Cask Strength by Mike Gerrard

Author:Mike Gerrard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Matt Holt Books
Published: 2023-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

A BARREL OF BEER (AND CIDER)

In his entertaining and hilarious book Hops and Glory, the British beer writer Pete Brown decides to make an unusual journey. Having won £1,000 ($1,300–1,400) for his beer writing, with the proviso that it should somehow be spent on travel, Brown decided to put the money towards a journey in which he would take a barrel of India Pale Ale (IPA) all the way from where it was brewed in Burton upon Trent in England to its eventual market in India.

It was a journey that had not been made since the eighteenth century, with British merchants keen to get their beer and other provisions to the numerous hungry and thirsty British Empire builders who were busy colonizing India. It was a voyage that would take three to four months, traveling by ship from the south coast of England to the Atlantic islands of Madeira and Tenerife, across to Rio de Janeiro, back across the South Atlantic to South Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, and across the Indian Ocean to one of the major ports of India.

It was a journey not without its problems, as Brown discovered, having made his way to Tenerife. There, he leaves his barrel (a small and light barrel, to make transportation easier) in his apartment for a few days. The weather is hot, Brown forgets to pull the curtains on the large picture window to help keep the sun out, and he returns one day to find his barrel has exploded and the floor of the rented apartment is covered in a thick sludge of smelly beer.

It was a problem that was common when the beer was being transported in bulk. The holds of the ships were subject to extreme heat when traveling through the tropics. Although the barrels were made to strict specifications to withstand the rigors of the journey and were fitted with plugs made of porous red oak to allow for gases to escape, some 5 to 10 percent of barrels would nevertheless explode on the journey.

This was nothing, however, compared to the initial problems the merchants faced in that an entire cargo of beer could arrive in India and, having spent several months at sea, be totally undrinkable. In the early eighteenth century, beer was not made to be aged in barrels. Most beer was made and sold locally and drunk quickly. Beer from the north of England might make its way to London via canals or by boat around the coast, but these were short and easy journeys compared to traveling several thousand miles and crossing the equator twice.

If the beer was absolutely undrinkable, it would have to be thrown out and written off at a loss, though if it was merely substandard it might be sold off cheaply, and people could drink it anyway. Spirits could undertake such a journey with ease. Some beers were actually fortified with spirits to try to get them through the journey, but it was clear some better solution was needed if people were to trade beer at a profit—and the solution was IPA.

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