is the largest British-owned brewery in the UK. Founded in 1799 by Benjamin Greene, the great grandfather of the author Graham Greene, it’s been brewing in the Suffolk town of Bury St. Edmunds for more than 2 centuries. In 1836, the brewery passed into the hands of Benjamin’s son Edward under whom production expanded to 40,000 barrels per annum and in 1887, the brewery merged with the St. Edmunds brewery, set up a dozen years previously by Frederick King.

It became one of Britain’s largest breweries, boasting 148 public houses and renowned for brewing bitter and Suffolk Old Ale, an ale made by the blending of old and young beers. During the 1920s and 1930s, the brewery then benefited from the boom in bottled beer and built a new art deco brew house in 1938 that helped slake the thirst of Allied servicemen during World War II. By the 1960s, Greene King’s pub portfolio had grown to more than 900.

As cask ale floundered during the 1990s, Greene King took a number of smaller regional breweries and pub companies under its wing including The Magic Pub Company, the Marston’s southern pub estate, Morrells of Oxford, and the Morland brewery, home to Ruddles and Old Speckled Hen beers.

Greene King further flexed its purchasing muscle in 2005 when it bought Belhaven Brewery in Scotland and Ridley’s brewery in Essex before, a year later, buying Hardys & Hansons.

Greene King’s flagship beers include Old Speckled Hen, first brewed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the MG car factory in Abingdon, and Abbot Ale, while Strong Suffolk Ale and Old Crafty Hen are vintage ales revered by connoisseurs. While some British beer enthusiasts have blanched at Greene King’s growth and its penchant for brewery takeovers, the company has made an admirably unflagging commitment to the production of cask ale. That said, the brewery’s best selling beer is Greene King IPA. Although designated an IPA, at 3.7% ABV and a very modest level of bitterness, it is not an IPA in any sense, but simply an “ordinary” bitter.