Hop, Clip, & Pump

Some beers arrive with names that intrigue before the first sip is even taken. Bête Noire,  French for 'black beast,' suggests something difficult, perhaps even unwelcome. A nuisance. A challenge. Something to be endured rather than enjoyed. Yet the reality, as brewed by Kelham Island Brewery , is quite the opposite. A Name with Teeth The phrase bête noire carries weight. It speaks of irritation, of something persistently troublesome, a personal adversary. It’s an unusual choice for a beer name, particularly one accompanied by a unicorn on the pump clip, a creature more often associated with lightness and myth than menace. Perhaps the name reflects the brewing process itself, an ale that proved difficult to perfect. Or perhaps it’s simply a piece of playful contradiction, a nod to the long tradition of evocative, sometimes ironic naming in British brewing. Whatever the intention, the beer that emerges is far removed from anything troublesome. A Dark Ale with a Gentle N...

There are moments in brewing when resilience becomes part of the flavour. For Kelham Island Brewery , this year has been one of those moments. Following severe flooding in their corner of Sheffield earlier in the year, an event that threatened both infrastructure and production, the brewery has responded not with hesitation, but with renewed energy. The result has been a strong run of seasonal ales, each reflecting both craft and determination. Among them, Blitzen stands out as something particularly fitting for the season. Brewing Through Adversity Kelham Island’s location, so integral to its identity, is also its vulnerability. Situated near the River Don, the area has long been associated with Sheffield’s industrial past. Water powered the mills; now, occasionally, it disrupts them. The flooding earlier this year was a reminder of that precarious balance. Yet what followed speaks to the character of the brewery and the wider Sheffield brewing scene: recovery, adaptation, and ...

Few cultural artefacts capture the restless, searching spirit of the late 1960s quite like Easy Rider . Released in 1969 and written by Peter Fonda , Dennis Hopper , and Terry Southern , the film became an unlikely landmark of American cinema. Produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper, it distilled the anxieties, freedoms, and contradictions of a generation into a loose, drifting road narrative. At its core, Easy Rider is deceptively simple: two bikers travel across America in search of freedom. Yet beneath that surface lies a more complex meditation on disillusionment, on what happens when the dream of absolute freedom collides with the social realities of a divided nation. In 2026, the film feels less like a relic and more like a prophetic text, anticipating modern debates about individual liberty, cultural fragmentation, and the myth of the open road. The Meaning Behind the Name The title Easy Rider , coined by Southern, carries a layered and evolving history. In early 20th-century ...