8000 BC:
All for the sake of a pint

In the Middle East, hunter-gatherers learn how to make beer from the wild wheat and barley they find growing in the foothills. They quickly become tired of trekking up into the hills every time they want to make a pint, and start growing the grain for their beer down in the valleys - thus, according to some historians, inventing farming and civilisation, all for the sake of a drink.

5000 BC:
Sisters were brewing it for themselves (and the men too)

As Mesopotamian man is busy hunting, gathering, fighting each other, pottering about etc the role of brewing is left to the ladies. In fact, blokes aren't allowed to brew or keep taverns. Women (or ale wives as they became known in England), you see, are the only ones with the skill and the spiritual connection with Ninkasi, the Sumerian Goddess of beer, and, as such, it is their duty, their destiny even, to brew beer and serve it. Men are only allowed to drink it. A female privilege? Or a man-made masterstroke of unprecedented genius?

4500 BC:
Dodgy pint?

The first farmers, and, probably, the first beer brewers arrive in Britain from across the Channel. Far from fresh and fizzy, the beer is still and sludgy and probably not very nice.

3000 BC:
Deadly brew

In Egypt, the standard diet for the poor is beer, bread and onions. Beer is so important that model breweries are left in tombs, to provide the dead with a pint in the afterlife. Neolithic farmers in Orkney are brewing beer with ingredients that included henbane, hemlock and deadly nightshade, which, if they did not kill you, would certainly give you powerful hallucinations.

2400 BC:
A pot of gold

Drinkers in Sumeria (modern Iraq) consume their beer through long reeds from a communal pot. In modern East Africa, drinkers still consume home-made sorghum beer in just the same way.

2000 BC:
Spiced and honey beers were everywhere

The Beaker People arrive in Britain, warriors for whom drinking was so important that their pottery beer mugs went into the grave when they were buried, along with archery equipment and a dagger. Fragments of pottery found on the islands of Orkney show that the jug had contained a beer-like drink including meadowsweet, hemlock, deadly nightshade and wheat – a pretty potent 'beer'. And honey beers were being brewed as well, often mixed with wheat or barley or herbs.

1800 BC:
Hymn to Ninkasi

Hymn to Ninkasi written on a clay tablet. Not only does this sing her praises but also includes a recipe for brewing beer which is a nifty way of remembering what to do in a culture with few literate people.

320 BC:
It's all Greek to Massilia

The Greek explorer Pytheas of Massilia (modern Marseilles) comes to Britain and finds the natives making beer from grain and honey.

20 AD:
Beer vs. Wine

With the wine-drinking Romans just across the Channel having made a couple of unsuccessful raids into Britain under Julius Caesar, anti-Roman tribes in what is modern Essex use coins bearing an ear of barley, to symbolise the British drink, beer, in contrast with rival pro-Roman tribes, who minted coins with a vine leaf on them.

43 AD:
Conquering Romans converted to the wonder of beer

The Romans arrive in force and conquer most of Britain. By around AD 100 at the latest Roman soldiers based in Britain were drinking beer, and a list of accounts from Vindolanda, a Roman fort in modern Northumbria, mentions "Atrectus the brewer", the first named brewer in British history.

301 AD:
Beer as cheap as cheese

The Roman emperor Diocletian, in an attempt to control inflation, issues an edict setting prices for goods and services across the empire. Beer was to be four pence a pint, while wine was eight pence a pint, cheese 12 pence a pound, beef eight pence a pound – and 10 dormice, a tasty tavern snack, cost 40 pence.

500 AD:
Origins of beer classification

The Anglos and Saxons start arriving in Britain to conquer and settle. Their social life revolves around the beer hall and the ale house, and they seem to recognise three main types of beer, "mild ale" (fresh and probably quite sweet), "clear ale" (probably older and sourer) and "Welsh ale" (probably made from wheat and honey).

822 AD:
Hops arrived

Abbot Adalhard of the Benedictine monastery of Corbie, in Picardy, Northern France, makes the first known mention of hops in connection with brewing beer. These were wild hops, gathered in the woods: over the next 300 years hops would be turned into a cultivated crop.

1200 AD:
Beer vs. Water

Most brewing in Britain is done by female "brewsters", using their domestic pots and buckets and fitting the boiling, mashing and fermenting in around their other domestic tasks. Outside the cities, it has been estimated, one peasant family in 25 brewed for sale. Ale was drunk for breakfast, lunch and supper, and many people thought drinking water was actively dangerous: the Abbess Hildegarde of Bingen, in Germany, wrote around 1150, said: "Beer fattens the flesh and lends a beautiful colour to the face. Water, however, weakens a person."

1350 AD:
Invasion of the hops

On the Continent, hops have now almost taken over completely as the flavouring in beer from gruit, a mixture of different herbs, depending on what was available locally, that included sweet gale or bog myrtle, Myrica gale, a moorland bush, and yarrow, Achillea millefolium, a grassland weed. The first known exports of hopped beer to Britain come to Great Yarmouth in 1361-62. At the end of the 14th century Great Yarmouth is importing 40 to 80 barrels of beer a month, while in 1397-8 Colchester import 100 barrels of beer.

