BREWING INDUSTRY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20103, 9 May 1935, Page 11

BREWING INDUSTRY

THE sooth ANNIVERSARY United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, April 6. Certain organizations connected with the brewing industry are considering whether some notice should be taken this year of the 500th anniversary of the establishment on any appreciable scale in this country of the beer brewing in relation to hops. Ale is of great antiquity, but only for a short time before 1435, were hops used for the brewing of beer. The records of the Brewers’ Company show that in 1435 Henry VI. issued a writ commending the production and consumption of "biere”. The records also show that by 1436 as many as seven beer brewers had established themselves in London. The entry gives proof of the existence of those brewers in the Brewers’ First Book which is believed to be one of the oldest records of its kind possessed by a City Company. It covers a period of 22 years from 1418. In February, 1437, the Brewers’ Company received their first charter, and from an entry in the book it may be inferred that the

charter was granted partly in recognition of the help given by the brewers in the defence of Calais in the previous year. Prosecutions for putting hops into ale which were numerous in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, disappeared from the city records, and later in the century the terms ''ale'' and “beer” were already being generally applied to all malt liquors. The hop industry has now assumed considerable proportions. In 1934 a total of 259,000c\vt, representing an acreage of 18,037, was grown in England, principally in Kent, Hereford, Worcester and Sussex. In 1934 the sum of £53.884,000 was paid in excise duty on English beer.