The Pellicle Podcast

Recorded live at FyneFest 2025, in this episode Matthew chats to Robbie Harrigan, a UK-based sales representative for Yakima Chief Hops, plus Mark Cotterill of Beak Brewery in Lewes, and Brett Pemberton of Manchester’s Pomona Island. Together we chat about some exciting new hop varieties, including Krush, and taste the exciting results alongside a live audience.

In this episode of The Pellicle Podcast host Matthew Curtis is joined by the owners of three different UK bottleshops: Krishan Rajput of Stirchley Wines in Birmingham, Sam Parker of Keg Cask and Bottle in Prestwich, Manchester, plus Rosie and Greg Start, who run R&G’s Beer Vault in both Macclesfield and Congleton. Together we chew through the last few years in beer, and discuss the importance of bottle shops. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the 2025 Salford Beer Festival. Huge thanks to organiser Jim Cullen for inviting us down to host this chat.

In this episode Matthew catches up with Nick Scarffe and Elizabeth Townsend of Kerroo Brewing, on the Isle of Man.

At FyneFest we recruited a panel from three independent breweries who are doing incredibly exciting things with their dark beers. At Lost Cause, Colin Stronge is continuing the great work he built his reputation on at breweries like Buxton and Salt, but now completely under his own steam. In Northumberland, Rigg and Furrow is focused on producing beers with a sense of place, and this feeds into some truly unique stouts and porters. Marketing manager Harriet Edgar is here to fill us in on those. And at Barney’s Beer in Edinburgh, career brewer Andrew ‘Barney’ Barnett is getting really experimental with his post mortem series. Here about all of this, and plenty more chat about delicious dark beer in this episode of the Pellicle Podcast.

One of the best things about making a yearly trip to Fyne Ales for FyneFest is that I get to check in on the brewery’s Origins side project, the vehicle for its wild beers, typically produced using mixed or spontaneously fermented and then barrel-matured beer, and often showing locally grown fruit, or forage herbs. In this episode Matthew catches up with Origin's head brewer Dan Wye, and learns about how he's trying to channel a certain 'sense of place' into these untamed beers.

Should we scrap the pint measure? Or is the very notion of doing so rooted in prejudices like classism? We decided to kick off the first of our FyneFest 2025 panel discussions with this very topic of conversation. We're pleased to welcome back two previous Pellicle podcast guests, in the form of Rooster’s Ol Fozard and Lost Cause Brewing’s Vik Kastenbauer Stronge. It was also a pleasure to welcome Chris Shepherd from Cambridge-based Pastore brewing, for what we hope won’t be his only appearance on this podcast.

In this episode of The Pellicle Podcast I’m lucky enough to sit down, in person, with Christine Clair and Nolan Russll of Crosby Hops, a generational family-owned hop farm in Oregon, USA. It was a great opportunity to chat about both the challenges faced by, and the opportunities available to modern-day hop farmers, and there’s a good mix of chat that veers from the scientific and technical, to the romantic. Hops are an ingredient that gets a lot of people fired up about beer, so if you love hops, then this is an episode for you.

Perhaps there are more similarities between modern beer and coffee than I care to admit. This is why I was thrilled to get a chance to sit down and chat with two of Dark Woods Coffee's founding partners, Paul Meikle-Janney and Damian Blackburn. I was curious to see where their perception of coffee culture is, and how what their industry is experiencing relates to what’s currently happening in beer.

French & Jupps produces everything from crystal malts – designed to add sweetness and body – to patent malts that can imbue beer with everything from notes of chocolate and coffee, to bitterness and astringency. You might not have heard of them as a maltster before, but you have almost certainly tasted their malt in beers such as Harvey’s Mild, or Shepherd Neame Christmas Ale. In this episode Matthew chats to its MD, and beer industry luminary, Paul King.

Can breweries actually afford to invest in sustainability at a meaningful level? Tune in to hear about the efforts of Sam McMeekin and and South London's Gipsy Hill, as they continue to make efforts in reducing this brewery’s carbon footprint.

IPAs. We love to hate them. We love to love them. It’s fair to say that the darling of modern beer has, over the past 10 or 20 years, been discussed to death. But we felt there was life in the old dog yet. That’s why at FyneFest earlier this year we hosted a panel discussion to talk about the present and future of the IPA with two breweries who are pushing the envelope as far as this category is concerned.

This has to be one of the most fun, most bonkers FyneFest panel discussions we’ve had so far. The premise was a simple one: We talked up our favourite traditional beer styles. Styles like bitter, mild, porter, stout and old ale. A simple premise, really, but one that proved to be really effective. Traditional beer styles and cask dispense are having what feels like a moment right now, so here’s hoping this turns out to be the beginning of something lasting, rather than a flash in the pan. Huge thanks again to our panellists, Jamie Delap of Fyne Ales, Bob Cary of Good Chemistry Brewing and Russ Clarke of Amity Brewing. Thanks also to Aidy Fenwick of Fyne Ales for helping us to organise these talks, and for running samples to our (very) thirsty audience.