Brewing in Hertford

A quick glance at a street atlas for Hertford and Ware will give you a clue as to the industry on which the wealth of these two towns is founded. Names such as Barley Croft, Brewhouse Lane and The Maltings can be associated with none other than the brewery trade.

 

In 1839 there were no less than 65 maltings in Ware alone but this had gradually declined to only 21 by 1855. In the same High Street there were once 30 taverns, inns and hotels all of which brewed on the premises to a greater or lesser extent; and dominating the landscape were the unmistakable tapering witch-hat like flues of the maltings themselves.

 

McMullens remain as the only large scale independent brewer in the area. This sudden decline was outside of the control of the maltsters, brewers and factors that thrived on Hertfordshire's pre-eminence within the brewing industry; their wealth was born out of a simple geographic alliance.

 

Londoner's had always drunk beer; they considered it healthier than their natural, untreated water. This demand was met by the brewers who had traditionally sourced the raw material for beer,

malt, from three main areas; Surrey, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

 

Hertfordshire's main crop was barley and it thrived in the light well drained soil producing the short, plump, thin-skinned variety that every maltster desired. It was brought in from the fields to the maltings where it was soaked in water to convert the starch into sugar and then heated to arrest germination before the addition of yeast to produce alcohol. The temperature is controlled to give either a pale malt for which this area was renown or roasted to produce the dark malts for stout and porter - particular favourites of Londoners.

 

The maltsters of Hertford and Ware had one other natural advantage - the river Lea. It ran straight into the heart of London, the Thames, from where the great brewers such as Whitbread, Perkins and Coombe built riverside warehouses to accept the continuous bargeloads of malt.

 

Almost as soon as the Navigation Acts of the 1830's were allowing for the improvement of barge transport into Hertford, events were occurring elsewhere that were to threaten local trade.

 

East Anglia was establishing itself as a major source of barley and barges using the sea route from Norfolk to London's Bear Quay were accounting for a higher proportion of London's malt imports. The big brewers were establishing their own maltings and factoring houses not just in Ware and Hertford but in the newer territories and their dependence on local supplies was

diminishing.

 

Local malting was dealt a mortal blow by the new industrial age - and in particular, the coming of the railways. The railway opened up the Midlands and its fields of barley. Burton soon became the new centre of the malting industry and as overseas exploration cast light on dark corners of the globe, it was Burton ale that was shipped to the colonies.

 

Ironically beer in bottles such as Indian Pale Ale (IPA) lasted the journey better; a discovery made in Hertfordshire by a parson from Much Hadham, Alexander Nowell. On one of his frequent fishing days he accidently left a bottle of home produced beer on the riverbank. It was his custom to put a stopper in the bottle to prevent the contents being spilled and on his return a few days later he found that the beer in the stoppered bottle had improved greatly - and thereby, so tradition has it, invented bottled beer.

 

Whether or not it is the influence of the final product, the brewing industry seems to thrive on local legend. The dark brown beer called porter was said to have been invented by a Londoner. If this is so then it is safe to assume that the malt used to produce porter was developed in Hertfordshire, for this area was famous for its brown malts.

 

In much the same way the invention of stout, first mentioned in 1677 is accredited to Henry Stout. He was a maltster at the White Lion in Fore Street, Hertford. In 1669 his daughter Sarah died in

mysterious circumstances and a Spencer Cowper was tried for her murder. He must have been acquitted as he later became a High Court judge.

 

Henry Stout was a Quaker, and one of many Quakers who became involved in the brewing industry as this was one of the few trades that were still open to them. Henry was penalised in 1662 and 1664 for non-attendance at church, similarly was William Fairman who was sentenced in 1677 to be deported to Barbados. It is thought that he served his sentence in this country as in 1687 he provided liquor to the assizes to accompany the judge's meal of 'boyle beef, porch, rost beef and cheese'.

 

The White Lion may have disappeared but Fore Street seems to have been a popular venue for anyone with a thirst. Numbers 41 - 49, now all retail units,was a brewery, and number 42, the Turk's Head Coffee House had a brewery in the yard and was situated in what is now known as Brewhouse Lane; numbers 72 - 74 was known as the Falcon between 1727 and 1731 and now houses a firm of solicitors. The Red Lion had a brewery behind the bar as long ago as 1621. In 1731 it was called the Half Moon and early in the 1800's became the Dimsdale Arms. It is now the Pizza Express.

 

All evidence of a once thriving industry has all but vanished. On days when the wind is in the right direction the smell of hops still drifts over Hertford from McMullens brewery but small independent maltsters, selling home produced beer from their own premises belongs to an age that few now can barely remember.

 

© John Barber - originally published in Hertfordshire Countryside September 2000

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