Readers Choice — Our 10 Most Read Features of 2023

Here we are at the arse-end of the year, picking at leftovers, and wondering if that slab of Stilton you perhaps overcompensated for in terms of size is still safe to consume. (Go on, eat it, I would.) I have a strange love for this liminal week where the normal rules of polite society feel like they’ve been suspended. Yes, I will have a handful of cold pigs in blankets straight from the fridge and consider it breakfast, thank you.

With our minds at rest and our bodies oversaturated, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the year that was. At Pellicle we’re all wrapped for the year and are now thinking about what 2024 will look like. Our hope is that lots more subscribers join us so we can spend less time worrying about the financial side of the magazine and invest more time in the creative and editorial side. We’re ready to start the year with a bang too, with long form features from both Katie Mather and myself all ready to publish. Ours is a simple goal: to publish at least one new feature a week, each one as good as the last.

Publishing a list of our most popular features from last 12 months has become something of a ritual. I love poring over the data and finding out what’s worked, and what maybe hasn’t captured people’s attention as we might have hoped. What I have learned is that there really is no formula to this, sometimes a piece will go ballistic from day one, and sometimes a certain group of people will discover its existence two years later and it finally gets the attention it deserves.

This is perhaps why our two most read features on the site this year weren’t published this year. In fact our most read piece of the year—Jemma Beedie’s excellent analysis of breastfeeding while drinking alcohol—was published last year. We aren’t sure where the traffic came from either, other than it just kept coming. It’s had so many hits that it’s actually gone on to become the fifth most-read piece we’ve published since Pellicle launched in 2019. Quite an achievement, and great to see such a piece getting some deserved attention.

A special mention must also go to Katie Mather’s seminal Bun! This piece gets thousands of hits every month, and it will likely continue to do so for as long as people argue on the internet about bread rolls. This list, however, is about celebrating our most popular reads that we published this year in particular, so without further ado, these are our most read features of 2023.

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1. Cut To The Feeling — The Anatomy of Smith’s Scampi Fries
Words: Rachel Hendry, Photography: Jonathan Hamilton

I breathed a sigh of relief last month when this incredible piece of writing and research from Rachel Hendry finally overtook my rant on terroir and became our most read feature of 2023. This was in all likelihood because it picked up a silver medal at last month’s British Guild of Beer Writers awards, and a well-deserved bit of extra attention came its way.

The reason we established Pellicle in the first place is to publish stories exactly like this one. An idea that at once digs into a really weird quirk of British pub culture (I mean, shellfish and lemon flavoured wheat snacks, really?) But one that also explains it in a way that makes total sense, and piques curiosity. Not just one of the best pieces about pubs that was published over the past 12 months but one of the best pieces of food writing I’ve read anywhere this year. Rachel is one hell of a talent, and we can’t wait to publish more of her work in 2024.

2. There is No Such Thing as Terroir in Beer
Words & Photography: Matthew Curtis

Ah, yes. A rant so daft in conception that an entire thread was started on Reddit to discuss how much of an idiot I am. This is an idea that has been knocking around inside my head for a long time, the kind of thought process that has manifested on long plane trips, or while on a lengthy trail run with only these kinds of ideas for company. I still thoroughly stand by everything I wrote in this piece, and I enjoyed the conversations that came from it. Especially the ones I had with the great Stan Hieronymus, which might not have happened if I didn’t write it. Whether you agree with it or not, what it did prove is that there is a huge appetite from our readers for editorials, and so I guess we’ll try and publish a few more of them this year.

3. The Rise and Fall of Jennings Brewery — Pure Lake District, Now Made in Staffordshire
Words & Photography: Jacob Smith

This feels like a landmark piece for us. Not just because it’s a great bit of writing, but because it was a bit of an about-face in terms of our positioning. When we established the mag we wanted to lean into the joy in beer (and honestly, we feel this harder than ever right now.) What this piece did however, was uncover layers of melancholy about a legacy lost. Or, more accurately, squandered. 2023 has seen Carlsberg Marston’s brewery make a mockery of the assets invested in producing traditional British beer it has invested in over the years, and this piece eloquently explains the damage this attitude can do to the communities that surround them. This piece also introduced Jacob Smith to our audience, a superb young writer who we hope to publish many more stories from in the future.

4. No Treble — The Inextinguishable Appeal of Draught Bass
Words: Phil Mellows, Photography: Matthew Curtis

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a trad revival going on. The kids are drinking ale again. In all seriousness, there’s been a bit of fuss around the bitter this year, and one of the beers at the centre of all this has been draught Bass. The purview of a select few for some time (most notably Ian Thurman who, along with a small crew keeps tabs on where the good Bass can be found) it does feel as though these once maligned “boring brown bitters” are having a bit of a moment. This excellent piece by Phil Mellows goes into fine detail explaining why. And the pictures—which I took at Oldham’s Fox and Pine—will undoubtedly make you thirsty for a few pints yourself.

