The British Beer Book

By Steven Goodwin

Britain is great.

It has a long and distinguished history on the world stage of science, arts, literature, and politics. And Its beer. ales, stouts, and porters have spawned imitators across the globe, with its lagers being fresh, inviting, and worthy competitors to the Pilsners that inspired them.

This book covers beer in its general form - the history, styles, ingredients, food matching, tasting sessions, and the culture around it. It then details several British breweries, and the beer they produce. This is interspersed with quotes, trivia, and information about all aspects of beer and brewing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AUK Authors
• Release date: Jan 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781783334742

Book preview

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Introduction

He was a wise man who invented beer.

Plato

Introduction

Britain is great.

It has a long and distinguished history on the world stage of science, arts, literature, and politics. And beer. Our ales, stouts, and porters have spawned imitators across the globe, and our lagers are fresh, inviting, and worthy competitors to the Pilsners that inspired them.

But despite this, there seems to be an inherent snobbery in the world of food and drink. Those with a self-proclaimed palate of note will describe a hierarchy consisting of whisky, wine, ale, and lager, in an implied pecking order, with each drink believed to have some inherent superiority than those appearing later in the list. The truth is that there are good and bad whiskies. And good and bad wine. And good and bad ale. And good and bad lager.

In this book, we’re concerned only with good beer. Whether it comes under the banner of ale or lager, top-fermented or bottom-fermented, wheat or malt-based... if it’s good, we’ll write about it.

I hope this book introduces you to some secrets about beer and brewing, and lets you discover some good British beers along the way.

Steven Goodwin

London, 2009

About Beer

The First Beer

The first reference to anything beer-related was around 4000 BC. Ninkasi, the Sumerian Goddess of Brewing and Beer, is depicted on stone tablets with a recipe of what is believed to be the earliest form of beer.

In the beginning...

...was the word, and the word was beer! The modern word beer has origins in at least four European regions, one for each compass point. As beer was then exported to other continents, the words themselves followed, giving historians a clue as to how beer colonised the world!

Many western European countries use words similar to our own familiar beer; a word which stems from the Latin bibere, meaning a drink or beverage. This has become bier, bière, birra, and so on.

Eastern countries, in contrast, have a distinct Slavonic origin taking the old word for barley, piwwo, to become Pivo.

In the north, with Scandinavia for example, ‘ale’ is a parallel with similar words like øl and olut.

And finally, cerveza is used in the south were words like cerveja, sirbisi, sör, and cwrw derive themselves from Gaul. Although Gaul itself, now France, changed to bière in the 15th century.

The Word Lager

This word has a much simpler etymology, and means storage in German. This is because the lagering process for these specific types of beer required them to be stored in cold cellars (usually a cave) for three weeks before being served. Lager is a broad category covering brews such as Pilsner, Dortmunder, and Märzen.

Did you know..?

There is a phobia for wines (Oenophobia), but no equivalent for beer.

Popular Meanings

Many people use the words beer and lager interchangeably, particularly when used to indicate a social event, such as in the phrase coming out for a beer, tonight? Many journalists, and particularly real ale snobs, like to use beer or ale to specifically reference those brews made only by top-fermentation and a way of distancing themselves from lager.

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Benjamin Franklin

Beer Firsts

4000 BC The first reference to beer, so far discovered, is a Sumerian tablet depicting a beer recipe.

3400 BC The first beer tax is introduced, charged on all barley wine, in Memphis, Egypt.

77-79 AD Pliny the Elder writes Naturalis Historia, in which he first mentions the hop plant.

725 Founding of the Benedictine Weihenstephan Abbey in Freising.

736 Documented evidence of hops being cultivated, in Hallertau.

822 An unknown Carolingian Abbot mentions the use of hops for brewing beer.

1004 Oldest probable brewery exists; the Czech-based Zatec brewery.

1040 Oldest confirmed brewery exists, the Weihenstephan brewery. It is still going.

1065 The first wheat beer is produced.

1079 Documented evidence of hops being cultivated for brewing.

1516 The Reinheitsgebot (aka ‘German purity law’) is introduced.

1629 Hop cultivation begins in the US.

1677 Stout first mentioned.

1698 Britain’s oldest brewery, Shepherd Neame, founded.

1721 Porter introduced as a darkened form of stout.

1779 Joseph Bramah invents the beer engine.

1785 Joseph Bramah invents the beer pump.

1810 The first Oktoberfest takes place on October 18th.

1842 The Citizens’ Brewery (Bürger Brauerei ) produces its first pilsner on October 5th.

1850 Beer is first sold in bottles.

1857 Yeast discovered by Louis Pasteur, mentioned in his Mémoire sur la fermentation alcoolique

1864 The first British lager brewery, the Anglo-Bavarian Brewery, is founded in Shepton Mallet.

1883 Emil Hansen discovers how to cultivate individual yeast cells.

1892 Crown caps for beer bottles are invented.

1904 The British Beer and Pub Association is formed, as the Brewers Society.

1927 Colonel J. Porter releases Newcastle Brown Ale.

1935