Readers’ Choice — Our Most Popular Features of 2025
So ends another wonderful year at PellicleMag.com. We couldn’t be prouder of the work we’ve published in 2025—a year that has seen our readership continue to grow, alongside the number of people who support our independent drinks journalism via Patreon. Whether you’ve just discovered us or you’ve been with us for a while now, thanks for reading. And if you’ve also decided to chuck us some cash? Well, without your donations we simply wouldn’t exist in the first place. Thank you for helping Pellicle thrive.
2025 has been our busiest-ever year in terms of traffic; we smashed our own record set 12 months ago. Back in January, we didn’t have any real goal other than sustaining the previous year’s success, but we’re thrilled to have had our most consistent year yet, and published what we consider to be our strongest work to date. This hard work was rewarded with a combined 17 awards from the North American and British beer writing guilds—the latter even named us Beer Publication of the Year in November.
Part of this success is down to the fact that, as a team, we’re getting more experienced and more organised. Like most small publications, we’re very much learning on the job; this means, with every new feature we publish, we’re getting a little more thorough, tighter, and focused. We also had a huge boost when we added Claire Bullen to the team in August. Thanks to her formidable experience as the former editor-in-chief at Good Beer Hunting, Pellicle has received an injection of expertise and enthusiasm. As a team we feel well-prepared to take Pellicle into what will be its seventh full year, and are excited to see what’s around the corner.
In 2025, we’ve also published more work than ever before, including more than 80 features and podcasts. We also launched our very first print publication in the form of Katie’s excellent zine, A Place to Be. We’re excited to announce the follow-up soon.
As is now tradition, we’ve dug into the stats to see which of this year’s features were most popular with you, our readers. These are the articles you read and shared the most, and we think that deserves celebrating—you can find the full list of our 10 most popular features below.
Before that, however, we’re doing something new this year: Each member of the team has picked their personal favourite feature, in what we’re calling our Editors’ Choice.
While beer and pubs remain Pellicle’s bread and butter, it’s important to reaffirm that we’re a publication that celebrates a broad spectrum of food and drink, and we hope to continue expanding our scope in the weeks and months to come. This doesn’t mean we’re abandoning beer—far from it; we’re as invested as ever—but it does hopefully demonstrate our drive to cover all that excites us in the fascinating worlds of food and drink, and show just how interconnected they can be.
Thanks again for reading Pellicle this year, and thank you for your support. We look forward to bringing you lots more quality journalism in 2026 and beyond. All we ask is that, if any of these stories have resonated with you this year, you consider becoming a subscriber and helping support more of this work in the future.
— Matthew Curtis, Editor-in-Chief
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EDITORS' CHOICE
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EDITORS' CHOICE 〰️
Key: Matthew Curtis (MC), Katie Mather (KM), Lily Waite-Marsden (LWM), Claire Bullen (CB)
Con Altura — Making Wine and Preserving Culture in Tenerife’s Vineyard Heartland
Words: Katie Mather, Photography: Andy Cannon
There is nothing simplistic in Katie Mather’s piece about her wine-led travels in Tenerife.
Like its grapevines, trained in the distinctive cordon trenzado method, her story is braided from many strands, touching on myriad facets of island life in the process. There is Tenerife’s unique viticulture and terroir, and Katie immerses us in its lush and volatile geology. There is also the Tenerife that is flattened into a tourist commodity, and the locals who are increasingly angry about what is being done to their home. And there is Katie’s voice throughout, reflecting on her own position on the island, what has drawn her there and the complexities of visiting a place like this.
This is a profound and beautiful piece of wine, travel, and life writing that feels wide-open, resistant to knee-jerk judgment and unafraid to leave unanswered questions floating in the air. It sizzles with life, just like its main character: Mt. Teide, the volcanic peak that dominates the island. — CB
The Waitress
Words: Rachel Hendry, Illustration: Hannah Robinson
There are few writers whose work grabs and affects me like Rachel Hendry’s, and The Waitress is no exception. It is part deeply personal essay, part excavation of the roles and exploitation of women and womanhood in service, under capitalism, and as seen by the male gaze—the lens through which much of hospitality is viewed.
Rachel combines beautiful, transportive writing with critical theory and shrewd cultural analysis, delving into familiar and iconic waitress roles on screen. Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green as continuation of Greek mythological tropes, a thread which Rachel then follows to a trade unionist and mid-20th-century employment discrimination? Outstanding. Damsel, matriarch, celebrity, blank canvas—all the world’s a stage, and these women merely players.
What is service? What power structures and dynamics do service workers’ roles and labour uphold in this imbalanced status quo, and at what cost? Rachel’s The Waitress unpicks all of this with impeccable research and trademark wit. It is an absolute must-read. — LWM
Cinque Ports — How Medieval Law Shaped the Pubs of Rye, East Sussex
Words: Fred Garratt-Stanley, Photography: Sean McEmerson
Picking a single piece from all of this year’s published features was incredibly difficult. We published more original stories in 2025 than we ever have before (thank you for your Patreon support, which enabled us to achieve this!) and every single one informed, excited, and inspired me.