5. Go To The Place Where You've Finally Found — The Laurieston Bar, Glasgow
Words: Robbie Armstrong, Photography: Jonathan Hamilton

For as long as we’ve run the magazine we’ve wanted to run a feature on Glasgow’s majestic Laurieston Bar, so when Robbie Armstrong’s pitch careered its way into our inboxes, we practically bit his hand off. Some pubs just had that special, intangible something. In house we refer to them as “super pubs”, as though they have some ethereal power that can’t quite be explained. Robbie, however, beautifully evokes what makes The Laurieston so special. That it came at a time of major transition for the pub and the family, who have now sold it on to new owners, makes it all the more poignant.

6. Guinness, Guilt, and Gestalt — On Finding Perspective Through the World’s Favourite Stout
Words: Matthew Curtis, Illustrations: Jessica Wild

When I wrote this, I wanted to write two separate pieces, but somehow along the way they became conjoined. I felt sad when Levenshulme’s Fiddlers Green pub closed down and I wanted to capture that feeling. I also needed to figure out why I wanted to drink loads of Guinness all of a sudden, and why, when I did, I sometimes felt really guilty about it. My Guinness consumption hasn’t quite been what it was of late, and I suspect that the closure of this pub has a lot to do with that. For reasons unknown to me, this thought process also seemed to capture the attention of our readers, for which I’m thankful.

7. Meet the New Fat Tire, Same as the Old Fat Tire
Words: Matthew Curtis, Illustrations: Becky Mann

When New Belgium launched the rebranded and, more importantly, reformulated Fat Tire at the start of this year, I had feelings. But I had a lot going on at the time, and I promised myself I wouldn’t write about it, as I didn’t have the energy or mental capacity. However, as those thoughts fermented, it kind of just squeaked out, like a burp from a particularly voracious jar of kimchi. Feelings like these need to take physical form, and I am fortunate that I have a magazine where I can place them. Interestingly, for me the new Fat Tire has since assumed the same role as the old one as mentioned in the piece, although I miss that amber ale dearly. My thoughts now turn to whether or not this rebrand has actually improved this beer's fortunes, and for how much longer I’ll be able to enjoy a beer with this name.

(The title was a reference to The Who’s classic ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, which no one got, and I’m very disappointed in you all.)

8. Same As It Ever Was — On Class, Exceptionalism and Craft Beer
Words: AJ Cox, Illustrations: Jessica Wild

A piece with a take as precise as the imagery that accompanies it, I was thrilled to see that this article by AJ has been one of our most popular this year. If you’ve read our previous end of year roundups you may have noticed my frustration at the fact our pieces centred around equality and social justice do not get the same traction as those that are nice, comforting stories about glorious pints of ale, enjoyed in a good pub. The fact that this one has been so widely read gives me hope that people actually give a shit, and that beer has the potential to become the progressive force it deserves to be.

Oh, and those of you asking about getting one of those Black Beer t-shirts. Watch this space…

9. It Works Wonders! — The Legacy of Double Diamond Burton Pale Ale
Words: Rachel Hendry, Illustrations: David Bailey

For so long the existence of this piece was a conversation I was aware of between its author, Rachel Hendry, and my co-founder Jonny Hamilton, who was its commissioning editor. It would be many months before a draft finally landed in my inbox, when on reading it my jaw immediately dropped to the floor. This—I thought—This is our next banked pints! Despite Rachel being too young to properly remember Double Diamond in its heyday (in fact all of us at Pellicle are) this insightful piece of reporting into the history of its beer and its iconic brand feels like it was written by someone who was there.

I was convinced this would hold the number one spot in terms of our site traffic this year. In reality my excitement obscured the fact that this is a very niche subject, largely read by a handful of people who are old enough to remember the beer. But I will say this: if you haven’t read this one yet, do yourself a favour and go to the pub, buy a pint, sit by the fire, and give yourself half an hour to do it justice. You won’t regret it, I promise.

10. God Bless Your Transsexual Heart — The Pub As An Unlikely Sanctuary
Words: Lily Waite, Illustrations: Dionne Kitching

Few people do personal essays like our very own Lily Waite, and this one—this award winning one—is the perfect example of why she’s such an incredible writer. Like with AJ’s piece, I find it heartwarming to see it in our top ten, not just because it’s such a brilliant piece of writing, but because it deals with a subject seldom covered in beer writing, and offers a fresh, emotional perspective on a viewpoint and experiences that the majority of beer drinkers won’t directly understand. It’s pieces like this that make publishing Pellicle feel so worthwhile. In fact, I feel that way about every single piece we published in 2023. Hopefully we can keep up this standard over the next 12 months. With writers like Lily, Rachel and all of the above on our books, I’m feeling pretty confident about it.

In 2023 Pellicle spent £38,000 on publishing features, the majority of which was paid to our writers, photographers and illustrators. In 2024, we want to spend even more, and we can only do this with your support. Subscribe to Pellicle via Patreon, and we pledge to spend your money on commissioning more great work, just like the pieces mentioned above.