'Let us sing our own treasures, Old England's good cheer, To the profits and pleasures of stout British beer; Your wine tippling, dram sipping fellows retreat, But your beer drinking Britons can never be beat.' This book is an ideal drinking companion for any fan of real ale, craft beers and the traditional British pub. Dipping into the literary barrels of the past five hundred years, this anthology delivers a heady brew of poems, prose passages and quotations in praise of real ale from writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel Johnson, Edgar Allen Poe and Robert Burns. Learn about the legend of heather ale, how bottled beer was born, the chance remark that created India Pale Ale, the ales known only to the elite of Brasenose College, Oxford, and much more, in this highly readable round of literary refreshment. 'Long have I travelled far and near, On purpose to find out good beer, And at last I've found it here.'