Land of hop
Clinking and saying “Cheers!”
began in the Middle Ages. As
the tankards’ contents slopped into each other,
boozers figured it helped ensure
no one was trying to bump
you off by spiking your ale.
THE Sumerians first worked out how to brew beer in around 8000BC, in the
area now known as southern Iraq.
The oldest surviving beer recipe was found on a 4,000-year-old stone tablet honouring Ninkasi, their goddess of brewing.
Around 5000BC the ancient Egyptians documented the brewing process on papyrus scrolls – beer was so important that model breweries were left in tombs for the afterlife.
The builders of the Great Pyramid were even paid in beer.
By the Neolithic period, beer knowledge had crossed the Channel to Britain.
In 3000 BC, farmers in Orkney brewed with ingredients including hemlock and deadly nightshade, which would have led to powerful hallucinations or actual killer hangovers.
The builders of Stonehenge would also have enjoyed a pint or two after a day hauling sarsens.
In Rome and Ancient Greece wine was far more popular but, as the Romans invaded other lands, they soon got their beer goggles on – downing curmi, a brew made by local tribes.
By around 100AD, soldiers based at a fort in Northumbria were hailing pints made by “Atrectus”, the first named brewer in British history.
More than 400 years later, the social lives of the Angles and Saxons revolved around beer halls, where they enjoyed three different styles of ale.
Hops were introduced around 800 AD, to add flavour and bitterness, and beer production flourished over the next three centuries. In 1188AD, Henry II introduced the first tax on beer to pay for his Crusades.
By the Middle Ages beer was the most common drink among all social classes. Made mostly at home by female “brewsters”, ale was drunk for breakfast, lunch and supper as people thought it safer than drinking water.
Monks became the greatest producers, with every monastery having a brewery. It was they who began developing different styles such as pale ales, porters and stouts.
In 1540, Henry VIII had two brewers supplying the royal household – 600,000 gallons a year were consumed at Hampton
Court, more than 13,000 pints a day. The lowest officer of the household received four pints every evening, while dukes got two gallons a day. The Tudor army ran on beer.
Thirty years later there were 58 ale breweries in London and 32 beer breweries.
Elizabeth I was said to be greatly annoyed by the pong reaching her palace windows.
At the end of the 17th century most brewing was still done at home or by small inn alehouses. But the invention of the steam engine, thermometer and hydrometer soon led to the industrialisation of beer.
The First World War brought in draconian restrictions – beer strength was cut and taxes hiked. Punters were banned from “buying a round” and pub opening hours were restricted, changing the nation’s drinking habits.
By 1933 Brits were drinking 50% less beer – just 18 million barrels a year. The Government urged brewers to lower their prices, increase strength and output, and use more homegrown barley. They were rewarded with a cut in beer duty.
Thanks to the “Beer is Best” campaign launched by the Brewers’ Society, sales rose by 37% in the next three years.
Artificial carbonisation was first used in the UK in 1936, with Watney’s experimental Red Barrel beer – but serving beer from pressurised “kegs” didn’t take hold until the late 1960s.
By the end of the 1950s, around 40% of beer drunk in Britain was bottled, while pale ale had replaced mild as the beer of choice for the majority of drinkers. Home brewing without a licence was legalised in 1963 and become a bit of a national craze. At the same time, lager and canned beer also rose in popularity.
But by 1970, 90% of British pubs were serving only keg beers and the industry was monopolised by just six breweries: Whitbread, Scottish and Newcastle, Bass Charrington, Allied Breweries, Courage Imperial and Watney.
Real ale was fast being wiped off our bars – and it looked like nothing could
be done to save it…