It's 2001, it's a Friday night, and I'm enjoying a well-earned sip or two of a Raspberry-flavored wheat beer after a hard week of college.
The pub in question was the Greenwich Union, in southeast London. Only just opened in 2001, it housed some of the finest offerings from the local Meantime Brewing Company.
These beers were unpasteurized and brewed in small batches, they offered taste and flavor, and swiftly became a way of Greenwich life. This was our beer.
Fast forward to 2016 and the brewery is on the cusp of changing hands for the second time in quick succession. Amid surging demand for craft beers in general, these beverages are gaining in popularity all over the world. A funding package from HSBC last year helps it to sell to the U.S and doubles its beer production. The company then admits that it's London Lager is sometimes brewed in the Netherlands. This is not our beer, purists complained, this is a sell-out.