In a few weeks, the Brewery History Society will honor Peter Mathias, author of The Brewing Industry in England, 1700-1830, making him its first Honorary Life Member.
You, like I, probably won’t be in London April 19-21 for the society’s annual meeting and surrounding events, but you should wish you were. The schedule is here. The official meeting is at Fuller’s Brewery, which is cool enough in itself. But the following day there’s the “North Kent Meander.” Beer meandering. The best kind.
The news for those you can’t be there is that a special issue of Brewery History, the society’s journal, will include a reproduction in full of Mathias’s The Anchor Brewery: Park Street, Southwark. Written in 1953, this was unpublished until now.
Ken Thomas, curator of the Courage archives, explains in the introduction why the work goes beyond simply telling the story about another brewery. He writes, “although ‘The Anchor Brewery’ is important as it opens a window on the early stages of the study of business history, it is also much more than that. It tells the story of the rise of one of England’s largest breweries against the backdrop of the industrial revolution.”
The society website has information about subscribing to the journal or ordering the special issue.
Beer meandering is a very popular activity in southern Germany where it’s called Bierwandern (or Braueriwandern). Since that part of Bavaria called Frankenland is ripe with breweries all turning out lovely, well-balanced local beers in a beautiful, bucolic setting, it is a prime place to enjoy it. Here’s one very nice site that is often updated with new walks: http://www.bierwandern.de/ and another one that seems to be the work of the local tourist board: http://www.brauereiwandern.de/
Part of Frankenland, called OberFranken in German, contains over 200 breweries in a rather small area. Bring some sturdy footwear, leave your car at home and walk from brewery to brewery.