a) This story about Narragansett’s “moment in the sun” may or may not end up in next Monday’s beer links, and b) Try as I may I couldn’t condense the quote to 140 characters and do it justice, so here it is in full.
But these days, there’s little that’s authentically Maryland about Natty Boh, a beer brewed in North Carolina under contract to a multinational corporation based in Los Angeles with a Texas post office box as its address.
Got a better one?
That’s great. Especially because a few years ago I actually went up there for work and I had to try this beer. Ended up finding it at a pizza place across the street from my hotel and… Well, I guess it’s lost its appeal.
And, soon, not to be brewed in North Carolina.
I doubt we’ll be able to tell the difference between a Natty Boh brewed in North Carolina and Virginia (if head to the Miller plant there).
This is an eternal problem, the question of identity and authenticity. At day`s end, I think it can be just the name, Natty Bo is a cool name will always belong to Baltimore and Maryland. Same thing with Narragansett, it`s an evocative name and its short form, `Gansett, is cool. Nothing else really matters. When AB built their first outpost in Newark in 1951, the beer hopefully (who knows) was similar to St. Louis`s original but it had the magic name. Narragansett can legitimately claim an original recipe too, the stuff about Bill Anderson is true as far as I know. I agree with all theories mentioned in the linked article including the craft cred of the name – the beers in this line are very good, I think the bock was first and acclaimed out of the gate – but people like the name I think and it reached critical mass over the summer. It`s a great business plan these guys had, it worked very well and they deserve plaudits for their success.
Gary Gillman
P.S. Think of Sam Adams Boston Lager…