Good morning Britain

You’ve got brown, raisiny and bitter Sussex Best (tastiest after a walk on the South Downs), Yorkshire Bitter which is golden, malty sweet and with resiny hops. 80/- in Edinburgh, with its sweet toffee and dark fruit flavours. Hoppy Cornish pale ale (best enjoyed with a view of the sea). London Porter has seen a recent resurgence in recent years. Drinking all of those styles locally deserve its place on a list of essential British beer experiences. There are also single outlier beers which are uniquely of one place and have been enjoyed there for generations, unchanged for the fast-moving beer scene of the 2020s. 

Drinking Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild at The Beacon Hotel in Sedgley is in my top 10 favourite beer experiences of all time. 

It feels like a pilgrimage to get there, as you navigate local public transport and find yourself wondering why this part of the Midlands is so hilly, but walk in, see the old oak, dull brass and well-worn carpets, and it has a transformative quality of stepping back in time.

There’s a central bar connected to three separate drinking rooms, with a hatch and snob screens — frosted panels to partition publican and punter — for privacy. 

The old tower brewery is behind the pub, with the ingredients hauled to the top and gravity bringing the liquid all the way down into the cellars to ferment. There are a few beers in its range but the Dark Ruby Mild should be your focus. It’s strong at 6% ABV, all cocoa and dark fruits, gloriously complex and interesting, heady and intoxicating.

Order a second pint with a cheese cobb and settle into the pub. But don’t get too cosy because you’re close to another must-visit destination in the West Midlands. 

Two buses or a 20-minute taxi away is Bathams in Brierley Hill. That’s a name which makes hardy, hard working blokes go giddy. Bathams have 12 pubs in the area, but The Vine, known locally as the Bull and Bladder, is the brewery tap. Like the Beacon Hotel, it’s as classic as old boozers come. 

Bathams Bitter is bright gold with a brilliant white foam. It’s a beer that’s gloriously soft textured, creamy and yet light, sweet and dry. In both flavour and texture, it’s a unique British beer, and you need to go to a Bathams pub to get the best pint of it. 

Like many iconic British ales, you can drink these beers all year round, but what's rare is finding traditional ales served in the traditional way. The practice of storing and serving British ale from wooden barrels was common in Britain until the 20th century, but very few breweries use wooden casks these days. One exception is Theakston, a family brewery founded in 1827, which still has a cooper working at the brewery, and still serves its flagship beer, Old Peculier, from a wooden barrel in a select number of local pubs. One place you’ll definitely find it is at the brewery’s visitor centre and pub, The Black Bull In Paradise, in Masham, Yorkshire. 

Notes of cacao, dark cherry, dark malt and vanilla make Old Peculier the perfect beer to enjoy in a pub with a roaring fireplace. If you can find a venue that serves it from the wooden cask, you'll understand why I think Old Peculier is one of the finest beers brewed in the UK.

A lot of beer destinations are important because they’re old, and played a part in making British beer what it is today, but age doesn’t determine influence. In my estimation, the brewery which has had the most positive impact on modern British beer is Derbyshire-based Thornbridge, founded in 2005. 

Its flagship beer, Jaipur, is the stuff of legends, specifically cask Jaipur. It’s zingy and zesty with hops, almost creamy from being served through a sparkler, but is also bitter, lively and warming. If you find yourself in the town of Thornbridge, make sure you take a tour of the brewery and order a pint of the beer that kickstarted British craft.

Another brewery of great modern craft beer influence is The Kernel in London. Founded in 2009, under a railway arch on the now-legendary Bermondsey Beer Mile, The Kernel set a new standard for IPAs brewed in the UK, and its elegant and complex foeder-aged sours are loved (and copied) throughout the British beer industry. The brewery also makes superb lagers, while its heritage recipes for dark beers give us a taste of 19th century London. Spending a few hours drinking through the range of beers at The Kernel is one of the most interesting and rewarding beer experiences in the UK. 

For something completely different, quit the city once again and go to Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire, where there has been a British Trappist brewery since 2018. 

They make two beers under the name of Tynt Meadow: a rich dark ale and a bright blonde beer. You can visit the abbey as a guest, and they have a gift shop on site, but it’s not the sort of place you can just turn up to for a glass of beer, so book onto a tour for the best experience.

On the tour you’ll get a true insight into monastic life and what it means for a monastery to brew beer. Make sure you plan your visit to sit through one of the prayers. It’s a calming moment to remind you that this is a monastery that has a brewery, not beer brewed behind a church. 

Together these experiences, and so many others, show the true richness, variety, heritage and future of British beer.