You've Come a Long Way, Baby

2008.

A railway arch in South London. A corner of a rockshop warehouse in Huddersfield. Industrial units on the edge of the Peak District. Shoebox-sized rooms in the rear of pubs across London.

All waiting for world-class breweries to start.

Thornbridge were brewing on a secondhand kit squeezed into a converted stonemason's workshop. Brewdog were brewing cask.

London had yet to get a real hard-on for beer.

The thought of buying a locally brewed craft keg Black IPA in an English bar was unthinkable.

Five years later, British beer has come a long way.

Dare you imagine where it's going next?

Meanwhile... celebrate it, baby.

Praise it like you should.

Happy New Year.

1 comment:

  1. Brewdog were brewing cask.

    As I remember, Brewdog were brewing stupendously brilliant cask, much better than their keg & streets ahead of their bottles. I'm still holding out some hope that they'll go back to it, although it seems about as likely as Greene King going into craft keg.

    Still, most of those are changes for the better!

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