Brewing in Hertfordshire

Brewing in Hertfordshire

Today Hertfordshire still has some twenty breweries, including one, McMullen’s of Hertford, which will soon celebrate its 200th anniversary. This carefully researched and well-illustrated book by one of Britain’s leading historians of the brewing industry looks at the long history of commercial brewing across Hertfordshire, and the often fascinating stories of the dozens
of now undeservedly forgotten firms that once supplied the county’s pubs with their beer.

£15.99

About The Author

Martyn Cornell

Martyn Cornell

Martyn Cornell is one of the world's leading experts on the history of beer styles, beer and brewing, and an award-winning author and blogger. He was a winner at the British Guild of Beer Writers' annual awards five years running, from 2011 to 2015, his work is used by the Slow Food Movement in Italy as part of its masters courses on beer, and he has spoken on beer and the history of beer styles at conferences in the United States, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as the UK. He has been a journalist on national newspapers and magazines, in the UK and abroad, and a writer for more than 30 years, and first began writing about beer in 1980, since when his words on beers have been translated into German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Danish, and appeared in publications from the US to Hong Kong.

In 1636 the poet and traveller John Taylor wrote, ‘Hertfordshire is a County that surpasseth all other Countries and Counties for making the best malt.’ Much of that malt went by cart or barge to London, but Hertfordshire also has a long tradition of brewing, as well as malting, and the county eventually developed several substantial breweries. These included Benskin’s of Watford, which at one point owned some 640 pubs from Brighton to Cambridge, and even supplied the House of Commons. Today Hertfordshire still has some twenty breweries, including one, McMullen’s of Hertford, which will soon celebrate its 200th anniversary. This carefully researched and well-illustrated book by one of Britain’s leading historians of the brewing industry looks at the long history of commercial brewing across Hertfordshire, and the often fascinating stories of the dozens of now undeservedly forgotten firms that once supplied the county’s pubs with their beer.