1410 AD:
An alien drink

Brewing of hopped beer, in contrast to unhopped ale, begins in Britain. The beer brewers are generally immigrants from the Low Countries (modern Belgium and the Netherlands) and for the next 200 years or more beer will occasionally be attacked as an alien drink not fit for ale-drinking Englishmen. However, at no point are hops ever banned in England.

1520 AD:
Hops grow at home

After relying on hops imported from the Continent for more than a century, English beer brewers finally get a local supply when hop growing begins in Kent, with hops imported by Flemish weavers. Hops were originally viewed with great suspicion, not only for their acknowledged membership of the cannabis plant family. They also avoided the taxes on spices levied by religious orders. By 1577 hop cultivation has reached Herefordshire.

1540 AD:
The Royals drinking beer like water

Henry VIII has two brewers to supply the royal household, one for ale and one for beer. Hampton Court Palace, Henry's main residence, consumed 600,000 gallons of ale and beer a year, more than 13,000 pints a day. Even the lowest officer of the household receives four pints every evening; dukes get two gallons a day (presumably not all for themselves). The Tudor army runs on beer: in July 1544, during an English invasion of Picardy, the commander of Henry VIII's forces complains that his army is so short of supplies they had drunk no beer "these last ten days, which is strange for English men to do with so little grudging."

1570 AD:
"A kynde of very strong bere"

There are 58 ale breweries in London and 32 beer breweries, and Queen Elizabeth I is apparently "greately greved and anoyed" with the smoke from the sea coal used in their brewhouses, which drifted in through the windows of her palace. The Queen also complains that the brewers have stopped making "single" beer and made instead "a kynde of very strong bere calling the same doble-doble bere, which they do commonly utter and sell at a very grate and excessive pryce." In June 1588 the Corporation of St Albans, in Hertfordshire, hauls 14 persons before the mayor and charges them with brewing "extraordinary strong ale", which they sold by retail "against all good law and order".

1600 AD:
Old ale was the fashion at dinner parties

Most brewing is still done by inn and alehouse brewers or "at home", especially in the country, where almost every farm and manor house brews its own ale and beer for the family and servants. But Britain has a drink problem. If beer is brewed in the summer, the heat makes it go all funny - in an "oh-no" rather than "ha-ha" way. This means that, between October and March, brewers have to brew beers that will endure the summer months. In order to keep, these beers have to be high in strength (7-12%), huge in hops (which acts as a preservative) and matured in large casks in deep, dark stone cellars. These "old ales" are often kept for several years and given to friends.

1642 AD:
First tax on beer

In the middle of the English Civil War, the first tax on beer is introduced, to pay for the fighting. Around the same time, maltsters in Derbyshire begin drying their malt with coke, coal with the poisonous volatile elements removed. Because coke burns more steadily than wood, this produces less smoking and roasting of barley in the malting process enabling pale malts to be produced easily for the first time. Pale ales and beers, produced from these pale malts, begin slowly to grow in popularity.

1710 AD:
Porter ales made the accountants and the porters happy

All ale and beer in Britain is now brewed with hops, although ale and beer brewing in cities such as London is still undertaken by different concerns. The London beer brewers, whose drink is dark, being made from brown malt, are facing competition from paler brews. They react by making their dark beer hoppier and storing it for longer to give it a sharper flavour. This delicious dark beer becomes extremely popular with an important section of the London working classes, the thirsty porters who unloaded ships moored in the Thames, carried goods about the streets and generally did what DHL do today. Thus the beer became known as 'porter'. Originally a blend of three different beers and often aged for over a year in vast barrels, the size of a house, porter turns out to be the first beer that could be brewed in industrial quantities, and London's top ten or a dozen porter brewers become hugely wealthy men. Porter also becomes the first "global" beer, exported to and brewed all over the world, together with its later stronger version, "stout" porter, soon known simply as "stout".

1790 AD:
India Pale Ale is born

In India, the merchants and soldiers working for the East India Company develop a taste for hoppy, pale beers brought out from Britain by sailing ship on a four-month journey via the Cape of Good Hope, during which time it develops and matures much faster than the same beer would do left at home. A brewer called Hodgson, from Bow, on the outskirts of London, close to where the East Indiaman ships moor in the Thames, wins almost a monopoly on supplying India with beer, and Hodgson's Pale Ale becomes famous. Eventually, by trying too hard to maintain his monopoly, in 1822 Hodgson prompts rival brewers from Burton upon Trent to enter the Indian market. It turns out the water in Burton is ideal for making pale beers, and the Burton brewers eventually dominate the market for what becomes known – but only after around 1835 – as India Pale Ale, or IPA.

1830 AD:
Mild ales a hit with the people

Public taste starts slowly to change from the dark porters to the paler, less hoppy, stronger ales, generally sold "mild" or new, made by London's surviving ale brewers. Gradually all the big London porter brewers turn to making and selling these new "mild" ales as well.