I do have a favourite, though. Fred Garratt-Stanley’s piece on Rye, East Sussex, and how medieval law shaped its pubs, really captivated me. Fred’s writing has glimmer and shade. His work isn’t a report or a review: Instead, he effortlessly transports you to a place you’ve perhaps never been, and makes it seem as though you are right there with him.
I have actually been to Rye, and I loved the place. To be taken back there to learn about its lawless past through the thick, candlelit panes of its inns and taverns was a fascinating revisit. I mean, look at this for an intro:
“In 1744, The Mermaid Inn was teeming with open secrets. Bands of rowdy, weather-beaten, sea-faring men would tumble in late at night, rest their pistols on the table, and wait for their tankards to be filled to the brim.”
Hall of fame, right? — KM
Cidre Breton — One Iconic Cider From Both Sides Of The Channel
Words: Rachel Hendry and Anaïs Lecoq, Illustrations: Alexandra Hochreiter
This piece began as a single text message from my OG Pellicle co-founder Jonny Hamilton: “You should get someone to write a piece on Cidre Breton and why it’s the darling of restaurants and natural wine bars.”
By coincidence, around the same time we’d begun working with a native Breton writer, Anaïs Lecoq, and so I asked her if she’d be interested in tackling said piece. Her response was fascinating, because her perception of a product that is known in France as Kerisac—and which is not even made in Brittany itself—was wholly different to the cult associations you’ll find in the U.K. Realising that there were two sides to this story, we brought in Rachel Hendry, and asked her and Anaïs to work collaboratively to bring both perspectives of this fascinating product into focus.
Such were my strong feelings for the resulting article that I became incensed, offended even, about the number of readers who hadn’t yet expressed admiration for their incredible team effort (as well as Katie’s; she acted as lead editor and art director for this piece). I was perhaps a touch overzealous in my response—what can I say, I’m quite invested in what we do as a publication—but I still think this is the best thing we’ve published all year. The way two story arcs push and pull against each other combines to make it some of the most vital cider writing I’ve ever read. — MC
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READERS' CHOICE
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READERS' CHOICE 〰️
1. The Essential Guide to Pub Etiquette
Words: Matthew Curtis, Katie Mather, Lily Waite-Marsden, Claire Bullen, Will Hawkes, David Jesudason, Rachel Hendry & Ruvani de Silva. Illustrations: David Bailey
Pub etiquette is one of those cultural phenomena that we love to bicker about. There are some annoyances that unite us, however, and this list-of-grievances-as-guide shows that pubbing is the closest thing we have to a national art form. It’s perhaps no wonder that this was our most popular article of the year by some distance.
Covering everything from queueing at the bar (bad) to buying rounds (good), this is an essential read for anyone with an interest in pub culture. Even if only to tell us how wrong we are. Go on, we can take it. — KM
2. A Torch In The Infinite — Burton Bridge Brewery in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire
Words: Pete Brown, Photography: Matthew Curtis
I was standing in the yard taking photos outside The Burton Bridge Inn, behind which Burton Bridge Brewery operates, when I had an epiphany.
So taken was I with the story of this fascinating brewery—whose founders retired, after which it came under the management of two of the loveliest people you’ll find in the beer industry—that I knew its story had to be written. But I was too busy to write it myself. Who then could I trust with this complex narrative, embedded as it is in a town with centuries of beer history? It would need to be carefully unpacked so its significance could be properly understood. There was one answer: Pete Brown, of course.
Like me, Pete has known Emma Cole and Al Wall for several years, but Pete has also spent a lot of time in Burton-upon-Trent, watching its slow decline into the fading annals of beer history. Who better, then, to research and write a story about a fresh, green shoot emerging through one of its many cracks, potentially signifying the resurgence of the most important brewing city in the world? It just made sense, and on reading the story, you’ll soon understand why Burton Bridge is a brewery worth getting excited about. — MC
3. Between the Bars — On Alcohol, Suicide, and Depression in the Beer Industry
Words: David Nilsen, Illustrations: Laurel Molly
When David Nilsen approached me with this story, I understood that it would be a challenging experience for many, not least the writer himself. But I also knew it was a story that deserved the time and space to be written, and that David had both the skill and humility to do the difficult subject justice. Part investigative reporting, part personal essay, part obituary, this story of a suicide in the brewing industry, and the people it impacted, is some of the most powerful, poignant writing you’ll read anywhere all year. — MC
4. The Boar They Butchered — The Demise of Ringwood Brewery, Hampshire, Words: Imran Rahman-Jones, Illustrations: Laurel Molly
Most brewery profiles are written about businesses that are flourishing, or building towards something bigger. Fewer take the rear-view perspective, reflecting on the peak and subsequent decline of a brewery only after it’s all over. Imran Rahman-Jones’ elegiac piece on the now-shuttered Ringwood Brewery follows that less-trodden path, and doubles as an obituary for the once-influential New Forest brewery, which foundered after it was sold to Marston’s in 2007 and was finally shuttered by Carlsberg UK in 2023. But this story isn’t just a lament. It weaves together affectionate personal recollection, interviews with those who were there, and in-depth historical reporting that contextualises just how much Ringwood shaped the U.K.’s brewing industry—and how significant the legacy it left behind. — CB
5. I Have a Love — The Resurrection of Beer, Football and Community Under Dublin Floodlights
Words: Eoghan Walsh, Illustrations: David Squires
I am so happy to see this piece by Eoghan Walsh in our readers’ top 10 of 2025. Eoghan’s enthusiasm for Irish football and good beer is something I love to read about in his newsletters, and when he pitched this idea to Pellicle, there were a lot of details we couldn’t actually fit into one story. Perhaps one day he’ll write a book about it all.
