The Autumn brewing peak in Burton
The idea of seasonal produce remains more or less with us even in the age of air freighting but the practice of seasonal labour is less well grasped nowadays. In the world of zero hours contracts it is not by the season but by the hour and day that work is or is not obtained.
However in the Victorian era long before this time of year saw green hop festivals, based on beer produced with the freshest hops, beer production was heavily seasonal.
September famously was the time for hop picking with casual labour recruited for the task. After that however the newly harvested hops meant that the autumn was the peak brewing period of the year.
At the brewing centre of Burton large numbers of workers who had been employed in agricultural during the summer came into to help to the brewing process.
Raphael Samuel wrote about it in his essay on seasonal labour, Comers and Goers
One of the most enduring of these autumn migrations was that which brought many hundreds of labourers to work in the breweries…Malsters were usually taken on at the beginning of October and continued until about the latter end of May ‘being about seven months of the year’. The great majority of these were drawn from the country, big-framed men strong enough to handle the comb-sacks (sixteen stones each) of barley… The winter employment in Burton helps to keep wages up, the Agricultural Employment Commissioners were told in 1868
It is a world we haven’t quite lost, particularly when it comes to issues of regularity of employment and wages.
Pete Brown has written in the Sunday Times (23rd November) about the importance of Burton as a brewing centre and the resurgence of brewing (and good pubs) in the town.
It’s the world’s best beer town — and home to my favourite pub
Paywall or head to the newsagents and buy a copy. It looks better in print!
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