Meantime plans to revive London brewing history

Meantime clockMeantime Brewing Company in London has signed a £5m deal with the Greenwich Foundation to excavate, renovate and recommence brewing at the Old Royal Naval College.

“London is the home of India Pale Ale, Porter and Stout but – in time honored British tradition – we have allowed this rich heritage to be forgotten,” Meantime brewmaster Alastair Hook said for a press release.

“The pubs and breweries in our capital were once the envy of the world and in terms of commercial, industrial and social importance their impact was immense. The brewery exhibit and Meantime brewhouse, along with the cellars and bar will do everything possible to recapture and present the visitor with the full glory of this fascinating age.”

There was a brewery on the site of the Old Royal Naval College from 1717 until around 1860. Its function was to supply the retired and injured seafarers, inmates of the Royal Hospital, with their daily ration of beer. The current building was constructed in 1831, substantially altered in 1843 and subsequently all but demolished.

A press release states, “Meantime will produce its own London Porter that will replicate the beer produced by the brewery in the early 18th century.” And, “The defining character of these beers would have driven by Brettanomyces yeasts and Lactobacillus and Pediococcus bacteria harbored in the pores of the wooden tuns used to store the beer. The beers would have been stored for a minimum of 12 months.”

Meantime some time ago created mini-websites with the history of London Porter and
India Pale Ale, two of its beers that have been particularly popular in the U.S. market.

Well worth your reading time . . . and two beers equally worth seeking out.

If this is Beer Heaven, what are they drinking?

I was hoping that the new Miller Lite commercials would run during the NCAA basketball tournament because that’s the best chance I figure to have of seeing them for a while.

Turns out Miller has posted them at its website (you’ll probably have to do the age check thing along the way), but not at YouTube.com.

BrandWeek has the details:

The other effort, “Ultimate Light Beer,” features a man walking into beer heaven. It’s a bar where the bartender recognizes him by name and he has a monogrammed stool, which turns into a recliner upon sitting down. Two patrons are playing air hockey on a table that also is broadcasting a basketball game. Others are shooting pool at a table with moving pockets that catch any shot. When our protagonist orders two Lites, two waitresses deliver.

Beyond the theological questions the commercials pose they got me wondering . . . Why, if this is heaven, is there a need to drink low-calorie (i.e. light) beer?

Flying Dog Garde Dog: Thumbs up or down?


Let’s start with what the brewer has to say: Matt Brophy of Flying Dog Ales talks about the intent behind the seasonal Garde Dog, as well as the way it tastes to him.

Please notice that near the end he says, “We put our own spin on it.”

Not to duck Christopher’s call for less description/background and more guidance/criticism, but how you rate this beer depends in part on what you expect from it. Had I sampled it looking for one designed to replicate Lost Abbey’s Avant Garde I would have been disappointed and likely suggested “thumbs down.”

But I like the Garde Dog. If I could buy it fresh (many Flying Dog seasonals don’t reach New Mexico, and you always have to worry about how they’ve been treated) I would. So if we are treating this like a light switch, good or bad, this beer is good. Unlike the previous biere de garde I drank, Castelain Blond, a generally dependable beer that was old, lifeless and a bit sour.

Like many other beer bloggers (just do a Technorati search) I received a bottle directly from Flying Dog, assuring freshness. I prefer it that way.

It’s no wimp at 5.8% abv, but not as strong (and hence as complex) as more traditional versions. Perhaps the flavor is a bit fruity for the style, but it blends well with lager malt sweetness and spicy hops, leaving an impression of fresh bread. Maybe it’s going to taste earthier after some time in the bottle . . . although since it’s capped rather than corked there’s less chance it will take on a musty character (or is that TCA?) that would make it more “authentic.”

By then it will be up to somebody else to tell you it is good. And I may well not agree.

Monday morning musing: What time is the toast?

75 Years of BeerYou’ve probably heard about this: Today is the 75th anniversary of when breweries could resume selling beer, although it was months later until Prohibition officially ended and full strength beer returned.

I mentioned Maureen Ogle’s excellent daily countdown a while back, and suggest you stop by if you haven’t been. Also read her opinion piece, “The day beer flowed again,” in The Los Angeles Times.

The anniversary even got a mention on National Public Radio this past weekend. I wrote last week at Real Beer about the press kit Anheuser-Busch sent out and that Noah Adams mentions in his short commentary.

For the record, I didn’t receive a six-pack of beer (as Adams found in his desk), which doesn’t bother me at all. However, this does seem relative to part of the lengthy discussion about beer criticism, etc. Adams makes something of a point of not accepting the free beer.

But back to celebrating this anniversary. We should all wish Pike Brewery in Seattle were close enough for us to visit.

Schlitz advertisement– Rumors last October about Schlitz going retro turn out to be true. The press release does not make the meaning of “Classic 1960s Formula” based on the original recipe exactly clear.

The 1960s Schlitz and the original 19th century Schlitz clearly were not brewed to the same recipe. More than likely it will be made as it was in the 1960s, with adjuncts, before the brewing cycle was shortened in the 1970s and disaster followed. Philip Van Munching details this all very nicely in “Beer Blast,” calling the chapter “Number Two Schlitz Its Wrists.”

“We are going after the baby boomers who remember Schlitz when they first started drinking,” Jerry Glunz, the general manager of Chicago-area distributor Louis Glunz Beer Inc., told a business newspaper. “This is a different beer than the (current Schlitz line in the can), and this beer will stand up to its former glory.”

Pabst, which owns the Schlitz brand, has had the greatest success with retro marketing, but because Gen X (and perhaps Gen Y) drinkers embraced the brand — not by reaching out to baby boomers.

Hmmmm.

– Do you want somebody to write like this about beer?

“I’m looking for the Leon Trotskys, the Philip Roths, the Chaucers and the Edith Whartons of the wine world. I want my wines to tell a good story. I want them natural and most of all, like my dear friends, I want them to speak the truth even if we argue.”

I’m a fan of Alice Feiring and looking forward to her new book,
The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization.

I even like the notion that there’s a great story behind some of my favorite beers and that they may sometimes speak to me. But not every one. That’s why beer is not the new wine. Thank goodness.

Session #14 roundup posted, and my favorite

The SessionJeff Bell/Stonch has posted the roundup for The Session #14: Beer People. Many outstanding posts, and one terrific suggestion from Jay Brooks.

But I wish I’d written this (and not only because it would mean I could still share a “snob beer” with my Dad):

Bob is my Dad. He drinks Labatt’s Blue religiously. Before Labatt’s it was Michelob. Before Michelob it was Pabst or Natural Light. My Dad has never taught me about original gravity or dry-hopping. He’s never taught me about the difference between a Kolsch and a Pilsner or cascade hops and chinook hops. In fact, my Dad has really taught me only one thing about beer in my whole life. He taught me that beer is something that can bring two people together on the same level and be genuine with one another.

Read the rest at Beer, Maine & Me.