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16-06-2014, 16:20
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Thanks to an amazing Stoke Newington Literary Festival (http://www.stokenewingtonliteraryfestival.com/) I haven't had time to blog for about a month, which means I missed my chance to comment on the biggest visibility beer has had in national media for ages.


What a shame it had to be under such circumstances.


Over the European elections last month, beer geeks across the country gloated at the seemingly daily photoshoots of everyone's favourite bigoted former stockbroker hoisting a pint of cask ale, because most of the time, Ukip's leader seemed to opt for a pint of Greene King IPA. I can't imagine there were too many happy executives in Bury St Edmunds each time Farage's gloating, froglike face appeared with their distinctive branded glassware.



http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZB1pF9BF0OY/U57rA9pMgPI/AAAAAAAACTI/hKcGCt0yjgk/s1600/ukip1.jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZB1pF9BF0OY/U57rA9pMgPI/AAAAAAAACTI/hKcGCt0yjgk/s1600/ukip1.jpg)


Of course, it was perfect stage management by this most politically astute and media-savvy party leader. Nothing is more iconic of Britain than a foaming pint of real ale. And Greene King IPA initially seems like the perfect choice. Loathed by the trendy craft beer-drinking liberal London media elite, it was until recently the best-selling cask ale in Britain, the drink of the common man Farage pretends to be.


But how this pint came to be in Farage's hands is in fact a brilliant case study of the benefits of immigration and European integration - the very things Farage campaigns against so fiercely.


Hopped beers first became popular in England in the fifteenth century, when they were imported into East Anglia (Greene King's home) from Holland and Zeeland. The first recorded imports were for Dutch workers who weren't great fans of sweet, Old English ale. (While hops were among a range of other flavourings used in beer from at least the 8th century, they start being mentioned with increasing regularity from the early fifteenth century). Their tastes soon caught on with the English. Over the next century, immigrants from Holland and Zeeland settled in England and began brewing hopped beer that was so good it was exported back to the continent.


By the seventeenth century there was a thriving hop industry across the Weald of Kent. This was established by refugees from the Low Countries, fleeing religious persecution. Hop farms went on to become a defining feature of Kent - which is part of Farage's constituency as an MEP - thanks entirely to European immigrants.


Flemish brewers also settled in Southwark. Excluded from the City of London by the powerful trades guilds, they set up business just outside the city walls and soon became celebrated for the quality of their beer. There were of course those who opposed this trend, and some of the protests against these brewers strayed into xenophobia. While the story of Henry VIII banning hops is a myth, their cultivation was banned in Norwich in 1471, in Shrewsbury in 1519 and Leicester in 1523. London's ale brewers harassed and disparaged the immigrants they felt were coming over here and taking their jobs, which led to a writ being issued to the Sheriffs of London to proclaim that:


"All brewers of beer should continue their art in spite of malevolent attempts made to prevent natives of Holland and Zeeland and others from making beer, on the grounds that is was poisonous and not fit to drink and caused drunkenness, whereas it is a wholesome drink, especially in summer."


The descendants of these brewers eventually made Southwark one of Europe's great brewing centres, and hopped beer gradually replaced unhopped sweet English ale.


While we're talking about hops, the varieties we have today is another direct result of international cooperation and trade. Hops are creatures of climate, and change their character entirely if grown in a different terroir. While Greene King IPA uses English Challenger and First Gold hops, other Greene King beers use hops grown in Slovenia. Hops such as Styrian Golding and Aurora are the descendants of hops that emigrated there from the UK in the mid-nineteenth century. These delicate plants grow better in the microclimate of the Savinja valley, which is broadly similar to souther England but more stable and protected from damaging winds and storms.


At the same time as English hops were venturing abroad, foreigners were coming to Britain to help improve the quality of our beer. Louis Pasteur's pioneering work with yeast finally solved the great mystery of how fermentation happened. He introduced the microscope (invented by Dutchmen) to British brewers for the first time, showing Whitbread and others how to analyse and understand the behaviour of yeast. A decade later Emil Hansen - a Dane - successfully isolated the first single cell yeast strains that allow brewers to brew consistent beer.


These innovations helped create 'running beer' in the 1870s. Before we understood how fermentation worked, beer brewed in warm weather would spoil thanks to infection. Old beer styles such as porter and IPA would be brewed only in winter months, and were brewed strong enough to store and mature in cool cellars. Some of these 'stock ales' would then be blended with fresh beer before serving. But once we understood how yeast worked, and how to control it via temperature (using the scale developed by the Swede Anders Celsius, or perhaps the German Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit) we could brew beer all year round and serve it fresh from the cask, without long periods of storage. These 'running beers' essentially form the origin of modern cask ale.


Throughout this entire period - the golden age of brewing science - it was customary for brewers to undertake study tours around the great breweries of Europe to compare notes. While the work of French and Danish brewing scientists with yeast helped lead to the creation of real ale, English pale malt expertise influenced the development of golden pilsner lager. Carl Jacobsen of Carlsberg studied at Everard's Brewery in Burton on Trent. Pilsner was born of a combination of Czech ingredients and German skill. Burton on Trent would never have become the home of brewing that gave us IPA if it were not for a previous strong relationship with the Baltic states.


Like so many of our national icons, the British cask ale is the child of immigration and European integration. The first recorded fish and chip shop was opened by a Jewish immigrant in 1860. The Great British cuppa comes from India. The designer of the Mini was a Greek immigrant. Buckingham Palace was originally built for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz - the German wife of George III. The famous clock and dials of Big Ben were designed by the son of a French draughtsman who fled to England during the Revolution.


And as for Nigel's favourite brand, Greene King?


Whether you like Greene Kings beers or not, the business has prospered under the leadership of current MD Rooney Anand, who took the reins in 2005. Rooney was born in Delhi and arrived here as an immigrant with his parents at the age of two.


Sorry Nige - the closer you look, the more you realise your German wife is merely the most obvious example of how all you hold dear is founded on the things you hate: on tolerance and understanding, on the movement of people, ideas and influences around Europe, on Britain welcoming immigrants in, allowing them to shine, and watching as they help define our country with us.


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