June 15th 2015 is the first in what will be an annual national celebration of beer. June 15th is the date that Magna Carta was sealed in 1215 and ale was mentioned in Magna Carta, one of the most important legal documents in history. What a perfect day to celebrate Britain’s national drink!
Clause 35 of Magna Carta stated ‘Let there be throughout our kingdom a single measure for wine and a single measure for ale and a single measure for corn, namely “the London quarter”‘
Beer Day Britain will be a self-starting activity with events produced by beer lovers. If pubs, brewers, supermarkets, beer shops, and beer related organisations make their own plans to create events, publicity and encourage people to drink beer and go to the pub the Beer Day Britain will be the best beery day of the year!
Beer Day Britain has the support of the nation’s major beer related organisations including Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA); Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA); Cask Marque, British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA); Independent Family Brewers of Britain (IFFBB) and Let There Be Beer. No one organization ‘owns’ the day – it belongs to everyone who drinks beer or works in the industry.
The idea for the national beer celebration to be on Magna Carta Day was Jane Peyton’s (Britain’s Beer Sommelier of the Year and author of several books including ‘Beer o’ Clock’). Jane has been building support from the beer and pub industry and moving the project forward with a website, logo and beer mat artwork available for download. Jane has partnered with Sophie de Ronde (head brewer at Brentwood Brewing) and Sara Barton (head brewer and founder of Brewster’s Brewing Company and British Brewer of the Year 2012-2013). Sophie de Ronde has experience of delivering an international beer celebration – she was the inspiration behind Unite – a project where female brewers around the world all brewed the same beer recipe on the same day to raise funds for charity. Jane, Sophie and Sara are working on this project on a voluntary basis, ‘for the love of beer’.
The Beer Day Britain website has an information pack to download plus logo and camera ready artwork for a beer mat (free for everyone to use as they wish in connection with the event).
Social media is crucial in spreading the information and everyone involved in the day will hopefully spread the word as far as possible and continue to inspire and enthuse about Beer Day Britain from now until the great event on June 15th 2015, and each year thereafter.
Twitter: The Twitter address is @BeerDayBritain and the hashtag is #BDB
FaceBook: www.facebook.com/BeerDayBritain
Website: http://www.beerdaybritain.co.uk/
Please join us in making Beer Day Britain the best beer celebration in the world and help to build support in any way you can. Cheers!