Making a meal of the beer

Greene King kick-started the drive to encourage drinkers to match beer with food with a special brew called The Beer To Dine For. It was one of the longest brand names in the world - if not the longest - the beer equivalent of Llanfairpwllgwyngll on Anglesey, the longest town name in Britain (and that's the short version).

When I arrived at Greene King's brewery in Bury St Edmunds for a Real Beer, Real Food Evening I was handed a glass of pale liquid that I found to be hoppy, refreshing and with a lot of bittersweet citrus fruit.

"Is this a new beer?" I asked. I was shown the bottle with a label that announces

simply Hop. It is The Beer To Dine For rebranded. Clever lot, these marketing departments: in one fell swoop, the beer has gone from the longest to the shortest-known brand name.

But the aim remains the same: to provide a beer that can be an aperitif before a meal or a fine companion during a meal. It was an ideal way to begin an evening designed to win people over to the pleasures of good beer

with food.

Greene King is running a series of beer dinners in its visitor centre opposite the brewery. To date there have been a Valentine's Night event, a curry evening, and a Father's Day meal. Barbecues, a Winter Warmer and even Thanksgiving for American airmen based in Suffolk are on the agenda.

Claire Norris runs the events and she says the aim is to promote beer as a natural product that sits alongside good food using ingredients - often organic - that are sourced locally.

Each dinner starts with a short brewery tour that enables diners to see how the products they will be tasting are brewed. The Bury brewery is fiercely traditional, with large, conventional mash tuns and coppers producing a vast range of cask and bottled beers. The range includes Greene King IPA and Abbot, Old Speckled Hen, Ridley's Old Bob, the former Kimberley beers from Hardys & Hansons and the amazing Strong Suffolk.

Head brewer John Bexon took me away from the main party to show me the work being done on Strong Suffolk. It's heartening to find that a brewery the size of Greene King should continue to painstakingly craft an old beer style that accounts for only a tiny fraction of annual production.

Strong Suffolk is what is known as "country beer". The style dates from the 18th century and may be even older. It is a blended beer, in the fashion of the early London porters, and is a mix of a 5% BPA - Best Pale Ale - and a ferociously strong 12% Old 5X.

The 5X is matured for at least two years in ancient wooden vats that each hold 100 gallons of beer. The lids of the vessels are covered in local Suffolk soil known as marl to keep air and bacteria out while the beer is maturing.

One of the vats sprang a leak and had to be emptied. Such is Greene King's dedication to the beer that John Bexon is now searching the world for two new vats that will enable him to not only replace the redundant one but also increase overall production.

This remarkable and historic beer, when blended with BPA, has a slight lactic sourness despite the best efforts of the marl. It has a rich fruity, oaky aroma and palate with a good punch of peppery and spicy hops.

I enjoyed some with my cheese at dinner. The menu devised by Claire Norris and self-taught chef Jan Hurrell was made up of prawn cocktail or melon as starters, Old Speckled Hen braised turkey breast, Abbot Ale roast beef or summer vegetable crumble, ending with Strong Suffolk summer trifle or English cheese with Old Speckled Hen chutney.

As you can see, beer is used as part of the cooking as well as for drinking with the meal. Norris does not attempt specifically to match individual beers with particular dishes: all the beer range is available and diners can choose and experiment.

One group had asked if they could bring wine with them. Norris firmly said no: this is a beer event. Here's to the future.

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