Brewpub
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A brewpub is a pub or restaurant that brews beer on the premises.
History
Before the development of large commercial breweries, beer would have been brewed on the premises from which it was sold. Alewives would put out a sign such as an ale-wand to show when their beer was ready. Gradually men became involved in brewing and organised themselves into guilds such as the Brewers Guild in London of 1342 and the Edinburgh Society of Brewers in 1598; as brewing became more organised and reliable many inns and taverns ceased brewing for themselves and bought beer from these early commercial breweries.
However, there were some brewpubs which continued to brew their own beer, such as the Blue Anchor brewpub in Helston, Cornwall, England, which was established in 1400, and is regarded as the oldest brewpub in the British Isles.[1] In Britain during the 20th century most of the traditional pubs which brewed their own beer in the brewhouse round the back of the pub, were bought out by larger breweries and ceased brewing on the premises. By the mid-1970s only four remained, All Nations, The Old Swan, the Three Tuns and the Blue Anchor.[2]
In Germany, the brewpub or brauhaus remained the most common source of beer. However, the trend throughout the rest of the world during the early to mid 20th century was for larger brewing companies.
Modern development
The trend toward larger brewing companies started to change during the 1970s when the popularity of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA)'s campaign for traditional brewing methods, and the success of Michael Jackson's World Guide to Beer, encouraged brewers in the UK such as Peter Austin to form their own small breweries or brewpubs. In 1979 a chain of UK brewpubs, known as the "Firkin" pubs, started.
Interest spread to America, and in 1982 Grant's Brewery Pub in Yakima, Washington was opened, reviving the American "brewery taverns" of well-known early Americans as William Penn, Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry. The growth since then has been considerable: the Association of Brewers reports that in 2006 there were 1,389 regional craft breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs in the United States.[3]
In Dublin, Ireland, as in the UK, there were brewpubs. And, as in the UK, these had closed after large breweries, such as Guinness, were formed. In recent years two modern American style brewpubs have opened, the most well-known of which being The Porterhouse.
In France a chain of American style brewpubs operate under the name Les 3 Brasseurs.[4]
In Canada, changes in outdated liquor control laws finally allowed "Spinnakers" to open in Victoria, British Columbia in 1984. Legislative changes followed in other provinces and brewpubs quickly sprouted up across the country in the 1980s and 1990s. Standouts include the Brewsters chain operating in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Dieu du Ciel in Montreal, and the multi award-winning Bushwakker Brewpub in Regina, Saskatchewan - the city which boasts the highest brewpub per-capita ratio in Canada at 1:30,000.
See also
References
- ^ http://www.quaffale.org.uk/php/brewery/529
- ^ Neil Hanson (ed), Good Beer Guide 1985, CAMRA, 1984. ISBN 0-9509584-0-9.
- ^ http://www.beertown.org/education/stats.html
- ^ http://www.les3brasseurs.com/
External links
- Firkin entry at Quaffle
- The Old Swan at the Campaign For Real Ale website.
- Brewpub Location Guide
- Template:Dmoz
- BrewPubZone.com - Guide to Brewpubs & Microbreweries