1839 AD:
Bitter rail

The railway arrives in Burton, allowing the Burton brewers to start sending their bitter pale ales around the country cheaply and speedily. While the working classes still drink porter and, increasingly, mild ale, the middle classes drink bitter.

1840 AD:
Mild ales are a hit with industrial workers

Mild ales are a hit with British industrial workers, thirsty at the end of a day's digging in mines and bashing stuff in foundries. These low alcohol beers at 4-6% with low bitterness and reassuring malty quality provide much needed refreshment and re-hydration at the end of a hard, hot day.

1842 AD:
Introducing Pilsener

Inspired by English malting techniques, a brewer called Joseph Groll makes the first pale lager in the town of Pilsen, Bohemia, the forerunner of all "pils" or "pilsener" beers. However, it takes at least 50 years for the new pale lager style to start to outsell the original darker lagers.

1881 AD:
Pilsener comes to Britain

Almost forty years after the first pale lager was brewed in Pilsen in the Czech Republic, the lager beer style was brewed in Britain. The first purpose-built lager brewery in Britain, the Austro-Bavarian Brewery of Tottenham, in London, opens its door. However, it does not last long, and for the next 80 years lager remains only a tiny percentage of beer sales in Britain.

1890 AD:
A darker shade of ale

Porter sales are now falling fast, and mild ale has become the drink of the working classes. Gradually over the next 20 years or so, mild changes from its original pale colour to, often, a darker shade.

1904 AD:
British Beer & Pub Association created

Creation of the Brewers' Society (BBPA – British Beer & Pub Association) in a merger of country brewers associations to tackle the thriving temperance movement.

1910 AD:
Bottled Brown Ales and Milk Stouts

Bottled brown ales and milk stouts become big business often blended with cask ales to form a beer cocktail or drunk by women after childbirth for health reasons. Their biggest growth was after the Second World War.

1914 AD:
World War I

The First World War brings in draconian restrictions on the brewing industry, with the strength of beer reduced dramatically and tax levels increased enormously. After the war, high taxes remain in place, and beer strength never recovers to its former levels.

1917 AD:
Maximum prices

Maximum prices introduced on the price of beer and strengths lowered to help the war effort.

1925 AD:
Beer in a bottle

Bottled beers begin to gain popularity, including new styles such as brown ale (frequently mixed with draught mild ale) and milk stout.

1930 AD:
"Beer is best"

Launch of 'Beer is Best' campaign, a 30-year generic advertising campaign with a nationwide poster campaign and television advertising involving Bobby Moore and his wife Tina and the entire Liverpool football team. At its peak it was worth over £1 million per annum in today's money.

1933 AD:
Cut price beer

British brewers were encouraged to cut the price of beer, increase the strength, increase output and use more home-grown barley by Government in return for a 35% fall in beer duty.

1960 AD:
The rise of "Keg Bitters"

Mild ale finally starts to decline in popularity, its place taken by a rise in sales of bitter, especially in the form of "keg" bitter, described as "bottled ale in a barrel", pasteurised and served up under carbon dioxide pressure. They are easier to keep than cask beers and become ubiquitous. Lager is only two per cent of the British market. By 1970, 90% of British pubs were serving only keg beers. Traditionalists weren't happy about this.

1971 AD:
CAMRA is formed

Four young men who find "keg" beers not to their liking form the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) to champion good pubs, 'real ales' - which are un-pasteurised beers in the cask; and their bottled equivalent, known as 'real ale in a bottle'. CAMRA now has over 110,000 members and it is the biggest single-issue consumer organisation in Europe.

1980 AD:
Lager starts to fizz

Britain's taste for mainstream and premium lagers gets a second wind. Sales of UK-brewed and imported lagers surge until by the 1990s, it becomes the country's biggest selling style of beer.

1990 AD:
Enforced sell-off pubs by brewers begins

The Monopolies and Mergers Commission Report break the 'tie', which has previously excluded brewers from selling into other brewers' tied pubs. This forces larger brewers to sell many of their pubs leading to the growth of pub-owning companies and opening up a new market for 'guest beers' in pubs. This also leads to a big increase in the number of micro-breweries in Britain.

1995 AD:
Beer innovation

The leap in the number of breweries brings in a huge new variety of beers, including innovative seasonal ales, fruit beers, the revival of styles such as porter and stout, golden ales, heather ales, strong winter ales and the like.

2002 AD:
Progressive beer duty

Progressive Beer Duty is introduced, giving smaller brewers of under 30,000 hectolitres (increased to 60,000 hl in 2004) a rebate on their excise duty, so as to help small craft brewers to compete in the market. This was an initiative of SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers) and Camra.

2003 AD:
The Beer Academy

The Beer Academy is formed: 50 breweries, beer retailers and beer-related organisations set up the world's first generic beer school to help educate the trade and consumers about beer. The course, which will soon have certification, is intended as an enjoyable, colourful way to understand every aspect of Britain's national drink - www.beeracademy.org.