News, nuggets and longreads 14 November 2026: A Prize of Gold

Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got brewery categories, taproom design and pubs on the outskirts. First, a couple of bits of news that perhaps only become interesting when you look at them together as evidence of a trend. Young’s (the pub company; nothing to do with the brewery these days) has reported a “record half-year performance”. Meanwhile, we’ve also got a “profits jump at Fuller’s” – also a pub company with different owners to the brewery. What are we supposed to make of this in the context of a wider narrative about struggling pubs and challenges facing the hospitality industry? Of course both of these pubcos run similar upmarket big city boozers whose customers are not particularly ‘cost conscious’. It’s also interesting that Fuller’s cites increasing sales of Asahi lager and Jubel Peach beer in particular as drivers of success – not the cask ale for which its associated brewery is so famous. We’re now more than a…

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