops, complex sours, and delectably big stouts.