Traditional coopers are slowly becoming a thing of the past. Roger Protz looks at the role of the cask in beer making today.
onathan Manby is the final chip off the old block. He is a journeyman cooper at Theakston’s brewery in Yorkshire, the last man to serve his apprenticeship and fashion wooden beer casks. The ancient skill of turning staves of timber into beer casks held together by hoops is likely to disappear some t...
By Roger Protz
from Issue 16 published on 25/01/2008
Horses have played a key role in the development of the brewing industries in both Europe and America. Could they have an important future role too? Dominic Roskrow reports.
It never fails to impress; the sight of two mammoth dray horses, liveried and resplendent, pulling a dray stacked with beer casks, the drayman be-suited in period costume. It is at once a page ripped from our history, a demonstration of endeavour and strength, a bridge between the land and industry,...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 15 published on 01/12/2007
The Reinheitsgebot , a 500 year old German purity law, is still held up as a standard for brewing excellence. So how relevant is it? Dominic Roskrow reports
t’s held up as the longest standing consumer protection act in the world. It is championed by its supporters as the ultimate act of quality control, and its supporters maintain that because of it the Germans have maintained their position as the world’s top beer producers.
But is the Reinheitsgebot...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 14 published on 04/10/2007
The hop is a quintessentially British addiction to ale isn't it? Not historically it isn't, no. Dominic Roskrow looks at its bitter past
Talk about a bad press. You’ve spent hundreds of years building a reputation as a positive and healthy force and blow me if you don’t go and get blamed for a violent uprising, incur the wrath of royalty, get condemned as anti British by polite society and spend the next few hundred years being treat...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 13 published on 03/08/2007
The church played a major role in establishing beer in Britain during the Middle Ages. Dominic Roskrow reports
In his highly entertaining and animated masterclasses the celebrated whisky blender Richard Paterson credits the priesthood for establishing brewing and distilling in Britain.
With tongue only partially in cheek, Paterson, who is responsible for Whyte & Mackay’s blended whiskies, states that there ...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 12 published on 25/05/2007
The Yuengling Brewery wasn’t the first American brewery but it’s the longest surviving. Dominic Roskrow looks at its history
The history of American beer is a diverse and varied one, and it has taken a new wave of small brewers to remind us that right across the States there is life beyond Budweiser.
But for one Pennsylvanian brewery the link with the past has never been broken. During a 180 year period in which brewerie...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 11 published on 23/03/2007
In the first in a new series on the history of beer Dominic Roskrow looks at its earliest origins
The length of time human kind has spent perfecting the production of alcohol from grain is probably matched only by the time spent improving weapons to kill other humans.
Indeed which came first would make for an interesting debate.
There are parallels between the two pursuits. An alcoholic beer-l...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 10 published on 26/01/2007
