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Beer history quotes

Refreshing Pale Ale, Delhi, 1857

Lt General Sir Hope Grant GCD

In his diaries, published posthumously in 1894, General Sir James Hope Grant (1808-1875) recalled the siege of Delhi during the 1857 ‘Indian Mutiny’:

“I must here mention that during the terribly hot weather beer was my great stand-by. In fact, I scarcely think I could have existed without this balmy nectar — it put such vigour and strength into my sadly exhausted frame. We were also very fortunate, during the first three month, in procuring an ample supply of Bass and Allsopp’s best brew, as all the houses in the north [of India] sent as much as they could — knowing the uncertainty of being able to retain it in the state the country was in. I had as yet no A.D.C., when one day I received a note from Captain the Honourable Richard Curzon, who had been military secretary to General Anson before his death, asking me if I would take young Augustus Anson, who had lost his appointment as A.D.C. to his uncle. I at once agreed to do so, and the young gentleman accordingly came to my tent to introduce himself to me. He was an intelligent, good-looking young fellow, with a look of honest determination in his countenance which pleased me greatly; but as he felt a natural diffidence on his first appearance, and looked rather pale and worn out, I proceeded to my bed, drew out from underneath a bottle of sparkling beer, and gave him a tumbler of the delicious elixir. He had scarcely quaffed it off when the change appeared marvellous — his diffidence departed from him, his countenance brightened up with a rosy hue, and a great friendship was soon established between us.”

Picture from The National Media Museum.

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Beer history real ale

Return of the Wood

Wooden barrels at the Wild Beer Co, Somerset.

The opening chapter of our book concerns the Society for the Preservation of Beers From the Wood, and one of the first things we learned about the SPBW is that, since the late sixties, they’ve actually been pretty relaxed about the whole wood thing.

Though caricatured as fundamentalists, the Society’s founders realised early on that the beer they liked wasn’t literally ‘from the wood’ in most cases.

When we toured a large regional brewery a while ago, we spotted a wooden cask sitting in a corner. The head brewer who was accompanying us rolled his eyes: ‘We do that for one pub in the estate. The regulars insist on it. Wood’s fine, as long as you like your beer to taste of vinegar.’

With this attitude holding sway in the industry, the SPBW accepted that, as long as a beer was cask-conditioned, even if said cask was made of metal, it would do the job.

And yet, fifty years after their founding (the first meeting took place on 6 December 1963), wood is suddenly back in fashion in British brewing.

At the East London Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) ‘Pig’s Ear’ beer festival in Hackney (running until this Saturday, 7 December), in honour of the SPBW, ten beers are being dispensed ‘from the wood’. This has taken some lobbying to achieve, but could it become a habit? Well, why not — after all, wooden casks are dead ‘craft’ (rustic, artisanal, handmade) aren’t they? And wooden casks do look lovely.

Wooden beer casks.

More significant, perhaps, is the recent obsession with ‘barrel ageing’, derived from Belgium via the United States. Though it is not always used quite as Arthur Millard and the other founders of the SPBW might have hoped, hip young brewers positively fetishise wood. At the Wild Beer Company in Somerset, barrels — their source a closely guarded secret — are cooed over like newborn babies: ‘This one was used for Pedro Ximenez — smell it!’

Though much of the beer ends up in bottles or kegs, the SPBW have nonetheless welcomed this new (old) development with a mix of bewildered surprise and ‘we told you so’ delight.

It might not be ‘from the wood’, but it has been ‘in the wood’, or ‘through the wood’, and that is close enough.

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Beer history featured

Newquay Steam: Cornwall’s Own Beer

In 1987, a pub-owning entrepreneur looked at British brewing and decided it wasn’t working.

Stylishly packaged ranges of bottled beers trumpeting their purity and quality are easy to find these days. Back in 1987, though, bottled beer meant, in most cases, brown or light ale gathering dust on shelves behind the bar in pubs, with labels that appeared to have been designed before World War II. If you wanted to know their ingredients, or their alcoholic strength, tough luck, because the breweries didn’t want to tell you.

A cult beer from Cornwall would play a major role in changing that scene.

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Beer history london pubs

London Entertains, 1974

Reader John-Paul Clough (@jp_clough on Twitter) contacted us this week with a scan of a bit of old newspaper his parents had found lining a drawer. As far as we can tell, it’s a supplement from a local London newspaper published in January or February 1974, and probably sponsored by the London Tourist Board.

As well as suggesting zoos, galleries, museums and boat trips, it looks as if it might provide the itinerary for our next (public transport assisted) historic London pub crawl:

Pick of the Pubs (1974 newspaper headline)

PUBLIC HOUSES, or pubs, are an integral part of the British way of life. If you are an overseas visitor and have never been in one before, then don’t miss the experience. Beer is different here than in most other countries, and there’s a much bigger variety. Here is a selection of pubs we think you’ll enjoy visiting.

Bull & Bush
North End Road, Hampstead, NW3. Made famous by the old music-hall ditty “Down at the old Bull & Bush”, this pub has a well-preserved Hogarth Bar. Brewery: Ind Coope.

City Arms
West Ferry Road, E14. Well of the usual tourist track, so give it a try and rub shoulder with the East End dockers. There’s a nightly disco. Brewery: Watneys.

Coal Hole
Strand, WC2. A quaint 17th Century theatre pub in the heart of the theatre-land. Brewery: Ind Coope.

Dirty Dick’s
202 Bishopsgate, EC2. Cobwebs, dust and weird ornaments go to make up the bizarre atmosphere of this famous City pub, with a history dating back over 200 years. A Free House.

Duke of Cumberland
New King’s Road, SW6. Victorian-style pub, bearing the name of Queen Victoria’s notorious uncle. Voted pub of the Year for 1971. Brewery: Young & Co.

Feathers
20 Broadway, Westminster, SW1. Downstairs Victorian atmosphere bar. Up the spiral staircase to the Flamingo Bar with disco and go-go girls every night (from 8 pm) and lunchtimes Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Brewery: Bass Charrington.

George Inn
Borough High Street, SE1. Last remaining galleried coaching inn in London, used as a setting by Dickens in ‘Little Dorrit’. Built in 1677, the pub is a treasury of old beams, cobblestones and historic atmosphere. Brewery: Whitbread.

Prospect of Whitby
57 Wapping Wall, E1. Riverside pub steeped in history. Very popular, particularly at weekend. All kinds of music and jazz. Brewery: St George’s Taverns.

Once again, the same old ‘classics’ feature, though the City Arms is a bit of a novelty. (It became the City Pride and was demolished last year.)

And what the heck is ‘St George’s Taverns’? A pub company rather than a brewery, we’d guess.

Notes

  1. The ‘pub of the year’ probably refers to the Evening Standard awards.
  2. The City Arms became the City Pride and was demolished in 2012.
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Beer history

The Beatles and Brown Ale, 1968

“One night, [Ringo] and John [Lennon] were coming back from London in John’s Rolls when they passed a pub all lit up. ‘It looked great,’ Ringo says. ‘When we got home, we decided to change and go and have a drink. The pub itself was just like pubs when we used to know them. The barman was very pleased when he recognized us. We had a bottle of brown [ale] each. We had to sign a few autographs, but it wasn’t too bad.

‘The Beatles: part 2’, Hunter Davies, Life magazine, 20 September 1968.