Oldest beer in Britain?

Define what you mean by "oldest beer"?

A cask that was brewed hundreds of years ago, or a beer that has been sold under the same name for hundreds of years, or a beer that has been brewed in the same way for hundreds of years...?
 
FoxEye said:
Define what you mean by "oldest beer"?

A cask that was brewed hundreds of years ago, or a beer that has been sold under the same name for hundreds of years, or a beer that has been brewed in the same way for hundreds of years...?
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Heritage, not actual age of cask
 
LabR@t said:
Heritage, not actual age of cask
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There's an extant recipe from 1750 that's used for some beers, e.g.

http://allaboutbeer.com/review/london-porter/

The brewery and name might not be that old, but you might count the recipe as the heritage.

Theakston's Old Peculier has been made by the same brewery under the same name since ~1890 and is claimed to be the same beer that the brewery first started making ~1830 (i.e. it was made for ~60 years before being given its own brand name). It's brewed in the same place, too (the company was bought back ~10 years ago by descendents of the founder and the old brewery renovated).

This website will sell you beer from a brewery which can be proven to have been operating as a brewery from 1040 and might be older than that:

http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk/weihenstephaner

There are surviving medieval English recipes for beer and people homebrew to those recipes, so you might be able to find some very small scale brewery selling them.
 
In Britain ale was the only drink until the 15th century. In this sense ale means a fermented malt drink flavoured with roots and herbs but, crucially, not hops. Hops were brought over from Europe in the 15th and were originally added to ale (to make beer) as a preservative. It wasn't until the 16th century that the hops were appreciated as an essential part of the flavour profile. Ale, as it was originally made, ceased to be popular by the 17th century. Since then hopped beer has reigned supreme.
 
Tuppy_Glossop said:
In Britain ale was the only drink until the 15th century. In this sense ale means a fermented malt drink flavoured with roots and herbs but, crucially, not hops. Hops were brought over from Europe in the 15th and were originally added to ale (to make beer) as a preservative. It wasn't until the 16th century that the hops were appreciated as an essential part of the flavour profile. Ale, as it was originally made, ceased to be popular by the 17th century. Since then hopped beer has reigned supreme.
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You can buy some made to that original pre-hop recipe but I cant remember the name. It tasted awful though, bit like fermented grass cuttings.
 
The lengths hipsters will go to these days, I bet you're the guy in Leeds I saw riding round on a Penny-farthing
 
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