what's your brew......

You know I can't resist a good old book. This one I have borrowed & will have to go back into our archive library when I have done.
It is called 'The Brewing Industry' by Julian L. Baker, F.I.C., F.C.S. published in 1905.
Within it describes the history, process & 'the future prospects of the beer & ale industry in the United Kingdom'

Well we all know the future of the beer trade, it is a booming multi-million pound industry, mostly manufactured on a huge scale under laboratory like conditions. Of course there are still the independent brewers carrying on age old brewing techniques still.

In the introduction it starts with 'It is necessary to go back several thousand years to find the first mention of ale or beer. In the well- known Egyptian work entitled 'The Book of the Dead, reference is made to the preparation of an intoxicating beverage from grain'

It never fails to amaze me how things are discovered. Who would have thought to make a drink from grain, what were they accidentally doing to discover this in the first place?
Possibly it is probably as Diodous Siculus states 'wherever the vine was not found in Egypt, Osiris taught the method of preparing a corn wine from grain'
So one assumes that the early beer and ale was a substitute for wine. It would seem that humans have always had the urge to have a little tipple

Amusingly it comments in the book that this 'barley wine' was only fit for women to drink.

When the Romans invaded Britain they found that in the south us Brits drank mead, cider and ale but up north ale was unknown? But apparently the Romans did approve of the ancient Brits methods of making ale.

Ale was a common drink of the Saxons before they invaded us and by the time they did invade beer and ale was the general drink of the country, so much so some were paid in malt and ale.
Imagine that today 'can I have a pay rise?' 'oh ok you can have 12 bottle of pale ale extra a year!'

After the Norman Conquest, the national brew declined with the introduction of French wines but by the 12th Century it was back in favour & we were exporting to Europe.

Hops in brewing was well known on the Continent. In the UK the addition of hops to make a 'bitter beer' was strongly opposed and prosecutions were common place.
In 1542 Boorde's wrote ' Ale is the natural drink of Englishmen, and made of malt and water, while beer, which is composed of malt, hops and water is the natural drink of a Dutchman and of late is much used in England, to the great detriment of many Englishmen'

In the 18th Century the making of ale in country houses was a recognised duty of the housewife.
Around this time where as wealthy people brewed their own beer they found it cheaper and less troublesome to have brewers do it for them... so the industry grew.



Antisocial behaviour and drink was obviously a concern those days too.
These next two pages show the correlation that more drinking houses means less drunkardness
Is this true or false? I have no idea.


These figures in 1895 show the consumption per capita of beer. At first I thought almost 32 gallons per person was a lot ...... 256 pints ..... less than one pint a day!!!!


'No doubt the economic influences of the day, which attract large populations into limited areas, account for the increasing demand for stimulants in the form of ardent spirits. It is unfair to class beer, wine and spirits together, for their relative effects are very different on the human race. Beer and unfortified wines containing as they do but small quantities of alcohol, can be freely drunk without injury to the individual; spirits on the other hand, unless used very moderately, rapidly affect the vital powers.'

hey Julian L. Baker, F.I.C., F.C.S. you can't just leave it there ... what a bout normal wine ???