There’s a theme here—I enjoy writing that takes me somewhere else, that evokes the writer’s personality and individual style. In this piece, Eoghan drops us in the stands with a beer in our hands, all while describing a scene that those of us who are elsewhere in the world likely aren’t familiar with.
Getting the illustrations by Guardian football cartoonist David Squires was probably my coup of the year, too. — KM
6. Under the Bridge — A Definitive History of Wychwood Hobgoblin
Words: David Jesudason, Illustrations: Jessica Wild
The first week of December was a good one for David Jesudason. Fresh from being named Beer Writer of the Year by the British Guild of Beer Writers for the second time in three years, he then published this piece, which I genuinely believe is worthy of the phrase “magnum opus.” Such is the level of research and detail that David put into this 5,500-word epic that, following a trademark anecdotal lede, it quickly becomes a thrill-a-minute read, with opposing sides injecting plenty of tension and intrigue into its winding narrative. I spent several weeks working on edits with David, passing the story back and forth as new evidence gradually came to light, texting each other late at night after finding another old Hobgoblin poster or advert. I genuinely think it’s his best work yet. That it made our top ten mere weeks after it was published demonstrates how much it resonated with our readers, too. — MC
7. Different Class — The Rutland Arms, Sheffield
Words: Ashleigh Arnott, Photography: Matthew Curtis
As tired as the phrase may be, The Rutty is unshakeably one of those if you know, you know, pubs. I’ve been a handful of times, and have loved it more with each visit. The mere mention of it among those in the know elicits a wistful grin; being reminded of it is to be reminded that you are not currently looking at a well-stocked bar covered in frankly insane memorabilia. To read this piece is bittersweet—you’re likely not currently in The Rutty, but, with luck, you could be before long.
Ashleigh’s profile transports you there in a heartbeat, painting a crystal-clear picture of not only the physicality of the pub but of the notions and intentions with which it’s run—as well as the rules and stipulations imposed by the Rutty that lesser pubs could only dream of (primarily, no Arctic Monkeys on the jukebox). I absolutely long to return, but, until then, at least I can read this piece to feel a little closer. — LWM
8. The Best Days of our Lives — The Hope, Carshalton,
Words: David Jesudason, Photographs: Lily Waite-Marsden
I’ve known of The Hope in Carshalton for the best part of a decade, since I worked in a bottle shop in sort-of-nearby Kingston-upon-Thames, where a few dedicated customers spoke of its beer selection and community spirit. When I first read David’s beautiful profile, I could understand why. I finally got to experience it first-hand when I visited to shoot the photographs that accompany the piece.
David’s evocative storytelling—which covers everything from paganism and The Hope’s decentralised approach to management to its inclusive and progressive community atmosphere and, of course, the beer—is one of those profiles that makes you want to put your shoes on, leave your home, and head straight to the pub in question. And, obviously, get a pint. — LWM
9. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out — The Dog and Bell in Deptford, London
Words: Will Hawkes, Illustrations: Tida Bradshaw
We learn from the very first line that The Dog & Bell is a pub with atmosphere. Will Hawkes’ profile of the beloved pub in Deptford, South London opens with a well-timed Christmas scene, all spangled with fairy lights and aglow with Santas. From there, the story flows backwards in time, touching on everything from Morris dancers triumphing over a cast of pub villains and a piano-playing Jools Holland to competitive pickle festivals as it traces The Dog & Bell’s decades-long story. If that sounds like the makings of a delightfully outlandish tale, that’s because it is—and all together, it’s a fond and fitting portrait of an utterly inimitable pub. — CB
10. The Vertigo of Bliss — Scotland’s Inseparable Relationship with Tennent’s Lager
Words: Rob MacKay, Photography: Matthew Curtis
Tennent’s is a beer that’s more than the sum of its parts. For me it’s the taste of returning somewhere approximate to home, given my Scottish childhood years—almost every adult I knew would drink cans adorned with that famous red T whenever the occasion called for a beer. No surprise, then, that Rob MacKay’s story of Tennent’s culture, history, and passion struck a chord with so many readers. For him, and for all of us who’ve ever drunk lager in Scotland, there really is only one beer. And while it might not be the most luxurious pint in the country, it’s certainly got a lot to say for itself. — KM
