In that year the cerevisiarii, or ale brewers, were chronicled in The Domesday Book as servants of the Abbot of the Great Abbey of St Edmundsbury: hence Abbot Ale, the name given to Greene King's premium cask beer.

It was in 1799 that Greene King first began production of its exceptional ales and the brewery still draws water from the well sunk into the same chalk beds under Bury St Edmunds.

Since then the brewery has concentrated on producing only superb tasting ales using the age-old traditional method of beer making.

Despite the simplicity of the ingredients (barley, water, yeast and hops), only the very finest quality are used and, like 200 years ago, it is in the creation of the recipe and on the skill of the master brewer that the perfect ale depends.