News, nuggets and longreads 4 July 2026: Reflections in a Golden Eye

Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got deaths, rebirths and football. This week’s big news was something everyone’s been expecting for a while: Humphrey Smith, owner of the Samuel Smith brewery in Tadcaster, has died at the age of 81. Some of the tributes have a ‘don’t speak ill of the dead’ quality about them and use not-so-subtly coded language that indicates he was a difficult man to like. In the world of pubs and brewing, some have been quick to very much ‘speak ill’, however, pointing to the firm’s poor treatment of pub managers and various incidents of intolerance that were baked into policy under Humphrey’s management. Tandleman has fired up his blog to add another chapter to his long-running series of observations about Samuel Smith: “I predict that young Sam will not throw out what makes Smiths different, but he will tone it down while keeping the best bits. That would be fine as I’m sure most of us still want the nod…