Thursday’s ad is for Great Britain brewers’ “Beer is Best” campaign, from 1935. Part of the British brewers series of ad promoting beer generally, this one focuses on an after work drink as a positive, where a man can “put away the cares of the day; restores his toil-spent energy; revives his flagging spirit.” But what stood out for me was at the bottom of the ad there’s a simple list of beer’s four ingredients, which they list as “Malt · Hops · Sugar · Yeast.” What was that third one again?
Sugar was permitted in English brewing from 1845, so the tradition was almost 100 years old. The amount used is half or less of what is typical for adjunct American lager, so the taste isn’t affected nearly as much. Personally I think all-malt ales are superior and more authentic, hence in part why the American type of crafted beer has done so well in the last generation (including recently in U.K.). But the U.K. ales of the older kind are still very good at their best.
Gary