Parliamentary groups back UK Brewing Centre bid

The chairmen of two influential pub and beer groups for MPs have lent their support to the National Brewing Centre's bid to set up as a trust company.

National Brewing Centre: tells the history of British brewing

The National Brewing Centre in Burton-on-Trent is hoping to set up a trust company called “The National Brewing Heritage Trust Ltd” but must first prove it is a national organisation. Show your support at http://www.facebook.com/livingbeer

The Society of Independent Brewers is already based there and the centre holds a number of historical artefacts and documents that are of national importance to the history of British Brewing.

“The Centre is without doubt a national organisation,” said Save the Pub Group chairman Greg Mulholland MP. “As a leading brewing nation, the brewing centre is of huge national significance and a hugely important part of Britain’s culture and heritage.

“With SIBA based there as well as a museum holding many historical artefacts and documents on the history of British brewing, it is hugely important the centre is able to secure its long term future.

“I wish the centre the best of luck and the Save the Pub Group and I will of course continue to assist them in any way possible as it seeks to set up ‘The National Brewing Heritage Trust Ltd’.”

Local MP and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group, Andrew Griffiths MP, added: “I am really pleased to have the support of Greg and the All Party Save the Pub Group for the National Brewery Centre.

“The Centre plays such an important part in the history of brewing, not only in Burton but nationally as well. It is vital for the National Brewery Centre to thrive and succeed to help promote the greatness of the British brewing industry and I am delighted to continue to support them in this.”
[ By Ewan Turney for The Publican's Morning Advertiser]

Lager-brewing yeast isolated from Argentina

Scientists have identified a yeast that led to the discovery of lager.

The researchers isolated the new species in the frozen forests of Patagonia in South America. Their discovery suggests that this yeast crossed the Atlantic hundreds of years ago and combined with one traditionally used in Europe to make ale. The discovery is described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A lucky find. The workhorse of brewing, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is used worldwide to ferment fruit and grains to make wine, cider and ale. Lager-brewing, which is fermented more slowly and at lower temperatures than ale, is presumed to be a later invention, and was likely stumbled upon when Bavarian monks moved their beer barrels into caves to store it. In those caves, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which prefers to grow just above room temperature, is presumed to have been outcompeted in the fermenting beer by a species that thrived at cooler climes. The modern-day lager-brewing yeast, Saccharomyces pastorianus, which is a fully domesticated species, is probably a hybrid of this cool-loving strain and the ale-brewing species, and survives because brewers keep back a little of the lager each time to seed the next batch with the same yeast. Lager's cradle "The hybrid almost definitely formed accidentally and people adopted it because the beer came out differently," said evolutionary biologist Chris Hittinger from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, US, who was one of the team behind the discovery.

The UK consumes 20 million barrels of lager each year but researchers have long wondered where the original cool-loving yeast species came from. That is until Dr Hittinger and his colleagues isolated it from a beech tree in the forests of Patagonia this year. These forests, where daily lows average around -2C, are the perfect cradle for modern-day lager-brewing yeast. The species has been designated Saccharomyces eubayanus.

"I personally prefer lagers to ales, and I am very grateful that these two distant cousins met up in a Bavarian cellar hundreds of years ago," Dr Hittinger told BBC News.

Knowing the ancestral strain to the modern day lager-brewing yeast will help scientists pinpoint the effects of domestication in the genome of brewing yeasts. And there is also the possibility that there are other undiscovered species of yeast in those Patagonia forests that could become the next best brew.
[By Jennifer Carpenter Science reporter, BBC News]

Go wild for Oscar Wilde mild

Oscar Wilde mild beer from Mighty Oak brewery in Essex has been crowned Champion Beer of Britain at the Great British Beer Festival.

The beer is described as a roasty dark mild with suggestions of forest fruits and dark chocolate.

It is a 3.7%abv ale from Mighty Oak. Which has been brewing since 1996.

"I am amazed that we won — its been my dream since 1996 when the brewery opened," said brewery owner John Boyce.

"We can probably get another 20-30% from the brewery and will be able to match demand. Being a mild it won't be a huge seller."

Juding panel chair Roger Protz said: "Oscar Wilde was a stand out winner, universally praised by the judges for its overall quality. Once again a dark beer has triumphed over paler beers.

"It’s a beer with great depth of character, and for the style has a lot of hop bitterness as well. It proves that a dark beer can be refreshing even in very hot weather."

By Ewan Turney