Towards the end of last year, when my friend and co-founder of Pellicle Jonny Hamilton told me he wanted to step back from the magazine and focus on his role as head brewer at Newbarns Brewery, I was, for a short time, all at sea.

I spent about two weeks considering the possible futures of our publication. I thought about how it had grown from almost nothing when it launched with just four published features on May 1st 2019. How it weathered a pandemic in its earliest years, when we weren’t really sure if a consumer drinks magazine that focused on beer and pubs was what people actually wanted, or needed. And about how I always said to myself this was a 10 year project when I started it. Maybe it was just meant to last for half of that, and I more-or-less made peace with this idea. Maybe what we had done so far was enough.

During that fortnight of soul searching, however, I took two very important, very poignant phone calls. One with Katie Mather, and the other with Lily Waite, who both joined our small team as associate editors in 2021. Katie was in the process of closing down Corto, the bar she opened with her husband Tom, which by way of vicious serendipity handed her the opportunity to spend more time working on the mag, and she immediately, enthusiastically filled the role Jonny had left open, providing me with the day-to-day support I need. Lily told me that, despite the pressures of running her own business, Queer Brewing, she saw her future with Pellicle as being long-term.

After speaking to them both I felt renewed, incensed even. I love running this magazine. It is all at once chaotic, joyful, exciting, frustrating and a lot of fucking hard work. More than anything though, I have come to understand how privileged we are to run a publication like Pellicle, and even more so that we have hundreds of subscribers who ensure we (just about) have the funds to do so.

Today, Pellicle turns five. This feels amazing, and I want to thank everyone who has read a piece, shared it online, forwarded it to a friend, chucked us a few quid, hundreds, or maybe even thousands of pounds (some of you have, you’re mad, I love you.) If you’ve enjoyed reading our magazine, even if it's for just a few minutes, then it’s all been worthwhile so far.

It feels a bit melodramatic writing this now. The six months that have passed since my tiny crisis have seen record levels or traffic, and reaching an all time high of 422 subscribers (and counting). We’ve launched a free weekly newsletter to help people find us more easily, we brought in a new sponsor, Brewers Select, to further help cover our outgoings, we’ve added a subscriber exclusive message board accessible directly via Patreon, and we’ve started selling bits of merch again.

I’m pleased to say that our future has plenty more fun things in the pipeline. Things that will not just help to support Pellicle financially, but provide you folks with more worthwhile stuff to read and enjoy. In fact, one of these things is our birthday Block Party taking place in Manchester on Saturday May 11th across the taprooms at Cloudwater, Track, Sureshot and Balance. We’d love you to come and celebrate with us if you’re able.

When we launched Pellicle our goal was to find and share the joy in our favourite drinks and their associated industries. Say it quietly, but I think we’ve grown up a bit since those humble beginnings. After editing hundreds of features I think we’ve developed the understanding that finding joy can just as easily involve being critical, philosophical or introspective as much as it can being curious or celebratory. Our goal is simpler now: to ensure each piece we publish is as good as our last. And that joy? We aim to lean into that harder than ever.

Thank you for being here with us. If you see the value in what we do then we urge you to take out a subscription via Patreon so that we can support our writers, photographers, illustrators, and our small editorial team (that’s literally Lily, Katie and I.) And, as a direct result of our growing subscriber numbers, I’m pleased to announce that we will be instigating a slight rate increase for all work commissioned from today onwards.

Reader supported, proudly free to read—it’s become our mantra. Only with your support can we keep making Pellicle bigger and better. Here’s to the next five years.

Matthew Curtis, May 2024