– Boak And Bailey on tour / Sunday May 18th 2014 – 2pm
Boak and Bailey will be parked in a cosy corner of Port Street Beer House for an informal chat, probably a reading, and maybe some questions & answers. So pull up a stool and join them for this FREE event.
Their book ‘Brew Britannia: the strange rebirth of British beer’ is set to be published on 19 June 2014 by Aurum Press.
background info :
In a barn in Somerset, plans are afoot to ferment a beer-cider hybrid with wild yeast that blows on the wind, while in Yorkshire an almost extinct style of ‘salty ’n’ sour’ wheat beer is being resurrected for the 21st century. Fifty years ago, this would have seemed impossible.
Back then, the prospects for British beer looked weak, sweet, bland and fizzy, as colossal combines took over the industry and put profit before palate. Before the Great War, there were 4,000 breweries in Britain; by 1970 there were a paltry 177, and each successive closure made grown men weep.
Today the number is at a 75-year high, with over a thousand in operation. Whether you drink traditional, CAMRA-approved ‘real ale’ or prefer a super-strong, fruit-infused, unfiltered, barrel-aged Belgian-style saison, you are spoilt for choice.
Brew Britannia tells the story of this very British fightback. With a cast of eccentric City bankers, hippie microbrewers, style gurus, a Python, and a lot of men in pubs, it reveals how punter power pulled the humble pint back from the brink.
JESSICA BOAK and RAY BAILEY have been blogging about beer since 2007, inspired by an eye-opening trip to Nuremberg. They have written articles for the Campaign for Real Ale and the Brewery History Society, among others. They live in Penzance, Cornwall.