When I grabbed my first drink at Norwich’s Maris Otter 50th birthday bash – a celebration showcase for one of the most well known malts in the UK – it dawned on me. I had become desensitised to how much effort goes in to the special liquid culminating in my glass. When in a pub or a bar, socialising over beer with friends, especially a beer that you enjoy, rarely do you think about how it came to be in your hand. Yes, you enjoy the experience of drinking it. The hop burst that the beer may have, the sweetness of sugars that compliment the hops oh so well, and of course the yeast that pulls all of these items together to produce the delicious nectar in front of you.
But do you think about the effort and love involved in crafting such a beer? Probably not, I know I don’t as much as I should. This realisation sank in while standing in the middle of a spectacularly grand building, formerly a Barclays bank. Luckily, I was in the right place to ponder such a question. Maris Otter has been harvested for 50 years with H Banham only recently buying Maris Otter and pushing the boundaries even further for this 2 row barley. Within the 50 years, Maris Otter has been brewed in a variety of different ways. 50 years probably isn’t a long time in the grand scheme of beer making, but it’s enough time to be around to see the market for beer change dramatically. The maltsters and farmers have been trying to adapt their barley to brewers ever-changing needs. Not an easy thing to do, yet time after time Maris Otter has been used in a immense amount of drinks all over the world, changing ever so slightly to what it is today. With that testament alone, Maris Otter deserves a lot of praise. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not only the brewers that should be thanked. Praise should also go to the people that plant the seeds for the barley, to the drayman who gets the beer, and to the publican. The beer that may be in a glass in your hand right now while reading this has been on a very special journey. It has been in a field blowing in the wind, cut down by a harvester, inspected to a fine degree of accuracy. Zipped in a bag, driven by the truckload to a brewery, unloaded, mashed and sparged upon by a brewer. Left to ferment, racked in cask/ keg/ bottle and maybe even canned, then transported to a bar or pub by a drayman for the publican to put on for your enjoyment. Within this process, tens of people have lent their expert knowledge and love to a product for your enjoyment.
Every beer I tried at the festival was to the same very high standard. The organisers had taken their time to invite at least one brewery from each region of the UK. From the finest hopped IPA to the driest bitter, all beers at the event contained Maris Otter. Even though each beer had used the same malt, each beer had its own twist: a great nod to how skilled the brewers in the UK and worldwide can be. In that sense, it wasn’t like a traditional beer festival. Maris Otter’s 50th birthday bash wasn’t to celebrate the beers: they were the outcome of this massive journey, but in part to celebrate all the hard work 100’s of highly trained people have lent to getting our beer to such a very high standard. So I beg you, next time you pick up a beer to drink, appreciate the background of the beer and no doubt that beer will taste a lot nicer. This celebration was a nod to everyone involved, a ‘thank you’ for helping produce the thing we hold so dear… Beer!
thebeerdidone 